Blaze and Martin Flory leave West Wing

Howell Farm's senior horse moved up in the horse world. A retired horse for five years, Blaze remains a Howell Farm icon. On Friday, August 27 Rob Flory and his son Martin led 32 year old Blaze out of his stall from the West Wing of the barn where Blaze has been an occupant since he arrived at the farm around 25 years ago. The West Wing is awaiting restoration and has been showing its age, just like Blaze.

Blaze enters East WingMartin led Blaze out of one end of the barn and into the other side to a brand new box stall that farmer and carpenter Ian Ferry has been working on since the beginning of this year.

Blaze showed his approval and pleasure with the spacious new box stall and will continue to spend his days at Howell Farm in the luxurious box suite next to Daisy the cow's stall.

The piglets are a cross between a landracer and a duroc. As weaned piglets they are not nursing from their mother and will be fed by Howell Farm's farmers with bread and milk until they can handle corn feed and vegetable/fruit scraps.

Howell Farm's pond in April, 2010

Howell Farm's pond August, 2010

Great Blue Herons like the one above are among the many wildlife that make Howell Farm's pond their home. Fish, frogs, ducks, turtles, and of course Howell Farm's Toulouse geese also enjoy the pond.

Also with Daisy are two adorable bull calves. These calves are not Daisy's but are Holsteins being fostered by her. The bulls will only be at Howell Farm for a short time, once Daisy has weaned them they will return to the dairy farm where they were born. 

Daisy is a milking cow and has already given birth to two calves of her own. However, at this time Howell Farm will not be milking her for human use; Daisy's milk will be solely used for nursing calves. "We are working on our milking technique," farmer Rob Flory states, "and hope to one day have public milking demonstrations."

To see video of the new arrivals, click here:  "Daisy The Cow & Calves"

Eric Houghton,Tim Ferry and Jayme Ferry survey maze points.

The maze cut was scheduled for July, 24. Typically the maze cut happens to fall on the hottest and most humid day of the year. This year was no exception, with a heat index of 104 degrees and 60% humidity, volunteers and staff in the sunny maze field showed their dedication for the longest running corn maze in New Jersey.

How do they make the cut?

Surveyors' flags and baling twine mark pathways.The cutting of the maze began a few days before when surveyors Tim Ferry and Eric Houghton sighted 200 of the 767 points that mark each bend and turn of the maze.

Volunteer Colleen Ferry uproots corn.The remaining points were mapped on Saturday, beginning at 6:00a.m. as volunteers, staff, and several of Howell Farm's trustees removed corn from the marked paths by hoes and hand pulling.

Howell Farm staff Matt Schofield and volunteer Lisa Schofield read map.Surveyors' flags and twine were laid down by mapholders to clearly define pathways.

View from Daisy's new box stall, built by Farmer & Carpenter Ian Ferry

Farmer and Carpenter Ian Ferry was placing the finishing touches on the first of two box stalls in the east end of the barn on Wednesday.  Both are near completion, needing only manger doors for feeding and wire screen at the end facing the threshing floor.  Ferry explained that, eventually, a door will separate the stalls from the west end of the barn.  This door will be closed to separate the animals from dusty operations like threshing wheat, and opened for ventilation.  Daisy will be moved in well in advance of threshing season, Ferry notes, as her stall is just about "cow-proof."  In the second stall, senior workhorse Blaze will be moving in, shortly after Daisy.  With this move, the restoration of the final section of the barn will be underway.

Mow poles above box stalls are used to store loose straw.

 Oats thrive in the heat.

Though the farm calendar reads "Wheat Harvest," the weekend program will center around the oat crop, as it has fared best, among the grains.  The wheat was harvested early this week with a tractor and modern combine, because conditions did not permit the usual horse drawn reaper-binder operation, followed by threshing.  Timothy hay, which is usually dwarfed by the wheat with which it is planted, has overshadowed its fellow crop, making it difficult to form good sheaves, or bundles, for the thresher.  Accordingly, Farmer Rob Flory used the modern combine, which chops the straw and removes the grains from the head, to harvest the wheat early.

 Timothy hay outgrows the wheat.

The oats and spelts, on the other hand, have thrived precisely due to the heat.  Whereas the wheat needs rain--presumably to outgrow the timothy--the oats often fall pray to weeds that thrive on moisture.  With even moderate rainfall, the weeds grow tall and make bundling impossible--because anything green that gets bundled inevitably gets moldy.  Consequently, oats are usually combined to bypass the reaper-binder sheaves.  This year, however, the weeds that usually plague the oats have suffered, and the oats, instead of the wheat, will be harvested with horses and the sheaves will be arranged into shocks by the hand of helpful visitors.

Spelt sheaves built into shocks. Photo by Matt Miller.

Fiber camp campers get the full flavor of wool dyeing--with Kool Aid!Camp season is in full swing on the farm, and the popular "fiber camp" has been working with wool, fresh from the sheep!  As they prepared their felting project on Tuesday, campers explained that they had carded and washed wool from one of the black sheep in the flock, and had just finished dyeing white wool "with Kool Aid!"  They explained their technique--60 grams of wool per unit of edible dye--and teacher Gail Trautz reminded them that the goal is the same depth of shade, especially in the secondary colors, which proved more challenging than the primaries.  The end goal is a felted hat, but each new challenge may be what gives the hat its character.

Starting from the ground up, so to speak, the campers have been learning everything ovine--from the grass and hay the sheep eat to the wool they produce.  They have seen, along the way, modern elements in the feltmaking process, but their experience is closely tied to the farm's historical period.  As the kids crush ivory soap that has ballooned in the microwave, Trautz explains that olive oil is another suitable gelling agent for felt.  Likewise, campers learn "onion skin dyeing" with water and vinegar, alongside their Kool-Aid method.

"Some of the kids have repeated the camp three or four times," Trautz explains, as the kids show off their work in progress.  After a few more days of intensive felting, the now-famous hat should be complete.

Fiber camp is linked to the "Summer on the Farm" program, which runs from June 28 to August 20, and focuses on animal care and exploring nature.  For more information, including a complete camp schedule and contact information, please visit the main Howell Farm website here.