Dollar Drop In Activities for the Week of August 1

DAILY ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 1

Monday, August 1 10-11 am: Make and Take a Pig Cookie
3:30-4:30 pm: Play Farm Animal Bingo

Tuesday August 2 10-11 am: Meet the Team: Come for a Ride
4 pm: Storytime

Wednesday August 3 10-11 am: Straw Painting
3:30-4:30 pm: Animal Cracker Diorama's

Thursday August 4 10-11 am: Cream Separating Demonstration
4 pm: Storytime

Friday August 5 10-11 am: Meet a Chicken

Canning 101

Wagner Farm had the opportunity to host a food preservation class this week. With the help of a generous grant from Ball Jar, we were able to bring in Toni Salazar Camphouse to teach us how to make sour cherry jam, peach preserves, and blueberry conserve. All the participants had a great time and got to take home a jar to share with family and friends. Happy Canning!

Dollar Drop In Activities for the Week of July 25

DAILY ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF July 25

Monday, July 25 10-11 am: Meet a Chicken
3:30-4:30 pm Berry Painting

Tuesday July 26 10-11 am: Meet the Team: Caring for the Equipment
4 pm: Storytime

Wednesday July 27 10-11 am: Make a Vegetable Puppet
3:30-4:30 pm: Make a Take a Pig Cookie

Thursday July 28 10-11 am: NO DOLLAR DROP IN
4 pm: Storytime

Friday July 29 10-11 am: Buttermaking Demonstration

Farmers Market video

A local news group called Patch recently did this little piece on the Farmers Market. It is kind of fun to see. Click here to watch the video

The new birds

Last week the Farm got a new addition. Actually, it was an entire flock. Earlier in the summer a friend at a Wisconsin Historical Society site that interprets the mid nineteenth century asked if we might be willing to share some of our Black Java chickens with them. The Java breed was very popular during their time period. However, by the 1920's it would have been pretty rare to find them on a working farm. Despite this fact, we raised the Javas as a favor to staff at the Museum of Science and Industry who were doing genetic work with the breed. If you have ever seen the chick hatching exhibit at the MSI, those are Java chicks they are showing. With the Javas gone, we were ready to import a new flock from Primrose Farm in St. Charles, Illinois. Primrose raises a great dual purpose bird called a Columbian Wyandotte. This breed was developed by crossing Barred Rock and White Wyandottes parents. The name Columbian comes from their original unveiling at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in 1893.

Everyone seems to be enjoying their new digs and are getting along fine. Please come and see the new birds on your next trip to the farm.

Dollar Drop In Activities for the Week of July 18

DAILY ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF July 18

Monday, July 18 10-11 am: Preparing for the Show
3:30-4:30 pm Buttermilk Chalk Painting

Tuesday July 19 10-11 am: Up the Magic Stairs
4 pm: Storytime

Wednesday July 20 10-11 am: Lamb Shearing Demonstration
3:30-4:30 pm: Play Pin the Spot on the Cow

Thursday July 21 10-11 am: Make and Take a Pig Cookie
4 pm: Storytime

Friday July 22 10-11 am: Design a Chicken

It's almost here

I thought some of you might be interested that the Lake County Fair is July 25-31. The Glenview Clovers 4-H club will be taking over 30 animals into competition this year. The schedule for the shows are;

Dairy Cattle - Tuesday and Friday morning

Sheep - Wednesday and Thursday morning

Swine - Wednesday and Thursday afternoon

Livestock auction - Saturday afternoon

All non-livestock projects will be judged before the fair and then displayed during the week.

If you are interested in more information check out www.lcfair.com
Please come up and cheer the kids on and have a corn dog and funnel cake

National Ice Cream Day

Sunday, July 17th is National Ice Cream Day. To celebrate the soda fountain is offering - buy one cone get a second for free all day long.

Buried treasure

While working on the farm shed we have been unearthing some really interesting artifacts in the dirt. Most of the items are metal and nearly unidentifiable. There has also been a good deal of glass and broken pottery. We got a little bit of a laugh when we uncovered a small collection of "pop tops". When we showed them to some of the younger staff they had no idea what they were. There is some relevant history that has been lost!

A special outreach trip

Yesterday a group of our 4-H kids did a really special outreach visit to the Misericordia campus in Chicago. We took 4 sheep, a chicken, 2 ducks, Jenny the cow and a turtle for the residents to meet. They enjoyed getting to touch the livestock and talk with the kids.

Corn

We were knee high by the 4th of July and thigh high by the 14th. This has been some good corn growing weather.

730 Days

Dollary Drop In Activities for the Week of July 11

DAILY ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF July 11

Monday, July 11 10-11 am Up the Magic Stairs
3:30-4:30 pm Rope Making Demonstration

Tuesday July 12 10-11 am: Strut your Stuff-Pigs
4 pm: Storytime

Wednesday July 13 10-11 am: NO DOLLAR DROP IN
3:30-4:30 pm: Make a Dairy Ration Snack

Thursday July 14 10-11 am: Drive a Tractor
4 pm: Storytime

Friday July 15 10-11 am: Meet the Team: Come for a Ride

Farm shed update

With this project we have some good news and some bad news. First the good, we are getting ready to start all the back filling and stone work on the exterior sides of the building. The bad news is we are not going to be able to do a Amish style barn raising using post and beam construction. We had contracted with an Amish company for the large timbers. The trouble is, this company harvests the wood off of Federally owned property and the Government still isn't allowing companies in to take the trees. This is due to the tremendous amounts of rain and the damage that logging might do to the forest. So, the Amish company wasn't able to fulfill their contract and we have no timbers to stand. Our staff met and talked about all the alternatives and decided to go ahead with the construction of the shed but use more contemporary building methods. Once complete, the shed will look the exact same since it will be sheathed on the inside and the beams will be hidden. I have to say this is a great disappointment.

Pig class

One of the questions that a lot of visitors ask is, how do the 4-Her's learn to take care of their animals? Besides what the leaders teach them, we also rely greatly on the background of our veterinary team of Dr. Brian Gerloff, Dr. Maureen Hall and Dr. Bill Morrissey. This week Brian took a little extra time and gave a herd health program for the kids in the swine project.

One more parade

I'm not sure over the years how many floats we have entered in the Glenview 4th of July parade but I can tell you we have always had a great time. This year was no different. Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Dollar Drop In Activites for the week of July 4

DAILY ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF July 4

Monday, July 4 Farm Closed-Happy 4th of July

Tuesday July 5 10-11 am: Dairy Cow Families
4 pm: Storytime

Wednesday July 6 10-11 am: Exercising Market Lambs
3:30-4:30 pm: Play Animal Tic Tac Toe

Thursday July 7 10-11 am: Cornstarch Clay Play
4 pm: Storytime

Friday July 8 10-11 am: Ice Cream Making Demonstration

What a change

The other day we had a tractor here from the Horcher farm up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Before it took off I just had to snap a picture of our little Fordson next to it. This is one of those times when Grandpa would have been amazed to see how far we have come. In the 1920's the Fordson was one of the most popular tractors. Just short of a million were made. Off the line the tractor cost less than $1,000. It was about 10 horsepower or so. Mike's John Deere 8200 model costs about $150,000 and has over 230 horsepower. The part that would really blow Grandpa's mind is the fact that the 8200 can be GPS driven. He might also be surprise that it would cost about $800 just to fill the fuel tank!