Thursday, June 7, 2007

Today was the last Farm Day for Fifth Graders. We only had one group after lunch, as opposed to three on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was nice. We had another dead calf today, a bull this time. He was his mom's first calf and he was really big and she was really small, so they think maybe she got tired of pushing and he suffocated. The other calves are all doing great, though. Soon we'll separate the animals we're taking to the fair and we'll be able to work with them whenever we have a spare minute. They are also talking about giving the students night watches, so that if a heifer is having a hard time calving the calf doesn't suffocate. I certainly wouldn't mind doing that.

There is much to like about Chazy (shay-ZEE) and Miner. I'm feeling less like a stranger and more like someone who knows their way around the farm every day. Everyone here seems to get along. Last night a few of us grilled out, and even people who weren't cooking came and sat outside just to hang out. We were going to roast marshmallows but then we ran out of propane. We all sat outside until it got dark and the GIANT mosquitos drove us inside. Will Bruce called them MOOOOsquitos. :o) Sounds good to me. I like how many stars you can see. You can even see the Milky Way. I like how we can hear the train. I must not have noticed it the first couple of days but I think we hear it 5 or 6 times every day. It reminds me of the siren in Chestertown. We also have seagulls here, because we're just a few miles from Lake Champlain, and that reminds me of Chestertown, too.
My favorite thing that cows do is sleep all curled up, just like a cat or dog. Anna says when they sleep like that, they are in the REM sleep cycle, so I told all the fifth graders that the cows curled up that way are dreaming. The black cow whose side is in the foreground wouldn't move out of the way and kept trying to eat my camera.
Sometimes they can't get their heads all the way around and compromise by resting them on the stall dividers.