Great Brook Farm State Park

Stumbled upon the Great Brook Farm State Park in Carlisle, MA while looking for new places to visit. We didn't know what to expect but on the website, they said there was a petting zoo, it was a dairy farm and an ice-cream place.

We bought some feed and Sonya and Clara had a lot of fun feeding the goats and sheep.

Clara didn't want the goat to touch her hand so they came up with an ingenious way (with some help from me) to feed (or is it torture?) the goats. They positioned themselves on either end of the fence and took turns to place the feed on the wooden fence. Sonya started by feeding the goat at one end. While the goat was Sonya's end feeding, Clara placed more feed at the other end. The goat would go over to Clara and ate what she placed while Sonya placed more feed at her end. This went on till they ran out of feed :)

They had so much fun, they wanted to feed the sheep next. By now, they are both more comfortable with the animals and they both fed the sheep out of their hands. The sheep were also more gentle :)

If you look at the photo below properly, you can see Sonya had her tongue out mimicking what the sheep was doing :)

It was a dairy farm so there were lots of cows - 120 at least if I remembered correctly.

There were also 2 pigs...

And ducks and chickens too.

We went just at the right time to join in the milking tour. A DCR guide was there to bring us around the farm and the barn to see the cows and how they are milked.

She showed us the straw and corn mixture the cows ate throughout the day and everyday.

Because it was a dairy farm, all except one were female cows. The bull is the white one with the ring in his nose.

This is where the farmer store a whole year's supply of food for the cows.

We went into the barn to see mummy and baby cows.

The photo above was a pair of mummy and baby and the ones below was another pair. One of babies was just born the morning we visited!

The photo below is another pregnant cow ready to give birth anytime.

The cow below was by herself recovering from something.

We walked through a narrow pathway with cows back facing us on both sides, braving the "danger" of being pee or pooped on anytime. Luckily, nobody did.

All the milking was done by machine and the milk gets pumped into a tank in the adjoining room.

Next, we went outside to see more calves that were slightly older. By the way, as I mentioned before, this was a dairy farm so only female calves get to stay on the farm. Male calves get sent to another farm and presumably end up being roast beef or steak. The females who get to stay on the farm doesn't get an easy life too. They may get to live longer than their brothers but they start having babies at the age of two and thus produce milk and according to the guide, they give birth about once a year through artificial insemination. Their life end when they cannot produce milk anymore.

It made me think about how our needs make life rather miserable for the animals. A while ago I watched the film "The Cove" which is a documentary about how Japanese fishermen in Taiji catch and kill dolphins for aquariums and for their meat. Then I watched some videos on YouTube about how chickens are kept on commercial farms and eventually how they are killed and prepared. How can I forget the video of Sarah Palin and the turkey she had for Thanksgiving. And then there were the worms I found in the fish I was about to cook. All these might just make me turn vegan...

Back to the calves. Clara really loves animals. She was petting the calves. I think she would bring one home if I let her!

Sonya was trying to pet this one without being licked. The cow won :)

Got ice-cream for Sonya and Clara before we left. Sonya wanted a chocolate one as usual. Clara, the more adventurous one, chose cherry instead. She is really making her way through the flavors. So far - blueberry, watermelon, mango and cherry.

The farm was in a state park so the surrounding scenery was beautiful.

We saw a boy running over to ask some kids if they want to see the snapping turtle that he just caught. We joined in of course :) He caught it with a net and I only managed to snap a photo of it when his father released it back into the pond.

More blackmail photos to show Sonya and Clara when they grow up :)