Our Day With Aaron....

Hey! Today was our day with Aaron and we first cut up some of the squash and cucumbers that were too big from yesterday's glean and fed them to the pigs and the chickens. Then we crushed up our Bio-Char and mixed it up with water and omg it was so much fun because I would put my hands in this mixture and it just felt so awesome! Because it was windy, all the Bio-Char was blowing everywhere and it would blow on our faces and we would be all black with soot. Then Amos decided he wanted some on his face so Katie put it on his face and then we all decided to put some on our faces so Katie also did my "makeup". We looked so silly and everyone stared at us like we were weirdos! We also watched a video about urban farming and it was this one woman who told us her story and she had pigs, chickens and goats and rabbits that she slaughters...which is so sad because you watch them grow up. If I had animals like pigs or chickens, i don't think I would be able to slaughter them :( We also worked with the oxen and we yolked them and attached a cart to them. So much fun! I just wanted to say thank you to my family for loving and supporting me. I love you guys!

Gleaning and Distribution and Fro-Yo!!

Hey Y'all! Today we went to Morning Glory and we harvest so much produce- we actually harvested 1100 lbs of squash and cucumbers!!!!! So amazing! Then we went to the distribution and we had so much produce that we told people to take as much as  they thought they could eat. After that, we went to a place called Tis Berry which is a frozen yogurt place and it was so good...I bought James a frozen yogurt because he didn't have any money and if I didn't have any money, I would want someone to buy me a frozen yogurt so i just try to put myself in his position...Then me and Kaila went to drop off some groceries to people at Hillside and Katie, Amos, Dylan and James went to the Oak Bluffs Senior Center to drop off produce...Then when we got back, we made Dilly Beans which is like pickled beans...so tasty! I am listening to Cold as You by Taylor Swift and am feeling really good. Sometimes when I listen to music, i feel really good about myself and life and my future..might sound silly but music really is my life because it always makes me feel better and I would die without it.

PICTURES!!!

Okay so the first pic is the Friday before meals in the meadow, we had to move the cows to a different pasture and so all of the people helped and it was cool. The second picture is a bruise I got on my leg from when we were filling these huge holes in the ground and we were filling uo wheel barrows with dirt and bringing them to the hokes and i accidentally fell in the hole and scraped my thigh on the way down...but it is super cool because its like a battle wound! The 3rd picture is a little calf that was born almost a week ago and that picture was taken hours after it was born. The last but certainly not least is the oxen named Danny...he may be huge, but he is like a big teddy bear :) The last picture is a picture of a bull here at the farm, his name is Roy...but isn't he cute?? I hope you enjoyed these pics!

Gleaning a Million Pounds of Beans!

Not literally. So at Morning Glory, they were going to till under a whole bunch of beans like 5 250 foot rows of beans because these little yellow beetles were destroying them so we picked as much as we could but it was so hot out that we could only go for like 2 hours. We also had a ton of help to glean all this amazing food so we got a lot but i felt like i could have picked a lot more if it wasn't so hot out :( Then when we got back, me and James worked with the oxen and Amos, Dylan and Katie worked in the Garden with Hannah. I really do like working with the oxen but sometimes they make me really nervous because i haven't spent a whole lot of time around cows and I really want to get more practice. Then we had a staff meeting which me, Aaron and James were late to because we had to put the boys away. Basically at the staff meeting there is a board where people put things on there that they want people or just let people know. So someone will put a little note to remember like Hoses and they they explain to everyone that they want people to coil them back up after they use them. Sounds SUPER fun right? NOT! Actually it's okay. Anyway...I will be posting from now on so remember to read everyday!!! YAY!!

The Past Couple of Days.....

