eta-iancMter Farming, Saturday, March 27, 1999
RANDY WELLS
Indiana Co. Correspondent
OXON, Hill, MD - Tammy
Farmery McKibben finally
arrives at work each morning
after enduring 45 minutes of
heavy suburban traffic
That’s nothing out of the ordi
nary for many working
Americans But it’s a little
unusual m McKibben's line of
work She’s employed on a farm
Hei down-on-the-farm job is
also different because on some
days, hundreds of kids stop b\ to
watch her work
And she can see the
Washington Monument from her
barnyard
McKibben is the animal care
taker at Oxon Hill Farm, a 512-
acre spread operated by the
National Park Service at Oxon
Cove Park near Oxon Hill, Md ,
just south of Washington, D C
McKibben grew up on a farm
and has been around farm ani
mals all her life But on the farm
at Oxon Hill the sounds of chick
ens clucking and cows mooing
mingle with the noise of traffic
on the nearby Interstate 95/495
Capital Beltway and with pas
senger jets landing and taking
off from Ronald Reagan
National Airport just across the
Potomac River
In 1891 the federal govern
ment acquired the Oxon Hill
land and established a farm for
St Elizabeth’s Hospital
Patients worked on the farm for
therapy and to grow their own
food In the mid-1960s the farm
was entrusted to the National
Park Service, and in 1967 Oxon
Hill Farm welcomed its first vis
itors
“Basically we get a lot of fam
ilies with kids," McKibben said
“Being that we’re so close to
DC, we have a lot of school
tours ”
The Park Service runs Oxon
Hill as though it were still the
early 1900’s, and a big attraction
for many visiting youngsters are
Ji
4 u
Under Tammy’s supervision, kids have the opportunity
to milk cows, feed chickens, pet horses, and ask ques
tions. Photo by National Park Sarvioa.
Little Bit
Smack
i '•
i
v t s>'
Tammy McKibben said that her job as caretaker of Oxen
Hill is made easier because of growing up on a farm. Photo
by National Park Service.
the farm’s beef and dairy cows,
draft horses, sheep, goats, pigs,
chickens, turkeys, ducks and
geese
And that’s where McKibben
fits in She grew up helping her
parents, Dwight and Shirley
Farmery, run their dairy opera
tion near Marion Center, and
was Indiana County Dairy
Princess in 1992-93 After grad
uating from Marion Center Area
Of Country
In The City
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High School in ‘93, she earned
an associate degree in Wildlife
and Fisheries Technology from
Penn State University
That combination of formal
education and hands-on farming
experience helped McKibben
land the job as animal caretaker
at Oxon Hill
“I’m also m charge of a cur
riculum-based program for pre
school and kindergarten stu
dents called Animal Life on the
Farm ”
Under McKibben’s supervi
sion kids have the opportunity
to milk a cow, feed the chickens,
pet the horses, and ask ques
tions
“A lot of them have never
been exposed to farms They
hardly even know what a farm
is,” she said
A frequently-asked question
anses about one of the farm’s
Ayrshire milk cows
"Everybody thinks she's a
bull because she has horns,” she
said
McKibben believes the Oxon
Hill Farm experience is especial
ly important for children from
the cities
"It's amazing that many don’t
know that some farmei out
there grows all the crops,” she
said, and she emphasizes to the
children the "no farms-no food"
concept
"The kids like to come out
and see the animals But they
also need to know that pigs give
you ham,” she said
McKibben also participated
in a holiday tradition that
involves two of the farm’s
Belgian draft horses - delivery of
the official White House
Christmas tree
“We use one of the old-time
wagons to haul the tree to the
White House,” she said “The
(Turn to Page B 15)
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