Treinen Farm Archives | Treinen Farm

2019, animals, Farm Kid for the Day, Field Trips, Natural Play, Playgrounds

The Value of Doing Real Things in our Digitally-Focused World — Our Field Trip Philosophy

In our educational world of one-to-one devices, educational apps, interactive internet-connected boards, and the firehose of information we are trying to teach our kids to navigate, more and more teachers are looking to balance the digital experience with authentic, tactile, and tangible experiences. For instance, many teachers are seeking an outdoor, real world experience of a real farm, where the kids can explore, get a little dirty, and go home with stories to tell. We are that place!

STRUCTURED VS UNSTRUCTURED TIME

Here at the Treinen Farm, we tend to lean toward child-led discovery and learning. We try to provide that right balance: enough structure (the hayride + pumpkin or the maze) to keep things from descending into chaos, but also enough freedom for kids to explore all the farm has to offer and to make up their own ways to learn and interact with the environment and each other.

UNIQUE PHYSICAL EXPERIENCES

A slippery, green, mossy log. The rough surface of a jute rope. Echoes in a vast, empty silo. The actual oinks of actual pigs and the clucking of chickens. Farmyard smells and autumn leaves.

We often think about how sensory experiences can stay with us for a long time, and we love the idea of creating these intense memories for children (and adults!) An incredible amount of learning can take place when multiple senses are engaged–it’s not the kind of learning that will necessarily show up immediately on a test score, but it’s real and visceral and and good in the long-term for both mind and body.

INTERESTING THINGS

You never know what’s going to happen at the Treinen Farm. Will the goats escape and require the field trip kids to help corral them? How big a pumpkin can that determined Kindergartner carry? Will you remember to have the kids empty their pockets after playing in the corn pit, or will your class bring back shiny yellow kernels of corn to use for math manipulatives next week? The discovery of a salamander might slow down the pumpkin picking, but A SALAMANDER!!!!

As we design experiences, we prefer to provide enough predictability to keep the field trip running smoothly and to keep teachers relaxed, but also enough flexibility to let interesting things happen. That’s what life’s about, right? Interesting things…

DO REAL THINGS. OUTSIDE. BRING FRIENDS.

The Treinen Farm hosts thousands of Wisconsin school children each year during the fall and we are committed to creating captivating experiences for them, and friendly service to the teachers.

And be sure to visit us on fall weekends–all the above applies to weekend guests, including adults, as well as field trips!

Angie Treinen

September 22, 2019/by Treinen Farm

Uncategorized

Why? Why are the unicorns killers?

Rare unicorn sighting at the Treinen Farm

Number one question at the Treinen Farm this year is “Why are the unicorns killers?”

Let’s go back to how we think up a maze design. I (Angie) am the designer, so basically I get to do whatever I want. But I am willing to accept some input in the idea phase.

Alan (my husband, the farmer): We should do a horse.

Me: Horses are boring. And we did one in 2001. (Our very first maze was a horse and cart.)

Alan: They aren’t boring. And that was a long time ago. How about a mare and foal?

Me: No.

Alan: How about a mustang?

Me: Mustangs are stupid.

Alan: How about a team of —

Me: No.

Alan: How about–

Me: No.

Iris (the farmhand, pipes up from eating her sandwich): How about a Pegasus?

Me: No. Wait…hmmm. No.

Iris and Alan: A Pegasus would be cool. You know, it’s got wings–

Me: I know what a Pegasus is. No.

But, when I think about it a little, it’s not completely out of the question. We did Icarus a few years ago, and the wings were pretty awesome. But we’ve done quite a bit of Greek mythology, and it seemed repetitive to jump into it again (we did the Owl of Athena in 2014.) And an ethereally lovely winged horse alone was terribly boring–I couldn’t really think about what we’d talk about. A big part of coming up with the maze design has to do with how our staff will be able to engage customers–sometimes they are telling a myth or a fable, or explaining technology or math concepts. They couldn’t just stand there and say how beautiful horses with wings are.

But when I hit the internet to check out pictures of pegasi, the whole concept of the maze clicked almost instantly. We didn’t need a winged horse–that was definitely boring. We needed a badass horse: a horse that could shoot laser beams out of its eyes. A horse that could stab you with its head…

A unicorn.

