Friday, February 24, 2017

Farm Stay 3, February 21 - March 9, 2017

by Robby
The Last Day of Farm Stay
March 8

This Farm Stay was far beyond what I thought it would be, it was fun, it was blissful, and it was reconnecting. We did many fun things, and I liked almost all of it, but here are some of my favorite things: I really liked the three times we played The Most Dangerous Game, I liked going outside while the wind was blowing over twenty-nine miles per hour, and I really enjoyed the general joy and fun of my friends on the Farm Stay. I thought that it was very nice to have a hot meal, for every meal, seven days. Everyday you have free time to explore the land school. You can also pretty much do anything you would like during this time. Your daily schedule will be filled with a mixture of outdoor time, school work, and creative expression. On the weekend, the whole days are pretty much all free time, but make sure to not lose track of time and miss any of the meals. This Farm Stay was an amazing experience, and I am so sad that it is over, and I cannot wait to go back next year.


by Will
March 8

Today is the last day of Farm Stay and there is a lot to be done. We know we have to clean our rooms, but first we need to play one last game of ping pong. We should finish our Micro Eco reflections, but we also need to have a water war in the bathroom. We have to finish our occupations, but we also need to change all of the screen-savers on the computers, and before we clean our cubbies, we have to play one last prank: so much to do but so little time. 

We also need to say goodbye. We have lived here, with the same people, in the same place, with the same schedule for more than two weeks; after that, you get pretty used to this. But now it’s time to go home, and we all want to, but at the same time, it is hard. We have had so much fun here; we have created new friends, new experiences and new stories, so leaving that here is very difficult and very sad, but when we go home, we will still have all of the memories.


by Zoe
March 7

I can’t believe that we only have two days left on Farm Stay; it seems like we just got here! This morning was very interesting: we woke up and the bathroom lights wouldn’t turn on but we didn’t think it was a big deal. Then we tried to turn on the sinks but they didn’t go on and then we found out that the power went out because of the giant storm last night. The power came back on around 9:30 a.m.. After that we unloaded four crates of soil for the rest of the year. Some of the bags were frozen! Then we had PE (physical expression) and for that we play The Most Dangerous Game, which is when we all start out in a building called the Sugar Shack and we all scatter and hide for the first five minutes and then we try to make our way back to the Sugar Shack without being tagged. We played that for two hours until it was time for daily jobs. After daily jobs we normally have free time but I got to collect the maple tree sap and ride in the back of a tractor! That was super fun and I even got credits for it! Farm Stay has been fun and I’m sad that I’m leaving but I’m looking forward to going home.


by Zoey
March 6

Farm Stay is really fun. I have so many memories from it. One was when we went sledding and Katie said “look, an eagle” but I thought she said “look, Smeagol.” Yesterday was the pancake breakfast. It was really fun, but very tiring. It was really great to see my parents, my brother, and my friends. I cooked pancakes for around an hour and a half. Afterwards I was really tired and read for around three hours. Adeline and I have a lot of fun observing Queenie (the peahen) for our science project. We made lots of weird jokes about how she was double crossing us because she was going on the neighbor's property. Another fun thing we did was bowling and pizza. Rylan, Zoe and I made bad puns and talked about Doctor Who while eating pizza. Zoe and I figured out that we are really alike (besides the fact that we have the same name). These are just a few of the amazing and fun things I’ve done on Farm Stay. I wish Farm Stay were longer but for now I’m going to make the most of these last four days. 


by Rylan
Wind
March 5

For the past few days, we have been getting a lot of wind here at the Land School. It has caused us to lose power, torn through the greenhouse, and given us some fun play time outside. Here is a poem about the wind:

Wind,
Strong, destructive,
Blowing, tearing, never stopping,
Crashing through anything in its path,
Power.


by Peter
March 3

So far Farm Stay has been great! We’ve done a lot of great stuff and had fun. Micro economy will probably be one of my most memorable experiences, hopefully because of it’s success rather than its failure. On Friday morning Robby and I had a ton to do: we had to tie dye 25 shirts, make 25 fruit cups, and make a ton of whipped cream. By the end though, we had managed to finish it all. I am very excited to see how the breakfast goes!


by Molly
March 2

Today is Thursday, two days before the Pancake Breakfast. Everyone is getting ready, and there is a nervous energy flowing through the air. We are finishing up our projects, and finalizing everything. We are beginning to set up, and clean up for all the people coming. Everyone is excited, and nervous, but everyone will have a good time. As the day ends, and the sun is setting, everyone is getting very stressed. None of us are completely done, and we have barely any time the next day to work. We are all scared, but we all go to bed and get a good night's sleep for the day to come.


by Sage
March 1


I remember waking up Tuesday morning the day before Farm Stay and feeling sick to my stomach.  The kind of feeling that doesn’t just come from being hungry or excited.  Truth was, I was nervous.  You wake up one morning in a different bed with different people, surrounding you.  You ask yourself, “how did I get here?”.  You can’t think of an answer, so you get out of bed, and head for morning chores.  By the time it's over, you're still half asleep, eating your same old, same old, granola and english muffin for breakfast.  Then your face falls in the granola. Closing your eyes you chomp on the cereal until you drink the very last of it.  You wash your face with your sleeve and prepare for the day.  You start the whole process all over again.  Get up, rub your eyes, ask why and how you got there, eat breakfast, and you're ready to start the day.  So now you know when somebody asks you how you spend your mornings, you know what to say. 


