Registration

Tapping the Trees
Saturday, Feb. 6, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Thirty-minute sessions; one family at a time. Fee: $20.
 
Maple Sugaring
Saturdays and Sundays
Beginning Sunday, Feb. 7 through March 21 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Thirty-minute sessions; one family at a time. Fee: $20.
 
Winter Skills Camp
Monday, Feb. 15 - Friday, Feb. 19, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m
For students in grades four through six; eight participants. Fee: $300.

Winter on Muscoot Farm

The leaves have been blown from the trees, the grass has stopped growing, and the nights are getting colder and colder on Muscoot Farm. The garden is closed, the babies born in the spring are all grown up, the frogs are all sleeping under the mud, and things are starting to settle into a winter quiet. Squirrels and chipmunks dash here and there gathering food to keep them through the Winter, but soon they too will snuggle down in their burrows waiting for the warmer weather of Spring.

The Farmers at Muscoot are getting ready for the Winter as well. Our historic Dairy Barn is not insulated or heated like modern barns so we need to find creative ways to keep it warm in order to protect the water pipes from freezing and breaking. The first step is closing all the windows and placing burlap bags stuffed with wool (from sheep shearing) in front of them. These bags of wool act as insulation and block any cold air seeping in through the old wooden shutters. Next, straw bales are stacked up high in front of the two main sets of the wide barn doors to help keep the cold drafts out. Finally, animals that are more sensitive to the cold, like our goats, are brought into the barn and kept in pens thickly bedded with pine shavings and straw. The animals help warm the barn through their body heat and the barn in turn protects them from rain, wind, and snow.

The other farm animals have also been busy getting ready for the cold Winter weather. Horses and cattle have been growing their coats out to protect themselves from the cold. These shaggy coats help keep the animals warm by trapping air in-between their skin and their hairs. This air is warmed by their body creating a layer of air that insulates them from the cold, the same way you stay warm when you wear layers of clothes in the Winter. Each layer helps to trap warmed air near your body. Chickens do the same thing by puffing out their feathers. Of course some of our animals, like the Scottish Highland Cows and our sheep, have even thicker coats to protect them from snow, wind, and rain while also being incredibly warm. Hay grown in the Spring, cut in the Summer, and dried and bundled is stored in our barns to feed the animals through the Winter. The farmers make sure the animals have plenty to eat during the as the heat their body creates by digesting food is just another way to keep themselves warm in the Winter. The stored hay also helps to keep the barn warm acting as insulation above the stalls.

Soon snow will come and the farm will settle into a kind of quiet until all the excitement and busyness of Spring.