Lions and Tigers and Bears. . .

Today the MOMS Club visited a nearby exotic animal rescue, where we saw lots of cool animals, learned a lot about them and learned a whole lot about why they aren't pets.

Birds like macaws live to be 80 - 100 years old. "By the time you're old enough that you can afford to buy a bird, it's a given that it's going to out-live you."

"Everybody thinks that monkeys are cute, but it's like living with a two year old. For forty-five years."

Baby emus.

Ponies and adult emus.

Cougar

Coatimundi

Bengal tiger

This peacock is molting, so we were able to bring home a feather that we found.

Llama

Lions

While we were looking at the freaking lions, for the love of Pete, Peeper and T's girls where petting the kitty cat. Seriously?

She is a peacock. This is her feathery tail.

Fallow deer.

This is Woody the alpaca. "He can't live with the llamas, because he likes to make babies."

Am I the only one who wonders if that's how he got his name?

Off-task. Again.

After the tour, we had a picnic lunch and then headed home. We were riding with T and her girls. On the way home, as we were approaching a well-known area landmark that's part candy store, part toy store and all, um, elephant museum, I said, "We should go there."

What I meant was, "Hey, you should put that on the MOMS Club calendar," (T is one of our two Calendar Girls this year, scheduling all the activities.) but she said, "You want to?!" and pulled in.

She didn't say a word to the girls, and just waited for K to figure it out. There was squealing.

It was Peeper's first time there, and of course, she loved it.

This is Miss Ellie Phunt. She weighs 500 pound, and can bat her eyes, wiggle her ears and talk.

See, I told you there would be bears.

A cow pretending to be an elephant. Of course.

Wizard of Oz snow globes. Lots of them.

We each bought some mint chocolate fudge, but I didn't get any photos of that, because I was too busy eating it.

Down On The Farm

This morning, the MOMS Club went over to the local women's college, which is just a few minutes from our house, and toured their "Center for Sustainable Living" which includes a Community Supported Agriculture farm. Their booth is where we always start when we go to the farmer's market, so when we met a couple of the actual farmers (a student and an intern, I believe) at the end of the tour, they were like "Oh hey! We know you!"

It was really interesting, and I think the kids enjoyed seeing the veggies growing and the handful of animals, and I think I'm leaning toward buying a share or maybe a half-share in the CSA next year.

I've looked into it before, and always decided that it just wasn't worth it because we would eat so few of the things that they would give us, but when I looked the big chalkboard in the barn today, and saw the list of foods provided in this week's box (damn, I should've gotten a photo of it!), I don't think I saw a single thing on the list that we don't like (now)!

When I read about it on their website, the only things I saw that I really don't think any of us would eat were cabbage and cauliflower, and now that I think about it, I could put cauliflower in a "sneaky chef" puree, so now we're down to cabbage, and I'm sure we could give that away to someone.

If you get the full share for the whole season (May - November, every week) it's in the neighborhood of $500, which sounds like a lot, but it comes down to about $20 / week, and I'm spending close to that at the farmer's market as it is.

You can do a half-share (same days, every other week) for considerably less, and if you put in volunteer time on the farm, that brings your cost down even more, but I'm a little hesitant to commit to that.

Anyway, here's our tour:

We're Special Guest Stars Again :-)

Check out my guest post on Today I Ate A Rainbow!

Sunflowers

Here's our sunflower "house." Not sure what happened to the other side of it. Shrike thinks it's the shade from that tree by the shed, I suspect the bunnies.