A Day At The Farm

Moo reached another milestone last week.  She went on her first official school field trip!  My baby is growing up y'all!  Seriously, can somebody freeze time?  Anywho, I chaperoned and we had a blast sharing in that experience together. 

Her field trip was to The Hunter Farm in Weddington, which could pretty much be considered part of Charlotte (in my opinion).  Sadly, parents weren't allowed to ride the bus with students.  That was such a bummer because it was her first time riding a real school bus and I thought I'd be able to get a shot and maybe some video footage of her on there.  (Yes, I'm that mom!)

However, it didn't take long to get to get Hunter Farm.  I thought I was going to be in for at least a 40 minute drive, but got there in under 30.  It took the teachers a while to get the buses loaded and I ended up waiting an extra 20 minutes before they arrived.  If had known I had that time to spare, I would have hit up the Target that was up the street.  Now on the important stuff- the pictures!

When the kids finally arrived, they split us into groups of 3 classes.  Each group got their own tractor pulled wagon and guide/driver.  We loaded up, went over a few rules and then we received three special tasks for the kids to do: collect milk from the cow, find a chicken egg (this was not easy because the chickens had made a run for it overnight) and flick dried kernels of corn off its cob. 

Our first stop was to visit the milking barn, where we got a demonstration on how to milk a cow.  Of course, I've seen my share of cows milked having grown up in the country.  We also learned that freshly expressed milk is 100 degrees.  Hmmm...I wonder how warm breastmilk is? Definitely nowhere near that.

Before we left the milk station the kids learned that when you gotta go, you gotta go.  They were all tickled pink and overcome with a case of the giggles when the cow started pooping.  Two chaperones from one of the other classes excused themselves because they couldn't handle the smell.  In all honesty, it was strong at first, but then the scent died down a little bit.  The kid's then went from tickled pink to grossed out after the cow got one of her hooves messy by stepping in her own poop.  

Thankfully, it was time for us to move on our next station, which was the petting barn.  At the petting barn, cups of feed were passed out and the kids got to feed the mini goats (I loved them) and the sheep.  Moo was too excited.  In our second to last place, there was a barn across the street and the farmer had some mini goats.  Moo always asked to feed or pet them but I told her no.

So, she was chomping at the bit get to those goats.  The goats were beyond excited to get their snack and have some company.  A few goats even impressed us their climbing skills, but thankfully didn't escape their holding area.

The sheep were just as anxious to get some love too.  One sheep had been sheared and his hair had finally started to grow in.  It looked like a haircut gone wrong because the hair wasn't growing in at the same rate and Moo thought he looked weird.  That made her a little hestiant to get feed him.  Of course, it didn't help matters that his fur was two tone either, a dark chocolate mixed with a tan.

There were two rabbits- one brown and one white.  The brown rabbit was not a fan of having us in his space and curled into ball while giving us what I'm convinced is the evil eye.  So, we left him alone.  I didn't get a picture of the other rabbit because once they took him out for the kids to pet, it was hard to get a good shot through the hands petting him.

There were two pigs, some wild turkeys, a cow (I refer to her as Gentle Bessie, but her real name is Annabelle) and of course the chickens.  They had two horses in a separate barn, but we didn't get to have a closeup look at them for safety reasons obviously.  Horses are really powerful animals and when they're spooked they are dangerous.  They can run you over or kick you and well, depending on where the blows land . . . So, yeah, we got to see them from the wagon our way back up to the pumpkin field/patch area.

At the pumpkin patch area, the kids learned where food comes from and just how many products have corn in them- cereal, pudding, drinks, etc.  We also put the milk, egg and corn kernels to use by making cornbread batter.  We didn't cook it though.

Picture time in the pumpkin patch was next.  We all got to select pumpkins and they even let teachers take pumpkins for the students who weren't able to come on the field trip and we (the parents) got to get pumpkins for little siblings.  Moo's mission was to find the biggest mini pumpkin out there.  I'm pretty sure she came close to doing just that.

Overall, it was a great trip.  I had fun watching her in her zone and her element because she loves the outdoors and she LOVES animals even more.  She's been bugging me since she was almost three for us to live on a farm so she can get a horse, a cow and some chickens.  I was glad that she got to get a taste of the farm life and I got to work on my photography.

I'm happy to have had the opportunity to interact with her teacher outside the classroom and in a more relaxed environment.  We'll definitely be going back to The Hunter Farm so that JJ and the Mr can experience the wagon ride and the animals.  I'm already looking forward to the next field trip!