Today, the CSG girls all participated in helpful tasks around the barn of Wolfe’s Neck Farm. By helping the farm today we, in a sense, helped the community at large by contributing to the progress of sustainable farming. Nothing feels better than lending a helping hand to our neighbors. We took action and left the farm house at around 9:45 this morning, in our muck boots, work gloves, and grubby clothes, ready to go help out with tending the animals and such. When we got there, Kaitlin, a Teen Ag. Coordinator who works at the farm, introduced us to the flow of life in a public farm and what the animals there are used for in the cases of farm business and other purposes. There were numerous jobs that we had planned to accomplish such as cleaning out the chicken coops and empty spaces, transporting hay in wheelbarrows, and moving the bunnies out of the barn out to the designated summer home which required us to move the house they were living in in the barn out and clean out all the excess hay and such.
Within the group, we all split up into teams and groups so that we could distribute the jobs and efficiency of work, occasionally joining other jobs when unoccupied. Overall, we definitely managed to keep ourselves all occupied. Dividing jobs based on volunteering was a good example of community as a cornerstone because we worked together. We shoveled and cleaned out the empty space of the bunnies previous location and wheel-barrowed it out to where the cows were hanging out. Some of us took on other jobs, such as getting the chickens out of the chicken coop and outside, removing the fenced in walls for more work space, mucking out the old hay with pitchforks, shoveling out the hardened excrement and shipping it all out (in multiple trips) by wheelbarrow. Also, we scooped up the loose hay where the horses and cows were and put it in their pins to freshen it up.
One of the challenges we dealt with today was facing messy conditions such as manure and mud. But, keeping a good attitude while facing such conditions made the work light and extremely fun. While at the farm we were able to spend some time with the goats. Holding the baby goats was also definitely a high point for many. Along with holding baby goats we helped milk the mama goat. This was a learning experience for all of use and was enjoyed by all. It helped us all develop a new sense of gratitude to small scale sustainable farmers. We saw today just a little of the large effort they put forth to make our world a better place. These fun activities were a bit smelly and grubby but the experience of being part of such a lively environment was appreciated greatly. Not only did we help the farm with their work ,but they helped us learn what it means to thrive off a sustainable farm.
By: Olivia and Kayla
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