Week 1 Update - Mr. Braden’s Builders

Hey Folks,

Our first day of this new semester started out cold and cloudy. Really cold and cloudy. Every farm school morning starts out with games in the field, and this morning was no different. However, rather than going through what will become our daily rhythm, I started a fire for the class to start this day. We then discussed the ABC's of fire safety so that the class can be responsible for starting their own fires for the rest of the semester.

As it was our first day of the semester, things are a little bit different than they will become as we move forward. On this friday we learned everyone's names, made some agreements about how we will treat each other and the space. Largely our agreements are focused around respect. Respect for ourselves, for our classmates, and for the space as a whole. That includes our tools, the land, the plants, the animals, our classmates, and ourselves. As we discussed, we made some tea over the fire using herbs from the farm (Tulsi and Lavender) and continued to tend it as we went.

When we concluded our discussions we took a tour of the space that we will be using for the semester. The greenhouse, the rows of cultivated plants, the weather station, composting toilet, the chickens and the area that we will be traveling through and exploring in the coming weeks.

We took a detailed weather report and talked about the importance of being aware of weather patterns on a day, but also over long periods of time. Having an awareness of what the weather should be doing at any given time is very important to producing food. While it's easy to look up the weather for a day on the internet, having a personal awareness of what the weather will look like in 90 days or more is an integral part to knowing what to do when. Farmer's don't just plan for today. They need to plan at least a season out, and that's the shortest duration we should have in mind.

We had lunch together, the class organized their own game during free-time, which they will do each week for 30 minutes, and we waited for the sun to come out. It did not, and we chose to continue to move our bodies through the space and visit the area where the cows will be at the top of the property. We spent time discussing how we would care for herd animals that are not used to this weather and what to do to prepare them for it as we walked. We finished the day with another game to keep ourselves moving as our good friend the sun never found its way to us.

I'm looking forward to what this coming week brings and I hope you are too! It's going to be a great semester.

-Braden