Return to the Farm

Wow. Here it is a week into the new year of 2013 and I am just now posting my first big update (with the small exception of last Friday). My sincerest apologies. However, that’s what being sick for more than a week will do to a {pregnant} girl’s energy. Kenny and I didn’t even make it to midnight at our friends’ New Year’s Eve party: we were in bed at about a quarter ‘til and stayed up long enough to give each other a quick midnight kiss before attempting to sleep through the massive firework noises going on all around us. (Luckily, Riley handled the booming sounds quite well; we didn’t hear him until the next morning.) And as a result of the sickness we just couldn’t shake, I still have a couple of things from 2012 to wrap up, so here’s the first one: yet another farm trip.

I don’t think I’ve ever taken three trips to the farm in one year, but we did in 2012. One in January, one in October, and our most recent one in December two days before Christmas. All were great fun, and all were special in that it was someone’s first time visiting.

 

This last trip was put together for Uncle Bill, Aunt Elena, Tommy, Billy, and Aunt Dawn, who were all in town for Christmas, and for UJ, who couldn’t join us in October. It wasn’t quite as pretty a day, but at least it wasn’t super cold either.

We got the campfire going, put the pot of chili I had made a couple of days earlier on to warm up for lunch, and hopped on the tractor to go visit neighbor Kim’s horses. Maybe next time I’ll actually be able to ride one of these beauties! Stupid pregnancy rules.

After the horses had had their fill of apple treats, we fit in a little fishing and boating…..

 

…..as well as an impromptu visit from a number of the cows…..

…..before we chowed down on a pretty good batch of chili, if I do say so myself.

Then we jumped back onto the tractor to go find the other group of cows and give them some hay. Feeding the cows is always a fun activity, and everyone really got into it. Even Riley walked right up to one and offered her some. Brave kid!

 

 

Then Kenny decided to put Riley on the back of Snookie Monster, who was hand-raised when she was a calf and thus very tame. Not quite sure what the boy thought of that, but he went with it for a bit. And Snookie didn’t even miss a beat. She just kept on eating.

We were also lucky enough on this trip to find Riley’s cow, Magic. She was too busy eating to pose for a decent picture with her owner, but we’ll forgive her just this once.

There were also four fairly new calves in the group, which Grandpa tasked us with naming. Not surprisingly, we came up with a number of options, but settled on four fitting names. This one, tagged number 57, is obviously Heinz 57.

This one, with the white-tipped tail and whose mother is named Groovy, we dubbed Hippy.

And this one, daughter of Patches, we christened Levi.

The last one we never actually saw, but we named her Domino since her mama is called Sugar. Seemed like the obvious choice.

Once all of the hay had been unloaded and the cows were contentedly munching away, we went to the barn to climb on the huge stash of hay stored away for the winter. This was something we didn’t have time to do on the last trip, and it’s always fun. Even my pregnant self climbed up, carefully of course.

  

Then, after a quick lesson for Billy on how to drive the tractor…..

…..it was time to pack up and head home. Once again, huge thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for opening up the farm to all of my relatives so they could experience the fun that it is.

Everyone told me more than once how much fun they had. It was such a nice relaxing day before the madness of Christmas began, and we all appreciated that.

It was lots of fun having my family there twice last year, but I think my goal for our next trip is to get our friends back up there. We used to have huge friend camping weekends annually but then everyone started getting married and having kids and those trips sort of fell apart. However, most of the kids are now old enough to really enjoy coming along, at least for a day, and Kenny and I would love to host everyone.

But I do have to deliver this child before I go back. While they are lots of fun, these long day trips are killing me right now!