Life on the farm

Our trip to Greenakeys Farm was a great hit. As we drove off from the farm 36 hours later, Sarah was crying at the top of her lungs "I don't want to drive. I love the farm." Greenakeys was started by my friends from High School, Mike and Annette Akey. They decided a year or so back that the most prudent use of their 401k's and IRAs was to start a farm. Good call. Now they have 60 acres, 20+ cattle, 300+ chickens (1 flock meat, 3 flocks egg producing), 3 goats, 20 sheep, 27 lambs, 3 dogs, several barn cats, one house cat and probably more that I cannot remember. Such is the danger of participating in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) group.


James really got into the farming. He wanted to "do rounds" twice a day to collect the eggs, feed the chickens, feed the cattle, etc. Each time there were 80-100 eggs collected. By the end, he got a driving lesson on "The Mule" by Annette who is far more patient than me. And he got to "do rounds" three times.


Dad got to leverage some of his sailing skills by re-attaching the tube for giving the pigs fresh water. The lines were still holding 1 day later, so that likely worked out. I also used my electrical skills by installing my favorite home improvement feature of all. A timer for a bathroom fan. No bathroom is complete without it. Martha did four huge loads of laundry and cleaned out Landshark thoroughly. It was a real pleasure to sleep in Landshark that night.

The food was incredible. Everything we ate grew or was raised on the farm. Eggs were part of every meal as you would well imagine, but the taste of the eggs was awesome. Every egg tasted like it was prepared with a substantial amount of butter even when they were merely boiled. The chicken was to die for. We had potato salad with potatos picked that morning and so on.

There were plenty of kids around with our 3, Annette & Mike's 3 and a neighbor's 2. Fun for all. We also visited Gettysburg with half the kids contingent. When we went to the visitors booth, I received a withering look from the ranger when I asked what to do there given 2 hours. Talk about losing ground after saying that we drove out from California to be there.
In the end, Emily (the 11 year old daughter of Mike & Annette) was our tour guide and took us to the "best for kids" locations. Considering that it settled down two very cranky kids (both ours :( ), Emily has a future as a tour guide or teacher. Not sure which.

We finished with a bonfire to burn all of the wood we carried from California and did not use on our trip, but were prohibited from bringing into Canada. The farm is the highlight of the trip thus far.