Farms for City Kids Tidbits: March 2017

March 24, 2017

City Kids - Week 4

Happy Spring, everyone! We had a few snow flurries

and the temperature dropped again,

but the Spring Equinox hit and the world seemed to wake up for it.

Here is calf Pilot happily drinking a warm bottle of milk replacer.

Our week started with a bang…Porsche gave birth to a heifer calf! Sticking with the car theme, she was fondly named Pilot (as in Honda Pilot) by this week's city kids.

We were able to help the farmers out by collecting nearly 500 gallons of sap, too!

A happy teacher hugging a Sugar Maple
to find its age.

Watermelon sprouts from seeds planted
by City Kids last week.

While the snow was drifting to Earth

and the sap was starting to freeze,

the plants in the dorm were sprouting,

Two-day-old Springberry drinking
milk replacer.

Newborn Springberry with mama Strawberry.

Strawberry was calving a heifer calf
(now named Springberry)

and the cows were getting some extra love
from teachers,
education staff,
and city kids.

from teachers,

education staff,

and city kids.

When the weather warmed up, we found a vole exploring the mud and teachers taught students to fly.

March 17, 2017

City Kids - Week 3

This week greeted our city guests with a blast of Snow Storm Stella,

once again reminding us all, "if you don't like the weather,wait ten minutes."

Storm Stella - the very beginning!

The first couple hours

Oh, how the inches grew and the wind whipped around as our committed, first-time farmers hiked to the farm for afternoon chores.

Two days later, the sky was blue, the ground was once again covered with over a foot of snow,

and the sleds came out to play.

The storm didn't stop us and it didn't stop the bovine, either.

Jade decided it was a good day to have her heifer calf,

fondly named Jewel by the city kids.

Jade and baby Jewel in her first moments of life

Despite the winter weather, it is almost spring…the seeds still needed planting.

This week we planted cantaloupe, honeydew, and various herbs.

Prepping the soil with water

Planting the seeds

Mission complete

Friday did not go without excitement - Echo calved a handsome bull first thing in the morning!

Echo's bull calf drinking from his first bottle

Three-day-old Jewel
"Hey! Where's MY milk?"

And then we all said our farewells to our new friends.

March 10, 2017

City Kids - Week 2

March is in like a lion, out like a lamb…. or at least they say.

We will see if that is true, the weather is definitely all over the place.

Starting off this week Loganberry had a bull calf, which the farmers named Dingleberry.

The City Kids got him now drinking his milk from a bucket!

Dingleberry - a couple hours old

Dingleberry - 5 days old

Also on the farm we had 30 baby meat chicks arrive. The two older ones are loving all the new company.

Meat Chicks

The older one watching out for the younger ones

Our garden is starting off strong, the students this week got to plant watermelon!!

Variety of watermelon seeds

With the weather going back and forth from warm to cold, the students this week were able to hang more buckets and collected about 700 gallons of sap total, while here.

Sap boiling in evaporation pan

Sugar House

March 5, 2017

This week the students saw the whole processes of sugaring from hanging our sap buckets to collecting the sap to tasting fresh maple syrup off the evaporation pan.
They collected a total of about 500gallons of sap!!

Sap Buckets Hung

Collecting the Sap

Pouring Sap into Gathering Tank

More Sap Collection

Boiling the sap into Maple Syrup

On the wildlife side of the farm, with the warm weather, moths were found in the sap buckets, Finches and Chickadee's were heard singing, and Turkey's were out in the cow pastures.

On the farm itself; Plum, Aubergine, and Huckleberry were moved out to the Heifer Barn and we had 2 baby chicks arrive on Friday! (More to come next week!!)