Spring Newsletter

Text Box: Text Box: Spring 2009
What’s Inside:
· President’s Message
· 4H Club News
· Sawmill Club News
· Antique Equipment Club News
· Quilters Guild News
· Blacksmith Guild News
· Membership News
· Friend’s Happenings Text Box: Friends of kinder farm park newsletter

Click here to download the Word version of the newsletter.

President’s Message

Greetings from the Friends of Kinder Farm Park. This is our first newsletter for 2009. We are planning to put a newsletter out every 3 to 4 months in an effort to keep everyone informed of upcoming Park activities, progress on development of the Visitor’s Center which constitutes the final phase of the Farm Park, and interesting information regarding farm-related organizations that use Kinder Park as their home base.

For those who may not be familiar with our organization, the Friends of Kinder Farm Park is a non-profit volunteer organization with responsibilities for fundraising to support Kinder Farm Park programs and projects, conducting volunteer activities to highlight a typical working farm set in Maryland during the 1930’s depression-era, and working closely with Park staff to make Kinder Farm Park a first-class, unique recreation destination in Anne Arundel County. A Board of Directors with 11 members provides the general oversight and planning for the organization. The Friends Group meets every 2^nd Wednesday of the month and all are welcome to attend and participate. One of our primary objectives for this year is to expand our membership. We have included an article with this newsletter that explains the benefits of joining the Friends Group and we encourage you to join if you have not already done so.

The Board has spent the first few months this year planning our activities for 2009. The success of all of the activities we undertake is a direct result of the number and quality of our volunteers. Our big fundraising events for the year will again include the Free Friday Flicks scheduled for June 5^th and the Fall Harvest

Festival scheduled for October 10^th. We have successfully raised thousands of dollars for the Park over the last 5 to 10 years sponsoring these two events – primarily due to the support of our many volunteers. Yet these activities are fun and rewarding for not only those that work, but the thousands of county residents – many of them families – who come and enjoy the festivities.

The Park is much, much more than a setting for an outdoor movie and the Fall Harvest Festival, however. It is a destination to be enjoyed by people 365 days of the year, people anxious to learn what life was like on a farm 75 years ago. There are a number of farm-related organizations which call Kinder Farm Park home. These include a very active 4-H Livestock Club with over 50 members and their families raising a whole host of farm animals including cows, sheep, goats, pigs, turkeys, and chickens. A Blacksmith shop near the large barn hosts the Chesapeake Forge Blacksmith Guild which meets weekly and provides public demonstrations throughout the year. Also meeting at Kinder on a regular basis is a Quilters Guild which has produced many beautiful quilts and pillowcases, an active group of sawyers which has built its own sawmill on the premises, and an antique tractor club with dozens of pieces of depression-era farm equipment.

If you have not visited this wonderful resource, we hope you will take the time to do so. And, while you are enjoying the Park and the farm animals and wildlife that reside here, we hope you will consider becoming a member of the Friends of Kinder Farm Park.

The Kinder Farm Park 4-H Livestock Club has been busy these past few months. To start off the New Year, members traveled to the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg to purchase a Yorkshire pregnant sow for a new breeding project at the farm. The sow was named Penny Sue- she has 5 healthy piglets that will be raised by 4-H members for market at the Anne Arundel County Fair. They are quite an attraction at the park! Also, the New Year brought the induction of new officers for our club. Victoria Willis was elected president, Claire O’Friel vice-president, Andrea Watson secretary, and Stephanie Fielder treasurer.

If you think you’re seeing double at the farm- you are! The goats started the birthing season off, with a Boer cross, Tess, giving birth to two girls, Willow and Cedar. Next, Honey, a Boer cross gave birth to a girl and a boy- Earl and Pearl. Next, the sheep started lambing. Poppy, a Suffolk ewe gave birth to a boy and girl- Nelson and Daphne. Next in line came our resident Suffolk cross, Abby giving birth to a boy and girl- Bobby and Kelly. The most recent birth was the Lincoln Long wool, Rosie’s twin boys- Reggie and Murphy. All moms and babies are healthy!

The club is busy preparing and ordering for the arrivals of chicks, turkeys, and ducklings. They will be arriving at the farm within the next month. We have had some new arrivals over the past few months. Chesney, the Hereford Angus cross is being raised for market. Denali, a Guernsey dairy cow is being raised at the farm until she reaches 2, when she will depart back to her dairy farm to calve and become a milking cow for Land O Lakes. Shire, a Rambouillet yearling ewe arrived mid March to be a breeding and wool project. We await the arrival of one more breeding project to the sheep barn- a Suffolk ewe lamb. Also, our rabbit hutches are hopping! We have had 2 new rabbit arrivals- Bonnie the Dutch and Delilah the Flemish Giant. 4-H members are presently picking out their market sheep projects, and they will arrive at the farm soon. Happy spring!

The Sawmill Club has been very busy the past year. They have been making lumber from donated logs, and using the lumber to improve the park.

· Selected and stored the best lumber for future use in the new Kinder Farm Park Visitor’s Center.

