Dirt and Duckling!

Soil testing at the Mill Redevelopment Site:

Tuesday turned out to be a beautiful October day, despite persistent predictions of thunderstorms. Horticulture students took their tools, equipment and lunches and walked to the Mill Site to collect site data and obtain soil samples for testing. These results will help us prepare the soil properly and locate the first few trees of the Food Forest appropriately. Although the weather was a bit warm and sticky, the students made careful observations and collected samples, then checked out the sunflower planting. they were delighted to be able to get up close, and pick sunflowers if they wanted to.

After completing soil testing and interpreting results, students concluded that we will need to amend the soil in the planting holes for the trees, as most of the site is depleted in nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus, as well as organic material. They will look more specifically at nutrient requirements of the trees they will plant as the project goes into indoor research mode for the winter.

One of our duck eggs pipped Wednesday, and hatched during class on Thursday. If you click this link, you can watch along as the little guy emerges from his egg, and hear their comments. It's really wonderful!

On Friday, Veterinary Science Students performed fecal flotation tests on our foster cats, so that we could deworm them specifically for any parasites that they might have. They did this extremely well, and the cats received appropriate medications.

And later Friday, after school, we admitted 2 orphan kittens in order to keep them out of the cold. They are quite shy, but super cute! Welcome, Tuxedo and Winky!