by Rio
February 28

Today the Junior High came to visit us at the Land School. Last year, I remember not wanting the Junior High to come. This year it was the same case. The whole morning we were dreading the moment when the bus pulled into the driveway. When they arrived we went to say hi and almost instantly the situation became a lot better. We did our stewardship jobs, ate lunch and reconnected with our friends, who we haven’t seen for almost 2 weeks. Then, we had free time. I had a lot of fun talking and telling stories about Farm Stay. I think it is a good idea to have the Junior High visit because it is a good reminder that eventually Farm Stay will have to end. But until then, I am going to have fun and enjoy the time I have here.


by Stone
February 28

So on Monday I made carnitas in the morning on my own with a little help from my friend Saxon. We made it with my mom's secret recipe and everyone loved it. So we started out with 5.5 pounds of pork, orange, onion, cloves, and other spices. It took about 8 hours to cook and at the end i felt really good because I made everyone happy. 


by Saxon
February 27

This morning I went on a hike looking for animal tracks, although it had snowed all last Friday almost all the snow had melted at this point, which made searching for tracks more of a challenge. I was hiking with my two friends Peter and Stone, we were searching for tracks as a part of the science observations we do on Farm Stay. We hiked for a while until we crossed paths with Robby who is mapping the stream as his project. We ended up walking with him because we found most of our tracks by the stream he was mapping.

As we were walking we came to an area that had a steep incline almost like a small cliff that we could climb up but was still steep enough that it was easy to slip down. Luckily there was a very small frozen pond at the bottom of it and we could throw things down through the ice.  We got to the top where we found a small stump which gave us the idea to push it off the cliff and into the frozen pond. I did film our whole adventure on Peter’s camera but it's twenty minutes of raw footage and that would be a little bit hard to get onto a computer and edit.

Overall our adventure/hike was successful; we found many tracks, but not too many that we hadn’t seen except for one odd track that we couldn’t identify. Near the end we met up with Will and Beno who were just a little bit upstream from us. We walked with them through the stream but very carefully so that the ice didn’t break. The camera battery died just before we reached the homestead but we got good footage to document our adventure and we completed part of our science observations all while having a good time.  

by Aksinya
February 27

My experience at the Land School is great. The best part so far is the Most Dangerous Game that we played. We had lots of fun and had a great time at the same time. I am making soap for our Micro Eco event that is happening on Saturday, March 4, 2017. I am looking forward to that moment. I have made new friends and figured out things that I didn't know about them. Everyone is being funny, kind, nice and helpful to me and others. I am glad that I chose this Farm Stay and the people on this Farm Stay are great. 


by Beno
February 25

There have been many different experiences on Farm Stay for me so far. I have climbed trees, run away from Calvin, and burnt myself on wax while making candles. Today, since I forgot to do my blog, it is Saturday, one the best days on Farm Stay, in my opinion. We have farm chores, breakfast, optional work for credit/free time, lunch, free time, dinner, and closing. There is so much free time if you don’t do the optional work for credit, that you can hike anywhere around the Land School.

During the first free time, Saxon, Will, and I ventured out on a real perimeter hike that took us almost the whole free time. We went around the farmstead, and skirted around the outside of the creek near the sugar shack. We then found some small maple trees and cut tiny holes in them and sucked the sap out. It tasted like Dr. Pepper. We were going to go on the real border between properties but we had to circle around back to the fence because there were a ton of thorns in the way. We made our way past the hunting blind, and all the way back to the corner of our property. There, we turned right and were able to look out onto a bunch of vast land. Not. Barren corn fields were all that we saw there and so we walked into the ravine by the pine forest.

In the ravine, we saw a deer carcass that had been chewed up by something that it looked like I wouldn’t want to encounter. We made it past the ravine, and headed into the maple forests, where the climbing tree stands. We were able to experience the maples without the sap bags for one of the last times in a very long time. We turned right, and after a while of walking, we found the pond, where Will screamed super loud because he almost fell in the ice. That was the end of our adventure for the morning, but we thought we had something planned up for the afternoon. We ended up just playing ping pong in the basement the rest of the day.


by Adeline
February 23

Once, a friend of mine told me that Farm Stay is all inside jokes. I would maybe change this to Farm Stay is all memories. Even though it is only the third day, I already have so many memories. One of them was when a mysterious thief stole all of the knobs off of the boys’ drawers and cupboards. They were returned later that day, but we still don’t know who it was. Another great memory was taking hikes around the fields during free time. When we were done, we went to check the mailbox and found out that my dad had sent me a toothbrush, and Zoe received socks. This made us laugh at the randomness of the gifts. Today, Rylan brought a Dalek alarm clock back from the cities. It says ‘exterminate’ when it goes off! I am cracking up so much, and Zoey would like to steal it. Although Farm Stay has just begun, it has already been so much fun and I am looking forward to other memories!