OMG OMG OMG!!!! INTERNET FINALLY!!! I am so sorry that i haven't been able to blog, but I found out last week on Wednesday that the Sprint tower here on Martha's vineyard fell down due to big storm and the just got it up today so I'm so happy now that I have been able to start blogging again! Anyway.....a couple of days ago at work we worked with Aaron and Daniel and first we made something called Bio-char which is like fire but without oxygen. So the way that we did it, we took a large circular metal bin and a smaller metal bin. We filled the small bin with anything that can burn, like scrap wood,  and cardboard. Then we centered it inside the larger bin. Then in between the small bin and the large one, we put wood and newspaper and and made a fire and closed the lid. After a few hours when the fire was out, we took out the smaller bin and inside the things turned to charcol and the cardboard that we put in there broke when you touched it even slightly. Then you can crush it up so that it is supper tiny and put it on your garden and it makes to soil more nutrient-rich. Then we cleaned the back 40 because meals in the meadow was in a couple of days......almost a week later.....Meals in the Meadow was last night! Meals in the Meadow is an event where people pay $225 for a seat and the counselors and us, the FARM Project, presented the COW ( concept of the weeks) and we were able to talk to a lot of different people and I even met the CEO of FFA!!!!!!!!!! Isn't that so exciting?!?!?!?! We only had to do and hour and a half of talking to people which was fun because i got interviewed by plum TV twice which is like a news channel or something (well the 1st time they were interviewing Sidney and I was in the shot) SOOO COOLL!! We had to serve food at the buffet and then we got to dance and have a good time...Sometime in the middle, when I wanted a rest from the loud music, I went to the porch and Jimbo and Farmer James were playing the guitar and banjo and it was just me, FARM Projecter James, Amos, Maddi, Sofie, farmer James, Jimbo and another girl whose identity (to me) is unknown. We just sat there listening to them and I put my head on one of the support beams and closed my eyes and it was so peaceful. Oh, and i wore a super cute outfit which was a brown skirt with my farm institute shirt and grey converse...So Cute! By the way, meals in the meadow was on the 16th and the day that we made bio char was like the 14th. All in all I have learned so much and it has been so interesting!

Gleaning!

Today we gleaned squash and turnips and distributed them to Hillside and Woodside (elderly people housing) and that pretty much took us until lunch time, and then after lunch we weeded the lettuce and then weeded the kale. After that we went to the Edgartown school and worked at the garden there. They had this dirt pile that had all these wood chips or grass in it and me and some other kids would take a wheel barrow with a strainer like thing on top and we would put a few shovel fulls of dirt on top and run our hands over it so that just the dirt went through and not the wood chips or rocks or anything else that happened to be in there. I loved this job almost as much as I loved catching the turkeys because mainly I just LOVE dirt. While we did that everybody else weeded the corn/bean/squash section and we put the sifted dirt on top as fertilizer. We also talked a lot about compost which is really interesting. By the time we were done and got back to the farm, it was already time to leave and i thought today was so much fun just like everyday I think is fun! Tomorrow was are supposed to do like movie and dinner and we are going to watch a movie called Fresh, which I'm not entirely sure what it is about but it has to do with something about food and the process, so that should be fun and yea so I'll make sure to take pictures tomorrow so i can show you I just have a terrible memory...BYE!

Working with the Animals

Today was our day to work with the animals. Our end task was to move the turkeys outside to a pen, but first we had to do all of these other things. we had to move the boy cows to a new grazing area with plastic 3-4 foot tall posts. There are 4 boy cows, Danny; who is an old trained oxen and has huge horns, Uncle Peter; a bull who doesn't have horns, Apollo and Zeus; are steers who are 9 months old and are in the process of being trained to pull things. As we were putting up new fencing, Uncle Peter got out so Aaron, Amos, James and Katie are out in the field in the waist length grass trying to herd him in to the pen, and I was standing there holding the fence open laughing at them. Then Zeus and Apollo got out so I ran after then, but that didn't work, and of course Danny gets out when all of the other madness is going on. After about 15 minutes, we got Uncle Peter inside the pen. I was laughing because it was so funny but Uncle Peter makes me really nervous because he is a bull and bulls tend to be aggressive, so when he started walking towards me, i almost started running, but i knew that wasn't a good idea, and he eventually stopped. After we were all done with the boy cows, we got like a  horse trailer and went out to the sheep and left the trailer out there and took this huge shade structure the we were gonna use for the Turkeys. We brought that to yet another part of the field. Then we had to put up chicken fencing in a big square around the shade thingy...the square was okay and by okay I mean not at all square looking. Our final task was to collect the turkeys, so we herded them in to the inside part of the run out and we grabbed them and then handed them off to people who were standing outside the pen who then put them into crates. It was a very fun day and I met a lot of animals that I didn't even know were at the farm like the sheep and these two little heifers and a prego white cow with black spots. I'm sorry i don't have pictures because by the time i remembered my camera, I didn't want to have to walk all the way back out to the field, but today was fun because we finally got to work with the animals!!! Even though they make me nervous some times!! YAY!! Tomorrow we are going gleaning and picking squash again I think..I'm not really sure...See you later alligator!

