Taking a trip to a working farm can be an exciting experience for the whole family.
Taking a vacation on a working farm can be an exciting adventure, whether you're an adult getting in touch with the roots of your heritage, or you're taking a family trip to expose your children to rural life. However, you need to prepare for this type of trip since it's often rugged, rather than a tame, vacation.
There are three tips to prepare yourself and your loved ones for a vacation on a working farm. These tips are: be prepared to get up early; bring clothes and shoes that can get dirty, and plan on being a team player in regard to farm chores and farming life.
A working farm vacation is not a time to consider sleeping in. Oftentimes, part of the deal with staying at a working farm involves helping out with light farm chores. Some examples of these chores include feeding the calves, feeding horses, mucking out stalls, milking cows, or picking fruits and vegetables. Further, farmers don't sleep in. Most start their day before the sun is up. Therefore, breakfast is served between 7 and 8 AM. Most times, you're expected at the breakfast table at a set hour, and you're expected to eat with the farmer, his wife, their children, and the farm help. A vacation at a working farm is definitely not a time to come to breakfast in your terry cloth bathrobe!
A second tip to ready yourself and your family for a trip to a working farm is to bring old clothes. Since you're expected to help out on a farm, you'll want to bring boots or sturdy shoes that can be in muddy fields, manure, and other slopping ground. Also, bring clothes to work in that are comfortable and can get dirty. The simplest solution is to bring plenty of tee shirts and jeans that you don't mind getting dirty, smelly, and possibly ripped, depending on how hard you plan to work on the farm.
Further, you need to remember that your children will be getting dirty too---and that's part of the fun of staying at a working farm. Just be smart and pack clothes and shoes that can get grass stains and can get muddy.
You'll also want to remember to bring sun tan lotion, hats, and a first aid kit that includes aloe vera for sunburns, bandaids, pain relievers, and ointments for sore muscles and minor cuts.
The third tip is an attitude one because you need to plan on being a team player. Most likely, you're already one if you're planning on vacationing at a working farm. However, if you've never experienced a working farm, realize that you won't be spending all of your time sitting back and reading novels during your entire vacation. Oftentimes, working farms are intended for getting back to nature. So, you end up working the soil on a farm that uses no-till farm equipment, getting eggs from the hen house, or milking goats to be used for breakfast and sold at the farmer's stand.
You also need to be prepared to respect the farmer's family. If the family has small children, they may not want people coming in late at night or being noisy after 9 PM. Further, some farmers may not want you to bring or consume alcoholic beverages on their property. Many modern farmers are conservationists and appreciate the simple life---meaning that you may not have a television to watch let alone many of the modern forms of electronic entertainment, such as video games and Internet access. Your only form of entertainment on the farm may be rocking on a rocking chair with the family, making homemade ice cream, and talking about current events.
A working farm vacation certainly is not for everyone. However, if you don't mind rising early, getting in touch with the land, and doing some hard labor, a working farm vacation can open your eyes to another way of living.
