Lake County Farm Park

We took a field trip with Nana today to the Lake County Farm Park. The annual quilt show was on, and we had a great time looking at all of the different submissions. In addition to the prizes awarded by the judges, there will also be several 'People's Choice Awards', determined by votes placed in the ballot box by the door.

We went through the whole exhibit several times, as we all decided which quilts we would be voting for. It was hard to decide, and we each chose different ones. I think the Sunchild had a lot of fun spying from behind the different quilts. He is very much into hiding these days.

It didn't feel very much like Spring yet today, but the animals know it is approaching. There were all sorts of new creatures in the barn at the FarmPark. We saw baby Nubian goats, tiny lambs, and 3 day old piglets too. Next door to the newborn pigs were a litter that were about a month old, and they were a riot! The pounced on each other & played like little puppies. I tried to capture some of their antics on video, but they calmed down as I pulled it out. Then the Mama Sow rearranged her bulk so that the piglets could nurse. I did manage to capture that on the camera, and it was rather amusing.

Before we left, we visited the stables, and hung out with the horses for a wee bit. There was a massive black Clydesdale mare named Jennifer, who caught my eye. The Sunchild approached a woman who was grooming a mule. She was a FarmPark volunteer, who made time to come down & exercise some of the horses there. We watched her ride in the arena for a while before we left.

In the main building, they have a space known as the 'Dairy Parlor'. They do milkings in there, and if you time it right, you can watch. We missed the milking time, but we were there for a demonstration. One of the staff brought a beautiful Swiss Brown Cow up onto the milking platform, and described for the small audience what the various tubes & devices were for. Then he invited us all up to give it a try! The Sunchild wasn't too sure that he wanted anything to do with that, but I convinced him to come up & watch me do it. Of course, once he saw how easy it was, he wanted to give it a try as well. He managed to do it on the first go. We both got a thrill out of trying something new on this trip!