Week Three: Getting Our Hands Dirty
Week three has meant that we have finally graduated from watching and learning to being able to get our hands dirty with all of the new skills we’ve been taught.
As we start off the fall season, us gappers have been integrating ourselves more and more into our surroundings as we become more comfortable with Glen Brook and each other.
One of our favorite parts of helping out on the farm happened this week. Farmer Sam let us read his farming books and choose areas that we wanted to explore during our time with him this past week. One of the areas that excited us the most was compost and soil production, and on Thursday we were able to really dig deep into different composting processes. One group worked on creating biochar, which involved them grabbing sticks and logs from around camp to make a giant bonfire. This fire is then smothered with the compost that Farmer Sam makes regularly from Glen Brook’s food scraps as well as other animal byproducts. This combination of charcoal and compost will then be put back on top of plants in the garden to help supplement their growth. The other group made a Johnson-Su Bioreactor which is a method of helping to break down compost by creating an environment where mycelium (fungi roots) can thrive and therefore continue to decompose the already started compost from the farm. Unfortunately, unlike the biochar which can be used in the garden in a few weeks, the soil from the bioreactor will not be able to be used for almost a year so we cannot see the changes that we enacted, only know that us Gappers created something that will stay at Glen Brook past when we leave.
This week has been animal filled, whether we planned for it or not. On Tuesday, Clay and Campbell helped to corral one of the pigs who had decided to make a bid for freedom, even though it involved running through one of the electric fences. When we showed up for farm work the next day, we saw that the goats were also roaming around the road as well, although Farmer Sam was easily able to wrangle them back into their pens. This led into our hands-on activity for the day which was helping to rotate the animals’ pastures by setting up new fencing and moving the animals into their new homes. The pigs and goats looked much happier in their new homes as they had new spaces to explore and more food to eat. We also took a trip to the Caterpillar Lab in Marlborough where we got to learn and see up close the many different kinds of caterpillars which are native to this area. At the end of our trip we spent time with our new knowledge looking for caterpillars in the tree lined area next to the building. Ryder, who loves to find and pick up any sort of small creatures (bugs, frogs, you name it), found a hickory tussock caterpillar, named it Teddy and brought it back to the Hill House with him to be our new house pet.
Besides just working with our hands, we have also been creating things with our hands. As our canoe trip is fast approaching, we have been spending a lot of time in the woodshop working to cut our paddles down to size and sanding them down to be oiled. Although we have been in the shop for hours at a time, we have kept things lighthearted by playing music and having fun while we work. Us gappers have also been working hard in the kitchen. This week we have learned how to make homemade pasta as well as how to braid a 6-strand challah. Campbell’s birthday was this week and we were graced with freshly made pulled pork sandwiches and a chocolate raspberry cake to celebrate.
TLDR:
Projects of the Week:
Bio-char and Johnson-Su Bioreactor
Anecdote of the Week:
Wrangling pigs back into their pasture
Birthday of the Week:
Campbell!
Hal was our editor of the week this week and decided to share some photos that he took at this week’s field trip to the Caterpillar Lab. Can you match each caterpillar to its name?
A- Spicebush Swallowtail
B-Hickory Horned Devil,
C- Snowberry Clearwing
Answers: 1C, 2B, 3A