Daily Archives: October 7, 2015

HAWTHORNE VALLEY FARM DAY 3: PS My Boots are Covered in Poop

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Dear Mommy and Dad,
I am having a good time and we are just about to have quiet time. At 4:00 I will be milking a cow! Right now I see a rainbow on the ceiling. Tell Carter that I will be back in one day, so have a good time. Bye!
Love, Myles

Dear Pop and Dad,
Thank you for the letter. I thought it was very creative and funny. (A word which here means silly and exciting) ((Lemony Snicket reference))
Love, Elijah

Dear Mom and Dad,
I am having a good time at the farm and I miss you. I got to make apple cider. I got to make butter and clean the cow barn.
Love, Jett

Dear Mom and Dad and Kiyomi,
I have been good this week. The lunches at the farm are really good but I still would like some meat. My favorite thing so far has been the lasagna. We have had lots of jobs like having to clean out a poopy and smelly barn. We get to milk cows and walk sheep. We get to feed the pigs and make and eat dinner. Our room is a lot bigger than last farm trip. I will see if I can get some recipes.
Love with lots of hay, Madiba

Dear Mom and Dad,
The farm is great and yes, there are horses. I missed you a lot and I am going to be happy to come home but I also really liked the trip.
Love, Dennis
PS: Can we get ice cream when I get back?

Dear Mom, Dad and Isabella,
I am enjoying being a vegetarian. I didn’t get to ring the bell at mealtime. I fed animals like pigs, horses, sheep, and cows. I have picked many vegetables. The farm looks the same as it looked last time.
Love, Alfredo
PS: Can I have a cheeseburger when I get home?

Dear family,
I miss you a lot. And I want to come back but I also like it here. The food is pretty good and the activities are fun. I liked feeding pigs apples and making apple cider.
Love, Beckett
PS: When I get back I want a big cheeseburger.
PSS: I didn’t walk a dog on a leash but I walked a sheep.

Dear Mom, Dad, Will, Rico and Lola,
I didn’t like the farm as much as last year but it was better than I thought it would be. I like the food but I also miss meat. I’ve been doing a lot of activities, one of my favorites is horseback riding.
Love, Zach

Dear Mom, Dad, Freddie and Ringo,
The farm is fun. I got to hike up a hill and there was lots of poop. So far lasagna has been my favorite meal. I miss sleeping in my bed with my dog.
Love, Shoshi

Hello family,
Guess what! I lost a tooth. I have my tooth in a little bag. I am in a room with Rubie, Kate, Ella, Ren and Shoshi…pretty nice. I think you would like the food here – it’s all very healthy. Have I had desert? No. For snack, we normally have fruit or popcorn. We have playtime. We have rest time. We also have sleep time and work time.
Love, Grace

Dear Daddy, Mommy, and Jack,
I have had a lot of fun on the farm trip. I have milked cows, made butter, picked up a chicken, cleaned a poopy barn, herded the cows, and gone on a night hike. We also went on another hike on the same day. The food is really good. Today we had lasagna with eggplant in it. Yesterday we had burritos, I ate five of them – they were really good. I share a bunk with Grace, Ren, Shoshi, Kate and Rubie. I am really excited to ride the horse. I have gotten over my fear of climbing wooden structures. I am still afraid of climbing trees. I am glad I have not gone to the garden yet because Sofia said there were lots of spiders there. The other day I freaked out about a baby spider because it’s web was stuck on my leg. I started running around screaming and I cried the tiniest bit.
Love you, miss you and can’t wait to see you soon,
Ella

Dear Mommy,
I really like being with the animals because the pigs are really cute and the cows are really funny because they always stop in the middle and poop. I am in the pink room in the farmhouse. The kids in my room are Ella, Shoshi, Grace, Ren and Rubie. We’ve been having so much fun. All of the meals are really good. I always try something at the meals even if I have never had it before. I can’t wait to see you and give you a huge hug. I love you.
Love, Kate

Dear Mommy and Daddy and Alejandro,
It’s been really good. I got to ride horses. I love vegetarian food. I went on a hike and Ella and I went to a fire pit. So basically I love the farm.
Love, Sofia

Dear Family,
I have been having a good time on the farm – it’s really fun. There are horses and cows and calves and sheep. Sometimes you have to get up at 5:30- it makes you really tired. It’s really pretty here. I am enjoying my bunk group because I get a whole bunkbed to myself. How is Snoopy? I tricked one of the farmers that my name is Taylor, he believed me. We did watercolors of the garden and the farm. And I rode a horse.
Love, Violet
PS: I got horse poop on my pants and I have a new best friend named Three Fingers.

Dear Mom, Dad, and Gray,
We got to walk to sheep. Mine had a black nose with a white dot. We put a leash on it. We went to the Hawthorne Valley School with Cassidy and Dennis. My sheep really liked eating grass so it was slow. Dennis’ sheep liked to pee and while it was peeing it liked to have a snack of grass. Cassidy’s didn’t pee or eat but it was very slow at walking. In the end, mine got there first and then Dennis’ and then Cassidy’s. I will tell you the rest at home I miss you.
Love, Ren
PS: Can we get pizza from the store when I get home?

