Tom Sawyer

I’ve finally finished the book Tom Sawyer. I found it quite enjoyable. At times the pace slowed down drastically and it then became hard to follow. However the book was fun to read, Tom showed a true sense of ingenuity which gave him the intriguing edge that caught my attention. His pal, Huck Finn was the same way; however Huck was more independent and more mature. What struck me about the book was that Tom wasn’t noticed as a decent being until he did something for others which in turn gave him status at the end of the novel. I found Tom’s character to be inspiring, his profound sense of cunning, his different perspective of ways face new obstacles, and his incredible skill to convince people to do things for his own good.

Ok Go Chain Reaction

Ok Go is a group of four guys who do all these crazy acts. They dance, they sing, and they construct crazy chain reactions. Just earlier today I was watching one of them and it was incredible. The way they delivered it was very intriguing. I’ve always wanted to build something like this and they’ve inspired me to. Mine would not be on as large a scale as theirs was but it would still contain the same dynamics. It takes a lot of materials and trial and error to complete a chain reaction and to do it successfully. Therefore, I am hoping to use money from babysitting and household chores to pay for the project I will most likely complete with my father.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

New Lambs

Two more lambs were born on Friday about 10 minutes before I arrived. I was disappointed that I didn't get to see the birth. However, I did get to towel them off and hold them and get the fluids out of their mouths. Later that day, one of the lambs still wasn't standing, nor was it drinking from its mother. At that point I got to try feeding it through a bottle. After feeding it, it was time to try and help it to stand up. He was incredibly unstable, it almost seemed like it was one of his legs was hurt, not just that he wasn't strong enough. It was hard to watch the lamb not do so well but it's good to know I was able to help it to do better.

Sugar Shack

A winter specialty at Codman Farm is the Maple Syrup. Every winter we tap trees and collect sap to make maple syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. All through the winter we are going to be boiling sap in a cauldron in a little shack that was built last summer right on the Codman Farm property. We fill all the walls with fire wood for insulation, but as we use up the fire wood in the walls for the fire, we have to go out into the cold and cut more. When we are in the Sugar Shack on the other hand, we are warm and toasty.

Farm

One of the pregnant sheep gave birth last week. She gave birth to two lambs. When I first saw them I couldn't believe my eyes. They were barely 12 hours old and one of them was already standing up and walking around. Their legs were so skinny and they were so independent. It's incredible how helpless humans are especially at a very young age. Unfortunately, Wednesday, the runt of the two lambs passed away. However he was walking and eating and he was well off. There are more lambs sure to come and goats as well.

Hay Deliveries:

While I’ve been volunteering at the farm, we’ve done many large hay deliveries, some as many as 60 bails of hay. It’s a lot of exhausting work because we have to throw bails of hay over our head into people’s barn. The worst part is when the bails break over your head when you are trying to throw them and all the hay showers down over you. It goes down your shirt, it finds its way into your pockets, and it gets stuck in your hair, and even though all the hay is gone, you are itchy for the rest of the day.

Ufi

Ifinally figured out how to upload photos into my blog. These are a bunch of pictures of Ufi, my foster puppy from Fidelco. Now he's a lot bigger and looks more like a German Shepard than he did before. Soon enough I will share some more recent photos of Ufi so you can see how much he's grown. I'm am also looking into uploading photos from the farm of the lambs. Unfortunately, there is only one now because the runt died.

Story of Getting Ufi:

My mom went to Salem with my sister and some of her friends. My mom came across a man who was walking a German Shepard. He was fostering the dog for an organization called Fidelco. Fidelco has people volunteer to foster puppies from 8 weeks old to 18 months old. When the dog is 18 months old, the dog is given back to Fidelco where they do all of the specific training to become a guide dog. That inspired me and my mom to volunteer for Fidelco and foster a dog.

Snowboarding

Arlington High School has a snowboarding club that takes place in January. It's every Tuesday after school to 10 pm. I think that they allow you full freedom on the mountain. They also allow you to take lessons on the mountain which could be fun, but I think I would probably just ride freely. I'm not even 100% sure that I will be able to do the club because my work is still going quite slow and we are still trying to get in to the swing of things. But when we do, I hope i will be on the mountain in January. I'm also hoping to meet up with my friends in New Jersey, and if we all have the money, possibly going to Snowmass, Colorado for a week long trip or so. I realize however that I need to work hard in order to gain the privilege of such a luxurious trip.

Week 6:

This week wasn't great. I caught a bad cold which has effected my attitude towards work. I've also had to miss out on two days at the farm. Wednesday, I watched a movie called the Cove. The movie is about a dolphin trainer who travels to Taiji, Japan in order to free the dolphins that were being used for their meat. I found it hard to watch this movie because I hate to see dolphins die, and there were some fairly graphic scenes of the cove filled with blood in the water. The farm on friday last week, we had to vaccinate the cattle. The whole experience was a lot of fun because i had never seen anything like this happen in real life. I've only seen people herding cattle in movies. I actually got to inject vaccines into the cattle. I was shocked at how thick their skin was. At the end, when i thought we were done, I won't go into detail, but we castrated 2 bull calves. It was a great day, and i never thought i would be able to say I'd ever done either of those things.

