Day 2

Today we had to collect all the sap buckets and I was scared of the bugs that were inside the buckets.  I didn't want to pick up the buckets and I kept making excuses.  Then Ms. Herzig made me go and get the buckets and I acted like I was a giant stepping on all of the thorns and that no bug could hurt me.  This is a picture of when I wasn't scared anymore.  I'm having a good time and I'm learning new things about different animals and about myself.  I learned different things about my friends, too.  -- Kerah

We're about go to the aging room where all of the cheese starts aging to get more flavor.  It's also a place where they don't get bad.  This is our group about to go in the room.  The room smells very weird because there are hundreds circles of cheese.  The weirdest thing is that each circle of cheese is twenty pounds! The process to mold the wheel of cheese takes 24 hours.  It takes a year to age the cheese!  The other cheese takes only 6 months. The outfits we wear are special and a tiny bit too big. They prevent bad germs from getting in to the cheese. We wonder what we will do next !?  -- Aleene and Helen

This is a picture of the first time I have ever milked a cow.  This cow's name is Butters.  At first I thought it was kind of disgusting because it's a cow and it had all its own manure and pee on itself, but then I saw Chris clean the cow before we milked it.  Then before we milked the cow, a man made sure the milk could come out.  At first I didn't really want to do it, but then when I saw all of my friends milking the cow I thought it was kind of cool, so I tried it.  It felt like the soft spot on your earlobe.  Then we had a little taste of her milk and it was warm, nice, and healthy.  -- Mayalee

In this picture we are in the small animal barn and I am caring for a calf named Jemini.  When you bring in the milk for the calves they get really excited and they start jumping like reindeer.  Yesterday, when we arrived at the farm we went to the dorms and we moved into our rooms, then we were informed by Chris that a new baby calf was born right before we arrived.  When we finally saw that new calf, he seemed small but he was actually bigger than what I thought he would be.  I think that this farm trip will be a very good experience.  -- Miles

Today after lunch, the whole group collected sap buckets.  I am holding a carton full of the lids that go on the sap buckets.  Every spring, the people at this farm collect the sap from the trees to make maple syrup.  This year the weather messed up the trees functioning.  The sap isn't running anymore because the weather changed from really warm to cold.  Last week it was really warm.  Now the farm can't make a lot of maple syrup.  This farm is a nice place to be at.  -- Ivan