In this second week of September…
We farm got busy all week with an enormous farm-wide cleaning project! We rolled up our sleeves, donned our gloves, and ordered the dumpster. And boy, was this an exciting project! So many of the back corners, basements, and storage rooms got a good tidying. It was so rewarding to give the farm a makeover.
September 10th: The local 4H Naturalist Club came on Sunday afternoon to do a stream study in the Bussard Branch. This involved finding and catching macroinvertebrates from the stream, identifying and counting them, and returning them back to the streams as part of a project in which they compared two different stream sites. We are looking forward to hearing back the results of the study!
September 15th: We had a star party! With the support of seven members of the TriState Astronomers, we invited our community out into our pastures to gaze upon the stars. Our 110 guests were able to see: The Ring Nebula, Dumbbell, Saturn, M13, the Milky Way, and lots more!
September 14th: Platoon 22 came for a retreat at our lodge. Their day included committee chair presentations, a board overview, team building activity, strategic planning and more! Like so many organizations, Platoon 22 chose to do their deep work here in our beautiful timber frame lodge!
We also hosted a young man from the Department of Juvenile Services who is part of a work program with the state park service. Ranger Manager Mark Spurrier arranged for the young man to spend the day at ThorpeWood. He helped with our cleaning week project, enjoyed our animals, and went fishing in our pond. Thank you, Martin!
September 16th: For the 7th year in a row, we hosted all of the Head Start families for Head Start Family Day! Each year, we get about 100+ folks out to ThorpeWood for some good old farm fun. The families flow freely across the property, stopping in at our different stations: wagon rides, animal visits, storybooks, and the mud kitchen. We also have an optional hike across the property to see the pond and trails. It is such a great day for introducing families to nature play.
