Text Box: “Fusion” a merging of diverse elements into a unified whole. Text Box: THE END IS NEAR!! Text Box: Well, you made it through 1st semester, PLUS the first nine weeks of second semester, and you’re heading down the home stretch! The constant rain and cold probably helped a bit, and now that the sun has shown itself, you’re thinking, “I think I’ll just skip that study session at lunch and hang out with my friends.” Or, “I’ll put off that homework for now Text Box: and think about it next week.” DANGER! DANGER! This is the moment when so many students decide they’ve had enough with school and they deserve a bit of a break. We’re here to tell you, HANG IN THERE! It’s only a few more weeks, and you’ll have the whole summer ahead of you to hang out, swim, play, have fun, and not Text Box: think about reading, writing or arithmetic. Even the staff at FUSION (and I won’t name names) has gone AWOL some. Our second edition for the school year is much later than we anticipated, but we hope to start up again next year with input from a whole new crop of freshmen, and returning upper classmen. If you have any ideas or the urge to write for this publication, please let us know.. We NEED YOU. Text Box: I am fortunate enough to live the life of a dairy farmer. My grandparents started it in 1961 and it is one of the two dairy farms left in Jackson County. Occasionally we get visitors that like to see the cows being milked. We milk in a concrete pit so that when the cows come in, their udders are about shoulder height. It is for the worker’s convenience that they are that high, otherwise we would be bending down every time we milk a cow. Though I speak of it casually, there is quite a ritual to prepare a cow to be milked. First we dip the teats (dairy cows only have four teats) with a sanitary iodine dip. Then we wash the udders to clean all the mud and manure so that it doesn’t enter the inflation cup of the milker. Milking a dirty cow can also lead to the cow contracting mastitis (a bacterial Text Box: infection that causes the milk to be coagulated, and can lead to the death of the cow). Then we dry the udder and make sure there is no dirt in the end of the teat. After that we strip (squeezing the teat to make milk come out) out some milk onto the floor so we can look at it and check for mastitis. We are now ready to put on the automatic milking machine. Each cow takes different amounts of time to milk. Cows that give more milk (up to 100 pounds a day) take longer than those who may be near the end of their lactation (a dry cow). When a cow is done, they are dipped again with iodine to prevent infection. Done cows are released from the barn (at most we can have eight cows milking); they go out into the barnyard and eat, rest, drink Text Box: water, or chew their cud. People frequently say, “How can you tell them apart?” we have found that each cow is very distinct in both attitude and appearance. Many of our cows have names and two make decent horses… What are these items and what are they used for? Send in your answers, first correct answer on each item gets a prize.

Unusual Jobs

1

Update on small schools

2

Interview with Mr. Coelho

2

Volunteerism

3

Ask Tara

3

Play and Movie Reviews

4

Special points of interest:

· What’s the latest on Small Schools? See page 2

· What does “Coelho” mean in Portugese? See page 2

· What could you do to volunteer? See page 3

· Read reviews of Harry Potter’s latest and Black Comedy

Text Box: Unusual Jobs by Jania Wolff Text Box: FUSION — a voice for the “peeps” Text Box: April 2006 Text Box: Volume 1, Issue 2

Questions?

 Comments?

Suggestions?

 Email the editor at:

deirdre.barber@district6.org

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