Week 2 Update- Young Farmers
Hi Farm School Families,
What a fun day we had on Friday! We started off with a couple of icebreaker games (Name Toss and The Wind Blows for Me.) After reviewing our agreements and what we learned about Sun Sticks and compasses last week, we set off to find our sit spot for the semester. Sit spot is one of the core routines taught at Wilderness Awareness Schools in which students find a favorite spot in nature and are invited to simply sit, observe and be present. We will do this weekly to help cultivate awareness, expand our senses and study the patterns of local weather, plants, birds, trees, and animals. After sitting for about 10 minutes, we then recorded observations in our journals (some students included illustrations or poems,) then came back our circle to share our experiences.
Our farming topic for the week was soil, and I began by asking them the difference between soil and dirt. After a discussion about the macro- and microscopic organisms that work to create soil from decomposing matter, they came to the conclusion that the difference is that soil is ALIVE! One way that farmers and gardeners can speed up this process of soil creation is by composting. A functional compost pile must contain these four essential components:
Nitrogenous material (aka “greens'“), such as kitchen waste, spent plants, or herbivorous manure.
Carbonaceous material (aka “browns”), such as dried leaves, paper, or straw.
Water
Oxygen
When these components are combined properly, the soil organisms are able to move in and (almost magically) transform dead or decaying material into rich, nutritious soil that is then distributed to our row beds. The students learned my acronym for these soil critters: The F.B.I. Ask your child if they remember what it stands for.
During snack and lunch we often try to stump each other with riddles. For the past two weeks, they’ve been trying to figure out the Language of the Sticks - so far only Saylor has knows what it is. (Shhh… if you know the trick, don’t tell them.) I have a feeling they’ll solve it soon.
After snack time we brought out our compost from home and voted on who’s was the most disgusting. Saylor’s odiferous decomposing spinach juice was the clear winner. We then started an experiment by putting our samples of rotting kitchen scraps into petri dishes with a bit of finished “living” compost. We’ll observe any changes over the course of the next few weeks.
One of our farm chores for this week was to sift finished compost for potting soil. Everyone participated, and really got into the process. It was interesting to discover some of the invertebrates in the compost, including earthworms and grubs. We studied the Central Texas Planting Calendar and the current Biodynamic Calendar and determined that this was an ideal day for starting beet and onion seeds, which we did in flats containing our homemade potting soil.
After lunch, the students still had plenty of energy, so we moved to the shade for some field games: Cougar Stalks Deer (teaches nature awareness), Nutty Squirrels (practice in non-verbal communication and trust) and a student-led game of flag football. I think we all went home tired, but happy.
I will be out of town next Friday to celebrate my daughter’s wedding in California. Ms. Tammy will be subbing for my class.
Until next time,
Ms. Bridget
