Animal Menagerie

by Lilah

Spring is a time for babies on the farm, inviting the curiosity and attention of the children on the Hill. What a wonderful way to celebrate the annual pulse of new life than to tend to our community's newest furred and feathered friends. Kerry, of Cedar Mountain Farm, runs the community 4-H program, where children from both Cobb Hill and the surrounding towns come together to care for Jersey calves and practice the 4-H values of Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. Our community has also recently welcomed a litter of piglets being raised by Zander out in the farms’s silvopasture and a clutch of new chicks to be added to the flock after they mature this summer.

In our newest animal adventure, volunteers built a rabbit room in the barn and purchased four 6-month-old rabbits for families and their children to look after and potentially show at 4-H events. It brings me great joy to see little hands cradling warm silky bunnies in their laps and feeding them fresh greens from the garden. In addition to domestic duties, our children also spend time petting and indulging the cats and dogs roaming the paths looking for affection. While adventuring in the neighborhood, kids can also be found delighting in the grubs, caterpillars, pill bugs, ants, nesting baby chicks, and fat worms wiggling in the loamy earth.   

By collectively caring for our friends on the farm and being present to the natural world, we practice the three pillars of Cobb Hill: local agriculture, sustainability, and community. In sharing responsibilities, children and adults alike participate in intentional land and animal care that both feeds the soul and body.  

"When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” ― Aldo Leopold