MORE POSTS coming this weekend!!!

Students have been writing and reflecting on their experiences at the farm and we have many, many more pictures to share.  Even though we are returning to school today, we hope that everyone will keep checking our blog this weekend because we will be uploading more of students' thoughts and photos.

Visiting the sugaring shack and walking through a sugar bush

On Thursday, we walked from the farm (at the top of the hill) all the way down to the bottom of the hill where the sugaring shack is.  The reason why the sugaring shack is at the bottom of the hill is because the farmers use gravity to help get all of the sap from the Maple trees (through plastic tubing) into the sugaring basin.  There, the sap is boiled until it reaches the temperature of 7 degrees higher than water's boiling point.

After seeing what happens to the sap, we walked back to the main farm area through a sugar bush.  A sugar bush is what you call a big forest area of Maple trees that produce sap that's used to make maple syrup.

Some parts were snowy, and some parts were even muddy....

... and even though we got a bit muddy, it was incredibly beautiful.

Video of Mara with newborn Annabeth 2 hours after she was born

Early Thursday morning, Amethyst gave birth to her first calf.  Luckily the farmers had moved her from the heifer barn to the dairy barn a week early so that she could get used to the space in preparation for moving there after giving birth to her first calf.

Later, after Mara took care of the newborn, the class voted on names for the calf.  Although the top pick was Audrey (after Mrs. Jackson), the records showed that another cow once had that name on the farm years ago.  For farmers' records, it's important to never have two cows with the same name so that there is no confusion about the cow's history.  As a result, the second place name, Annabeth was granted to the super cute baby.

Video of Nevaeh feeding Veronica on Wednesday

On Tuesday, Isabella and Silvia worked with Kristina to take care of newborn calf Veronica on her first day alive on Springbrook Farm.  On Wednesday, Nevaeh and Kristina worked together to feed Veronica.  They learned that using a firmer bottle nipple helped Veronica drink more milk replacer.  It is important for farmers to make adjustments to help each calf get as much nutrition as early as possible so that they can get stronger and healthier during the first days alive.

Isabella's experience feeding baby Veronica for the first time

Hi everyone, this is Isabella!

Have you ever bottle fed a newborn calf?  Well, on Tuesday this week at the farm, a cow named Victory had her first baby calf, which was later named Veronica.  Boy was she cute!  Silvia and I got a chance to bottle feed her after we took care of another calf named Mercedez.  As we climbed into the pen, we were squealing with delight.  Veronica's fur was very soft and fuzzy.  Her beautiful brown eyes were wide open and she was laying in the grass.  Our guide person lifted her up and I helped to lift her up, too.  We learned that newborn calves might need a little help at first, but they are born being able to stand up pretty quickly so that they can stay safe.  Silvia went first to feed her.  She drank her milk and wobbled a bit.  It was my turn!  I was a bit nervous that I would like, drop her, but I lifted up the bottle and held it tight.  She drank about 1/2 and pint when we were done, but it was quite a sight.  Overall, I was quite amazed with feeding her and boy was she cute.  This experience made me feel really proud and confident all over.  I will never ever forget Veronica.

A Mix of Photos....

We had technical difficulties yesterday and today, so we will post more later, but wanted to share a bunch of photos with you for now...

cows in the heifer barn

eating breakfast

gardening

listening to our guest Jim Hesson...

Jim Hesson explaining how maply syruping begain centuries ago.

Baby Veronica who was born around midnight between Monday and Tuesday.

Mara with Athena's baby who was born THIS morning around 4am... we will be naming her today!

Atticus and Abel working hard to clean the chicken coop on Wednesday.

Did you know that it's incredibly beautiful here?

Just take a look...

How to Milk a Cow

Hi everyone, this is Mara!

Today we learned how to milk a cow.  First, you have to clean the cow's udder using iodine (it's like a super hand sanitizer).  Then, you have to wipe off the extra cleaning liquid.  Next, you test the cow's milk by squeezing and pulling the cow's teat to see the milk.  If there's an infection, the milk might look clumpy or the cow might move away if it's sensitive. Then, you get a bucket and put it under the cow's udder and you move to the cow's side so that the cow won't poop on you.  You make a circle between your thumb and fingers and squeeze and pull at the same time... and that's how you milk a cow!

Before it was my turn, I was excited and was wondering what it would feel like.  Milking a cow was really fun and the udder was very soft.  If you ever have a chance to milk a cow, you should try, now that you know how to do it.

Manure Can Strengthen Bonds

Hi, this is Daphne.  I just scooped more manure than I ever could have imagined even existed in the world.  I bet you're wondering why on Earth someone would spend time scooping cow manure.  My answer to you is this: Working together with my peers is always a great way to make our relationships and bonds stronger.  Also, I don't think the heifers and cows would've been able to clean their own pens without our help!

