If you ever get tired of the life you're living, just take a giant right turn. Go somewhere unusual for a family vacation with no inkling of the word "vacation" in the title..like "sheep farm." We visited our good friends Betsy and Dan on their sheep farm in Missouri this summer. It was epic. It was amazing. It was full of all the hopes and dreams of what vacations are intended to do for your family rolled into one wonderful week.
The journey there was a 2 day long car ride with a stop over in Nashville, TN. We had never been there either, so we toured atop an double decker bus
While there we visited with an old employee, Laurie, and toured Animax, where she currently works. What a cool place. If you ever see any animatronics in a theme park or movie, they may have had something to do with it. It was a pity they didn't allow pictures or videos.
We arrived in Missouri just in time for dinner. Betsy cooked a meal for us every night and breakfast most days. We were met by the house sheep, or the boys they had to keep away from the girls for lambing purposes. Lots of vocal sheep greeted us in hopes we had food to give them. Alongside the big boys were the babies still being bottle fed.
When I say that this vacation was everything you hope a family vacation would be, I mean it in all the ways you hope to grow closer to your children. In the way of having family time without intrusion from television, video games, phones or the entire outside world for that fact. We had 8 straight days of just loving our kids and having fun adventures from horseback riding to four-wheeling. We explored the caves in Hannibal, MO where Tom Sawyer (Samuel Clemmons) lived and wrote about in his novels. We went geode hunting in a river and spent most of a day banding and tagging 104 male sheep out of a flock that was 3 times that size.
Do you know what there's an abundance of? Flies. Lots and lots of them. Poop as well, everywhere you turn. After a while the smell didn't offend so much and one learns to wear the muck boots to most every occasion. One of those occasions was our very first demolition derby at the county fair. I had no idea such things went on or how hopping a county fair with only 8 rides could actually be. However, we all were quickly lured in by the excitement of the locals as car after car rammed into each other and the crowd cheered them on. With all the lemonade and kettle corn you could handle, it was as good as a night at the movie theatre. The kids spent the night in a tent outside in the yard just for fun. They picked wild blackberries and one day, we were fortunate to meet the Amish neighbors. The father is a master leather-smith so all the boys got new belts. We also found out that Monday was "nut-bread" day on the farm. Sarah makes about 5 or 6 different varieties each week to sell from banana to banana/pineapple, to rhubarb, to zucchini and pumpkin. She does all of this without electricity. Baked in a wood fired oven in a house where the water is pumped by a windmill and one feels like they have literally stepped back in time to a long-forgotten era. I was somewhat envious of them in their pressed little outfits, all handmade and the hat and bonnet clad children who were so well-behaved. Everyone walking around with no shoes but just as kind as could be. I pretty much threw my money at them just to be able to have this belt for my boys that was handmade in this seemingly ancient place.
For a trip that consisted of 4 days in a car and 4 days on a farm, it was by far the best trip we have ever managed. The memories are burned into our souls like the ticks we picked up on the farm...buried deep.
I can honestly say, I never want to be a farmer. I have no desire to care for cattle, sheep, horses or any other living thing. It is truly a never-ending job that starts way too early in the morning.
Blackberry picking
Geode hunting
Elliot and Cooper with the boys and baby lamb
Addison and Sadie Cow dog
My girl on her first solo horse ride.
