Small Animal Barn

Hi it's Maggie and today my group and I were in the Small Animal Barn where all the baby animals are.  This is a picture of me, Rocky, and Julia the calf.  Julia is the oldest calf in the barn and will be moving to the heifer barn soon.  We had to clean out her cage while she was in the cage and it was hard because she kept biting my boot - and licking it!  The calves weren't the only things we took care of, there were also chicks, pigs, and a goat.  Everyone loved being around the chicks and Rocky and Lauren even gave two of them names.  Rocky named one Mr. Fuzz and Lauren named hers Alfred.  With the pigs, we had to wash out their food bowls (which was kind of disgusting) and put more food in them while they were trying to bite our clothes off.  For Rory the goat, we gave her more water and food.  She likes to put her front legs on a little stone in her cage so she can see what's going on better.  I love being on the farm, but I hope I can see my family soon.

Today's Surprise!

Today in the Dairy Barn, we were about to milk a cow but first we had to learn what milking felt like for the cows.  Rob told us to put our thumb into the machine that collects milk from the cows and it felt like one of the pigs was sucking my thumb.  It felt so weird that I made this face at first, but then I wanted to do it again.  It was fun milking the cows, but I didn't get that much milk out.  I learned that milking cows is not that easy when you just use your hands.  In the Dairy Barn I was hoping to see Snow White's baby, but unfortunately she hasn't had the baby yet even though today was the expected day.  Maybe tomorrow!  -- Marcela

Milking in the Dairy Barn

Yesterday on the farm we got to go to a place called the Dairy Barn and the cows have all had a baby so they could give the farmers milk.  When we got there for chores in the morning, we had to pick up the manure (don't worry we didn't have to use our hands), but in the afternoon it was worth it because we got to milk a cow.  It was really cool because milking a cow is a really interesting experience because you can actually say "I've milked a cow."  Not a lot of city kids, like me, get to say that.  I can't wait to go back and see the dairy cows again at the end of the week.  -- Rocky

Fun on the farm!

This is a picture from today when we were in the garden planting onions with Jim the farmer.  I miss my mom, but I'm having fun on the farm.  I also like going into the small animal barn where the pigs, calves and chicks are.  One of my favorite things was working together in a group, shoveling manure into a wheelbarrow and then carrying the heavy wheelbarrow up a little hill, this made me feel happy. I also really like my roommates, they're really fun and so are our neighbors!

A Day in the Chicken Coop

Hi this is Natalie and I'm writing to you from Spring Brook Farm in Reading, VT.  The first picture shows me, Jane, and Caitlin feeding the chickens at the chicken coop.  This is right next to the heifer barn where we have done our AM and PM chores.  The chickens in the chicken in the coop are all hens and there are no roosters there currently, meaning all of the eggs are edible and unfertilized.  The picture below is of me holding up the eggs that we collected from the nests of the hens.  It's hard to tell, but the colors of the eggs are blue, light brown, peach, and white.  The shells are hardened inside the chicken from the dirt they peck at during the day.  At night they have to go back inside the coop because even though there are wire fences around the pen, predators such as coyotes and foxes can still get in.  The chickens look really funny walking around with their waddles waddling.  Some of them have really fluffy bellies, but even though it looks tempting to pet, they don't like being picked up.  I know from experience!

Caitlin and Beezus

Hi this is Caitlin and Beezus.  Beezus is a heifer calf who I adore.  I adore her because she tries to lick me and she's really soft and lovable.  Before coming to this farm, I never knew that pigs have a much larger appendix than humans do - and other than that we have very similar stomachs.  That's why humans sometimes feed pigs leftovers!  Also, I have been playing with the piglets and they loved biting my boots.  I also have taken care of baby calves.  Julia, one of the calves, nudged against my head affectionately.  I feel like she loves me and that makes me happy.  I'm excited to milk the cows and hold chicks later this week.

My First Time in the Cheese House

This is Victor and today I went to the Cheese House at Spring Brook Farm.  This is a picture of me holding the suit that we were going to wear while doing work with the cheese.  We had to wear this suit and other gear because we don't want to infect the cheese.  We had to clean the cheese and flip it over.  That was hard because the cheese was heavy (20 pounds) and we had to flip it over carefully.  Then we had to wipe all of the white spots off of the cheese wheel.  The part that we wipe wasn't the part that we eat, it's called the rind and it protects the cheese from getting infected.  So far at the farm, we have fed and milked cows.  I also fed a goat and I was happy that I did it.  I'm glad that I learned all of these things about the animals.

Taking Care of Manure (cow poop)

This is Priscilla and today I have been taking care of the cows in the heifer barn.  It's been a lot of work.  We had to scrape all of the dirt and manure in their living space.  We worked so hard because if the heifers eat their manure they would get sick.  Also, if they get it on them, they might lick it and that could get them sick, too.  It was a whole second job to make their beds after we cleaned it.  In this picture I am holding manure in a shovel and I'm about to put a wheelbarrow.  The wheelbarrow will go on a mountain of compost - a classmate will wheel it there.  Many hands make light work.  Our whole class cleaned the heifer barn.  I'm sure glad I didn't have to do it by myself!  It was fun doing this even though we got our boots dirty.

