Madeline and the Kids

Madeline meets the kids at Lester’s Farm
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Yesterday, Madeline, her Auntie Julie, and I crossed off another item on the toddler-friendly St. John’s list – we went to Lester’s Farm on Brookfield Road. I first heard of the place when Chris and I were looking for strawberry u-pick farms, but one of my friends mentioned that when she’d taken her little guy last fall, there were a small petting farm area with animals.

The petting farm area is a separate building that is accessed from a path outside the side door of the main building (where the farm’s produce is for sale). There was a donkey, an emu, a cow, two sheep, two pigs, two mature goats, two turkeys, a handful of chickens, and a cage of ducklings. Auntie Julie had a lot of fun feeding the bunch. Madeline liked looking at the ducks and the sheep, but wasn’t too impressed with the mature goats who tried to nibble her sunhat 🙂 Outside the petting shelter, there was a cage with a few little cute little bunnies. Madeline’s favourite part of the farm was the pen further into the field with the baby goats – they were about as tall as she was, and non-threatening enough that she wanted to stick a hand with the 25-cent goat food over the fence and feed them herself! Tricky, as she hasn’t quite figured out that whatever is in her hand falls off if she tips it over! I think she had a lot of fun, and it’s totally free-of-charge (unless a person wants to feed the animals – then bring quarters)!