Thursday, December 11, 2014

Farm Stay 2, December 1-18, 2014

by Miguel
Thursday, December 4
         Today is Thursday and is day four of our Farmstay visit. It has been great so far and has not only been educational, but fun as well. It started off a little boring. We did math silently for about an hour but it only got more fun from there. We transitioned into a class called occupations. This is where the group was divided into two groups that both worked on things that improved the land school. There is the food group, which cooks lunch for the Farmstay, and there was the fibers group, which was getting wool from the sheep and using it to make crafts. I was in the food group and my friend and I were in charge of making bread dough. It was so much fun. We messed up the recipe twice but we made great dough in the end. It was then time for lunch. After lunch we did something called micro economy. It is where you start a small business with a friend and work on making crafts to sell at the land school event that comes up later in the Farmstay. After that we had some outdoor time. We played broom-ball on the ice. Everyone was falling every five seconds and we were pretty terrible but everyone had a great time. We had dinner and then study hall. This was a time not only to get work done, but also to get into a calm mood. We had closing where we each got a minute to tell stories about our lives. Some were really funny but it was nice to share an experience with the group. After that it was time to go to bed. We all fell asleep exited for the next day.

by Ben
Friday, December 5
Today is Friday and we are all super excited for the weekend. We have had such a great time and learned so much. I have been working in the food occupations group. I am doing a project on Portuguese food with Miguel and have already learned a ton. It has been very interesting and enjoyable to be able to research this country. Tonight we are also watching a movie. Some of us are very excited while others, mainly the boys, are not so excited due to the movie being Dream Girls. But regardless we all can’t wait for the weekend and just to be able to hang out together. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Farmstay will hold in store for us. 

by Muriel
Saturday, December 6
When it’s cold outside, you have to find ways to occupy yourself. Whether that be ping pong or reading a book or eating, entertainment is essential for your sanity.
Even though the basement is chocked full of board games and cards, we have yet to touch them. The most popular activity has been needle felting. The boys have created what hey call “the bonnet.” And they worship it; along with Halos.
Us girls, on the other hand, have been busy drawing with markers and walking around when it’s really cold outside (which hasn’t been all that often).
Although we’ve been good at occupying ourselves so far, pretty soon we’re going to need to get a little more creative, and that’s when things get interesting. Stay tuned.

by Thea
Sunday, December 7
         Today was a very lazy day for us all until around 2:00 in the afternoon when we were guided to go on a hike. We all decided to go to the pine forest. Some of the girls were already on a hike so they met us there but me, not being one of those girls, got my outdoor gear on and trudged through the snow with the rest of the group that was still at the homestead. Once we reached the pine forest we winded through some of the trees until we reached a point where we all sat down and decided what we wanted to do next. We ended up passing up a game of thicket to walk to the climbing tree, which none of us had been to. Once we reached the climbing tree Donna kindly brought back the part of the group that was tired and cold, which included me, while a couple others stayed and climbed the climbing tree. 

Our long hike back turned into a quick one when the majority of us decided to begin running through the thick stomped down cornfields once we saw the homestead. Most of us came back to a little chunk of “free time” which most of us spent talking and drinking our elaborate cups of hot chocolate. Its was overall a nice afternoon which left us all ready to sleep.


by Noah 
Monday, December 8
         Today besides our normal activities, we had a special activity called the Mentor Lunch.  The Mentor Lunch is where our Farm-stay splits up into mentor groups and goes on a hike.  Before the hike, students pack a lunch to have on the hike.  Our group went to the Bird blind and back.  When we got to the bird blind, we went inside the blind to have lunch.  We saw many birds including Blue Jays, Woodpeckers, and Chickadees.  Over all, it was a really fun experience.
         We also are preparing our micro economy projects for the Holiday Craft Fair.  Right now, most groups have started the construction of their food and their craft items.  A few groups including mine made test batches of the food that we will be selling at the Holiday Craft Fair.  Over all, today was a very productive and good day.


by Kalina
Tuesday, December 9
Nothing very exiting happened today and I want to take a different approach on the blog so I am going to talk a little about Farmstay and what it is. 

Farmstay is about building community but at the same time becoming independent and finding your voice and where you stand. It is an interesting concept, when I tell people about it they either think it is very cool and say I am lucky to have such experiences or they ask me, “Where do you go to school?”

