The 1,300 visitors--a one-day record--watched from a variety of vantage points.In minutes, the first born struggled to its feet, wobbled briefly and turned to search mom's underside for its first meal outside the womb. Is youngest sibling, much smaller, seemed too feeble to get up. The woman toweled it with tender vigor and reached a finger into its mouth to clear it of birth matter. Antoniewicz's hopes for an educational experience were fulfilled. And the place was full of other experiences, though less dramatic. Outside the perimeter of wooden rails enclosing the sheep, spaced every 10 feet or so, women sat in lawn chairs, each holding a lamb in her lap. Children tentatively stroked the lambs and discussed the experience with parents leaning close to them. In one corner, Milestones Photograph from Columbus did a thriving business. The photographer and his assistants shuffled kids and lambs |
in a corner where children had their pictures taken holding lambs or snuggling them as they nestled on hay bales beside them. Ewes bleated their reluctance at loaning their babies to the proceedings. At display tables and booths, farmers and rural crafts people displayed animals and handiwork. Young ducks submitted to yet more patting. A woman turned wads of wool into yarn on a traditional spinning wheel. Mary Wallace from outside Cambridge displayed the art of felting, creating hats, scarves and other items by hand from wet wool, soap and water. Another vendor sold sheepskin slippers and handmade wool products. Signs somewhat inconspicuously showed that this was a real farm, a business where lamb, mutton, eggs, pelts, wool, feeder lambs, breeder stock and rabbits are for sale. Word of the experience has gotten around. This past Sunday, with the barn still open another hour and kids and adults still streaming in, Antoniewicz said the farm had set a one-day record of more than 1,300 visitors. Admission for adults and children older than 2 is $3.50 for the lambing. Easter is the final Sunday, open to visitors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Later, from April through summer, the farm sill be open to group tours, birthday parties and other occasions. Hayrides are an added attraction–once the mud is gone. For more information, call 608-835-5553 or go to the farm's web site, www.a-zfarm.com. Used with permission of The Capital times Back <<1 | 2 >> |
