Eagle Scout!

On Wednesday night Vet2Be went before the Eagle Board of Review and had his Eagle interview. He passed!

We are so excited for him!

His Eagle Guide told him that the hardest part of getting his Eagle would be the paperwork that followed the project itself. She had no idea how hard it would be for him to get his project approved! She put in hours and hours of work helping him get the project approved earlier this spring and then many more hours helping him fill out the mountains of paperwork over the last 6 weeks. Every 't' was crossed correctly, and every 'i' was dotted with ink, every signature was on the right line, and every date was in the right place!

His project was called, 'Education Day at Welcome Home Farm'. He had volunteers at 8+ stations throughout the farm where visitors could go and learn about how to raise and care for the different animals we have here. The preparation work for the project was massive and included the spring cleaning of stalls and pens after the winter, building new pens for the animals, advertising, and asking for donations from 4 businesses (one to donate the copies of the map of the farm for visitors, one for pizza for the volunteers, one to donate soap and paper towels so people could wash their hands after they touched the animals, and one for chicks to give away in a drawing.) He also scheduled a port-a-potty for the property so we didn't have a bazillion people coming in the house to use the bathroom.

The prep work also included making information sheets for the volunteers that included information on raising and caring for chickens and chicks, ducks and ducklings, llama and alpacas, poo in the garden, lambs, dairy goats, bees and beekeeping, and bunnies. He had friends come to help build new pens which meant teaching boys how to drive T-posts and tie up fencing. He had his scout troop come which meant he had to teach boys how to clean out stalls (really! there were boys who had no idea that cleaning out a stall meant taking all the gunk out and putting it someplace, then laying down new straw!) He also had the cub scouts in our area come and pick up sticks, rocks, and garbage from around the pasture area. KidChef and his younger brother came and helped repair fencing as well as help clean up the inside of the barn. There were hours and hours of prep work getting the farm ready for visitors.

The flyer that was posted throughout our town to advertise the day.

As I look back on the project and the day I am amazed that it went so well, especially because the day turned out to be rainy and muddy! There were about 120 visitors that day, there would have been many more if the day had been good weather. In the end, we were very grateful that the weather was bad that day, even though we were cold and wet. Vet2Be did a spectacular job running from station to station making sure the volunteers were doing well and had everything they needed. He made sure that 'events' went as planned (we docked lamb tails, gave shots, milked goats, sawed the bucks horns, trimmed hooves, and had the chick drawing). He adjusted the schedule during the day when changes had to be made. And he slept really well that night when it was all over! He really was a wonderful leader that day and has showed his perseverance while he has waded through all the paperwork and signatures that followed.

Way to go Vet2Be! He is now an Eagle Scout, just like his big brother and his Dad!