Feeding the Heifers

Hi this is Marcela and I am feeling excited about being in Vermont.  This is a picture of me and my best friend Caitlin feeding the heifer calves.  It was very hard to distract the calves while we were putting the food in their trough.  The calves were eating hay at the front of the barn near where Ms. Jackson took this picture.  Do you know what a heifer is?  A heifer is a cow that has not given birth yet - so it's called a heifer, not a cow.  So far my favorite part about being here is having fun with my friends while taking care of the animals.

We made it to the farm!

Dear families and friends,

We made it safely to Spring Brook Farm!  We arrived in time for lunch, took a tour of the farm, and did our afternoon chores.  Then we enjoyed dinner, learned about teamwork and persistence, and then enjoyed some free time while preparing for bed.  (Hopefully) all students will be fast asleep soon and we'll be up at 6:30 to do our morning chores.

We will post photos and have students write about the experience tomorrow night!

Destiny feeding the heifers

Desiree and the dairy cows!

Mayalee and Jerrod

Pedro and Jack!

Our Last Full Day at the FARM!

Today I fed the new baby calf a bottle.  He was born the day we arrived (March 26th).  He was so sloppy, he kept getting milk all over me!  Did you notice the blanket on him?  He looks warm, but sometimes he gets cold.  After we touch the heifers, we can't touch the babies.  This is so we don't expose them to germs and they don't get sick.  I had so much fun feeding the baby calf because he's so cute.  Sometimes he even sucks on the bars of his pen, which is funny.  I love it here in Vermont.  I never want to go home.  -- Eileen

The cow udders felt like wrinkly earlobes or a slightly deflated water balloon with pressure on it.  After awhile the milk came out really, really fast and you got used to the feel of the udders.  The trip to this farm is really, really, really fun!  This is a really good experience and my favorite parts have been taking care of a calf and milking a cow.  As city kids we've been able to experience what it's like to be on a farm instead of having everyone do everything for us.  -- Henry

I made a new friend -- a calf named Natasha.  She is a very enthusiastic calf.  She is very nice, likes to suck on people's hands, and she likes it when I go up to her and scratch her chin.  She is my favorite.  -- Julian

Today I milked a cow.  It felt like the soft spot on your ear.  The cow I milked was at the end of barn and her name is Butters.  Also, my favorite cow is Winter.  Winter is aggressive cow and she stands up for herself.  She can also be nice, especially to kids.  My favorite part of the week was feeding the newborn calf named Basher.  Basher was one of my favorites because he was born on the day we got here.  -- Ivan

This afternoon we played Farm Jeopardy and we had to answer questions about each farm topic.  First, a person from each team would go up to the chairs.  Then Chris or Molly would ask a question and we had to ring the bell and then answer the question.  Whoever got the question right, they got to pick a topic and a number.  One time they asked us which side a rooster lays an egg on, but roosters don't lay any eggs!  I said left, and it was wrong.  I think I got tricked because I thought roosters could lay eggs, but they don't.  I kind of got excited and then I got tricked.  I think I'll always remember now!

Today I got to feed the calves and hold a chick.  The calf I fed was named Jemini.  I used some math I'd learned in school today when I was helping take care of the calves.  I used fractions when I was measuring the food for the calves.  We had to add fractions to figure out how much food to order.   I also noticed that there were themes in the way that they named the animals.  For example, Happy and Joy are related and they both are named after feelings.  Also, Winter and Frostbite and related, and they have to do with the seasons.  The goats are named Eva and Rory and they're named after Walt Disney characters.  Rory is having two babies very soon.  She had two babies before, and they were named Zack and Cody.

I don't want to leave this place ever.  -- Desiree

Today was my first time meeting Jinger.  She is very awesome, but sometimes she can be scared.  This is my last time to see her.  That makes me feel sad.  I had fun feeding her milk because she liked to grab the bucket with her chin and then drink it and splash it everywhere.  Even though I spilled a little, she drank the rest.  When I was cleaning Jinger's manure, she would grab the handle and push it the way I needed the rake to go.  I hope someday I can come back here.  When I'm here I feel happy and excited that we do chores and that we can be with the animals.  When I go back to school I'm going to remember to listen more and not to have attitude.  I've learned that Ms. Van really likes animals and that she will try to do any work, so we tried to help her.  -- Destiny

This is a picture of me and Astrid.  Astrid is a calf who is very shy because during the first month of her life there weren't any kids around her.  To take care of Astrid I had to giver her milk replacer and more grain.  I also had to put more sawdust inside her pen and clean out the manure.  I liked Astrid because she friendly.  While I've been on the farm I've learned more about Astrid and how to take care of her.  -- Amanda

