By Evan Maietta and Gabby Morrow
It was 28 degrees here at Jo-Erl Farm today. It gets pretty cold up here on the hill. We had our full “Farm Camp” crew of eight people, which is pretty unusual since everyone’s schedules are so different.
We tried to clear any debris from the lower pasture, but being so cold, we took a poll and the majority voted against staying outside. We made our way into the Free-Stall Barn to check on the cows and then Ben, our youngest farm camp member, fell off the top of the hay and got a nose bleed.
After that incident, we ventured into the chicken coop, to collect eggs and put new pine shavings in the nesting boxes. We soon realized that Mucky, one of our beloved silkie chickens, was missing! Almost crying, we split up, sending Maria, Eli, Lucas and Ben into the fields to search for her, as she tends to be a wanderer. Emily and Zach searched the front of the barn, and we stayed inside to double check. Soon realizing how stupid we’d been, we found Mucky safely tucked in a nesting box. In our defense it was dark and Mucky blends in pretty well. We all gave Mucky a hug and returned her to her new favorite spot, the bottom, rightmost nesting box, as silkies are not roosting-chickens.
After the whole Mucky situation was sorted out, we went to sort, weigh, and label the beef that had just come back from the butcher. Using our superior mathematical skills, we quickly finished the job and got the meat back in the freezers. It was now around six o’clock and we went back to the farmhouse for our weekly ritual of meat lovers and Mediterranean pizza.
This week’s MVP Farm Camp award went to myself, Evan, for starting this “Farm Camp Chronicles” feature on the farm blog and for managing farm camp in general.