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.