Today at work, we mostly weeded and then we transplanted some sunflowers...and all that excitement was just the beginning of my day...BORING! Actually it wasn't that boring because was have some pretty interesting conversations like today we had a conversation about bros...ummm okay... Then, since today is the 4th of July, Martha's Vineyard has a parade and The Farm Institute made a float which consisted of a bunch of HUGE paper mache vegetables and hay for the kids to sit on and considering all of the people on the farm want to save to world, the float was people powered by 8 people which i thought was really cool. We started at 3:30, and started to walk in to town...im not gunna lie, it was a workout because every time we went down the slightest hill ( and there were not many hills in the route we were taking) we had to push back and slow the float down. Even though it was hard work i could hear people talking to their kids when we went by "oh, look they are pulling the float" and it was just something that most people wouldn't expect, and also when we were on the road people would honk and smile and wave to use and everybody was just so nice :) It was 2 miles there then the actual parade was about 1.25 miles and the way back was 2 miles again, but i only walked 2.5 miles but still that was hard work. I did take a break and sit on the float and wave to people...I was so tired and disgusting when i got home that i took a shower and wolfed down 2 hot dogs. There was fireworks, but we didn't go because all fireworks are the same and plus i was beat. While we were eating din din, i realized the sunset and i thought i should share it with everybody because you don't know when you will get to see another one, so treasure each moment and make it last a lifetime....Sorry for the cheesiness but you just don't know when the last time you will be able to see such a simple thing as a sunset...

Watoto

Last night, me and my grandparents went to the tabernacle, last night, which is like a place were they host special events like church and they had famous people sing. Anyway, so we went there because The Watoto Children's Choir from Uganda was singing, and basically Watoto is a holistic care program were they take in orphaned children, nurse them, and educate them. They sang and danced and they wore really bright and colorful outfits, which was awesome. They have been traveling for the past 5 months going to different places and hosting these concerts and Martha's Vineyard was their last stop. The concert was free but they had baskets for donations and I only had $1 so I gave that. These kids have all lost their parents in the war so they don't really have any family but they are setup with 7 other kids in a house in Watoto and they have a house mother who takes care of them. The Concert was really inspiring because it really makes you think about what you have and how much we take for granted. Even though these kids had lost their parents, they were still smiling and they were like a big family who took care of each other.

P.S When i was in the car on the way to this thing I realized i had forgot my camera, and i am still kicking myself in the butt for not remembering......SORRY!

Hey Everyone! Sorry I missed yesterday I was just so tired! Yesterday was friday and since the regualar camp only last a week, they had something called a Friday Feast, where every group gives a presentation about what they did each week and then they make a dish for people to eat. We were going to make a squash casserole, but we couldn't find the recipe that I had looked up a few days before, so we just made it up and it was awesome because it tasted amazzing!!! We used squash, turnips, garlic scapes, regular garlic, olive oil, dried red pepper spices, and cheese. We boiled the turnips and then sliced them in to circular thin slices, and did the same with the squash. Then we just kind of put it in a lasagna pan, but there was no specific order. Kaila made this butter mixture which consisted of half a stick of butter and all these spices like thyme, sage, and parsley, and we drizzled it over the top of the casserole. It was so good, it just made your mouth water when you smelled it and it tasted like heaven!!! Also, when we were picking the turnips, i tried one and I didn't like them, but now I know how to cook them so that I like them!  James, one of the kids in the FARM Project, stepped on a nail, so he was there on Monday, but wasn't there till Friday and when he was told to read the staff handbook, he found out that we get a free t-shirt, and then a choice of one of the 3 items: last years t-shirts, a hat, or last years sweatshirts. I got a t-shirt and a pink hat!! Then we got let out of work early because it was our first week and she thought was did and awesome job. All in all this week was hard work, but I liked it and I cant wait to see what next week has to offer!!!!!

The Picture is me and Amos on the Ferry...