Dear Mommy, Daddy, Sylvie, Chase, and Baby,
I have been having a lot of fun even though there is no meat and I don’t really like the food. I have collected chicken eggs, scooped up horse and cow poop, and I fed pigs. I won a sheep race. When I get back for dinner please can you make rice and lentils and lots and lots of chicken? Can’t wait to tell you more when I get back.
Love, Rubie

Dear Mom, Dad, and Zoe,
I miss you a lot and I have been having a great time. Cassidy, Tess, Sofia and Violet are in my cabin. Last night Violet was snoring and I couldn’t fall asleep. I am really excited to see you. I have been climbing a lot of trees and I know that you love when I get to do that.
Love, Verity

Dear Taetles,
I loved the letter you sent me. And I love you guys so much! I am having a great time on the farm. The food is really delicious. And the chores are really fun. I am getting to know a lot of my friends a lot better. There are really beautiful hikes here.
Love, Tess
PS: My shoes are very muddy.

Dear Mommy and Daddy and others,
I am having fun on the farm. I share a room with Verity, Tess, Sofia, and Violet. I am still having trouble sleeping. I can’t wait to see you. As you know, I am not eating much. We went on a hike in the dark and it was really pretty. There is a baby cow named “Lick” and he is adorable.
Love, Cassidy
PS: My shoes are covered in poop.

HAWTHORNE VALLEY FARM: DAY 2

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class pic

Heard on the farm on day two:
6:00am:

Aedín: “My alarm is the duckie and then I heard a rooster and I thought in my sleep what is going on?!”

Rubie: “I woke up and heard, ‘Everyone is awake in the bunk except you’ but I was having a dream where I was eating fudge and chocolate. It’s hard to pay attention to your surroundings when you are eating fudge and chocolate in a dream.”

Aedín: “Did you sleep well?”

“You interrupted her unicorn dream!” Cassidy about Violet

“I did?” Aedín to Violet

“Yeah but I feel like I’m going to have a sequel tonight.” Violet

Tess: “This morning at 5:45 I took care of the chickens, cows, and pigs.”

Eli: “You take care of the animals by milking the cows, feeding the pigs milk, grain, and excess scraps. We tried to get eggs from the chicken coop but there were none.”

8:30am: House chores…

Beckett: “Where do we beat the rugs up?”

9:30 am: Lesson on grains

Ren: “We made a bread out of grains. I thought it tasted like chicken. We worked in a line and added flour from wheat, meal from corn and rice meal into the dough.”

Aedín: “How was the barn?”

Grace: “It was really messy.”

Cassidy: “I am not poop person.”

Grace: “We learned that it’s hard to be a farmer.”

10:00: snack

Cassidy: “We almost ran over tiny children.” (…on our way to popcorn and cider snack).

Aedín: How was the barn?

Madiba: If I took my mind off the poop, cleaning and smell it would actually be ok.

11:00 In the garden:

Matt the farmer: “Imagine yourself as the roots of a plant. You want to go down into the earth. The best way to go down is if the soil is loose.” Students listen and push hard with their feet stepping on the pitchforks.

Jett: “To get it in deep Sofia, this is what you do” (he demonstrated the stand-on-the-fork over the soil technique).

Zach: “I really want to taste a mini-tomato!”

Alfredo: “But they are green.”

And then during raspberry picking time in the garden:

Alfredo: “The darker it is, the better.”

Later Matt shares a favorite joke: “What kind of vegetable should you never bring onto a boat?” (…a leek)

Near the barn:

Grace: “We saw a fly getting wrapped up by a spider outside the barn when we were washing our brooms.”

On the playground:

Verity: “I’ve noticed, the older we get the more we become friends.”

12:30: At lunch

Grace: “I set this table!” and then…”Let them eat burritos!”

Verity: “The end of the burrito is the best – that’s where all of the cheese is.”

Rest time:

Myles: “I am not tired.” (Five minutes later, Myles took a nap).

Herding cows:

Verity: “Without cows there wouldn’t be milk cheese.”

Madiba: “If these cows were moooving we’d be all the way down there by now!”

Ella: “That cow’s just hanging out, acting regular, eating some trees.”

Beckett: “Pearl (a cow), stop being a sassy pants.”

4:30pm:

Up on a hill overlooking the farm with watercolors:

on the hill:

Ella: “If you run really fast (down the hill) it feels really good.”

Sofia: “It’s so beautiful up here. What shall I paint.”

Kate: “There are so many buildings down there, which ones should I paint? I am starting with trees.”

Shoshi: “How do trees stand tilted if humans can’t stand tilted?” and later….”Wait it’s already fall! Nobody told me.”

9:00pm:

After the night hike:

Dennis: “I liked seeing the Big Dipper.”

Madiba: “I liked looking at the stars.”

night hike