Vermont Farming

We went to visit Billings Farm, a farm museum in Vermont. Not only is this next to a national historic park, it even shares a parking lot with said park. So when we arrived there, there was this park ranger, who asked us "Do you know why you are here?"

 

We are still sorry we didn't answer "To seek the Holy Grail."

 

To which he would have replied "And what's your favorite colour?" Nope, we gave the boring "to visit Billings Farm" answer and then later spent some time thinking about all the answers we could have given instead!

 

When we were still homeschooling, we used to go to Billings Farm 'all the time' but after we started public school time was more at a premium and we hadn't been in ages. Oma's visit and the Harvest Weekend were as good an excuse as any to rectify the lack of Billings Farm in our lives.

 

As always we had a wonderful time. There was apple ice cream. The kids got to press (and taste) apple cider. We visited the old farm house. We all participated in some contra dancing. Oma had never done contra dancing before, so it was a perfect activity for her :)

They had old childrens' games to play, so the kids had a blast with those.

 

We spent some time with the dairy cows, the sheep, the horses and of course the chickens. Their barred rock chickens were much bigger than ours, and we found out that they are supposed to lay year round (unlike our other chickens )

 

The weather was just perfect, which was even better when we found out that it had been raining and storming and did I mention raining in the Netherlands. Oma picked the perfect time to visit us!

 

The fall colours are somewhat more subdued, but still quite spectacular, so the drive to and from the farm was very pleasant indeed.

 

It got even better when we spotted a giraffe on a bicycle when we were driving through Woodstock! I mean, how much better can life get after that?

 

Later we had a leisurely dinner with the eight of us. We truly are enjoying every minute of oma staying with us!