Living on a farm for three weeks with a group of kids you have usually only just seen around school and barely know is a very interesting experience. Usually you have a few friends too but it is mostly an unknown group. Sure you have been with these kids since pre-school but do you really know them. My answer is no, you gain a lot of friends and better acquaintances as the outcome but the process of getting there is usually painful and long. 

Like any community or household of people you get sick of each other, quarrel, disagree and misunderstand each other. The most important thing of Farmstay is to forgive and be open about your feelings. A lot of stress comes with Farmstay too and you learn how different people handle it. Basically you get an 18-day insight into how people live 24/7. 

A couple of the things we do on Farmstay besides learning about people and becoming a community are: Occupations- where we get to experience having a job that for the most part is the same day after day as well as do some farm work and help out the community, there usually is a project involved; Cook Crews / Clean Up Crews- learning to cook and clean a kitchen, basically learning life skills; Micro-Economy- learning about running a small businesses, profit, loss, overhead and crating a product appealing to customers (Please come to the Holiday Fair, 11-3 of December 13, to see our micro-eco projects and help our small businesses succeed); and then there are our Daily Cores- a time for us to have some experience having responsibility as well as cleaning up our environment and materials. 

I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about Farmstay, 

Sincerely,
Kalina 


by Julia
Thursday, December 11
            On the 11th of December, everyone was busy preparing for our holiday event. Thea and I made blankets, and that day our fabric finally arrived…two days late. The previous day our occupations group (fibers) took a field trip to a store that had lots of yarn, felt, and looms. In occupations the next day we got to start our projects. Lily and I made a felted wall hanging; it is still in progress but looks good. For lunch someone from the food occupations group made Brazilian food. We had bean soup and other Brazilian cuisine.  We had outdoor play, much needed after our hard work during micro economy, and then our daily chores. For dinner we had enchiladas. At our evening meeting we told one-minute stories like every night, and then went to bed.  Two days until the event, we were all very excited, but very tired, so we fell asleep quickly.


by Zane
Saturday, December 13
          On Saturday December 13, 2014 we had a craft fair! We sold many crafts in preparation for the holidays. We sold a wide variety of crafts and foods; they included photo cards, snow globes, walking sticks, candy, brownies and many more! The event lasted from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM. Not only were there kids selling crafts but there were also other venders selling even more products! The Farmstay has been preparing for two weeks creating products, making test batches and deciding what to sell. At the fair many people came to see their children and to buy the goods of them as well as from their children’s friends. After the event was over we spent the time to clean up and bring everything back to normal.  

by Filippo
Monday, December 15
Nearing the end of our Farmstay, there is a bittersweet feeling going around. On one end you get to go home and see your family, but on the other hand you have to leave the community that we have created here on Farm stay 2. For me farm stay means a lot of things: To get the experience of working on a farm, to experience life away from home for awhile, you get to be independent and make a lot of decisions, but I think that the most important part of farm stay is the community and the people you’re on it with. Having a strong community can make farm stay an amazing experience, on farm stay 2 I have made many new friends with people that I didn’t really know before farm stay.  
Today was a pretty average day. First I got up and at 7 o clock dragged my self up to the red barn, where I fed and cared for the chickens. Then I returned and had a hearty breakfast of raisin bran. After my breakfast we had math. Then we transitioned to occupations; I am in the food occupation and in the food occupation we get to research on a certain country and we explore the part that a certain dish plays in there culture. Then after occupations we had CE/PE, which is physical expression. During CE/PE we played a game of broomball. I find broomball a rather violent sport. After our little game we had chore time during which I vigorously scrubbed toilets. After scrubbing MANY toilets I also scrubbed my hands vigorously… Then we had free time in which I was part of an intense ping-pong tournament. Then we had dinner, and because I am writing this quite a while late so I do not recall what was for dinner.


by Ara
Wednesday, December 17
        During Farmstay we have ce/pe (creative expressions/physical education) 5 times a week. During these times we do something fun and creative. At the beginning of our Farmstay the group brainstorms ideas. The things we have done so far are: tackle which is a game where you go out in the snow and tackle each other, broom ball, hike, sculpy /sledding/ tie die, another hike, snowflakes, block printing. Today we block printed which was where you take a slab of linoleum and you carve a picture into it and put some paint on it and slap it on a piece of paper and it’s block printing.