And what would be even better than a Killer Unicorn? Obviously, if it was also a baby…

The rest of the process involved spending a lot of time collecting unicorn pictures, unicorn memes, unicorn songs, Youtube shows, MLP stuff. (Check out my Pinterst board for a view into my mind circa May 2016 https://www.pinterest.com/angiedvm/maze-ideas-2016/ )

Treinen Farm Corn Maze 2016 : Rainbows, Kittens, and Killer Baby Unicorns

September 27, 2016/by Treinen Farm

2015 Maze

Getting ready for fall

The Treinen household is always a little crazy at this time of the year. Like any family with kids, there’s the back-to-school conversations (what do you need for school supplies, what teachers do you have, do you really need new soccer cleats and when will you stop growing…) and the end-of-summer conversations (can we fit in one more visit to Grandma and Grandpa, when are you going to start going to bed at a reasonable hour…)

Here at the farm, we also have the many, many conversations about how preparations for fall are coming (which employees are coming back, do we have corn for the corn pit, what prizes will we have for the secret locations…)

This is how this usually goes: “No, the dirt should go over there!”

But the thing we all look forward to every year is the Big Question: What are we going to add for 2015 that will be fun? Fun for kids, fun for adults. We go to conventions to look for ideas (yes, there is such a thing as a Corn Maze Convention!); we talk to other people with agritainment farms; we go to amusement parks and zoos and museums and pay attention to what works and what doesn’t.

No spoilers yet–we’re in the process of creating an amazing fall 2015 experience. I’ll post more photos as the project moves along–stay tuned.

There are packages of fun arriving every day

Naughty dog stealing fun from the packages

August 23, 2015/by Treinen Farm

2014 Corn Maze, Athena, Math in the maze, Maze Design, owls

Treinen Farm Maze Design 2014 The Owl of Athena

Preliminary drone photo of the 2014 Athena’s Owl Maze.

Designing the corn maze is a challenge every year. I’ve gotten better at handling the actual, physical design using Adobe Illustrator (not the easiest program to teach yourself, BTW…) but the theme is always tricky.

Here are some of the parameters I always set for the design:

Aesthetically pleasing and interesting
The central figure must be easily recognizable
Must make a good maze (no long dead-ends; multiple ways to get through the maze; trails fill up the 1 acre field more or less equally throughout the entire field)
Math concepts incorporated into design
History/literature/other connections to design

New parameter for 2014: must be awesome enough for outdoor advertising–last year our Kraken maze made incredible billboards, so this year I wanted to also make something that could looking amazing and maybe a little scary for the outdoor people to work with. That’s why the owl turned out so creepy…

I’ll post more on the math and mythology connections in the maze, but the basic ideas involve geometry (most prominently the Platonic solids) and the Greek mythology stories of Athena.

August 4, 2014/by Treinen Farm

Horses

Today’s Moment of Cuteness–newborn foal at the Treinen Farm

Farmer Alan poses with new baby (she’s about 30 minutes old in this photo)

It’s time to start thinking about our corn maze and all the fall activities, but the first thing we have to share is the news about a new Treinen baby: Mabel’s foal, born 5/17/14 at about 3 am. She’s doing well and is getting so much attention that she runs over whenever anyone walks in the barn!

Can you imagine what she’s thinking here? Whoa–what just happened…?

At less than an hour old, our little foal is getting up and ready to run around.

It’s a miracle that she can get these long legs all in the right position to get up and walk around

Next up: corn maze design…more to come on this exciting development very soon.

May 19, 2014/by Treinen Farm

2013 Corn Maze

2013 Treinen Farm Sea Monster Corn Maze is complete

The Kraken has emerged from the corn field! (Drone photo courtesy of DMZ Aerial http://www.dmzaerial.com/)

The maze has been cut into the field and all the paths have been tilled. Now, we’ll check the photos against the design for accuracy, and adjust either the corn field or the map as necessary. And the corn needs to grow about another five feet or so–it’s 3-4 feet tall right now, but at this stage it can grow 4-6 inches a day if it’s hot.

This is the first time we’ve had a drone take the preliminary photos, and we are super impressed–both with how well the photos turned out, and about how much fun it was to have the drone flying around. Mitchell Fiene with DMZ Aerial (http://www.dmzaerial.com/) stopped by with our nephew (who is in the ag industry) and we got a look at the future of crop scouting.

OK, drones are the future of a lot of things, but they are very big in the agriculture industry right now–it’s incredible to be able to look for crop damage from the air. Mitchell even said he was hoping to be able to swoop down and look for pest species of insects–the drones can take great photos from above, as in our maze photo, but also have the capability to fly very low with the high resolution camera. I suggested he come back in a couple of weeks and we’d probably have some cucumber beetles in our pumpkin patch (he was thrilled.)

