Last weekend we headed out to our local community dairy’s annual farm picnic (www.ourcows.ca). I was pretty excited as we’d only been out to the farm once before on a cold rainy day, which was fun as well–at the time there were about 7 young calves and a litter of puppies–but it is always nice to be on a farm, in the sun, with smiling children and animals of all sorts playing higgledy-piggledy all over the place. When we got out of the car, I wondered for a second if the event was just meant for families with kids…then the tractor started up and the packed out hay ride lumbered slowly through the farm gate and all I knew was I had to get me a seat on the next ride.

We were just in time for the milking so we headed into the barn to observe the cows come in. It was delightful to hear the kid’s excited chortles as the cows rushed to get in position. Once the cows were contentedly licking up their treat, little hands started reaching out, slowly at first and then with more confidence to touch and rub the noses of their cows.

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