Last week we had a group of 80 (!!!!!!) homeschool kids/parents visit our farm. it was a MADHOUSE for about and hour, then...whoosh.....they were gone. Mostly, the kids liked the dogs. I tried to get a picture of the mass pandemonium. :)


I don't recall there being a calico cat for sale on our website, but someone must have ordered one. :) Here is Violet being extremely cute, in a flat-rate priority mailbox. ;)

Last Saturday, Donna and Maggie hosted a bus tour of 52 folks from Oskaloosa, IA. We actually did lots of these tours throughout the summer - I'm not sure how many, but at least a dozen.
The huge tour buses always look a little surreal, parked out in the middle of the country!!!


Donna usually leads the groups on a garden tour, then Maggie helps them in the shop and answers questions. Corralling 50 people is pretty much impossible, so basically they end up doing what they want. They're nearly always kind and polite, and enjoy the dogs (you can see in these pictures that the dogs sure enjoy all the company). Then they all get back on the bus and head off to the next farm to visit!

SO, the other week we hosted a tour group of 4th graders. We don't usually do too many tours with kids, but these guys were great. They were studying the Iowa farm economy, and got to visit our farm, Northern Prairie Chevre, and Picket fence creamery. Note the dogs, cat and goose....they are never far from the action!



Duncan and Ollie think we should have 4th graders visit every day!!!!



Our naturally-dyed scarves are for sale in the shop....



...and don't forget to take a gander at our handspun yarns! (sorry, couldn't resist...)

And yes, Beaker (the goose) is still here, and doing just fine! He's getting big and fat, and LOVES to eat herbs. Parsley, thyme, and sweetgrass seems to be among his favorites. We've been warning against getting *too* fat and savory...we don't want anyone getting ideas about having a hand-raised Christmas goose!!