​2016 Manning Senior Farm Trip

The Great Outdoors

Compost
by Niall Reynolds

Putting old food into a three sided box to decompose may not sound very appealing, but it was an experience that taught me a lot.  
Walking up to the compost bins, I saw the old food and thought of breakfast.  Why would my breakfast be in a bin sitting in the sunlight?  Farmer Dennis soon answered as if he read my mind.

“I let this old food decompose to make soil.  Here, come look at the batch from last year.”  He took us over to the compost from the year before and I saw how dark and rich the soil was.

“Wow that looks really brown.” I said.

“Yes it does,” Farmer Dennis replied.  “It is great for plants because of all the nutrients.”  Then he showed us the worms that helped make the soil.  He explained how he loved to have them to help decompose his soil.  Soon after that we went back to the current compost bin.

Farmer Dennis explained that only some things can decompose as compost.  An example of something that can’t be part of the compost is meat.  As Farmer Dennis talked I thought about how I could reuse my food.  I could make good use of it with compost!

Now I make sure not to just throw my food away, and I try to reuse it for soil.  GO COMPOST!
Picture

​Chopping Wood
by Jake Collins

At the farm, Dennis taught us how to chop wood and it was really fun.
​Here you will learn how to chop wood with a sledgehammer and a hatchet.
  1. First you want to get a partner.
  2. You then want to get a sledgehammer and a hatchet.
  3. You want to have a sturdy and uplifted surface.
  4. Place a piece of wood on your surface.
  5. You then want one person to put the hatchet on the wood and another to hit the hatchet with the sledgehammer.
  6. Keep hitting the sledgehammer on the hatchet until the wood splits.
  7. When you have the hatchet keep your feet apart so when the wood splits it will swing between your legs and does not hit you.
That is how I learned how to chop wood with a sledgehammer and a hatchet and hopefully this helped you. I had SOOO much fun doing this and hope you do too.