· Milled several white cedar logs to be used for bird houses. Some of the cedar lumber was donated to Ft Smallwood Park and was used to make bird houses for a special group’s awards.

The club usually meets on Wednesday morning at 9:00 and finishes around lunch. Sometimes they have a picnic lunch at the park. New Members are always welcome. Please contact the Park Office for details (410) 222-6115.

The Antique Equipment Club along with the 4H Club members and their animals participated in the Glen Burnie Memorial Parade utilizing several of the hay wagons and antique tractors. It was a miserable rainy day. However, we won the Best Looking Community Group Award along with a plaque.

Several antique tractors and hay wagons loaded with 4H members and their animals, participated in the Severna Park 4^th of July Parade.

The MM G1000, and the Massey Ferguson Super 95 were used during Kinder Farm Park’s Fall Harvest Festival for hayrides since our sponsor for the hayrides could no longer provide tractors for the event.

Members of the Antique Equipment Club were actively working on several of the antique tractors during 2008.

- New rear tires, repair of the generator system and battery replacement were among the repairs performed on the Massey Ferguson Super 95 tractor.

- The Oliver 66 has been undergoing repairs to include replacement of the clutch, brakes, rebuilding of the starter, repair of an engine oil leak and repair of the transmission.

It’s been a fun year for the club. We would like to thank the Friends of Kinder Farm Park organization for their support in making it possible to restore and maintain the antique equipment

The Quilter’s Guild members have been busy in several areas. We wound up the 2008 calendar year with Christmas Party. One member graciously invited us to her home.

Since then we have held our regular meetings at the JC Building at the Park. Last year we took on a project of making colorful pillowcases for pediatric cancer patients. To date, about 75 pillowcases have been donated, and more are in the works.

One of our members, Alice Tignor, again had a miniature quilt juried into a national show. (American Quilter’s Society Show in Paducah KY) Notification has been received that she is a semifinalist in the show’s competition.

At our monthly meetings each person brings their own projects. If someone needs help, we all pitch in and assist. We have various skill levels in a variety of techniques. We welcome visitors and/or new members. Meetings are held the 3^rd Tuesday of the month at 1:00 PM at the JC

The Chesapeake Forge blacksmith guild at Kinder Farm is a Depression-era working forge that employs traditional blacksmithing techniques and tools.

The guild meets every Monday from 7 to 10 p.m., at which time members are free to work on any project of their choosing.

Experience levels vary and there are several veteran blacksmiths always on hand to help guide an amateur hammer.

While there are many fundamental techniques and practices, there is rarely only one way to complete a blacksmithing project. This typically leads to group discussions on how to approach a piece of work, experimentation and an open and lively exchange on guild nights.

New members are expected to attend an Introduction to Blacksmithing class. The class is held on occasional Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the forge. Advanced registration is required for the class.

During the class the person becomes a guild member, gets right to work, learning proper fire-building methods, various safety measures and basic blacksmithing blows. Newcomers will walk away with a completed project in hand, whether a fireplace poker, coat hook or some other basic project they wish to tackle.

The guild also has a Web site at www.chesapeakeforge.org that is regularly updated and features photos of the guild at work, information about the forge and even links to interesting blacksmithing sites.

If you’re just interested in seeing a time-honored tradition being kept alive at Kinder Farm Park, please feel free to stop by, ask a few questions and watch the guild practice an art form that once played a pivotal role in daily life. Visitors are always welcomed.

Well, the Friends are really excited about the progress on the Visitor’s Center and we know that our members are going to “harvest” great benefits when it becomes reality! In anticipation of that happy day, the Friends are ramping up its members program, an effort that began in the Summer of 2007 when we started to formalize our previously informal membership program. Our membership year has now been set to the same as the calendar year and renewals are coming in. These members will be receiving their new cards and free hayride passes soon.

A number of Member Benefits of and a number Friends-sponsored activities for the Park, in addition to our longer standing Free Friday Flicks (June 5) and Fall Harvest Festival (Oct. 10), are under consideration and development for 2009 and perhaps beyond. Some are definite and are in the process of being finalized and started or prepared for announcement of dates. Some activities will be member benefits and some will be open to the public as well.

It is possible that some of these benefits and activities will not occur, but we want to tell you about all the things we are thinking of doing. Special advance notice will be sent to all members of record for each of these activities and scheduled hay rides as the plans for each are firmed up, as well as notice of monthly events calendars.

If you have renewed your membership for 2009 or newly joined, you may have already start to see special Birthing Announcements so you can track blessed farm events in Kinder Farm’s barnyard menagerie and come visit the little ones before they get big. Also, details are being cleaned up now for the start of a members’ discount program with local merchants and watch for information on this as well.

We are trying to work out members’ benefits of convenience such as advance purchase of tickets for the Fall Harvest Festival (so members can skip the ticket lines that day), a Members’ “Hospitality” booth that day (for shorter ticket lines for Members), and perhaps a members’ preferred parking area for the Fall Harvest Festival and the Free Friday Flicks. (These items are not definite yet, but we will let members know if and when they are.)

