Since we no longer live in a neighborhood, we found ourselves in a predicament over how to include our children in the festivities. Then we discovered a local Agri-business farm with a special fund raiser for Oct 31 and Nov 1. Earlier in the fall there was a helicopter crash in which the state trooper, pilot and EMS worker were killed while transporting a crash victim to the hospital. This particular farm opened it's corn mazes as a fund raiser for the families of the crash. The event included off duty state troopers and EMS workers handing out candy in the mazes, a costume contest, pumpkin painting, and an animal petting area (goats, steer, chickens, pigs, etc.). There was also a food section serving hot cider among other things! Yum! We found our destination!
Anton decided to go as a guide or hiker and kept getting upset when people said he was Indiana Jones!
Here Isabella, as the Medieval Princess, looking after the herd of goats!
The mazes were fun and I had good intel the majority of the candy was in the easier maze for smaller children. So off we went!
It was very cold that night and Isabella had a difficult time getting through the larger maze when we finally got near the end. The larger maze had over three miles of loops in it, but we had a flashlight, a map, a compass, and Karl the Eagle Scout with us. We made it through in 35 minutes! Isabella did put her coat on about 1/2 the way through, but even my own toes were cold in the wool socks by the end. But some warm cider got our spirit back up and we went off to the barn again to show Karl some of the animals and he was taking mental notes on the barn construction.
Before we left we got a chance to speak to the owner about the farm. She was full of information about goats. Apparently there are only three families in the area that breed their goats especially for 4Hers. She lamented about having a hard time finding an Alpine Buck to breed her Alpine does and then the big crusher, no one around here has Olberhalsi goats. That was our number one choice!! Ok, it was mine because they come from my ancestral home in Bern, Switzerland, but Isabella liked them too. Unless we import some goats, including a buck which we were trying to avoid, we will have to focus on Nubian, Toggenberg, Alpine, or La Mancha (I just can not do these as they have no ears and seem unnatural to me). So it looks like it will be either Nubian, high butter fat and droopy ears, or Toggenberg, the more standard looking story book goat with large output of milk. Well, as we get things finalized for the farm we are learning a very valuable lesson, be flexible!
