Soloing at CoSho
This was a cool morning at the village but I could feel spring slowly taking over as I made my way to the cooper shop (CoSho).
My walk before my day’s work made me wonder what a village’s cooper might be thinking as he headed to work in the morning. He might have been organizing his thoughts or maybe daydreaming about Ireland, or even the West Indies. He could have been thinking about the upcoming harvest and if he should try making his cider from a combination of pear and apples this year. I guess I'll never know.
I got to the Cooper Shop and I could already smell yesterday’s smoky fires and the wood shavings that are so unique. I began to get the shop ready, gathering the appropriate tools and setting up for the day. Next I headed to the Freeman farm to gather some firewood and find out what the women were cooking today for dinner.
They were making mince pie with apples, My favorite!
I swept and cleaned up the ashes before I got the fire nice and toasty. It was time to open up the shop and enjoy today’s visitors. Justin, my coopering mentor was not in so it seemed like I would be coopering solo today! Bring it on! He had trained me well so I was ready. I was just about done with the water pail I had been coopering for weeks, and was ready to find out if it was going to be water-tight. I decided to wait for Justin. He needed to be there for the water-tightness test ceremony.
I decided to start working on some staves to make a water piggin from some of the oak we had at the shop and did I learn quickly that shaving oak is not as easy as pine!
A piggin is a one-handed water pale, commonly used as a large scoop for feeding animals grain or pouring milk.
As I was sitting at the shaving horse draw knife in hand, I could already hear quick footsteps on the gravel and that could only mean one thing... young visitors excited for the Freeman Farms, the animals and of course the CoSho.
Let’s go here dad!, I could hear a young girl say from outside. She came in and right away she said, I love your hat! so I said Thank you, I love your hat too! as I took my hat off and put it on her head! Right away I knew this was going to be an awesome day! I had many visitors, as well as many returning members who were very interested in the wonderful art of coopering or as Justin would say “the magic of coopering”.
As the day passed, the visitors' question of the day was how are we able to bend the staves to take the shape of the casks and most visitors guessed that it’s by wetting the staves. I just told them almost right... but try the opposite and they almost in unison always said Heat! so my appropriate response was Yes… are you all coopers or what?
I loved interpreting for the visitors and sharing the magic of coopering! The day was full of educating the visitors, but I barely had time to work on my staves. I did have a moment to work of two staves and during that time I had my first “coopering accident” by nicely taking a chunk of skin from one of my fingers and bleeding all over my pants. Yes, I did get the blood out of my pants and Sue from the Freeman Farm provided me with medical assistance. Thanks Sue!
I do have to say, I had a great soloing day at the COSHO but I did miss Justin. I can’t wait to get to my water-tightness test ceremony and see if I will end up with a water bucket or a really nice flower planter.
