As has been well established on these pages, we do not live in a city. As such, we thought it high time to embrace the benefits of rural living by enrolling our kids in 4-H.

In case you do not know, 4-H is a youth organization administered by the Department of Agriculture, the mission of which is “engaging youth to reach their fullest potential.” The four H’s in question are head, heart, hands, and health, which are the four areas in which our kids will presumably develop in months and years to come.

I’ve always thought of 4-H as an organization centered around agriculture, but, apparently, today’s 4-H focuses on citizenship, healthy living, science, engineering, and technology programs. I learned this on Wikipedia just now. Read more if you care to.

For now, let’s turn back the clock to last Saturday, when we drove out to our local CSA, Colchester Farm, for our very first meeting. We got out of the car and were confronted by chickens. In case you do not know, chickens are fascinating.

And a little bit terrifying. But they may be easily tamed with chicken feed, as my young agriculturalists quickly discovered.

As other kids started to arrive, we gathered to begin our tour. August displayed his 4-H pride by grabbing the flag and waving it with enthusiasm.

Our first stop on the tour of the farm was this greenhouse.

It was winter outside. Inside was a completely different story.

It was 85 degrees in the greenhouse, and lettuce of many varieties was growing enthusiastically.

Alden begged me to let her take off her coat. And then her sweatshirt.

It was as if we had been suddenly transported to the tropics.

After our tour of the greenhouse, our host, Christine, led us to a corner of a nearby field where the kids are going to be planting their own garden.

The kids, being kids, were somewhat distracted by the presence of an iridescent garden ball.

I must admit it was quite mesmerizing.

Next we headed to the chicken house. One of the kids’ 4-H jobs moving forward is going to be caring for the chickens.

August felt a certain kinship with the chickens, I think. He and they share a certain inability to speak in sentences.

Meanwhile, Alden and Kato collected eggs inside.

Afterward, we headed over to visit with the goats.

The goats were eager to see us. Very eager.

At first, I took it as a compliment.

But then I realized that all they wanted was to be fed.

The realization was crushing to August.

But only for a moment. As soon as he realized that a goat sufficiently distracted by food can be petted at will, he changed his tune.

After feeding the goats, we headed back to the barn for a craft project. It involved getting one’s hands completely coated in green paint.

And making an impression on a piece of paper.

And then, stickers were distributed. August was pleased.

4-H sure has something figured out. Warm greenhouses, mirror balls, animated chickens, hungry goats, paint-covered hands, and stickers. What’s not to like?

This was just the first of many meetings to come. Although the boys were welcome to tag along, only Alden is of official 4-H age. For now, she is a “Cloverbud” and will learn the basics of agriculture and caring for farm animals. I’m excited that she’s going to be learning this stuff, and so is she.

Apparently, 4-H has 6.5 million members in the United States, from ages 5 to 21, in approximately 90,000 clubs.

After this past Saturday, that number has risen to 6,500,001.

Thanks so much to Christine Betley for organizing this club for local kids. And if you don’t yet know about Colchester Farm and want to learn more, here you go.