Avery's Branch Farm

"But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’"

Zechariah 13:5

2 Saturday's ago (yes, I'm really behind on this post!) we went to Avery's Branch Farm for their annual "Give Thanks for Udders."  We were interested in getting another raw milk share since Daddy has really been convicted that we need to switch back over after reading his cancer book.  Since they have shares we wanted to go and tour their farm so we could decide whether or not this was going to be where "our cow" is.

Saturday morning we got all packed up for a day at the farm!  We just packed Cheerios, fruit, and stuff for our lunch because we were going to have a big dinner that night.

A friend from church, Mr. Johnny Panchison, came on the trip with us since his parents were gone for the weekend and he had nothing to do! :) 

After dropping off some kale at my aunt's house we drove the 1 1/2 hours to Avery's Branch Farm.  The only problem was that we got lost following google maps...twice.  We were an hour later than we had planned and the only way we got to their farm was after Mama called her friend, Mrs. Tara, and got directions from her. 

Once we parked, we got out (it was a little cold but still beautiful) and went and drank some apple cider, ate some cookies, and  before going to watch the movie Food Inc.  Daddy, Mr. Johnny, Hannah, Caleb, and I were the only ones who really stayed in there.  Everyone else was outside wandering around waiting to meet Mrs. Tara who was coming to the farm also!  While we watched the movies some more of our friends, the Kellers, showed up too!  (And we also saw someone from Bread Beckers Pick-Up!)  The movie was very good (even though we almost froze in the barn as we watched it!) and extremely disgusting at times.  I really would like everyone to see it because then they would realize how nasty processed meat is!  Seriously, the videos they had of the meat processing plants was horrifyingly nasty.  And we eat that stuff!

Anyways, after the movie finished we walked around, looked at the different animals, milked a "cow" and met some of the Avery's Branch family.

Milking the "cow"

Eden milking.

The sky was just gorgeous throughout the afternoon.

Some of the old barns.

One of the adorable little cows!

Lydia, of course, loved all the animals.

For fencing they used electrical, but they had it turned off, so Lydia thought she could go in the pen and slyly suceeded before I realized where she was and pulled her out! :)

The cows are so cute!

Petting

Some of their chickens.

I think they were laying beside each other to keep warm.

The sun before dusk.

Some more cows!

Daddy ended up talking to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander (the owners) and one of their sons before we left. Well, actually he talked to them for a long time! :) (He's always very good at making sure he gets to know people)

The sunset before we left that night.

Mrs. Tara May, Mama's best friend from high school, came to the farm sometime during the movie and talked with us.  We hadn't seen her or her family for 1-2 years and since they lived nearby the farm we went to their house for dinner and to visit.   For dinner, we made Mrs. Tara's favorite, Mama's enchiladas, a Taco casserole, and Taco Dip.  For dessert we had brownies!

As the food was cooking, we went outside and watched Mrs. Tara interact with her horse, Garth.  It was so sweet how they communicated with each other!  Mama even got to back Garth up into his stall just by shaking her wrist, hand, and arm!  It was really neat!  The boarding horse they had nipped at us once but that was probably because she got scared with everyone around her.  Thankfully we all backed up out of her stall before she could get us!  The younger ones got to brush  A.J., the little miniature horse, and all had a fun time in the barn even though it was very cold!

Once back inside we talked, laughed, and ate some bean dip and had dinner once it was done.  I forgot to mention that Mrs. Tara has two children, Madison and Montana that we played with too.  Mr. May was working and wasn't home until 10 minutes or so before we left, so we barely got to see him.

I sat with Madison during dinner and then we played Sorry! together.  After that most of us watched Mrs. Tara demonstrate how she makes all of her beautiful scrapbooking cards.  Lexi was all into it because she's very creative and would love to scrapbook!  It's amazing how much scrapbooking stuff someone can own!

Her (Mrs. May's) cards were absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed watching her demonstrate how she did everything!

(You may be wondering what our friend, Mr. Panchison, was doing...he was talking with Daddy!)

We finished off the night with a bite of brownies!  Before we left we tallked to Mr. May a little bit and then got into the car and drove home.  It was around 12 that night when we got home so all of us were really tired!  Mr. Johnny ended up staying the night with us (he got Eden and Josiah's room) and dad broke him into his late night prayer meeting and worship that he does after we all go to bed.  We're going to get a milk share, probably this spring,  from Avery's and we definitely enjoyed the beautiful day talking with friends, laughing, etc.!

All for Jesus,
Kimber :)