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To celebrate the upcoming holiday, here’s a brief story of how we brought a piece of American history onto the farm.
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Our farm, and community, enjoy a tradition of farm wagon rides. So this winter, we realized that we needed a safer farm wagon as a part of our Living Laboratory program. We wanted a vehicle for visitors to safely tour the farm and allow visitors to travel farther than our walking tours. We envisioned tours that would share the wide biodiversity that exists throughout the 94 acres. Plus, a farm wagon ride is fun, too!
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We looked into plenty of options and one day, we found this piece of history. This wagon was custom-built for the Packers to provide tours of Lambeau Field in the 1970s. When the Packers decided it was time to retire the wagon, the wagon was purchased by a Wisconsin apple farmer to give tours of his apple orchard. Now, it will do the same on our farm.
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Transporting a large steel wagon from Wisconsin to Illinois is no small feat. Once the wagon arrived, Jeff served as our orchestra conductor guiding two tractor drivers to simultaneously lift the wagon. With several Grayslake District 127 administrators and teachers also on hand for spotting, the trailer was carefully lifted, the trailer pulled out from under, and finally, the wagon was lowered to the ground.
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The farm team took the wagon on test rides throughout the farm, on various terrains to experiment and test turns. Once fully tested, Jeff took Grayslake High School District 127 administrators for a ride during their retreat meeting at the farm.
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This October, we will break ground on the Living Laboratory and we look forward to giving tours on the wagon at this event. We also hope to share wagon tours of the farm at other events soon, too so we hope you’ll join us for a ride this season!
Happy Fourth of July…and Go Bears 🙂
~ Your farmers (Jeff, Jen, David, Cleto, Anacleto and Miguel) and the Liberty Prairie team