We spent a few days on a working dairy farm in Amish country near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The first day we got a tour and learned how everything works. We saw the hutches for the calves, and the four barns for cows of different ages. We saw the milking barn where the cows are milked by machines. Ma had fun milking a cow by hand. The next day, we got to bottle feed the calves! Very soon, we learned that calves are very strong. They would pull on the bottle to get more milk, and we would almost be pulled over. When the milk was gone, the calves went crazy, searching all around for more milk. Another day, I got to lead a calf from the barn to the calf pens.
The farm is family farm, the parents and their two sons in their twenties are the only people there. Every day at four am and four pm the cows are milked. Th family also has to manage the cows’ food, grow the hay, and take care of the cows that aren’t giving milk yet. With 160 cows, it is a lot of work!
One cool thing was that there were tons of kittens on the farm. My favorite was a little gray kitten that was very curious. She always kept playing with my hand. By the RV, there were five kittens that were shy but cute. The farmers said that we could take a kitten, but Ma and Pa said, “No!”
While we were there, we got to feed and brush Sunny, their miniature horse. Sunny ate about five carrots, and when we were done brushing him, there was hair everywhere. Soon after we were done, Little Kid and I got to ride in a tractor. Little Kid loved it! After spending time on a farm, I decided that it would be fun to live on a farm for a little bit, but I wouldn’t want to do it the rest of my life because it is too much work.
