Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Smell that DAIRY AIR!

Today Ed, the kids and I went to Hansen's Dairy Farm in Hudson with Shar, her three girls, Leah, Naomi & Emilia and Olivia and her two boys Viggo & Johan. I've been there two other times for Mom School as well as with Eden's Head Start class last year.

We took the tour of the dairy and traveled throughout seeing the different rooms where they process and package the milk. They also make ice cream, cheese and have their own "retirement program" for the cows... ground beef. The sights, sounds and even smells made for a "scent-sational" outing for us all! I think Naomi had her nose plugged the entire time!

We also went into where they milk the cows and they let us have a turn milking them by hand! The milk was really warm and our tour guide said that it is over 100 degrees when it comes out of the cow! I never even thought about that!

After that, the kids had a chance to whisk up some milk and feed the calves some milk from a bottle! Fran and Skylar were their names, and licking and drooling was their game! I had to try not to gag when I realized they were licking my pants and shirt and I saw a long string of frothy drool connecting us to each other! BLECH! The kids also had a chance to feed them some food, but Eden was not about to have that!

We went over to a smaller pen and saw some wallabies. They were looking for a mascot for the dairy and their son just had gotten back from Australia and he suggested that they have it be a wallaby. Hence... the wallabies in the pen. They liked snacking on dandelion leaves so the kids would stick them through the fence for him to grab and chew on. Their claws are really long! The owner of the dairy was our tour guide and she went inside to grab a baby wallaby. It still lives inside and sleeps in a dog bed! So cute!

She gathered us up and led us back into the garage area where some tables were set up. We had a chance to try some milk and make some butter. That was really cool. Then came the best part, we got to take some samples of their ice cream home with us! Chocolate, Vanilla, Raspberry and Peach. Oh my! It was a really fun outing with the kids. Ed said that he learned alot as well! Fun fun! If you ever go, I recommend going in smaller groups, they do alot more with you!

Emilia, Leah, Oliver and Eden peaking in the window
where they hold the milk.

Oliver milking a cow.
Eden feeding "Fran".

Shar making sure the milk tastes alright!

The kids feeding the baby wallaby some dandelion leaves.

Oliver and Eden learning how to make butter.

1 comment:

Heidi Miller said...

How fun! Wish I could have been there. I also didn't know that Shar lived here again. You'll have to tell her hello from me next time you see her!