A Day at the Farm

On Saturday, Barbara and I took Maggie, Lilly and Lyla to visit a farm that belongs to an old friend of Barb's. This is the back shot of the beautiful home in New Hope, PA. It sits on 60 acres. Seriously, it's probably the most beautiful house I've ever been in.

This is the other house on the property that Karen refers to as "the cottage". Really, it's an average sized home. She rents it out to defer her property taxes. The tenants are able to freely pick from her green house garden and swipe eggs from the adjacent hen house. Not bad perks in my book.

This is her son, Trey's dog, Alex. He greeted us as we got out of the car in the morning and Maggie spent the rest of the day keeping tabs on where he was.

First we went to the hen house so the girls could gather eggs. Unlike many farmers, Karen tends to check throughout the day rather than waiting and so the girls got to do this a few times.

Lilly really liked this chicken. I think because it was the only animal she was able to hold.

I was going for a cute shot, but Maggie and Lyla seem more bored than anything as they show the fruits of their labor!

Next up, brushing the goats. There were at least 10 goats that I counted milling about in their pen and into their outdoor enclosure.

Being warned of the amount of dirt and well, poop everywhere, I opted to have Maggie wear her new rain boots.

She loved the "big brown horse". His name is General Patton and he's actually half mule and half horse, but he was a pretty animal. Karen has three horse/mule hybrids and one purebread horse.

And this is her donkey, Dudley. He was having a lesson in pulling carts which was not as interesting as we'd hoped for the girls to watch. They preferred to run around whenever he was far enough away not to be startled.

I just think this shot of Lyla is really pretty.

It was much more fun when they got to take rides. First Trey pulled them around on the cart (he was a good sport all day). Then they took turns riding Dudley.

We explored the barn.

And then gathered hay to feed the horses and donkeys.

The we took a break to feed ourselves,

and play around.

We took a swim in Karen's gorgeous pool,

and then helped to cool off the Alpacas who were also feeling the heat of the day.

She has more alpacas than any other animal on the farm (15 or 20 I think), but for now we only saw these two.

This is her one horse, huge and really handsome. He was my favorite and he let me get pretty close without shying. Maggie liked him too, but "the big brown one" was her favorite.

Then we went back for another round of eggs...

...did I mention how much Lilly loved this one?? She ended up going back again with Trey while we were packing up the car.

Then we were off to the greenhouse, but passed the alpacas on the way. Here the girls are watching as they ran together through the field. It was kind of cool to see.

They were pretty skittish and didn't get too close. There was only one that Trey pointed out to us who allowed the girls to touch his nose.

Then they picked veggies from the garden. Maggie and I had the cucumber she chose with some of the fresh eggs for lunch today, and we ate an eggplant for dinner. I'm leaving the tomatoes for Barbara.

A long post, I know, but it was a really unique and pleasant day.