Spring Syrup to Fall TurkeysSpring parents weekend has come and gone. It's hard to believe that in just about 3 weeks the school year will be over!

This Saturday I had a great time with our Farm and Forest kids (and many others) delivering ice cream and maple syrup to people watching the sports games. We hitched our draft horse, Dinah, to a wagon, and piled in. Up and down Church Street we went, delivering ice cream and Gould-made maple syrup to spectators at the softball and baseball games, and the tennis matches. Then we made our way down to the lacrosse games on the lower field. Not surprisingly, we picked up a few faculty kids along the way- ages 4-22! Here's a photo of some of the younger passengers. I was well entertained!
This was also the weekend of the spring musical! "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" was a huge hit! There's so much talent here! Who knew Tyler could play the piano like that?! All that sound from such a small piano too. How does he do it?

News from the farm: this week we're expecting the arrival of baby turkeys! We'll be raising 3 varieties, all of them a rare or threatened species. We (humans) have selectively bred turkeys for characteristics like large breasts and legs, rather than characteristics like the ability to reproduce! The turkey varieties available in the grocery store are incapable of mating, and most would have trouble living long enough to mate because as they grow they're unable to support their own weight! What have we done?! There's a growing interest in maintaining "heritage breed" farm animals, some of whom are close to extinction. In the past we've raised the broad breasted varieties of turkey but this year we're trying something different. I hear they're beautiful animals (and tasty too). Have a look... We'll be raising Blue Slate, Royal Palm, and Narraganset.


Perhaps next week we'll have pictures of our little chicks!

-Tracey

ps- thanks to Dianne Ward of Deepwood Farm (home of Gould's equestrian program) for the use of her wagon for the weekend!

Polar BearsWell another week has gone by, and that means that we're one more week closer to Graduation! It's pretty exciting to see it coming up and this spring has gone by so fast so far.
This glog is dedicated to one of the things so special about the spring, the Polar Bear Club. Pete "Cold" Rackliffe is the head polar bear and leads students through the task of trying to make it the whole year and become a polar bear. Every Tuesday and Friday, students arrive at the bell tower at 6:00 am and hop on a bus that takes them to a swimming area. This starts as soon as Songo Pond is clear of ice and continues all the way through until Graduation. So every Tuesday and Friday, the polar bears have to go into the water and dunk their head and then come back out, sometimes Pete will call a double-dip, in which you need to go in again. The hard part is that if you miss the bus one morning, then you are out, you can't continue trying to be a polar bear. So the challenge is to be on time every morning and to go swimming every time for the whole year, and then you are recognized as a polar bear. This happens every year, so some people are able to become 4-year polar bears, where they have not missed a single polar bears in 4 years. As of right now, I am on the way to being a four year polar bear, along with Abbie "Blue eyes" Cummings and Seamus "Shay mooski" Reynolds, lets hope I didn't jinx us all.
Polar bears kind of had a late start this year with the huge amount of snow and ice on Songo Pond. However, there was the biggest turnout for that first time that I've ever seen, so large that another bus was needed to bring us all to the Pond. A few have been weeded out so far and it keeps getting a little bit smaller and smaller. We've even moved away from Songo Pond, and have starting touring the swimming spots around Bethel, like the Covered Bridge last week.
Some say that they like to sleep too much to do polar bears, and some say that they hate cold water, but all the people that actually follow through with it find that they look forward to waking up at the crack of dawn adn jumping in cold water, as strange as it might sound. For me, I don't think I really have a choice anymore, I've been going for so long that it would be a shame to give up now, but I really do enjoy polar bears, so heres to our white furry cold friends and heres to Pete "Chief of Polar Bears" Rackiffe.

Fun..."Fun" may be the most important three letter word.

Tonight I was out making my rounds towards the end of the post-study hall break, and as I came around Hanscom, I heard this boisterous crowd. There was loud cheering and laughing on a beautiful evening, and being the glum, old administrator, I wondered what I might find. Who's done what to whom? What prank has been played?

As I walked down past Bingham, it was clear that there was a large crowd outside Holden. Was one of the younger kids being tortured? There was too much laughter for someone to be being hurt. ...and the cheering? Perhaps they were burning an effigy of Dan, Pat or me?!

No. Not quite. There were forty or so kids hanging out of all ages, sizes, nationalities and colors. There were freshmen and seniors, geeks and athletes, day students and boarders... Everyone was hooting and hollering. And the commotion? Two lines were faced off playing a teenage equivalent of 'Red Rover, Red Rover, send _____ over."

Hours earlier some of the participants had been in AP exams. Others were involved in the play or in Varsity practices and games. Some had turned in Junior papers earlier in the week. others will shortly be heading off to top colleges and universities.

But tonight they were just having fun. No profanity. No computers. It was just a great bunch of kids having fun!

Have fun this weekend,
John

Sports, sports and more sportsI am so sorry for the continued sporty theme of my glog entries, but yesterday was a great day for the athletics at Gould Academy.
The cycle team dominated at some speedway, with the boys A team solidifying there place as the team to beat in New England. The rest of the team did well too, as reported by Coach Peter Southam.

Woody reported straight sets victories from the JV tennis team. Sorry no pictures from those events.
And Coach Masters-Seikman invited everyone to come and watch more "beautiful tennis" this weekend at the parents weekend. Pictured is Kiley Hagerty, my fellow glogger.

Boys baseball gave a late surge, but lost the game 18-22. I know George Murphy (pictured) a freshman, pitched some great innings after Tom Duggan started the game well.





The LAX teams also did well with the JV team earning a tie at Kentshill, and the varsity team playing their first true home game, winning against Proctor. Pictured is Joe Johnson, who scored 8 goals. The first win against a Lake Regions team for quite a while. Man of the match went to goalie Marty Donovan. With 21 saves, 9 coming in the 4th quarter.

Enjoy the pictures. (Note: on most computers, putting the mouse on the picture and clicking. Enlarges picture)

Until next week
Chris D & Helen

Stop Press
We just watched the Spring musical "Your a Good Man Charlie Brown" and I would love to tell you that there was a stand out performance....But there wasn't.... The whole cast were FABULOUS.....!!! If you get the chance, get yourselves to Bingham Auditorium on Saturday 10th May for a 7:30pm performance.
"Two thumbs up" from Davies and Davies

Spring has sprung...and it's my favorite time of the year...mainly because everyone is always outside having a great time! X-Dots, free dots, basically any spare minute, the Adirondack Chairs, upper fields, just basically anywhere outdoors is the place to be!


































Match tomorrow vs. Kents Hill! Wish us luck!!!

Until next week, enjoy the spring weather!
-Kiley