Visiting Cloudland Farm

Remember a couple of weeks ago, I said we were going to visit Cloudland Farm... a family farm where the animals have acres and acres and acres to roam and graze on lush green grass?  Well, here are some shots of those happy animals.

Of course, now it's winter, so instead of grazing on that lush green grass, their meals have become bales of nutritious hay.

As soon as the pigs saw us come to the fence, they came running!  I'm sure they thought we had a treat.

"Hello.  Have anything for me?"  He was pleased just to have me pet his head.

The bovines were less interested.  Finally, this one decided to meander over and see why we'd come to visit.

And once dear R301 made the first, brave move, the others decided they'd follow suit.

I love the long tufts of fur (hair?) on their heads.

I think they're lovely cows.  No one came near enough to the fence for us to pet them, though.  They remained reservedly brave... just out of arms reach.


"Happy animals provide true happy meals."  ~Joel Salatin, Farmer/Owner Polyface Farm

 It's a beautiful drive to/from Cloudland Farm.

 Once Joe and I invest (soon) in a chest freezer, we're going to get our meat from them.

After seeing the big guys at Cloudland, we went to the nearby Billings Farm and finally saw baby animals!   This little guy is just eight days old.

A super quick and blurry snap of Aria petting the baby cow and he returning the affection with a lick of the wrist.  Aria is such a brave, uninhibited little toddler-girl. 

And that reminds me.  Just yesterday at work I was looking over a lecture for our students on the physical exam of children, and I learned that at 1 and 3 years old, Aria and Kingston are officially considered a toddler and preschooler.  They've grown out of the infant and toddler stages, respectively.  Time doesn't march on... it speeds by at warp speed!

After visiting the farms, we came back to our house... fun with toys!  I missed it - Kingston had just been wearing those glasses while he inspected the tank.  It was pretty cute!