5/21/17
This morning, we were graciously blessed to be able to sleep in while HN attended church with his family. We met at Morris’s house at around 10:45 in the morning and were responsible for making our own “brunch” instead of having Diane or Morris cook amazing food for us again. This brunch consisted of eggs made by Mariah, cereal, cream of wheat, and leftover dessert that has yet to be eaten because there are buckets of them still remaining. Once HN returned from church, we departed for our day at around 11:30. We were headed to a Practical Farmers of Iowa “Field Day” at Blue Gate Farm, so it was important that we made it to the farm on time so we didn’t miss any essential information. We also did not stop for lunch since we ate our brunch late enough to hold us over until dinner.
The drive to Blue Gate Farm took about 2 hours, so it was a good time for us to catch up on our readings and blogs that we have yet to complete. We also listened to a podcast featuring Jill Beebout, the owner of the farm, who explained what the field day would consist of and what to expect upon arrival. It was also really exciting because she talked about all of the vegetables she is currently growing and her three alpacas in a field behind her house! We arrived at the farm a little before 2:00 pm and had a little bit of time to take a group photo in front of the “blue gate”. During the actual presentation of the two-wheel tractors, I found it very interesting to see just how specific farming tools can be in relation to different mowing and tilling types. There were also extra pieces of equipment that Jill would attach to her tractors to add new features to her machinery, which added even more confusion to my already confused mind on farm equipment. After we played around with the tractors for a bit, we were very thankful to receive cookies, a rhubarb granola dish, and crackers with a really tasty cheese that I unfortunately do not know the name of. Around 4:00 pm, the group was given a tour of the Blue Gate Farm, specifically the types of gardening that is conducted as well as the chickens and alpacas. Since I have never seen an alpaca before, I was a bit overwhelmed by its cuteness and photogenic capabilities! If it wasn’t so windy and cold, I would’ve loved to stay with the alpacas for the rest of the day, just to be able to watch them prance around in the field.
We left the Blue Gate Farm at about 4:30 pm and prepared for our 2-hour journey back to Radcliffe, Iowa. During the van ride, we mainly listening to music and discussed the types of pizzas that we wanted to order for tonight’s festivities. We ended up getting a variety of pizzas, no two being the same… I guess we are very specific when it comes to our pizza toppings. We arrived back at the Neubauer Farm at 6:30 and were all very eager to dig into our pizzas, since we hadn’t eaten much since brunch this morning. While we ate our pizza, we watched a movie called “Ocean Frontier”, which featured Denny Friest! I particularly enjoyed watching this movie since it involved a lot of ocean science, something that I have a deep passion for. Being able to connect different regions of the United States, such as Iowa’s agriculture and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts was very rewarding for me because it allowed me to understand how nitrate runoff can affect whales hundreds of miles away. Once the movie was over, Denny Friest and Dean Lemke answered the questions that were still remaining until around 9:30 pm. We then went our separate ways for the night to prepare for the busy day that we had ahead of us.