This past week we had our first field trip of the school year. We are studying animals in science right now and we had arrived at the typical farm animals. You know - cattle, horses, pigs, etc. Well, we just happen to have some friends who live on a real farm - unlike the MacDonald's farm we experience very day. :) Dru is the farm manager for the ACU farm and she agreed to let us come out there for a few hours and even agreed to answer some questions and tell us a little bit about farm life.
First order of business was greeting the kittens, who have grown a bit since the last time we saw them.
Next came the cattle. The cows came right over to where we were and hung around long enough for us to get a look and try and decide who was going to have the next calf. Some of them looked pretty big!
The bull didn't want to get that close to us. (Which Reese was very happy about! She was not convinced that the fence would keep the bull from getting too close to us.)
The week-old piglet was visited next. It was pretty cute and quite the squealer! It has a good set of lungs. The kids enjoyed petting it and watching it run around its momma. I've seen pigs before but never any quite the size of these. They are HUGE! As in 500-600 pounds, as big as my couch huge!
The horses were the last animals we visited. The girls especially love this part and every time they go out to the farm, they talk about Chica (their favorite horse) for weeks afterward. This time we got to see Chica, Jenny, and Gus. If I remember right, Jenny is Chica's mom and has also adopted Gus, a 6 month old colt. Gus is pretty cute. He has light blue eyes! In a few months he will be receiving a tattoo around his right eye because it is very pale there, almost albino. The hope is that the tattoo will prevent skin cancer from forming in that pale skin (which is what happened to his mother). The kids got to help feed Gus and one of the kittens came up to have a little food, too.
Of course, what trip to the farm would be complete without a ride on the tractor? The boys went first and we could hear them honking the horn from a long way down the road. Paige had her turn by herself because Reese did not want to get in that "loud thing." She says next time she'll "wide in the twactor." Dru was very brave and let each of the kids drive it - well, at least control the steering wheel. The older three loved it.
The trip to the farm was great. We learned quite a bit and had an absolutely wonderful time. Dru - thanks so much for taking time out of your day to show us around. You did a great job teaching us! Bo - sorry we missed you - the boys were asking about lassoing the hay. Maybe next time. :)
2 comments:
Okay, I know that I see Paige at least once a week. But, when I saw the first picture on this post I thought, "Oh, they took another little girl with them. I wonder who it is..." and then I noticed that this mystery girl had on a shirt that matched Reese's. "Oh my goodness! That tall little girl is Paige!"
Justin wants you to come to his farm to see his loader and to learn to bed the cows
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