I am milking a cow named Butters.  At first it was kind of hard to start milking cow, because you have to get used to the sensation of squeezing the teats.  You'd be surprised how fine the jet is that squirts out from them.  They're like little hoses.  It's takes half an hour to milk one cow by hand and it takes six to seven minutes to milk a cow by machine.  By hand you can do at most two teats at a time, but by machine you can do four teats at a time and it's faster.  As Chris, the dairy barn instructor said, the teats feel like earlobes, but slightly hollow.  Before you milk the cow, you have to put a pre-cleanser on the teats to protect the teats from disease and the milk from bad bacteria.  Then you milk the cow, and afterward you put something on it that's kind of like Elmer's glue because it dries on the teat, therefore protecting it from disease because the muscles became relaxed while milking.  I'm glad I'm not squeamish, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to milk this cow.  -- Helen

Ivan and me Pedro drinking fresh milk out of the cow. Today we were going to the dairy barn for the first chores and we had to rake up cow manure.  Then we had to put it in the machine.  Once it went through the machine it went into the dumpster.  Then we learned about the how cows make milk and where the milk goes afterwards.  Then we got to milk the cows and drink raw milk.  I learned a lot about cows today!   -- Pedro

Day 3 on the Farm

Today I milked a cow for the first time.  I felt nervous at first when I felt it because it felt like rubber.  Then I milked it and it was ok. When I first got to the farm I felt really scared of the cows.  We have been cleaning their manure and feeding them.  Some of the adults and my friends have helped me feed them and take care of them.  I'm glad that I did these things.  -- Joel

This is a picture of me on the first day at the farm.  I am petting a cow in the dairy barn.  The cows in the diary barn make milk.  They get milked twice a day.  I learned a lot being here and I've done a lot of new things.  -- Kaya

This is a picture of me petting the cow named Happy and feeding her.  The cow doesn't like to be poked.  If it is poked, it will shake its skin because it will think it's a fly on it.  You should pet it nicely.  My favorite thing about the farm is the cheese.  At first I didn't like the cheese house because it was stinky and it was boring.  But then I started to like it because we cleaned the cheese and we cleaned the sides.  We got to taste the cheese.  It is called Tarentaise and it tastes good.  There's another cheese called Reading.  That one was good, too.  The farm is really fun and it's big.  Today when I fed a calf it was chewing my glove and licking me.  -- Jerrod

These are pictures of me feeding the cows at the farm.  The left picture is of the heifers and the right picture is of the mothers in the dairy barn.  The cows in the dairy barn have already had babies.  My first day feeding a cow I was very scared.  Then I tried it and it was ok.  I'm having a lot of fun here.  I do not want to go back home -- it's too much fun!  Here things are different from Boston because there are farms, animals, no tv, no phones, or any electronics.  First when I came here I didn't see tv and thought it would be boring, but it's not because we do a lot of things here.  We wake up at 6:30 in the morning and we go to sleep at 8:30 at night.  When we wake up in the morning we do our am chores and then we have breakfast at 9:00am and we get confused and think it's lunch.  And I think lunch is dinner.  I miss my family, but I'm ok.  The ones I miss the most are Gia and Gabriel.  I wish that Gabriel and Gia could do this in 5th or 6th grade because it's a lot of fun and awesome.  --Destiny

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

We Made It To The Farm!!!

I made it to the farm!!!!!!!!!!! When I first came to Spring Brook Farm I thought it would be a good time to work with our class and figure out hard problems. I also learned to make a good relationship with our  class and be a very helpful Manning Senior to both our school and our community. In this picture this is my friend Jerrod and me, Pedro. We're watching the baby calf eat. What I learned is that helping each other together makes everything better.  -- Pedro

Today was an adventurous day for me on the farm without any electronics or other distractions - just farm life.  In this picture I fed a lot of the heifers (female cows that have not given birth yet).  Over the next few days I'm going to have fun and have more adventures with all of my classmates.  -- Imani

Today Aleene and I were feeding cows in the dairy barn.  We took the hay and broke it up into pieces called flakes.  We put them where the cows eat.  The cow liked the hay that we fed them.  We both liked feeding the cows.  I feel that the trip to Vermont is awesome and educational.  This week I will want to learn more about farming.  -- Desiree

This is a picture of me feeding a cow.  I think his name was Infinity.  When I was feeding the cow, I was scared that it would bite my fingers because it was close to my hand.  At the beginning of the day I was scared to touch the cows but by the end of the day I found out that they are really nice.  I hope to ride a horse this week.  I'm glad I'm here.  -- Liibaan

Tomorrow We Leave For the Farm!

Tomorrow morning, 18 Manning Seniors will be driving up to Reading, VT, to visit Spring Brook Farm.

I am so excited for what the week will bring!

Best Wishes for the New School Year!!!

To all of our Manning Seniors from last year, we wish you the best for a great year in 6th grade.  We can't wait to hear about what you do this year -- make us (and yourselves) proud!  Have fun and learn as much as you can.  Don't forget all that you learned at the Manning about how to treat yourselves and others.  The possibilities for what you can accomplish are endless!

-- Ms. Herzig and Ms. Van