Farm Update - Early March

Farm Update - Early March

Written By Lily L., Photos by Upper School Photography

Two weeks ago, we started our work back at the farm. We now have six sheep and a lot of chickens. 

This Tuesday we put leg bands on the chickens to tell the difference between the hens and the roosters. We have seven hens and eleven roosters.

The Clonigers have been bringing sweet potatoes to the farm for us to cook. It has been too cold to grow anything. We are really happy that they has been doing that. The leftover sweet potatoes are the chicken’s and the sheep’s favorite meal.

We are at the farm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9:30 am to 2:45pm and we have lots of fun! 

David cut down the tall grass in the corner behind the barn and we planted blueberries and muscadine in the field where the grass was. 

David and a couple of other people built a swing up in the barn with wood and rope. 

Hayden from middle school comes to the farm with us and is David’s intern. He is there Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.     

There is a pony in the neighbor’s field named Salt who we can visit during our recess time. 

On Wednesday, the farm group went to a blackberry farm and dug up about 50 blackberry bushes to transplant at the farm.

At the blackberry farm, we had the awesome experience to watch bulls graze in the nearby pasture. “They were very big and that was the first time that I had seen a bull in person. I thought that it was going to charge,” says Roxy. (Note from David: The bulls belong to Abintra parent, Loran Shallenberger, whom I called beforehand to make sure we would be safe.) 

On Wednesday, the farm group helped David build a wall behind the shelves below the stairs.
   

We now have walls in the loft of the barn. 

“I really like being able to go into the loft and eat lunch,” Ella said. 

We are hoping that in a couple of weeks, the slide will be put in. Marissa said,“ I think that the farm will be complete with a slide. So many people are going to use it, so the line will be extra long.”