July 13, 2013/by Treinen Farm

2013 Corn Maze, Maze Design, Uncategorized

Cutting the Treinen Farm 2013 Kraken Corn Maze

Maze plan with grid and cutting aids (circles and golden spiral templates) overlaid

So, contrary to popular belief, the corn maze does not simply appear in our cornfield one day…it would be awesome to wake up one morning and find a giant squid visible from the tower, but alas, we need to rely on forced labor (OK, not really forced…) in the hot sun to get the design in the field.

Here’s how we do it:

1) Finalize the design. This can involve heated discussions between the designer (Angie) and the farmer (Alan) but eventually we come up with the plan.

3) Stake the cornfield. This allows the workers to figure out where they are and relate that to the plan, which is printed out on a grid. We don’t use GPS, as our design is so complex it would be difficult to get the accuracy we need.

4) Transfer the design from the grid on the page to the grid in the field, using paint and flags to mark the trails.

5) Mow the trails as a preliminary step–corn that has been mowed off at this stage will still grow back, so if a mistake has been made, it will hopefully be caught before the next step…

6) Till out the trails. This removes the corn plants, and so the tilled trails are “permanent”–they had better be in the right spot! (although Alan has been known to take “artistic liberties” with the design on several occasions.)

Staking and getting ready to lay out design

Sometimes the reaction to the design is “Are you kidding me? You want me to cut that!?”

Sections can be enlarged to help get the details right–trails must be laid out accurately to 6 inches.

For perfect circles, we find the center point, measure the radius, and paint the circle. This year’s maze has a LOT of circles…which is good (check out all of those circles on the tentacles!)

Once a trail is marked with paint or flags (and double-checked against the plan), we mow the corn short.

The crew leader consults with everyone who is marking and checks over the layout. It takes about a week to get the design in the field.

Tilling is the last step–it’s the equivalent of drawing in pen, because it removes the corn permanently.

The dogs don’t actually help, but they’re cute.

July 7, 2013/by Treinen Farm

2013 Corn Maze, Maze Design, Uncategorized

Here There Be Monsters…the 2013 Treinen Farm Sea Monster Corn Maze

Finally! The design for 2013 is finished, and the crew is working on getting it cut into the field!

The inspiration for this year’s maze started with thinking about octopi, which are one of my favorite animals.

Kraken attacking a ship idea for corn maze

I collected a lot of images of octopi, but I realized that an octopus wasn’t quite exciting enough on its own…but a giant squid, or better yet, a Kraken, is definitely maze-worthy.

Once I settled on the squid, I found some old maps that had sea monsters and often really ornate compass roses, which worked well.

I tried to fit in some other images, like the face of the wind blowing and the ship sailing over the edge of the world, but they didn’t work within the size of the field.

: Here There Be Monsters–perfect theme for our 2013 corn maze

July 5, 2013/by Treinen Farm

2012 Corn Maze, GRIN Technology, Steampunk

The Meaning in the Maze

We always like to include multiple layers of meaning within our corn maze. We like to have an aesthetically pleasing image that is fairly easily recognizable (this year it’s da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” aka “that guy, you know, the one in the circle with this arms out like this <insert realistic demo of arms outstretched here>, yeah, that guy”. However, our da Vinci guy is a cyborg–note the ray gun hand and the mechanical wing, not to mention the assorted gears for joints and a clockwork heart.

Cyborg guy is shown not in a circle/square deal like da Vinci’s, but in the planar projection of a hypercube (aka a “tesseract”, aka “what are you talking about?”) So, a hypercube is like this: you know what a square is, right? Okay, now a cube is just a three-dimensional square. Still with me? A hypercube is simply a four-dimensional cube. ( Here’s a little more technical explanation.) Very cool.

The gears are a nod to mechanical technology, especially the steam-era –aka Steampunk, which is also cool. We’ve got a little circuit-boardy stuff filling in the spaces on the lower right and mid-left.

The knot-like thing in the lower left is, well, a knot, because knots are mathematically interesting. It’s made out of a carbon nanotube, which leads us into the fascinating world of nanotechnology.

The theme this year is technology, ranging from the awesomeness of da Vinci to the steam-era, all the way to modern math and tech. Specifically the “GRIN” technologies: genetics (umm, because the cyborg is also genetically-modified–yeah, that’s it…); robotics (again, cyborg guy sort of counts); information tech (circuit boards); and nanotech, as previously noted (plus the weaponized nanoswarms employed in patrolling the maze for people cutting through the corn…)

More info and links to come on all of these elements.

August 23, 2012/by Treinen Farm

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Treinen Farm Corn Maze 2016 : Rainbows, Kittens, and Killer Baby Unicorns

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