Completing this super hard (and yes, a little disgusting) task with my peers, I felt as though I was being supported and that I was supporting others more than I ever have before.  Some people were scooping the cow manure, while others were wheeling the manure away in wheelbarows to a pile with the rest of the manure.  We helped each other to stay posotive even when the manure loads got heavier.  I personally scooped and wheeled away so much manure I thought I was becoming a cow. Like I said before we strengthened our bonds and relationships by being super supportive of each other.  I hope I will be able to write more about my adventures on the farm, but for now I must go.

You have to be VERY CLEAN when making cheese!

In the cheese house, before we sat down in this learning area, we had to take off our shoes and any clothing that had been exposed to farm animals.  We couldn't even let our socks touch the floor near where we'd walked in!  We got to put on super clean Crocs and took some time to learn about how cheese is made.

This poster shows all of the stages of cheese being made.  There are a lot of steps, and along the way every person and machine that is involved has to be very, very clean.  Otherwise, bad bacteria could get into the cheese and no one wants to eat cheese that will make you sick!

Before going into the room where the cheese is kept while it ages, we had to go through many steps to clean ourselves and put on attire that would protect the cheese and ourselves.  The cheese room was a bit stinky, but we got used to it after awhile.  All of the kids who visit this farm help clean the cheese, which in turn helps the farm make money so that it can keep taking care of the cows, making cheese, and having more city kids visit!

Up at 6:15am to take care of the animals

So not every child feels ready, but everyone is up and heading to morning chores.

Our first day (4/13/15) continued....

So we're having some internet challenges... Students may publish their writing and reflections when we have a stronger connection.

Isabella manned the wheelbarrow with ease... maybe from all of the push-ups she does!

Lucca and his team collected eggs from the hen house.

Nathan carefully placed some of the fresh eggs while Mara made sure not to drop the egg crate.

Photos from our first round of chores

Here are some photos from our first hours on the farm. For most posts this week, we'll try to have kids write posts, but here are few quick photos to ease the minds of our worried parents!

Brayden taking a moment to take everything in.

George is showing Nevaeh that touching this heifer is not such a scary thing.

The weather was especially beautiful today, which we enjoyed as we walked to do our chores.

Can you believe we learned how to milk a cow on our very first day?!

Ms. Jackson's group took care of the dairy cows today.

You won't believe how cute the calves are.... We will definitely be sharing more about these beauties soon!

We made it! Time for lunch.

On our way!

We're on our way, folks!  It's an absolutely beautiful day and the weather at the farm is predicted to be even warmer than in Boston. More updates coming soon.

Gardening!

We worked with the farm staff, guest farmer Jim, and each other to get the farm's garden going during the beautiful weather on Wednesday.

Maggie and Lauren prepared the broccoli plants.

Sayquan, Victor, and Molly also worked with broccoli plants. 

 Tocarri, Rob, Marcela, Caitlin, Elliot, Aliyah and Mr. Green prepared raised garden beds and planted a lot of different seeds!

Ricardo (and Rocky) worked on the garden beds inside the greenhouse. 

Yadira (and Priscilla) brought soil (rich with nutrients from manure) over to the greenhouse.

One Chick Two Chick Three Chick!

Molly taught us how to play "the chicken game" and we had a lot of fun working together as a team!  At first we weren't sure what to do or how to work together.  It turned out that all of the work we had done in our class around communicating and being aware of others actually helped us to make a plan that included everyone in our big win.

Tocarri and Victory

Tocarri and Elliot took care of Victory this week.  She is only 10 days old!

Elliot holding a chick for the first time

Today, Elliot finally got to hold a chick.  His friend Tocarri helped him guide the chick over so she was close enough to pick up.  At the end of the day when Elliot was asked about his favorite experience of the week, he said "holding the baby chick."

Working in the Cheese House

Hi this is Jaida and I was with my friend Aliyah cleaning cheese in the Cheese House yesterday.  It was awesome.  When we first got into the cheese room it smelled disgusting, but after awhile I got used to it.  I had a great time and I'll never forget that experience of cleaning a big wheel of cheese.  I had fun with my best friend Aliyah.

Hi this is Aliyah and I was with Jaida in the Cheese House!  I also think it was awesome.  There was a lot of cheese and we had to clean 18 wheels of cheese with salty water (brine).  It was exhausting because we had to pick up the 20 pound wheels of cheese and we had to make sure they didn't drop, which meant sometimes we had to use our whole body and hands to keep it safe.  It was hard to turn it, but we had to keep turning it so that whole wheel was clean.  It was a fun thing to do with my friends even though it was hard.