Good evening, friends and family! Today was the last day of camp for the third week of peppers here at the MSU Extension Tollgate Education Farm Center. Although I’m sad to see my little peppers go, I’m glad we had such a great week together exploring and learning about the world around us.
The peppers are all in!
To start off the day, the older peppers had chore duty. The first stop was to feed all the ruminant animals on the farm, including me! The peppers brought me some sweet milk that I quickly gulped down. It was delicious! Thanks peppers! After feeding time, it was time to take Goldy the kid (young goat) for a walk. While walking Goldy the peppers learned that a male goat is called a billy, a female goat is called a doe, and a mother goat is called a dam. All goats have beards and they love to feed on grass. There were many times when the peppers had to start running to get Goldy to follow them and continue walking rather than eating. It looks like Goldy’s going to be exactly like her mom, Brownie! Eat, eat, eat, all day long! Silly goats!
Excited to start off early with a morning jog with Goldy.
After walking the goat, the peppers met Farmer Roy in the Maple Forest and he explained the process of making maple syrup. Farmer Roy showed the peppers how to identify maple trees by observing the shape of the tree’s leaves and its branches. Maples have a very distinct leaf that is generally five lobed. The Canadians even have the maple leaf on their flag so it is easy to remember. The branching is opposite, which only occur in maple, ash, and dogwood trees. Mr. Roy told peppers that if they want to try tapping a maple tree at home, the sap will start to flow between mid-February and mid-March when the temperature during the day is above freezing and the temperature at night is below freezing.
The forest has a network of tubing used to gather the sap all in one place.
The tree will fill a bucket of sap rather quickly, so the peppers needed to know a good way to carry the buckets of sap inside. Mr. Roy let the peppers try on a shoulder yoke, which distributes the weight of the buckets on the shoulders rather than the arms making heavy buckets easier to carry. It’s much like carrying a backpack in school. Rather than the peppers carrying all their books and lunch in their arms, it’s much easier to put them in a backpack and put the weight on the shoulders. Carrying sap is hard work but the peppers showed off their muscles and would be very helpful to Farmer Roy in the early spring.
Green and Yellow Peppers patiently waiting their turn to try the shoulder yoke.
In the Garden Kitchen, Ms. Katie had some maple syrup to share with the peppers. They helped her make popcorn and each had a chance to drizzle maple syrup over their own plates of popcorn. The peppers loved the sweet treat and were eager for seconds, and thirds!
An Orange Pepper excited for the popcorn to pop.
To end the morning, the peppers revisited the wool that they had carded because there was one last step to transforming their raw wool into a piece of yarn: spinning! The peppers learned how to use a drop spindle to spin their wool into a soft piece of yarn. I bet if they put all their yarn together they could make a very nice knitted keychain or something! What do you think peppers?
The Green and Yellow Peppers visited the sheep for a bit.
After lunch, the peppers met a new friend, Jason! Jason brought aquatic robots for the peppers to observe. The robots were built at the Eco Challenge Camp that Jason manages. Jason taught the peppers about buoyancy, the tendency of an object to float. Objects with positive buoyancy float because they are less dense than the liquid around them, while objects with negative buoyancy sink. An object that neither floats in water nor sinks to the bottom is neutrally buoyant. With knowledge of buoyancy in hand, the peppers set the aquatic robot to water and controlled its buoyancy making it float, sink, and roam all around!
Jason showing the peppers his aquatic robot.
To continue the water trend, the peppers had a chance to make their own boats out of aluminum foil. The peppers put their boats in water and added weight to each boat to see what shape of boat could hold the most weight. They learned that the ones with more surface area were more buoyant than the ones without. Now if they try this experiment at home with other friends their boats will certainly be able to win the weight contest!
The Green Peppers adding more and more rocks to their ships!
The last lesson of the day was all about beekeeping. They observed honeycombs and even made their own candles! Peppers learned that bees are arthropods, which means they have an exoskeleton made of chitin and a segmented body with pairs of jointed appendages. Bees are social animals that live in colonies. A colony consists of drones (males), worker bees (females), and the queen. The queen is the only bee capable of stinging multiple times without dying! It’s not hard to tell who’s in charge!
The Orange Peppers and their unique candle designs!
