Life On The Farm

FNN’s Armstrong Bureau reports on their class trip to Hard Bargain Farm.

Story By Chloe Summers, Derion White, Jazmyn Ramirez, Jailin Knight, Jadah Marshall, Tylia Mason, Shyne Black, Sklya Ward, and Angelo Ameho. Photographs by Kyeung Kim.

APR. 3, 2019: Thirty minutes outside of Washington DC is a farm. For three days, Armstrong’s 5th graders got to experience what it takes to live on a farm. We went deep into Maryland all the way to Hard Bargain Farm. Farm life is tiring, hard, dangerous, and occasionally exciting.

Did you know farmers wake up before the sun and begin working right away? We started our days with cold showers and a good breakfast of cereal, yogurt, fruit and muffins. We learned that on a farm, no food goes to waste. Breakfast was yummy but if you wanted seconds you had to make sure your entire plate was clean. After eating breakfast, the real work begins; cleaning floors, washing dishes and washing tables.

After the breakfast cleanup, we went hiking and got to see the Potomac River. We walked a lot up and down hills that felt like mountains. Sometimes we got to roll down the hills too. There were dogs in the woods that looked like wolves. Being around so much nature was kind of scary for us.

At Hard Bargain Farm, we also got the opportunity to milk a cow named Annie. Annie had hairy udders and warm milk, which was disgusting. You’d think that milking a cow is easy because you think you just pull, but actually it’s kind of hard. The udder is squishy and when you milk the udder, you pull from the top and slide down. The milk immediately fills back in which you wouldn’t think about before you milk the cow.

The farm had goats named Dot and Dash and we learned that goat feces isn’t squishy. It’s hard, black and shaped like a lima bean. You can also eat it if you boil it or you could be like our guide, Ms. Gaby who picked one up and ate it, right off the ground! Some of the most expensive coffee in the world is made from goat feces!

If you get a chance you should definitely ask your teachers to sign up for a trip to Hard Bargain Farm, so you can experience the highs and lows of life on the farm.

Chloe Summers, Derion White, Jazmyn Ramirez, Jailin Knight, Jadah Marshall, Tylia Mason, Shyne Black, Sklya Ward, and Angelo Ameho are fifth grade scholars at Friendship Armstrong Academy.