A Day at the Farm

Last weekend we had the absolute pleasure of revisiting Jeannette and Wayne's farm in Malvern, which is about 20 miles from us. (Jeannette works at Ken's firm.) We had gone for the first time last fall, but new attractions included 1) a dairy cow that needed to be milked, and 2) a 5-week-old lamb that needed to be bottle-fed. We began our tour with the baby turkeys, which the kids tried -- unsuccessfully -- to catch.From there we went to the field where Oreo, the dairy cow is. She's milked twice a day, and at each milking she produces 5 gallons of warm, thick milk, which Ken said tasted like hay. Each of us had a turn pulling down on one of Oreo's teats, but milking a cow is not easy work, so Wayne fitted Oreo with the automatic milking device, which did 45 minutes worth of work in just a few minutes.

The five-week-old lamb, which, incidentally, still needs a name if you have any good suggestions, got some of Oreo's fresh milk, and Bryn and Luke were given the opportunity to hold the bottle.


After feeding the lamb, we went into a huge chicken coop that is still under construction. Bryn and Luke were excited to find and collect six eggs, some of which were just lying on the ground! There was lots of chicken poop on the ground, though, and the ground was slippery with it in some places. So we left the chicken coop, and Jeannette took us inside where some chicks were just hatching.

Our last stop was in the vegetable garden, where Jeannette and Wayne are growing everything from soybeans to cantaloupes. The potatoes were ready to be harvested, and Bryn got to help.Neither Ken nor I had ever seen potato plants; the potatoes are ready to come out of the ground when the plant itself is all dried up and looks dead.

We had a wonderful time, and we all learned something -- the most important of which is how much work is involved in running a farm! We don't know of any other farm in the area that allows children to try their hand at milking a cow, and the lamb is bottle-fed for just another few weeks, so we were really lucky to be invited to Jeannette and Wayne's farm where we had these wonderful experiences. They were very appreciative of the dinner we brought them, so with some luck, we'll be invited back again some time.