Our Trip to The Farm

On Friday we were able to take a trip to a local farm owned by a sweet couple from our church. Look at all those beautiful Mamas!

As an added bonus, Braden had the day off work, so we were all able to go and make a family day of it. So fun!

Ryder's latest fascination is driving.  Well, that's what he calls it. I've tried to explain the difference between pretending and actually doing, but that's still over his head. He asks to drive nearly every time we go out. As you can imagine, he was thrilled to bits to be able to 'drive' all of the big John Deere equipment at the barn. 

Here's the swather, used to cut and crimp alfalfa. We learned so much from our friends - about cattle farming in Nevada, the equipment, and the effect our drought is having on local farmers. I can't wait to get started with homeschooling, this kind of practical knowledge is going to be so much fun to learn right alongside the kiddos!

Ryder was a little bit nervous about all of the mooing commotion at first, but settled right down as soon as we saw the babies, including one calf who had just been born. So sweet.

I didn't get a picture of the new baby, but here's another young calf. I was reminded of my childhood growing up with calves for pets - spending hours brushing and leading them around the yard. We thought it was so funny when the calves would suck on our fingers. I'm not sure where we came up with it, but we called it 'slipperslime.' This friendly cow is as close as I got to it yesterday.

And then there were the bulls...

This big fella was so cute that I just had to take one more picture.

This morning when I was up at 4am feeding Lynden and listening to the rain coming down, I couldn't help but feel a little bit of relief for the farmers in our community.  The drought Nevada is currently experiencing has been such a hardship that that I breathed a little sigh of relief and thanked God for sending the rain. The livelihood of so many hardworking men and women depends on something absolutely beyond their control.  So, if you think of it, pray for rain.