Welcome to Animal Camp Week 2!
On Monday, campers meet to review CARES- Cooperation, Attitude, Respect, Empathy, and Safety. How did your camper show CARES throughout their day at camp? CARES badges will be passed around in each group throughout the week as campers are caught helping others and practicing safety. Did your camper earn a badge today?
Campers helped with animal chores throughout the morning.
This group milked a goat. Where are the goat’s eyes? In the front or on the side? Does this make the goat a predator or prey animal?
Here are the feet of one of the goats. What do the feet tell us about the goat’s digestive system? (a goat is a ruminant).
This camper brought food to the barn in the wheelbarrow. A bag of goat feed weighs about 50 pounds!
The rabbit appreciated food and water today. What does a rabbit eat? (alfalfa pellets)
This group of campers fed the chickens and collected eggs. How often does a hen lay an egg? (once every 26 hours)
The pasture coup is full of broiler chickens. These chickens do not lay eggs. What do the broiler birds eat? (grain and worms/bugs in the grass) The campers moved the coup to provide the birds with fresh bugs.
The baby goats do not get milked. The campers fed the kid goats away from the adult goats to make sure the kids ate food. 
Campers tie-dyed t-shirts today. These will be washed later in the week and sent home in back packs. Staff and campers wear their tie-dye t-shirts together on Friday.
The ruminant relay helped show how a cow and other ruminants digest food. Cows, goats, and sheep are ruminants. That means that they have 4 parts to their stomach: the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum.
Campers participated in a relay to show how food goes through a cow’s digestive system. First they added water to a bucket to represent the rumen.
Then they added bread to represent hay. 
The ruminant regurgitates the food from the rumen to break it down further before passing it through the reticulum. This is called “chewing cud.”
They threw the bread through the hula hoop to show hay going through the filter of the reticulum. This gets rid of rocks or debris and only lets small pieces of hay into the next part of the stomach.
The towel represented the omasum removing excess water from the hay.
The abomasum is the most similar to the human stomach. Acid (coca cola) breaks down the bread (hay) and lets the animal absorb the nutrients. 
Lastly, the hay is excreted as waste. This camper threw the bread in the trash.
After the relay, campers sang a song about the cow digestive system.
Here is a diagram of the cow digestive system.
What are vitals? Why are these important for animals around the farm?
Staff helped campers find their pulse (heart rate). Was their pulse lower or higher at rest?
Campers ran a course called gymkhana- the clover pattern for horse races. Then they took their pulse again.
The campers raced one of the counselors around the course.
What happened to their pulse after running? Were their predictions correct?
The goats enjoyed a hike with the campers this afternoon. They climbed Mt. Woodchip together!
This group of campers took the goat to the forest to walk around.
The extended project this week is ‘nest building.’ 
Campers observed and wondered about nests found in nature.
What does your camper want to learn about nests this week?
Some groups began work on their nests. At the end of the week, campers will test their nests by dropping them from the deck in the children’s garden. What materials will protect an egg when the nest falls?
Today in garden kitchen, campers made banana cookies and pumpkin hummus.
Morning: Banana Cookies
2 ripe medium bananas
1 cup rolled oats
Optional add ins are dark chocolate chips, dried fruit, coconut flakes, sunbutter, cinnamon, etc.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, mash the bananas with a fork, add in the oats and continue mixing until both ingredients are fully incorporated. Scoop about a tablespoon of batter per cookie and bake 12-15 minutes until a golden color appears. Remove from the oven and allow cooling before serving.
Afternoon: Pumpkincredible Hummus
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can white beans (cannellini or other), drained and rinsed
1 cup pure pumpkin puree
1 ½ – 2 tbsp tahini to taste
1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp smoked paprika
¼ rounded teaspoon allspice
1 large clove garlic
¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
½ tsp pure maple syrup
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (reserve about 2-3 tbsp for garnish)
Toast the pumpkin seeds by placing on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for several minutes (about 5-7 min) until they turn a golden color and you can smell a nutty aroma. In a food processor, add the chickpeas, white beans, pumpkin, tahini, sea salt, cumin, paprika, allspice, garlic, lime juice, and maple syrup. Puree until very smooth. Add more garlic or spices to taste, if desired. Next, add most of the pumpkin seeds (reserving a couple of tablespoons) and pulse the mixture. Transfer mixture to a serving dish, and top with remaining pumpkin seeds. Serve with whole-grain pita breads, tortilla chips, warm whole-grain bread, and more.
Here are additional photos from today:
https://goo.gl/photos/hna9NroBB6vav8yt5
Have a great night! See you tomorrow for day 2 of animal camp!