·:[ high hopes gardens ]:·
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Today we had some students from a livestock class tour the farm. It sounds like a fun class - the students tour dairy, elk, goat, and a wide range of common and uncommon livestock farms.

We fit into the small and diversified category. Here, I am getting ready to demonstrate how owl hoots get the turkeys to gobble and fluff up their feathers.

I still remember when I learned this trick from a turkey hunter when I had a summer job at the Story County Conservation Board. I didn’t believe “Joe” when he said, he could make wild turkeys gobble. So one day when we drove down a gravel road into a small timbered valley, he stopped the truck, stuck his head out the window and gave some owl hoots, and out of the woods, came the turkey alarms. I didn’t think there were any wild turkeys living there, let alone that he could get them to talk. It even works on domestic turkeys. I guess the owls are one of the turkey’s enemies and if they hear an owl, they set out the alarm.

one year ago…

Linda was asked to give a presentation to the Marshalltwon Garden Club, so she snuck out of school (didn’t really have to sneak) and gave a presentation over lunch, then that evening offered a tour of the farm.

Here, they are gathered around the paw-paw tree, just one of the off-beat plantings at high hopes gardens.  About 25 folks made the drive out here, including some neighbors who I’m sure where just plain curious about some of the things we are doing.  It was a nice group of people who have an understanding of how things work (or don’t) out in the field.

one year ago…

This morning, for the last time, for a long time, the sound of roosters crowing woke me up at 3:30 am. about 45 minutes later, with a view of an orangish-pink setting moon, I drove to the locker to bring half of our chickens. On the way home, the sun was rising. GJ came out and since these chickens were for us, we cut up most of them and froze them.

In the afternoon we had another farm tour with students from MCC as part of a livestock class. We were also recorded and captured on video for possible future classes.

Here a student tries to milk!

Yesterday we had about 25 students from the Master’s Program in Sustainable Agriculture from ISU visit our farm as part of a tour of Marshall County. They also visited Linda and the farm/program at MCC and some beginning Hispanic farmers.

We started in the barn as it was a rare rainy day!

We walked around the farm for a little show and tell. It was a diverse group - ag, sociology, and business majors. Students were from South Africa, Uruguay, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Texas, Iowa, and Minnesota. Lots of interesting questions and perspectives.

This Friday and Saturday there will be footage from our farm on “Market to Market” on Iowa Public Television Friday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30.

Here’s the cover of the insert section of Sunday’s Marshalltown paper.

Don’t those chicks look cute! The writer found us via our web site/blog and wanted a local story about chickens. He came out, took a few pictures and talked to us a while and did a good job on the reporting.

There are lots of color pictures in the story as well. As if this wasn’t enough, the front page of the paper had another article about the Sustainable and Entrepreneurial program at MCC.

This morning we hosted four groups of West Marshall 6th graders for a farm tour on Ag Day.

The kids pile off the bus, ready for a farm tour.

I’m not sure what has so captivated everyone’s attention (except Martin’s), but it sure looks interesting!

We set up a hay wagon with all the things we sell at the Farmer’s Market and/or have made for ourselves - dried flowers, bouquets, vegetables, sheepskins, honey and candles, etc.

Linda was miked the whole time and film rolled the entire time the tour was on. The film crew was from Iowa Public Television - we’ll keep you posted when and if we make a program.
We feel good about sharing our farm with the kids - they get to sample real apples and raspberries, see where eggs come from, learn about local food systems and how people on diversified farms plan and manage the interrelationships between crops and animals.