Shelburne Farms

Last weekend Brett went out of town for a conference in D.C., so the kids and I decided to do something fun. It was probably the hottest day of the year (and one of the few where it didn't rain this month!) but we braved Shelburne Farms, where I've been wanting to go for awhile.

We got to ride a tractor from the parking lot to the farm. (You can tell Jacob is already hot and we just got there!)

This is what the "farm" looks like. Inside the building are different exhibits, offices, and other things. We had lunch on the lawn first.

Then we saw the Children's Barnyard. They had a cow, sheep, chickens, and a couple other animals. (According to Jacob, they all say "meow".)

It was very kid-friendly and they had a lot of things set up for them to learn more about different farm animals and activities.

Doesn't it look like they're driving the horses? (It's a photo on the wall!)

Jacob  was determined to pet the chickens through the fence. I'm really surprised none pecked him! 

We got to see a red-tailed hawk and this guy told us a little about her. We were the only ones there for that (and really there wasn't too many people at the farm at all that day-- we got there after a big school group left!). Jacob doesn't do well in wide-open spaces like this-- he just wants to run and can't sit still, especially if he's tired, so I had to walk around with him a little or he would have been GONE.

Then we went on a short hike on the Storybook Trail, where you can read a story along the way (although we didn't take the time for that). Jacob was determined that he would walk by himself the whole time. He wandered off the path quite a bit and got mad when I picked him up, but otherwise they all did well.

They had a woodshop, and a cheesemaking room, which wasn't nearly as exciting as I had thought it would be. It was all behind a glass window where they make the cheese so we couldn't see much up close and just had to read about the process.

We'd seen most everything in a couple hours, but before we left, they got to go milk the cow. I can't believe we've lived in Vermont-- where there's more dairy farms than people-- for more than 3 years now and they've never gotten that close to a cow. First Leah held a chicken.

The workers were great at showing them how to milk her, and they did well. Abi didn't want to try, but Leah and Andrew were sure proud to tell everyone of their adventures!