Old McDonald's was never this much fun

Word From | Holly Springs

HOLLY SPRINGS -- Pfft. ... pft. Pfft.

On this particular afternoon at Amazing Acres Farm, campers blew hard on hand-made plastic-pipe shooters. They aimed marshmallows at pigs, cows, turkeys and ducks, which gobbled down the sweet treats.

This has been the first summer Kathleen Kesselring opened her Holly Springs farm for weeklong day camps.

"Typically, we take the farm out to others," said Kesselring, a former day care director.

Two years ago, Kesselring began hitching up a trailer and taking part of her 8-acre farm out to children at schools and festivals. So many parents started asking "Are you going to do camps? Can we come to the farm?" -- that she decided to try the idea.

"We just wanted to provide kids an outdoor classroom and time away from TV and video games," the mother of three boys said.

The camp caters mostly to suburban kids from western Wake County towns, such as Holly Springs, Apex and Cary. The children spend hands-on time with animals every day. They brush the coat of Peek-A-Boo, a goat; feed Daisy, a pot-belly pig; or stroke the shell of Pumpkin, a specimen of the eastern box turtle, the state reptile.

Kesselring recruited older students she knew through N.C. State University's animal science program, the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts to serve as counselors. And she coaxed a friend -- microbiologist-turned-yoga-instructor Laura Woodall -- to create a garden.

Woodall teaches campers about beneficial bugs they might find turning over a zucchini leaf. Sometimes, they scoop up ladybugs or praying mantises into glass jars to talk about them, before setting them free. Campers also recently helped her plant a "pizza garden" of tomatoes, basil, peppers and oregano.

Xandy Henkel, 8, of Apex is quick to recite things he learned at the farm this summer.

"Boy turkeys are called toms. Goats have four stomachs -- they DO! And chicks like pecking at shiny things. See, they're pecking at my ring," Xandy said, kneeling next to a chicken coop.

"They're nuts about grass," added Sarah Kate Doherty, 5, of Raleigh, grabbing a fistful of green and passing the clump through the chicken wire.

"Here you go, chicks," she called. "Chickees ... Come on, chiiiiicks."

When the weather gets really hot, it's sprinkler time. The children slip and slide and wallow in shaving cream.

"Some kids have never played in a sprinkler," Kesselring said, "because of watering restrictions."

The campers go home, she said, tired, dirty, sweaty, but happy.

"I'll come again," said Dylan Wheatley, 6, of Cary. "It's so much fun."