As we walked back

to the Visitor's Center to leave we passed the restored prairie. We very much enjoyed our trip to Farmamerica no matter what the weather threw at us!

C spent his whole time in the barn

with the kids! He even let them nurse on his fingers. When it was time to leave he wanted to take the babies with us! "My take them home, please?"

After a stop at the Visitor's Center

to view a video on modern agriculture we headed back to the 1850's where we learned about the livestock the pioneers would have had, watched the interpreter milk a goat got to try it ourselves. The first couple of squirts that H squeezed out ended up on her feet. I milked too, much harder to get a grip on the teat than I expected. The goats were Saanan which the interpreter explained were calm and gentle. This nanny was especially so!

In the pantry

was this beautiful built in cupboard. Recognize the hoosier, mom? The stove reminded me of the ones in my Aunt Edith and Uncle Leon's homes.

After lunch we went back to the 1930's site to see the house.

Some interesting things we learned about this home were that it got electricity in 1939 and that it had a cistern under the house with a pump like the one in my garden in the kitchen sink.

Lunch

was eaten in the conference room because of the chilly wet weather.

The granary

solved a puzzle for me. I've had the chance to see several of these buildings with beautiful wooden "stalls". The doorways looked too narrow for any livestock though so I was confused. The wooden enclosures weren't stalls at all but grain bins.

The only dairy cows

currently in the barn were wooden cutouts that the girls had a chance to milk. The sheep and lambs were in the barn, the beef cows in a shed in the field.

Corn Crib and Corn Picker

We

saw the shop, the machine shed, the chicken coop and the hog house. They had duckling, chicks and piglets in the various outbuildings.

For my boys who are motorheads. . .

The Milkhouse

Our interpreter showed us a cream separator, a strainer and old glass milk bottles. My children were interested to learn I remember glass bottles like these at my grandparent's house. They had paper caps and sometimes Gramma(Grampa?) would get chocolate. On our way home we went past a vacant creamery in Courtland.

Our next stop was the barn and outbuildings at the 1930's farm site.

Although,

the stops were not far apart we could ride a tram pulled by a tractor. This was very welcome because it was 42 degrees and raining and the tram was covered!

Then, we went on to the Country Church.