County Fair

I have been away from my computer for a week so the postings have not been too regular. I had a minute this morning so I thought I would give a little update on some Lake County Fair news. In the swine show the 4-Her's collected all blue ribbons and we had a couple of animals in the top of their respective classes. Jack even placed in the Jr. showmanship class.(showmanship is a special competition in which the judge evaluates how well the animal has been taken care of and how competent the 4-Her is in handling and setting the animal) That wasn't our only win in showmanship. Maggie and Tim took the honor in sheep and Cassidy won the dairy competition. In the sheep barn our kids took 4 of the 6 top honors and Marina won our first ever Grand Champion lamb. The dairy kids did very well with Stephanie and her cow Taz taking best in show.
I only had the pictures from my cell phone so they aren't that good. I will post more pictures when I can.

Drop in activities for the week of July 26

DAILY ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 26


Monday July 26 Meet a horse


Tuesday July 27 Make a bird feeder


Wednesday July 28 Ice cream making demonstration


Thursday July 29 Design your own milk bottle


Friday July 30 Farm storytime and sing along


Saturday July 31 Farm savenger hunt

4th of July pictures

This is really late in getting posted sorry about that. Besides the heat it was a great time.

Morning Haze

This morning while I was doing milking duty I looked out over the oat field and this low hanging fog was a blanket over the crop. When I went out to snap the picture about a 1,000 birds flew off. That might hurt our yield.

Eagle scout project # 4

This past weekend Boy Scout Trent Snyder completed his potential Eagle project of putting in a historic farmyard fence. The impetus for the fencing is to help protect young kids from getting too close to Wagner Road. With this section of fencing completed we have a barrier from the heritage center to the farmhouse. Trent and his team worked on a couple of the hottest of days we have had so far this summer. Another great job by the Boy Scouts.
Thanks

One step closer

Andy rigged up a platform for us to assemble the Aermoter head and get it ready for the next step of placing it on the tower. It is actually kind of a neat display so it is too bad that we have to put it up on the tower. To stand next to the blades you kind of feel pretty small. The other thing that we have been marveling at is the amount of engineering that went into the design of the windmill head. This thing was made long before there were tools like CAD (computer aided drawing) to see it before building it. There isn't a wasted movement in the design. When you furl the tail it also activates the braking mechanism.
We hope to complete the windmill project in the next couple of weeks. The hurdle right now is a union strike that is going on in Chicago. To raise the head we need a crane and in this town that is run by a heavy equipment operator and that is union.

City visitors

Today Sarah and I got to lead a really interesting group of visitors from the Chicago Jesuit Academy. These boys were in summer school and enrolled in a special class that looked at agriculture and sustainability. They have raised their own vegetable garden and even flock of chickens. The trip to Wagner Farm was to better understand how farming was done in the 1920's and then to draw parallels to sustainable practices today.

Cake masters

We had a number of 4-Her's start competing at the fair with their cake decorating projects. We came home with a bunch of ribbons and even the Grand Champion Cake award. Congrats to Kelly(the young lady in white) and good luck to the rest of the club in the upcoming judging.

Last weekend the horses got to carry a special cargo, a wedding party. To suit the event Julie and Robin added some special touches to the regular harness.

365

Still missing you.

Dollar Drop In schedule for the week of July 12

DAILY ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 12


Monday July 12 Ages and stages in the life of a cow


Tuesday July 13 Oatmeal clay play


Wednesday July 14 Wash a pig


Thursday July 15 Make and take chick cookies


Friday July 16 How to measure a lamb


Saturday July 17 Farm animal bingo

Happy Pig

Summer in Chicago can often be a hot one, and our animals feel the heat just like we do. Today our campers helped some of our livestock cool off with a nice spray from the hose. By the looks of this guy, we made him one happy pig!

Dress rehersal #1

Tonight the kids started in earnest working on showmanship with lessons from Julie. They even put the new leather show halters on the calves and cows. With the fair getting nearer there are countless baths to give, more clipping to be done and then it will be time to pack up for the show. There is a lot of excitement building!

A couple months ago

Our friend Robin just gave me a cd with a number of video clips. I picked one from the past winter to post. I especially like this one because first it is of our beautiful team of Belgians Sue and Bob but also because it was taken in the middle of a snowstorm. With today's temp in the mid 90's a little cooler weather sure looks welcome.

Getting our float ready

This evening we were working on getting the float ready for the 4th of July parade. Last year we won Best Youth Entry so we are going to have to come up with something pretty good this year. More pictures will be coming. Have a great holiday!

Crop update

This morning I walked the farm to check out the fields and I was really happy to see everything is doing quite well. The spring rains have made moisture abundant and the 80 degree + days have given the needed heat. The next crop field to be harvested will be the oats. There are a couple signs we look for to tell us when to start the oat binding. At the top of the oat plant are the seed pods. If you squeeze these pods right now you get a milky looking substance from inside. This will change as the plant matures and the inner part of the seed will become more solid and yield what is called dough when it is squeezed. Once the seed is in the dough stage we start looking at the color of the stock. When it is not quite all gold we will start the harvest. Binding oats is one of those tricky things where timing is everything. You have to wait long enough so the seed has plenty of time to reach maximum density but not so long that the plant stock drops the seed when the binder goes through the field. Jeff and I think that we should be able to start work at the end of next week.
I've also include a picture of the heirloom garden plots. Most of the work right now is weeding and the staking of the tomato plants.

Volunteer meeting featuring 4-H

It is fitting that for my 300th post I get to talk about something that is very dear to me, 4-H. Last night we hosted our regular Wagner Farm volunteer meeting and instead of having a lecture or event preparation we got treated to a preview of the projects that will be going to the Lake County Fair at the end of this month. Last night was an example of what makes this program great. Each of the members had the chance to stand before the audience and introduce themselves and tell something of interest about their animal. Some of the kids talked about how to show their animal while other explained what the judges would be looking for. A couple of the swine showmen told about the efforts they were putting forth to help their pigs gain extra weight so they would make the entry requirements. From top to bottom the kids displayed a lot of courage to stand front and center with a microphone and express themselves. There are a lot of adults out there that turn white from the prospect of public speaking. The other thing that was neat about last night was how the families turned out to show support for their kid's efforts. When the evening was over and everything was put away I saw many of the moms and dads putting their arms around their kids and telling them how proud they were of them or what a good job they had done. Too often we only read about how kids are getting in trouble or are sitting in front of a TV/computer screen all day. It is refreshing to see so many of our kids who know how to work hard and take the roll of animal caregiver seriously. I encourage you to come to the county fair and meet the kids of the Glenview Clovers
4-H club. The fair is July 27th through August 1st in Grayslake, Illinois