FFA open house showcases agriculture and the advantage of hands-on learning

FALLS VILLAGE — The Housatonic FFA open house was Wednesday, May 14, and the Housatonic Valley Regional High School grounds were alive with students giving demonstrations, judges solemnly taking notes, and the general public wandering around wide-eyed.

Out on the oval lawn there were assorted horses, including Dixie, a four-year-old registered Palomino quarter horse mare belonging to lifetime FFA member Gloria Tatsapaugh.

Beatrice Gifford, a 9th grader from Kent, was interested in the retraining of racehorses once they have left competition.

She said that fully half of such animals — and there are thousands of them — retire at age five or younger.

Retraining them involves a different diet, different equipment such as saddles and horseshoes, and a different mentality for both horse and human.

She said she is currently retraining a racehorse. “I’m a bit of a horse nerd.”

Daniel Moran, a sophomore from Norfolk, showed interested parties the 14-foot Starcraft boat he and his brother are refurbishing. It’s a work in progress and currently doesn’t have seats.

He said it’s his grandfather’s boat, bought new in 1974.

So far the floor has been taken up, leaks have been patched, new seats obtained, and a new(er) engine mounted.

“We want to keep it as long as we can,” he said.

Nathan Young talks maple syrup.Patrick L. Sullivan

Nathan Young, a freshman from Cornwall, is involved in the family maple syrup business. He had samples of this year’s product, which was on the darker, richer side of the maple syrup spectrum.

He said the family made 35 gallons of syrup this year, which is right in the middle of the business’ historic range of between 20 and 50 gallons per year.

“It was a late season,” he explained. “The taps only went out in January.”

Sasha McCue, a senior from North Canaan, was highly informative about Jack Russell terriers. She has one, formally named “Princess” but nicknamed “Fifi.”

She said the dogs are known for hunting foxes.

They are bold and active, and willing, even eager to go underground into a nest or burrow.

They are also known for hunting snakes, but she doubted Princess — or Fifi — would be enthusiastic.

“If she sees a snake she’ll run.”

Taylor Green, a junior from Kent, has a sister, and her sister had a problem.

She explained to judge Denny Jacobs that conventional soaps made her sister’s skin break out in hives.

The family had a female goat handy, and the goat had lost a baby prematurely and thus had extra milk.

So Taylor did some research and came up with a recipe for a soap based on goat milk. It also has beef tallow, olive oil, lye and coconut oil.

Mixing it up, especially the lye, required protective gear.

Denny Jacobs learns about goat milk soap from Taylor Green.Patrick L. Sullivan

A month into the experiment, the sister has reported no hives or other negative effects, and says the soap makes her skin softer.

Khyra McClennon, a senior from Amenia, New York, was introduced to beignets, a delicate pastry, during a trip to New Orleans.

“I ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

She had a regular version and a gluten and sugar free version on hand, plus a history of the delicacy to ponder between chews.

Chris Kinsella, a judge, tried the regular version and pronounced it delicious.

Khyra McClennon offers beignets to Chris Kinsella.Patrick L. Sullivan

Travis Barber, a 9th grader from Cornwall, was stationed somewhat out of the main drag of activity. That’s because there were some trees nearby, and his topic was how to prune trees.

Turns out this is more complicated than the standard Harry Homeowner might think.

Barber said cutting dead branches is obvious. Less so are branches that cross over other branches. These should go because they tend to rub together and open up the bark, which then allows diseases and insects to get in. The standard tools are loppers, pruners, hand saws and pole saws.

The phrase “semen gun” was prominent on Hayden Bachman’s display. The sophomore from Falls Village said she and several classmates, plus HVRHS teacher Rene Boardman, recently gained certification in artificially inseminating cows.

With a reduced scale model of a cow, she demonstrated how the process works. It’s very tricky and it seemed to a casual observer that there were a lot of things that could go wrong.

Bachman said cattle semen is readily available from commercial sources.

She said the process gives the dairy farmer control over genetics.

It’s also safer than relying on the traditional method, which involves bulls that are notoriously unpredictable and highly irritable animals.

Hayden Bachman recently gained certification in artificially inseminating cows.Patrick L. Sullivan