Family Farmers

As some may know we (the kids and I ) are visiting MN where lots of family and friends live. My dad needed a visit from his "baby" and she needed to see her dad since he had a heart attack and worries were flying.
He's doing alright for now, although concerns are still warranted. But since the long drive was made with 4 children in tow we decided we needed to do lots of visiting. We've not been in these parts in over 6 years!
Today we drove to Exeland, WI, a TINY little town in the heart of WI where my cousin runs a dairy farm. I have to tell you, this is by far one of my most favorite places in the whole world to be! I know years ago I blogged about growing up visiting my uncles farm in Exeland. Well, he's not farming any longer but his daughter married a farmer and I've visited as often as I could over the last 20+ years. I even lived in Exeland for a year in 92/93. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this place.
So today's post isn't about St. Brigid Farm, it's about the Zesiger Farm in Exeland WI. Here are tons of pictures from that visit.

Above are just some cows lazying around. Below, Joseph and Nicholas have found some new friends. Barn kittens. And they LOVE to be held and played with! All day long I kept hearing, "Can we take one home with us?" This would come with "ideas" on how to make it work in the 1700 mile car trip home. :)


As I said, they love to be held. They would just plop there on your shoulder and stay.



The kids found some of the kittens in the hay bales.
Kelsey jumped right on into chore time. Every day at 4pm starts "chores". She scraped the center isle where they walk up and down to milk the cows. Then she swept their mangers, pushing the feed back into place for them to reach it.
In the above picture of Kelsey you see she is scraping manure into the gutter. Below you see Nicholas absolutely fascinated by this system. The gutter is turned on and these little arms move along the gutter to scrape it. They reach this part of the system where they run over a deep hole where the manure drops and a device scrapes the arm off and it moves on. He stood there the entire time it ran to watch it move. He even informed me that at times it "wasn't working properly."

Here is again, 15 minutes later watching the gears move and the arms get cleaned off.
Joseph and I went to the calf pen while everyone was getting ready for milking. This little calf, Starbust, wanted to lick and lick. I was standing there and this big huge tongue came out and was trying to reach my shirt, hands, camera. LOL It was so funny. I tried to get a picture of the LONG tongue but it was difficult.


This calf is yet unnamed, but she was curious too. Wanted to smell Joseph. I love this picture.

Charissa was the only one to climb up into the hay loft. She thought it was pretty cool.

Charissa is washing an utter and then she learned to put the milker on as well. She really jumped in there and was helping out. She really enjoyed herself. Notice the cat in her lap. That cat would jump up into anyones lap that was sitting like this working on a cow. I first saw it in my cousins sons lap. It was so funny.

Kelsey's helping was Ellyn. They name ALL their cows. They don't just get a number. This was Kelsey's favorite because of the color. Beautiful. I think the breed is called a "milking short horn" .


In this picture Joseph is helping wash a cow and he has on his hiney the cutest little stool that attaches around the waist while milking, for this exact purpose. He begged and begged to try one out and so I tightened up the belt to see if it would fit. It sure did. He walked around like the big guys and it made his work easier. LOL Seth, my cousins 22 year old son, got a big kick out of it.

Here is Joseph and his little seat.

After chores were all done the kids were rewarded with a ride on the ATV. They had a blast. Here is a very cool picture of the first ride. Kelsey and Charissa are on the back, Dave (my cousins husband) is driving and Christina (my cousins youngest daughter) is on the front.





It took awhile but Joseph decided he wanted a ride so he sat behind Dave and hung on for dear life. He had a blast!


I wanted a picture of the whole farming family before leaving. Joseph decided he needed to be a part of the family. Since we just finished barn chores they are all in their barn clothes and dirty. Thanks Zesiger family for a great day! I miss you all very much!

Help Poulsbo Farmer Market Be America’s Favorite Farmers Market!

It’s summertime and that means two things: 1) There are loads of delicious farm fresh produce available at Poulsbo farmers market every week; and 2) American Farmland Trust’s America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest has kicked into gear and we need your votes to win!

The process is simple. To vote for our market, all you have to do is:

1.) Go to www.farmland.org/vote

2.) Type in Poulsbo; and,

3.) Click “Vote”

That’s it. That’s all it takes to bring Poulsbo one step closer to being America’s favorite farmers market!

Now American Farmland Trust has introduced leader boards where you can keep track of the Top 5 markets receiving votes in WA.

Want to support multiple markets in WA? Search by state and you can vote for more of your favorites - just remember, you only have one vote to cast per market!

According to American Farmland Trust (AFT), the purpose of this contest is to re-connect local consumers to local farms, with the ultimate goal of keeping our nation’s farm and ranch land productive and healthy! Buying at the farmers market keeps money in the local community and helps farms and ranches remain economically viable. By voting, you’re helping support farms and communities across the nation. As American Farmland Trust says, “No Farms No Food™!”

So don’t forget to vote for Poulsbo at www.farmland.org/vote and spread the word! Big thanks to everyone who has already voted!

But really if you have a local farmers market you love than vote for yours. The point of my posting this is to promote farmers markets all over the USA. Shopping at farmers markets is so important and so awesome. You are supporting your local community and getting farm fresh produce that cannot compare to that which is shipped into your grocery store from thousands of miles away.