At the end of the day, each pepper group put on skits for all the other pepper groups. The Green Peppers did a funny skit about what their thoughts were when waking up each morning for camp (My favorite was Saturday morning!) The Yellow Peppers performed a skit about escapee goats (just like the kids!). The Orange Peppers shared a skit about morals for the group. Last, but not least, the Red Peppers shared a skit about playing video games until someone unplugs the game. With all the skits over, Mr. Alan decided it was time for everyone to learn a song that is very dear to him, the Ruminant Song. Mr. Alan would start each lyric and the peppers would repeat him complete with dance movements. It’s the perfect way to remember my digestive system: rumen, reticulum, omasum, abomasum!
Mr. Alex saying farewell to his Red Peppers.
After all the silliness was over, it was time for the peppers to say their goodbyes. I’m glad I had the chance to meet a wonderful group of peppers and share life on the farm with them. Thank you for a wonderful week, peppers! I can’t wait until we meet again! Don’t forget to relive our adventures together in the pictures below and share your skits with your family and friends on Facebook!
Until next summer,
Clifford the Calf
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- The Orange and Red Peppers watching Mr. Alex bring Goldy out.
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- Excited to start off early with a morning jog with Goldy.
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- Slowing down to walk Goldy.
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- Farmer Roy quizzing the Orange and Red Peppers on maple leaves.
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- The Orange and Red Peppers posing like a tree, but not a maple tree!
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- Farmer showing the Orange and Red Peppers how to tap a tree.
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- The shoulder yoke was used many years ago to transport sap from trees to houses.
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- The Orange Pepper makes it look so easy!
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- You’re doing great Orange Pepper!
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- An Orange Pepper walking with the shoulder yoke on.
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- The Red and Orange Peppers preparing popcorn.
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- The Red Peppers making plenty of popcorn to share.
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- The forest has a network of tubing used to gather the sap all in one place.
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- Did you know Tollgate Farm taps 250 trees?
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- Is it heavy Yellow Pepper?
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- A Yellow Pepper trying out the shoulder yoke.
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- A Green Pepper making the job look like a breeze.
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- Green and Yellow Peppers patiently waiting their turn to try the shoulder yoke.
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- An Orange Pepper excited for the popcorn to pop.
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- The Green and Red Peppers walking back from the maple forest.
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- It was so hot that the peppers had a misting party to cool off.
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- It was great to spend some time with the peppers on their last day.
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- The Green and Yellow Peppers visited the sheep for a bit.
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- The Green and Yellow Peppers spending time with Goldy.
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- Giving Goldy a slight push to get her moving.
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- Goldy was much more interested in eating than walking.
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- The Yellow and Green Peppers on a walk with Goldy.
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- The Yellow Peppers making their foil ships.
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- Jason showing the Red and Orange Peppers the aquatic robot.
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- The Yellow Peppers putting their ships in water.
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- Yellow Peppers and their foil ship.
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- The Yellow Peppers even created one submarine to be different from the rest of the ships. Good job everyone!
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- The Yellow Pepper’s foil ships.
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- The Green Peppers feeling their pieces of wax.
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- Ms. Courtney demonstrating how to make a wax candle.
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- Ms. Mandy reading a book about bees to the Yellow Peppers.
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- A Yellow Pepper and her handmade wax candle.
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- The Yellow Peppers making wax candles and enjoying honey.
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- A Yellow Pepper rolling his wax candle.
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- A Yellow Pepper helped her fellow peppers make their candles.
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- The Red Peppers working hard to make buoyant boats.
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- Nicholas created a foil ship with a large surface area.
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- Some foil ships didn’t make it with weight.
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- The Orange and Red Peppers had multiple ships that could hold four stones.
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- A Red Pepper putting her ship design to the test.
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- The Orange Pepper’s ship took on water.
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- Jason showing the peppers his aquatic robot.
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- The Green Peppers testing their foil ships.
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- Oh no! A Green Pepper’s ship went down.
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- Two of the ships had a lot of surface area so they were able to carry a lot of weight.
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- The Green Peppers adding more and more rocks to their ships!
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- This Green Pepper was the champion holding over 30 rocks!
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- An Orange Pepper with his jet candle.
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- The Orange Peppers and their unique candle designs!
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- The Red Peppers enjoying some delicious honey!
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- The Green Peppers!
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- The Yellow Peppers!
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- The Orange Peppers!
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- The Red Peppers!
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- Everyone at the end of camp gathering.
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- Let’s give all our peppers a good flag wave in the air.
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- Mr. Alex saying farewell to his Red Peppers.
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- The Yellow Peppers are all in!
