The Farm in Winter

Some of seventh grade continued work on the chicken tractors this week.  Third grade was unable to come out because we had a deluge just as class was supposed to start and many boots and raincoats were still at home for the Holiday Break.

Sarah, Winter and Camilla discuss what to do next on the chicken tractors with Ms. Miller

Mia, Carter, Noah and Batian prepare to sift compost for planting artichoke and tomato seeds in flats for the greenhouse.

Noah, Carter and Batian wait, with their full wheelbarrow, for me to find the flats.

Batian takes a break.

 

 Our photographer this week is MacKenzie.

 She took a lot of lovely shots of the farm...

 Cabbages

 Kale

These are cedar poles waiting for their next task.  We use them to make trellises, hold down tarps, prop things up, you name it.

The chicken coop and hay bales as seen from the meeting spot.

Oreo, our lead bantam hen. 

Elephant (white hen) and an as yet unnamed hen.  Elephant was named for her size.  Someone had a sense of humor.  I doubt she weighs more than a pound.

 

Some of the horse pasture.

An unclaimed flow form hiding in the leaves.

Oyster Mushrooms

Fifth grade planted oyster mushrooms 5 weeks ago.  They did great for their first 3 weeks, but when they began to poke out of their mushroom bags, they did not fare well.  There just wasn't enough moisture in the classroom for them and too many books to be spraying extra water around.  

I took them home for the break and have been spraying them 3 to 5 times a day.  You can see below how well they have done.  These are daily shots of the same bunch.

 Dec. 21

 Dec. 22

 Dec. 23

 Dec. 24


Dec. 25

 Dec. 26

 This is the bunch with the largest mushrooms.

And this is the largest bunch.

Artistic Photography of the Farm

Our photographer this week was Sarah Sophia.  She took a lot of beautiful shots of the people, plants and buildings that make up the farm.

 MacKenzie

 Denis and Noah

 Noah

 Pascal

 Sarah Grace

 Broccoli crowning

 Cabbage coming to a head.

 

Speedwell

 Gill over the Ground and Speedwell

 View from inside the greenhouse

 Parsnip forest

 Pine needles and pine cone.

 Scallions

 Shelf fungus

 Squash left over from fall celebrations

 Water on kale

 Wiregrass root.  Get that out of the bed!!

 Weeding garlic

Weeding

Ian's holiday cactus

A Day With Third Grade

Each week when third grade arrives at the farm, they break into four groups.  Each group performs a task.  

This week everyone helped to bring the leftover hay bales down to the farm from the Holiday Fair archery area.  The hay bales will be used for seating during the high school bonfire.

Once the hay bales were stacked, Earth group harvested lettuce and shiitake mushrooms

It was an unusually big harvest so the bucket ended up full to overflowing.

Fire group painted sealer on some of the siding for the new shed. 

Air group cleaned out the compost buckets and moved horse manure to the compost pile. When they were done with all that, they weeded the asparagus bed.

Water group worked on building chicken tractors.  

 These chicken tractors will be a house on top and a run on the bottom so that our girls can earn their keep by eating bugs and weed seeds in the beds and fertilizing the beds with their manure.  The tractors fit exactly over 1/3 of a bed and can be moved as often as necessary.  Once the girls have gone over a section of bed, we will make sure that crops are planted on a schedule that allows at least 120 days between harvest and the bed's last exposure to chicken fertilizer.  Thank you to Kristen McGee who came up with the blueprint for our chicken tractors, purchased materials, had the wood cut to the appropriate lengths and angles and is providing some of the tools we are working with.  As a thank you we are building two tractors, one to keep at the farm and one for Kristen to take home. 

Earth group also worked on digging out the fire pit for the high school bonfire once they were done harvesting.

Michael takes a break and lets Parker do all the work.

Carrots

 Parsnips

Many thanks to Barbara Holloway who took these amazing photos.