Manor Farm

After such beautiful weather on Saturday, Sunday was dismal! We woke up to pouring rain and Hannah bounding around wanting to go to Manor Farm. So, being the crazy people we are we decided to brave the (by now torrential) rain and go anyway!
By the time we arrived it was snowing, yes really, really snowing, and freezing cold and Hannah was beyond excited........................just look at her face!



Even Dean is smiling despite the weather!
We started off in the barns and met this week old lamb which Hannah was able to pet later in the day.
Then, since we were all cold, we thought we'd visit the Victorian farmhouse and schoolroom.
Had we lived here in Victorian times this would have been Hannah's bedroom - she said she thought it would have been lovely to sleep there as the bed had a huge feather mattress and eiderdown.
She also loved these little girls dresses and wanted to try them on but was too cold - next time she is going to try the red one, or maybe the blue one, she can't decide!
The old kitchen - my aunt had a mangle just like the one behind Hannah that i used to put my dolls clothes through when i was about Hannah's age.
Dean and Hannah practised arithmetic in the Victorian classroom...........
........and i checked out the lesson on the blackboard. Sadly I still can't answer the question 'which has no vowels' after the pictures - do you know the answer??
Hannah tried out the schoolteachers desk,
and checked out the very wintery school yard.
The donkeys live in the field next to the school yard, aren't they lovely?


After all that, and a hot chocolate in the cafe it was time for the animal handling session. The farmer brought out chicks, a duckling and a rabbit for the children to meet. He asked Hannah to look after the duckling for him, she was so pleased that he chose her and trusted her.
After the animal handling session we went out to visit some more animals and found the farmer about to feed the piglets and their mum. Hannah told him how she wants to be a farmer and he invited her to help him with the feeding - she was doubly thrilled!!!

By this time it had stopped raining and we went to see the calves,
and find out about life on a Victorian farm.
Hannah did the Wildlife 'friend or foe' challenge.
She explored the tractors and imagined driving one around her own farm one day.
Then we saw the Guernsey cows were coming in for milking. Guernseys are Hannah's favourite breed and she drinks gallons of Guernsey milk so when the farmer suggested we come back in an hour and watch the milking session we just had to stay for that.
So we had a walk around the pond,
in the sunshine!! Yes, the sun came out at last and we had the full spectrum of British weather ;-)
Explored the hatchery,
and made it to the milking shed.
Where Hannah got to hand milk Lily.............soooooo excited!!!!
We also learned how the milking machines work and the farmer explained all about how to care for dairy cows and how much milk the different breeds produce.
It was really interesting and Hannah said it was the best day of her life so far! How lovely is that? I'm so glad we didn't let the rain put us off, we had such a great day!