“For whatever we lost (like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea..”(or on the farm)
–  E.E. Cummings

What did you discover today?

Gus: We learned that the cows are really protective of their children and we saw one learning to go into her stall today.

Colette: I discovered that in nature there are a lot of different shapes – there are heart shaped leaves and herbs.

Dora: I discovered the best raspberries I’ve ever tasted. We picked them fresh.

Olivia P: …that Mark Teague who wrote and illustrated the Three Little Pigs book was making a video at the farm with the pigs.

Tilda: …that cows like to poop a lot. Their tail lifts up right when they are going to poop.”

Piper: “That it’s really fast to make butter if you just shake the milk.”

Johnny: “…how to pick certain kinds of vegetables like beets. We also tasted some plants – I liked the sour chew and the raspberries. I also learned how to cut onions”

Zach: “I discovered that adding apple cider to soup actually makes it taste better.”

Eli: “That it’s really fun and hard to herd the cows in but I found it very interesting. The part that was hard is the cows sometimes didn’t want to move.”

Jack: “I discovered that they make really good food on the farm, like the sauerkraut!”

Ben: “I discovered that I do not like molasses. I also learned that if I go inside the pigpen the pigs will nibble my boots and they won’t break.”

Emily: “I cooked pumpkin soup and ginger cookies and they were really good.”

Lila: “I discovered that it’s hard to draw the horses because they keep moving.”

Margaret: “I discovered that cows are actually not very scary, they are harmless. I thought they would all be raging towards me but they didn’t.”

Olivia B: “I discovered that cleaning the barn is really hard then all of your work really doesn’t pay off because the cows just go poop again.”

Oni: “I discovered that riding a horse isn’t so scary. I trotted!”

Kate: “I discovered not to go through an electrified fence and you should just use the gate.”

Meadow: “I learned that you can really trust horses because I lied down on one and he didn’t move. When she was galloping and I would tap her neck, she would slow down.”

Polly: “I discovered that when you herd cows, you can tap them on the butt lightly to make them go.”

Freddie: “I discovered it was really gross feeding the pigs. We had to give them this food that looked like it was covered in mud.

Cooper: “I discovered that pigs aren’t that bad – they’re actually really cute. I noticed that they just kept eating and eating and they really wouldn’t stop even when I had a piece of zucchini in my hand.”

“I thought it was going to be really gross but it was really fun”

“… just learning to be in nature”

Gus: “I really liked the cow. There were two guys using the electric milker. They cleaned the utter. He squirted some milk and dumped it out, then he let us milk it. He taught us how the electric milkers work. There was a vacuum that somehow pulled the rubber in and out – it worked like a hand… The pigs are really loveable.”

Eli: “When we were feeding the pigs we had to give them whey and it’s basically bad milk that cows produce. My favorite part of the day was milking the cow because we got to do it for awhile and the cow we milked wasn’t sensitive. My most challenging part of the day was getting to the farm.”

Cooper: “I learned how to play tetherball. It’s a game of strength – you have to hit the ball as hard as you can and try to get it all the way around and you win.”

Zach: “I liked seeing the pigs because I got to feed them and it was really fun. I fed them grass.”

Kate: “I liked riding horses today. We learned how to pick up poop and how to be nice and gentle with the horses and how to get big rocks out of the ground so it won’t get the horses in danger. I liked swinging on a rope.”

Colette: “For me, it was the horseback riding, we scooped up the horse poop, usually I don’t do that. I thought it was going to be really gross but it was really fun.”

Piper: “My favorite thing…I liked making butter while Sarah read a story to us.”

Tilda: I liked cooking dinner. We made potato leek soup. We had to cut onions and skin potatoes and a lot of us cried.”

Johnny: “I liked riding Daisy. Daisy is a horse. My favorite part was when I trotted.”

Polly: “The most exciting part of my day…at first when we got here we got to see the playground and I realized we had more play time. I also liked making dinner. We made apple crisp for dessert.”

Lila: ”I was surprised that they had the biggest pigs in the world here, the male pig is 700 pounds. And the horses are really cute and my favorite one is Sierra. I also really like the beds because they are better than last year.

Dora: I usually eat meat, I really don’t mind not having meat. Lunch wasn’t what I would usually eat but I liked it a lot, the sauce and everything was really good, especially the sweet potatoes.

Olivia P. “I thought that bringing in the cows and the bull was hard because almost every cow stopped to poop and the baby cows would run out of the fence, so Johanna had to always get them.”

Margaret: “I saw pigs. The pigs are not very smelly and not very shy – they come up to you in a nice way. Then you watch them. They make snorting noises. There are big bales of hay – I learned that each one is 700 pounds.”

Meadow: “We rode in a giant van and it was really fun and we saw a giant bull.”

Freddie: “We had to herd the cows -that means making them move somewhere by using a stick. It was poopy and fun. The cow poop was really gross.”

Jack: “I liked learning how to play tetherball.”

Oni: “I liked riding in the van and herding the cows. You don’t go in front of them, you go in back of them. And you have to wave a bamboo stick and they’ll thing you are bigger than them and move.”

Olivia B: “It was really fun to make the dinner and the dessert and we got to try some of the things in the kitchen. We got to try tomatoes. Gus and Eli were cutting onions and they started to cry – it was kind of funny to see the boys cry.”

Emily: “I liked riding the horses and petting animals and combing them. Once I almost fell off because it was a different saddle than I am used to.

Ben: “The most challenging part of my day was milking the cows. It was hard to milk because I’m used to seeing it different ways in movies. You don’t pull, you just keep the utters there. The most fun part of the day was feeding the pigs and catching the chickens. I also liked riding the horses and just learning to be in nature and to live outside and to learn about the farm. I am excited to herd the cows.”