Rufus was off the farm today helping his brother Jake, but I am never alone on the farm. Apart from the animals who wait for me at the door, I am surrounded by family and friends. Rufus’s stepmother Charna and I cross paths as she comes to work in her pottery studio on the farm. Rufus’s mother, Mary stops by to drop off her Australian Shepherd, Jodi, while she takes Rufus’s daughter, Aurora to an orthodontist appointment. Our friend Alyssa stops by to pick up her honey extractor, which is stored in the back of our barn, and this afternoon my cousin Beth arrived with her four child crew for a farm field trip. This was my favorite part of the day. We took the kids around to the gardens, greenhouses, chicken coop, compost trench, and pack shed and I taught them all about Keewaydin. The kids got to find their own eggs and pet some chickens in the chicken coop, check out a working pottery studio, get a tour of the greenhouses and gardens, play with Balio, Giz, and Carrot, climb a hay wagon, sit on a tractor, check out the saw mill, plant some seeds of their choice, transplant some lettuce into the ground, taste some fresh maple syrup, water the gardens, and see where the veggies are cleaned and packed up. I relished their curiosity and engagement and I definitely want to do more educational tours in the future to share what we do.

~Joy