Week 6: Day 1

Yesterday, I had a vision. A vision of me in 20 years, living on a farm, and farming for a living. At the farm, 20 minutes before i left, a goat went into labor. I was begging to stay and have my parents pick me up a few hours later so that I could see a goat give birth. Today, I am more excited then i have ever been to see a few hour old baby goats. I will take a lot of picture so I can share the beauty. We are also still waiting for lambs which I can't wait for either. I leave for the farm in about an hour and I feel like it will be the longest hour of my life. Tomorrow is also and exciting day. My friend and I are hoping to start a holiday in the name of our favorite food in the whole world, Goldfish. Tomorrow, all I will be eating is goldfish, all day. I hope to find out how to post pictures and i hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I will.

Week 5:

The main farmer at Codman Farms, Eric, is pretty funny. On Monday, we moved the sheep from their pasture to the barn. Their pasture is across the street so we had to stop traffic (which in Lincoln was 1 car). Eric gave me the bucket of grain and told me to stand across the street shaking it. When he opened the gate, all the sheep came charging at me for the grain. I was surprised, i thought they would leisurely walk towards me and i would just keep walking, but no, these sheep are like a vicious mob. I had to run side by side with a hungry ram. Good experience? Yes, now I know next time to get a better head start then the width of a street in Lincoln.

Reflections on Volunteering

Volunteering at Codman Farms has been a great amount of fun. Later in life I sure hope I can one day live on a farm with pigs, chickens, cows and all those cool animals. For now however, volunteering is a great way to farm without having my own farm. Soon, the sheep are going to start giving birth and the past two days I was there, the farmer Eric and I have been working on insulating the sheep barn and hanging up heating lamps. I can't wait for the lambs to come, i don't think I've ever held a lamb before.

Volunteering at Ironstone has gone well. I'm actually going to start taking riding lessons there. When I've gone riding before, I've only done western. At Ironstone, they teach english and english is supposed to use a lot of muscles that some people never knew they had. The program is supposed to be great and I can't wait for the exercise.

First Days of Volunteering

I’ve been excited to start my volunteering for a while. Yesterday and the day before, I started at both places I am volunteering at. Wednesday I was at the farm and I loved it so much I’ve decided to do it 2 times a week. The farmers had me doing several chores; I was cleaning out the chicken coop, putting another layer of wood chips in the chicken coop and patching up the chicken wire because several of the chickens were getting out. They also had me clean out the rabbit cage and sweep the barn. My favorite part however was moving around hay bails. Believe it or not it’s an insane workout and I was moving them around on top of 10-20 other layers of hay bails. I thoroughly loved working at the farm.

Yesterday, I started at Challenge Unlimited, which is a therapeutic riding stable in Andover. The program is made to help disabled kids a different way to do their physical therapy. Being on a horse distracts them from the fact that they are using muscles to stabilize themselves. Yesterday I was working with younger kids, all three of them were under 2 years old. I don’t personally help with the kids but I lead the horse around a small or big ring.

third week

I've been homeschooling for about three weeks. So far I'm loving it. I've been really getting into math with my dad, and we are working great together. Tomorrow I go to the orientation for volunteering at Ironstone Therapeutic Riding Stables. I will most likely start my volunteering Friday and I am anxious to see how it is. I love being around horses so I'm not worried about it too much. My mom gets home from Atlanta soon and we will be doing something more on Temple Grandin. A few days ago I watched a documentary on her life. I was thoroughly engaged in the movie, enough so to answer questions after and possibly move on to a paper.

Week Three (I think)

Finding Codman Farm

Today I visited my friends out in Lincoln because they lived right near a farm I wanted to check out and possibly write about. When I got there, a kind man stepped out of the main office and my mother asked about volunteering. The man offered us a tour. We walked around the farm checking out all the animals and talking about the different chores that need to be done, and we also talked about time commitments. The whole idea looks very reasonable and I am more than excited to start volunteering there and helping out with the farm animals, which I love.

My time commitment would be 3-4 hours a week, done on Wednesdays. As I grow into it more I would love to commit even more time, maybe 5-6 hours every week, because I love helping out and I love spending time with these kinds of animals. These times would be properly balanced with academic skills but during this time at the farm I will be building the skills to accept chores more as they come. The people at the farm seem very kind and I’m very excited to begin and learn all about how to work with the animals.

Caleb Mesh

http://www.codmanfarm.org/

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First week of home schooling

Today i was able to sleep an hour later than usual and I have never felt better on a school day. It is my third day of home schooling and so far, i love it. I haven't had to sit at a desk listening to someone tell me how to learn, instead I've been sitting on my couch or in my bed reading articles and watching documentaries on or about topics i want to learn about. I've been thinking of ideas of how to make fun out of my learning and I've come up with ideas like building models of Ancient Incan cities, and cooking Ancient Incan dinners. I've also been reading a Rick Riordan book for about 1-2 hours a day. I have enjoyed the experience so far, my stress level so low i can almost say i have no stress, and most importantly, I'm not complaining about having to learn. I will post again sometime in the next 48 hours. Thanks for reading.

Caleb Mesh