Many of you are familiar with our rebellion against corporate scouting--The Squirrel Squad! A bunch of families from the neighborhood hookup and do fun kidstuff (like play dodgeball) without paperwork or fundraising. We meet on the first Tuesday for crafty/planning meeting and then the second Sunday we go on a road trip. Yesterday was our trip to Calder Dairy. Many pictures (two albums worth!) can be seen by clicking on the My photos link or pasting this addy into your browser http://homepage.mac.com/wgouine1/PhotoAlbum165.html
This pic is of the gorgeous wooden and glass front cabinets at the little store. They sell all the dairy products produced there. Many adults were wondering about purchasing the geese and pigs. As Sean pointed out they probably have some sort of meat processing off site becasue they prly aren't milking the pigs! I never did get that question asked! The wonderful thing about Calder is they DELIVER MILK to MY PORCH in GLASS BOTTLES!! Yummmm. No hormones or antibiotics--now granted if a cow gets sick she is quarantined and modern science helps her get well but her milk doesn't get sold while she is on meds. The other thing I truly love about Calder's is that they are uber local. The trip took the caravan less than a half hour to drive out to the farm. As an exBrownie leader it was sooo nice to not have to worry about one driver with six little kids in their car. We had 26 adults and 18 kids...nice adult to child ratio! The trip was a fabulous success. We got to bottle feed the babies, we visited the transitional barn (pre teen cows) and then in the milking parlour we saw EXACTLY where our milk comes from. It was awesome. 129 cows--this one was my fave-- isn't she pretty?
I couldn't help but remember when T-rex had to get up at 5am and milk the moos in Bath. He let Matty pet the cows once--but this was quite the learning experience for ALL of us. I think the thing that sticks out in my mind the most was the fact that the mechanized suction devices release when the udder is empty. Having nursed three kids and waking up in a fountain of mother's milk because the little putz ate till he/she fell asleep--and then just let the letdown continue--yeah...I was kinda envious of being completely empty. The nightmarish memories of learning how to "pump and dump" all came back. I have total sympathy for those cows. I think they should all get names. Many of Calder's Cows have names but the teenagers just get numbers till they have a baby. The babies get tagged and numbered but until they join the workforce--they are just anonymous creatures with the most beautiful eyes. Cows are cool. They can pick their noses with their tongues!
