MOOving along

Last week the boys and I took a trip to DeJong's Dairy in Wildomar.

You'd think we'd be all cow'd out living here in Corona but we were really excited to learn somethings about cows.

It was an overcast almost rainy day, but God was gracious and kept the raindrops away till our tour was done.

The boy's aren't posing, they're actually standing still yet not paying attention to me. The hills and the clouds look amazing in the background.

K is an incredible leader. He helped out so much with cousin L and brudder.

We learned that cows this small are about two weeks old and in just a short time they'll be removed from these pens and placed with all the other cows. 

These large cows are mostly two years old. The boy's were able to feed them hay. They have only top teeth and some back teeth with which they chew the hay, so we were clear of any bites.

J is my brave boy, he LOVES to try new things. He had fun feeding the cows.

He even got licked when he wasn't looking. Mommy was sure to sanitize and wash twice!

And in time, K joined in too.

 I was hoping the boy's could milk the cows, but they weren't. They did however play with the suction machine that does all the milking. They were having a hay day playing with it, no punt intended.

 The kids also watched the large machine that fills and caps the gallons of plastic bottles. It was a pretty neat experience together.

And what would learning all about the cows and milk be if we didn't get to enjoy some cookies and milk!?!?!

(If  you haven't noticed already, I love profile pictures of people)

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm..........

I actually learned a lot that day. 

The farm we visited did not sell organic milk. The requirements to sell organic milk are 

1) Grass grazed cows for 180 days out of the year. And being that the dairy's in Wildomar it's pretty hard to maintain grass during the hot months.

2) No antibiotics for cows, even if they pump and dump the milk. In order for it to be organic a cow can not have antibiotics, thus the cow dies.

We buy organic milk mainly because of the long shelf life. Otherwise, I'd be buying milk nonstop cause we just aren't a milk drinking family. The milk I've been purchasing is Ultra-pasteurized which means it's heated to a temperature of 180 degrees to kill any bacteria for long distance travel (since there aren't that many organic farms), but being heated at such a high temperature also kills the good nutrients in milk. So needless to say, I've been doing some research for some grocery stores in my area that may sell non "ultra" pasteurized organic milk. 

The boy's and cousin L got to visit the petting zoo before we ventured home. 

This is the "can we stop taking pictures now mom?" look.

Our home-school group field trips are slowly dwindling as we're nearing the end of the school year which I'm bummed about. I love getting together with these neat woman and kids.