Dairy and Bakery field trip, part 2

Still my favorite shot of the day.

Our field trip to the dairy was simply beautiful. Slightly overwhelming perhaps, but beautiful.

It is one of my dreams to have a little farm someday. I want a dozen chickens so I can have fresh eggs, a huge garden to grow my organic veggies in and three or four acres in which my goat can roam (and keep mowed for me). Of course, I also want tons of trees, so I am not sure where the grass to feed the goat is going to grow, but I'll figure that out later.

And after my trip to the dairy, I am not so sure I am capable of milking a goat...

It was definitely harder then I thought!

Canaan was the first one of the whole group, and he thought it was cool.

The tubes running everywhere were fascinating, and the process they walked us through of this eco friendly, goat friendly, family run dairy was a great learning experience. One of the things I thought was really cool was that the whey they drain off the cheese is fed to their pigs, making them extra tasty (so they say). Even though I am not interested in eating their pigs, I thought that was a really cool way to "recycle"! They sell their bacon in their shop, along with their specialty cheeses. I, of course, didn't buy any meat - but I did get some delicious cheese, both goat and cow!

I learned a lot. The boys had a lot of fun looking at the playful goats.

After our time at the dairy we stopped at the Mennonite bakery down the road. We didn't have a scheduled field trip there, but our co-op's fabulous field trip coordinator had called earlier in the week and asked if there was any way we could have a tour.

The owner of the bakery, a mother of nine herself, was very generous with her time and very understanding of how young minds, and hands, work.

She showed them the giant sized mixer, and convection oven, and some sort of really neat machine that shook the dough into perfect sized dough balls. I didn't get a close enough look at it to see how it worked, but it impressed me from afar!

Everyone got to take their dough ball and create their own shape.

One of my favorite things about a homeschool group is the variety of ages you find, all together. The young ones learn so much from the older one's examples, and the older ones are taught patience, and parenting skills and are also reminded to stay children just a little longer.

Everyone gets to participate.

The pretzels were popped into the oven, and our generous hostess sliced a fresh loaf of bread and gave the children bread with peanut butter while they waited.

My children were in heaven -

Warm out of the oven WHITE bread, with peanut butter. Delicious!

When the pretzels were done, everyone got to claim theirs to take home with them.

I loved this shot - one of my friends put all of her kids in a cowboy hat for the trip to the dairy. (she has four). He was so eager to get to those pretzels that I couldn't even get close when they first came out of the oven!

Luckily I am taller then most of the youngins! (although, just barely). Don't those cinnamon sugar, toasty, yeasty, puffs look unbelievable?!