Day with the Animals!

Don't be surprised if Brady and I are inviting you to our farm in a few years down the road. (Or maybe a bunch of years down the road.) We visited 3 farms yesterday and petted a lot of animals. In Saco, Maine, we stopped at the Liberty Fields Farm. So many goats! The woman there took the 8 gallons of milk collected daily into delicious chevere cheese. Supposedly it would stay fresh for three weeks in our frige, but it won't be around long enough for us to check it out.

Our next farm destination was the alpaca farm in Shapleigh, Maine, Oak Hill Ranch. On the way, I stopped to buy some cucumbers from a guy sitting outside his house selling vegetables. I couldn't understand a word he said--combine the Maine accent with 80 years of life and it is pretty hard to hear the words! I haven't eaten the cucs yet, but they look good. The only cucumber so far in our garden is only an inch long and not ready for prime time. We did make it to the ranch but it was starting to drizzle.

To stay out of the rain, we browsed in the farm store. I bought a skein of yarn that is rosy-grey and was all from one animal, Big Chief. The woman at the register, one of the owners of the farm, then took me out to the pen to call in Big Chief. He came running to her calls and let me feed him a carrot. He wasn't too interested in me though. One carrot was all he wanted. We also picked blueberries there--very low bush! But, they were free. The farmers were focusing on the alpacas and didn't have time to harvest the berries, so they just let the visitors pick to their hearts content.

After the alpacas, we headed for the Llama Karma farm in North Berwick. The owners, Lynd & Jeanne, showed us their llamas and told us everything we ever wanted to know about llamas. The cutest part is that llamas will actually be guard animals for alpaca! You could have a herd of alpaca and one or two llamas who watch for coyotes! WILD! The llamas didn't want much to do with us. One splashed in its kiddie pool and a few others walked by us eyeing us warily. BUT, as we were leaving and walking back through the barn, I started to scratch one female behind her ears. She couldn't get enough! I had to leave before she got enough ear scratching. BUMMER!

I only took a few pictures because I was doing so much ear scratching of the animals. Gotta love the animals! Or at least the Rocky Cat! I'll let you know when we get more animals.