A Visit to the Farm - SOLC #11

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I'm lucky to have a historical farm across the road from my neighborhood. I've always enjoyed the programs run by the park district, as well as just having a quiet place to wander around.  After my morning walk around the neighborhood (hooray - 3rd week in a row!), my 13-year-old daughter A expressed interest in walking over to the farm to see the animals. Even though my knees screamed, "No!" in response to another walk, I took advantage of a positive interaction with my teenager, and I agreed to go.

We started by visiting the chicken area. Roosters, hens and some caramel-white ducks were waddling, clucking or attempting to sleep. We had to laugh when one of the chickens hopped over the fence to waddle at our feet. I guess he thought it was feeding time. When we didn't offer any feed, he hopped over to a bench and used it to launch himself back into the pen.

A fawn and white runner duck

Next we visited the cows and steer (yes, I recently learned that only the girls are cows). Our favorite steer, Otto, was sleeping on his side in the mud. My daughter was vey concerned that something was wrong with him - we've never seen any cow sleep on its side. Of course, as our concern grew, he moved back to a traditional resting position. We felt better that the steer we had met years ago, when he was a mere three months old, now looked fine.

Finally we walked to the far side of the barn and stood at the fence across from the draft horses' stall. A made kissing noises and called sweetly to the horses. One popped his head out, then walked right out the door and over to the fence, nudging her shirt with his runny nose.

"Aha!" A exclaimed, "I'm a horse whisperer!" As she pet the horse's nose, a large family with small children approached. The horse saw them coming and backed up away from the fence. His fellow draft horse came out of the barn, but neither put their heads over the fence.

We returned home with smiles on our faces. We laughed about the horse, sharing the story with my husband and A's older sister. I'm glad I took the time to visit the farm.