These Are No Spring Chickens

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL, Y'ALL!






The students are preparing to transfer the chickens from the in class room brooder to their new home outside!

Mr. Brooks and the kids

Mr. Brooks and the kids took the students on a walk near the pond today.
Or was that the other way around?
We goat a quick photo op. near the pond and everyone hoofed it back to class.

Fern thought that pun was BAaAaAaAAaAaAaAD!

SELAH: Bamberger Ranch Preserve

Here is a beautiful short documentary of the perfect example of how having good conservation ethics and being a good steward to the earth can turn around even the most barren of land and create amazing systems that can sustain life of all kinds.

Nearly Fifty Years ago David Bamberger went public with Church's Chicken and used the capital to purchase 5,500 acres of overgrazed land that was considered some of the poorest acreage in the Texas Hill Country. He devoted the rest of his life to restoring it. David cleared overgrown woody vegetation, allowed native grasses to grow, and literally created Water from Stone. The grasses soaked in rains, took moisture into the porous rock below, and filled hillside aquifers instead of running off. There was only one spring when he bought the place, now there are eleven. There were only 48 species of birds on the first bird count, in 2014 they counted 238 species. His example of land stewardship has been replicated across the region and he's considered a visionary in land management and water conservation.

Selah: Water from Stone from Fin & Fur Films on Vimeo.

Back to School!

Here we are again to start another amazing school year in the Green Academy. Many projects are continuing and we are also beginning some new great things. 

Capstone classes are in full swing. We have students working on murals, bat houses, mobile apps, animal husbandry, and dozens more.

Lower level students in 6th and 7th grade are working on learning about tools and refreshing their prior knowledge. We are applying this knowledge to the campus maintenance that has been left to go wild over the summer. The rain has been a blessing and a curse for us. Maintenance is definitely a huge project right now.

We have two new courses this year. Landscape Design will work on studying the gardens we have on campus, understand why we design the way we do, and will install gardens that almost 100% be student projects from beginning to end. We also have a Principles of Agriculture class that will work on improving our work with animal and will research future options.

We have been focusing heavily on making our program sustainable and funding is a huge part of that. We still require a lab fee for the class, we will still have our plant sale in September and March, but we also rely on donations and grants. We have already received a grant from A+ Federal Credit Union, the City of Austin and from NWF. We are waiting on a few grants from various sources like the Fruit Tree Planting Organization.

Another native piece of crop art has already been completed this year. Using the black beans and mountain laurel seeds from our Chicken piece, we were able to create a sunset scene behind a windmill. Very Texas. Hopefully it will be hung soon.

Many things happened this summer. Teachers too trips, people moved on and people moved in. More on summer trips later, like Taiwan. We got a new TA to start this year. Justin Fyffe. We will post more about Justin later on.

This year is already shaping up to be as great as ever. 

Remember, Think Outside.