This place blew away all of my expectations. First off, it's gorgeous. The barns are weathered but beautiful and tidy. The animals had to be the cleanest livestock I have ever seen outside of the county fair. They look like they all get biweekly baths. Our first trip was to the goat and sheep barn. Farmer Dawn gave us a quick lesson in the many things farmers use these animals for before telling us to make sure and pick up the baby goats and give them lots of love. I found this lil booger hiding in the corner thinking that he was so clever. I swear the bleating for his mom nearly made me start lactating right then and there.
I passed him over to Rob who introduced him to B. B was not all that game to get very close. Mama came sneaking around and had to make sure everything was okay. I got all teary eyed when she came in for a motherly kiss. I got a message on facebook from the farm sharing that the nanny's name is Shivers and that she became foster mom to a kid that one of her offspring had rejected. Had me all teary eyed again.
Next we were off to the pig pen where they keep the “teenagers.” I gotta say I was more than impressed that the kids did not make a bigger deal about the pigs pooping on each others faces when they were piled up on top of each other. We learned that pigs are not so familiar with Vibram 5finger shoes and they kinda think my toes were grapes.
One brave little guy took it one step further and tried ripping my pants off. If he weren’t so cute, it would have been horrifying. It turns out, B is quite the little pig whisperer(in addition to turtle whispering) and she bravely called them out to play once the crowds left.
Then we gleefully plopped her on a teeeeeny little pony’s back and Rob took her around the ring. I had to reign in my stage mom side “Sweetie, you have to HOLD the horn of the saddle!!! Really hold it!!!” as she disgustedly put just her fingertips on the very top of the horn.
Rob came around from the first circle and gave me the look of “do you want to pull her off cuz that’s what she wants?” and being the kind of mom who really listens to her child’s needs said “Go for a second round!!!!” B’s look of betrayal could have broken my heart if I wasn’t stifling a fit of laughter. Its mother’s day…… its my day to be a brat.
Speaking of brats…. B did not like the idea of holding anything with wings. I liked the idea of teasing her with chickens……
and ducklings…
I think the one moment of the day where I got a little embarrassed about what a hippy dork I was was when we met Red the milking cow. I always thought I was such hot stuff cuz I milked a goat once when I was 11. So I strutted up like I was some sort of expert and puffed up all proud when B actually got some milk out herself. We walked around the front to say thanks to Red, and I was struck by how peaceful and beautiful she was. I never saw one ounce of fear or anxiety in any of these animals even though they had seen group after group of families all day. I scratched her forehead and she gently turned her nose to B and let her kiss her nose. Later we were playing with the newborn barn kittens and I noticed Red was happily laying down all by herself.
B and I walked over and were giving her some good neck and behind the ear scratches. She leaned into our touch just like a dog. I couldn’t get over how gentle and relaxed she was. Here’s the nerdy hippy part, I started thanking her for the milk that she provides and her gentleness with B… and then I started to cry as I wished her a happy mother’s day. Sheesh!! Crying at the milking station. She turned and looked at me funny like “Girl, its muh job.” Later that night, when I uploaded the pictures, B saw the one of Red and she reached up and touched her and said “ooooh soft. Gentle scratches.” And proceeded to pretend to stroke her neck.
Just as we thought our day was over, one of the farmers popped her head into the barn and mentioned that one of the nannies was about to give birth so we hightailed it across the yard and into the goat/sheep pen with another little family. Sure enough, mama was cleaning up a little black and white kid and we saw he or she take their first steps(insert more tears). After a few minutes she layed down and pushed out the second kid. She barely stood up to clean #2 when #3 made his way into the world. I think Ma barely even noticed his arrival.
And again, I couldn’t believe how thoughtful the human kids were about the whole thing. Here she is with all this “stuff” hangin down out of her rear and the little boy near us was just concerned about who was gonna help her wipe her bottom. There was a pregnant sheep that kept sneaking in and checking on the goat and her kids. Later that night we saw on the farm’s facebook page that the ewe actually came over and was letting the newborn goats nurse from her. I told Rob, if I knew how to do it, I would make a great 2 mom family children’s book from that. Here she is checking on mom and kid #1… not sure if the goat to the left is dad or another nannie waiting her turn to give birth.
So there you have it. My very long winded picture heavy story of mother's day. Rob and I agree that we will be getting season passes for the farm.
