Blessings and Joys: Old MacDonald Had a Jersey Farm

Wow, what a great day! We've been so lucky or blessed to be able to go to lots of different places lately. This seems very unusual for us, but we are certainly enjoying it and today we learned a ton at stuff at The Jersey Barnyard. I've always wanted my kids to go to a petting zoo, but this was better because it was a more natural setting. We were also so glad that Grandma Janie got to come with us on this adventure!

The Jersey Barnyard is a 750 acre jersey milk cow farm. They have a farm store, pigs, goats, chickens, rabbits, ducks, wild turkeys, a donkey, miniature horse, longhorn, calves and of course the jersey milk cows!
Some things I didn't get a picture of, so let me tell you about it!
We got to pet, Booger, a pretty black rooster. He had to live in a nice cage because he couldn't get along with the other roosters. This chicken had spurs over an inch long! But he was very nice to us and let us pet him. Actually, I think Grandma Janie and I were the only ones to pet him. Next we met a nice little hen named Irene, and Zane got to look in the nesting boxes that the chickens laid eggs in. There were three eggs in there and one was still warm!

Next we got to feed cheerios to rabbits, Toffee and Oreo. Rachel really liked feeding the rabbits, but the chickens also liked the cheerios, so we had to distract the chickens with cheerios, so Rachel could get up close to the rabbit cage without the chickens being underfoot. :)

The ducks weren't very hungry, but according to Rachel, they were her favorite thing on the farm!

Zane's favorites were: milking the cow (that he actually didn't milk), feeding the calf, the hayride-and maybe just all of it! After we finished we had to say goodbye to Howdy, the longhorn.

Here we go! It was a very foggy drive, but we made it, no problems!

Rachel meeting Howdy, the longhorn cow! She's a year old.

Checking out the goats.

It was definitely a fun family farm!

Our fearless leader going through the hay maze! Perfect for Zane!

Dead end!

I thought I could just hoist Zane up there, but hah, we only made it half-way and he had to scoot backwards a little bit to the top. :)

A serious discussion about why one had blue baling twine around it.

Goatee!

Feeding this friendly goat some grass while we waited for our tour.

Start of the tour! Howdy ran-fast-when our nice tour lady had some treats for her. It was surprising how quickly she got there from the other side of the pen. And for some reason I only thought bull longhorns had horns. Not true!

Grandma Janie fed the donkey!

Rachel trying to feed the miniature paint horse! She accidentally dropped it on the ground, but it enjoyed it anyways!

I had to take a picture of the back of this donkey. The lady said that "legend" has it that all donkeys have a cross on their back because Mary rode one while going to Bethlehem where she would give birth to Jesus. I think it's interesting and neat how a marking can remind people of Jesus.

Zane looking at a fainting goat. He didn't faint while we were there. :)

Oink, oink!

Checking out the ducks!

Wild turkeys!

Rachel fed a baby calf! We found out that all calves are taken from their mothers and bottle fed until they are weaned.

Zane fed a calf too! Ours drank that milk in like 15 seconds!

Zane's calf.

Rachel's calf.

Rachel fed the alpha goat!!! She was so brave!

Checking out the pigs!

Taking a break.

We had a few minutes before the tractor came back with the hayride for us, so we ate our sandwiches.

Zane's was gone in a flash!

On the hayride!!!!! It was so bumpy!!! And fun!!!!

He is so big! Sat all by himself! He really enjoyed this trip.

Grain silos! These are not in use now, but used to store grain to feed the jersey cows. The family that owns the farm have since decided that they will only have grass fed cows, so the silos are just there for show now. :)

Not quite ready to touch Peanut, the jersey milk cow.

It didn't take long!

Grandma Janie and Rachel milking the cow!

Momma and Rachel milking the cow!!!

Zane didn't actually milk Peanut, but he was willing to touch her! She was warm and soft. :)

The tour lady said something about hip bones and rib bones showing on a dairy cow being normal, that they were healthy, but I didn't hear exactly what she said. But this nice cow, Peanut, is 12 years old and pregnant-maybe 5 or 6 months along and they are pregnant for 9 months! I did not know this!

Hello, cow! :) :) :) :) :)

This calf is one week old! Another little boy named him Elmo. :)

My future farmer!

In the milk parlor learning how the cows are milked. I don't think the kids were really interested, but us adults were. It sounded very sanitary and was very clean in there. It gets cleaned after every milking which is twice a day. This farm has about 85 cows that are milked. After they are milked, it goes into a holding tank which cools it immediately to 36 degrees. So neat! They sell their raw milk for 8.00 a gallon!