One day at a time.....: Farmer for a Day!

Last Wednesday the boys spent four hours at a small farm(Homestead Farms)being "Farmer for a Day"!!! This is not a new place to the boys. They have been to Homestead Farms several times before. You may remember me telling about this farm in other posts. You can find a couple of posts about Homestead Farms HERE and HERE .

No surprise Ryan is with the dogs and wore the boots!

The day was to start at 9am. The boys along with about 10 others were eager to be a farmer.
After receiving their name tag, learning the rules and meeting Farmer Michael their day began!

I was free to stay the entire time with the boys, but wanted to give them some time unleashed from their apron strings.

BUT as soon as I heard they were going to see the goats first I had to stay for a bit.

I LOVE goats! I want a goat or maybe 10.

I know, I know, I have NO idea what it would be like. That is true, but I am willing to take on the task for these cute, sweet, agressive creatures.

Anyway they lead us in the milking stall. We had to quickly rush in to avoid letting all the flies in. And we let some in alright! And there were tons more inside. It was not the best smelling place either. And of course my whimpy boys were the first to point it out and announce it!!!

This was the coolest set up I had ever seen. Well I have never seen a goat milking set up before, but this was COOL! The picture below......to the right there was a little door where once opened the goats would come in and go straight to the feeding trough. Once there, their heads were locked in place where they could not get out. After that it allowed Farmer Michael and his friends to milk them.

BTW-I am explaining all this in terms that I understand. And they may very well be the wrong words for farming and milking goats. JUST GO WITH IT!!!!!!

Above he is explaining how the milk will go through the pipes once attahced to the goats' teats.

Showing how the suction works once this thing is attached. And below every other goat is being milked.

And finally after a few of the brave children milked a goat it was my turn!!! The boys would NOT do it! They don't have a brave bone in their body for milking a goat. But I did!!!

It was not as easy as it looked. It was kinda hard! But I did muster a little squirt. I would need a lot of practice to get milk from a goat! But very glad I tried it.

And what do you do after milking a goat? Taste it of course!!!!

Matthew was brave after all! I was too, but Ryan would have NO part of tasting goat milk. He doesn't drink cow's milk either. Unless it is highly sweetened with sugar and vanilla. Or is a dark chocolate color!

And just FYI-it was cold milk! In this room we got to see where the milk goes from those pipes in the milking room and ends up in this room....where we drank the COLD goat's milk. It did not taste any different than cow's milk to me. Matthew did not like it and would only take a sip.

It was time for me to leave. And hard to go too!!!! They were on their way to feed the baby goats!!! But I said my did.

After that they did "chores" around the farm. Various other things and played in the bathroom they said. It was set up outdoors like an outhouse so I am sure it was fun to them.....remember they are seven year old BOYS!

The boys tell about being "Farmer for a Day":
Matthew says........
-picked cherry tomatoes and someone kept throwing them at me.
-fed goats.
-tasted cantaloupe and fed the chickens the leftover rind. And one pecked me!
-also did a craft that did not include scissors and glue....and it did not work!

Ryan says........
-fed pigs rotten tomatoes and okra.
-fed teenager goats.
-picked green beans.
-went in the chicken coop to feed chickens grass.

Both boys told me about one of the dogs, Scout, who helped pick zucchini, but did not eat it. But he did eat 2 rotten tomatoes and drank nasty pig water.

They LOVED being "Farmer for a Day"!!!!! And want to go again sometime. It is way too hot now for that, but maybe come Fall.

For now they can practice being farmers in our backyard with our dog, birds and bunnies! And pick all the remaining(and almost dead)cucumbers and tomatoes.

The pictures below are just various pictures from that day.