First Week at Smokey House

07.17.2013 // YAP Danby // Juanita Burch-Clay // 1 Comment

Day 1 – 7/11/13 – Farm and Forest Discovery YAP at Smokey House Center, Danby

The first day we met each other and introduced ourselves. We also talked about the garden tools and safety. Sarah and Sharon took us on a small tour of the garden. We all weeded in the garden for 1 hour and 45 minutes. It felt a lot shorter. After we had lunch on the picnic table outside near the pond.  I enjoy this program, and I am glad I got the job. I was not sure if I would like this job at first, but it is better then I expected. People are friendly and helpful. The first day was not as hard work as the others and more to come.

Day 2 – 7/12/13

The second day we weeded and weeded. It seemed like it took for ever. We pulled up unwanted plants and kept on weeding. I was very hot and thirsty so i drank lots of water and  gatorade. I  got poison  parsnip on my arm from digging one of the plants up without knowing. I washed my arms and hands right after so it did not affect me.  We took a break and ate lunch. After, I weeded again…… 🙁   and some of the group built  trellises for the garden. We kept on working until it was time to go and clean up the tools.

Day 3 – 7/13/13

We  took a field trip to Rutland and went to the farmer’s market. We asked questions about how they sold things and we found out the price of different vegetables. Also we tried  different food samples. I tried some dip and jam. After we went and looked at urban gardens throughout the city of Rutland. We talked about how most city’s use smaller trees because bigger ones get the way of things like the wires. We went to Sharon’s house and checked out her garden. She has a pond with 10 goldfish. After we got pizza at Ramunto’s. We went to the community gardens and looked around. There were a huge field of solar panels which was cool and they kept on turning towards the sun. It was interesting to see them. We walked on a unknown trail at the garden. We did not go on them for very long since we did not have time. After we went to the nature trail behind the mall, that I did not know existed. There were two types of forests that were small, one was hardwood and the other part was soft wood.

(Post and photos by Eli)