A Square Dance is under consideration. It likely would be open to the public and might include a Pig Roast! If you would like to try square dancing, this might be the opportunity for you, as the Caller would start simple and teach people as the dancing progresses. Experienced dancers who would like to help others enjoy this hobby would be welcome too, of course! Details are still sketchy, so stay tuned, but get your dancing shoes ready!

A Members-Only Open House is in the works, probably in July and members would learn all about some of the special facilities in the park and clubs using them, an update on the Visitor’s Center including a look at plans, and Kinder Farm history. Possible features could include the 4-H Club and animals, saw mill, Quilt Guild, and blacksmith demonstrations.

Another event or more in our Kinder Farm Park Farmer’s Almanac Speaker Series is being worked for sometime in the summer. The number, topics and speakers haven’t been determined yet, but among the possible topics are: “The Secret Life of Bees” or “Keeping Bees”, “Living Green Sustainably”, and “Straw Bale Building Construction”. (The Kinder Farm Park Farmer’s Almanac Speaker Series is open to the public -- so far.) We would provide advance notice to any of these when finalized (with members getting special notice.)

It’s going to be a big year in Kinder Farm Park. If you are a 2009 member, we thank you for joining this year. If you are not but would like to be, Individual Membership costs only $10/year and a Family Membership (all individuals living in the same home) is $15/year. Send your check (including any additional donation you may choose to include) payable to “Friends of Kinder Farm Park, Inc.” to: Friends of Kinder Farm Park, Inc.; Membership; 1001 Kinder Farm Park Road; Millersville, MD 21108. Please include your name, postal address, email address, and telephone number. (Your contact information will be kept confidential and used to notify you of events described above, and newsletters.)

Bill Offutt and his staff hosted the annual Kinder Farm Park Volunteer Appreciation Banquet at the Elks Club on Saturday March 28^th. This was the 9^th year for the luncheon and it provided Bill an opportunity to thank the large cadre of volunteers for making the many programs and activities held at the Park possible. The Friends of Kinder Farm Park President, Jim Rausch, in his remarks, commented that the Friends Group has raised thousands of dollars for Kinder Park over the years principally through two annual fund raising events: the Free Friday Flicks and the Fall Harvest Festival. He said the success of these and other activities sponsored by the Friends Group was a direct result of the many, dedicated volunteers that work year after year. Rausch urged the volunteers at Kinder Park to continue to provide their valuable time and services.

In addition to Bill and the Kinder Staff, there were representatives from the Department of Recreation and Parks, including Frank Marzucco, the Director; Mark Garrity; and John Marshall. Frank Marzucco talked about the challenge the Department is under to provide quality services, particularly next fiscal year, when the department’s operating budget will be cut significantly. He indicated that his Department will make the changes necessary to continue to provide quality recreation programs, albeit at a reduced level of service. He said that would make the need for dedicated volunteers even greater.

After a delicious lunch, Bill Offutt and his staff presented a series of awards to honor a few 2008 volunteers. Among the awardees were: the Brosey Family, Special Friend Award; Michele Rose, Special Friend Award; George Daniel, Golden Wrench Award; Gary Corron, Golden Hammer Award; Joseph Degreenia and Jessica Hardy, 4-H Community Service Award; Lisa Willis and Steve Krieger, 4-H Adult Leader Award; and Jim Rausch, Golden Horseshoe Award.

The program concluded with a first class slide show presentation put together by Martin Hardy which included beautiful Park scenes from last year, highlights of 2008 events held at the Park, and some of the farm animals residing there including the newborns of 2009. All in all, another top notch luncheon and program hosted by Park Superintendent Bill Offutt and his able staff.

The Fall Harvest Festival is the premier fundraising event of the Friends of Kinder Farm Park and is designed for the enjoyment of the entire family. This year, it will be held on Saturday, October 10^th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Now in its ninth year, it has grown dramatically over the years to an annual attendance of approximately 12,000 people. However, to hold an event of this size takes months of hard work by many people, mostly volunteers. It is a labor of love for those of us who are so fond of our park and we strive to make it a fun project for everyone involved. Volunteers are provided with donuts and beverages in the morning and lunch during the day. There are many opportunities to help with the festival, which includes crafts and games, demonstrations of various crafts, educational activities, sales by an assortment of vendors, hayrides, music and, of course, many types of food and drinks. Our biggest challenge each year is to recruit enough volunteers. If you are interested in helping to plan the event for this year, please contact Michele Rose at 410-544-8302 or by e-mail at mrose@cablespeed.com for further information regarding meeting dates. If you would like to help on the day of the event, please contact Park Ranger Shawna Chesto at the park office at

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of the Friends of Kinder Farm Park Newsletter! I am open and will be pleased to accept any news that you would like to see shown in the newsletter. Also, if you have any suggestions on changes you would like to see, please don’t be shy and let me know, I am happy to accept any help.

			Click here to see pictures of the restoration of Kinder Farm Park