Hi Everyone! I’m trying to be more deliberate about taking pictures when we’re out and about so I can keep sharing our little adventures with you. So, this weekend when we drove up to Brattleboro, Vermont to go to one of my most faaaaaaaavorite places, I made sure to have my phone on me. The end result? So many pictures of farm animals. Get ready. 
Our first stop was the Retreat Farm. The farm is great because you get to snuggle baby animals, and it also has a cool backstory of once being a therapeutic working farm for patients of the mental hospital. We’ve been coming here for years, so I feel like I know the animals. So many of them were babies when we first visited, and are now adults that let me scratch their ears, feed them hay, and listen to all my problems.
We usually end in the chick room, but this time we started there. The chick room is literally a room full of chicks. I held a cute little brown striped one and fiesty yellow one. If you’re feeling stressed out, find yourself some chicks. These fuzzy little babies make everything better.
I scratched the donkeys’ cheeks, secretly petted their silky-soft ears, and tried my best to get the baby goats to stop moving for a second so I could rub their little horns.
I also always pick some grass to feed the bunnies. Don’t judge me.
My last, and most favorite animal to see is their Ox. He is an absolutely ginormous animal, and has to have a protective red line around his stall because his horns are massive and he’d probably impale you by accident if he happened to swing his head around to look at something suspicious. He was relaxing in the back of his stall the whole time we were there, but when we were getting ready to leave I went over to talk to him, persuaded him to come see me with a fresh bundle of hay, and then rubbed his face and told him he was beautiful. We have a special connection; don’t tell me otherwise.
Seriously, the pictures don’t make it clear, but his head is about the size of my torso.
The other great part about visiting the Retreat Farm is that it’s right next to Grafton Village Cheese, which is one of my favorites. They make cheese on-site, so if you’re there at the right time you can watch the whole process. There’s always cheese out for sampling, and we can’t help but leave with a few blocks. They also have an entire collection of Vermont-made products from maple syrup to mustards to peanut butter, cutting boards, dog treats, and wine. Prettymuch everything I love is in this one place. 
We got a block of their 2-year cheddar, a block of their maple smoked cheddar, and their new, limited release pecorino. I was in cheese heaven.
After all the farm animals and cheese, we headed out for a hike. The retreat farm has a whole network of trails up behind it, and we decided to walk the ice pond trail. 
We parked at the ski jump, and instead of hiking the trail Kevin suggested we climb the stairs up to the top of the ski jump. The iron stairs are numbered to 187, then there’s wooden stairs to the top.
I counted the rest of the way because I needed to know how many stairs there were. In case you need to know, there’s 385 stairs, plus an extra 20 up the actual ski jump.
We walked halfway down the stairs, met up with the trail, and continued to the pond.
I have a strange love for running down hills. Kevin doesn’t.
We made it to the pond, then circled back to the parking lot.
I found a blue cheese rock; Kevin found a giant walking stick. 
After the hike we drove into downtown Brattleboro to walk around and get an ice cream. I planned to take pictures downtown, but we ended up buying an ice cream for a little girl whose mom couldn’t afford to buy her one, and spent the rest of the time reflecting on our life circumstances. It’s so easy to ignore the homeless and less fortunate members of our communities, but besides the dollar amount in our bank accounts, there’s nothing else separating us from the person collecting donations on the side of the road.
We ended the day by driving up Mt. Sugarloaf for Kevin to catch some Pokemon, then heading home for dinner. (Yes, really, he spent the entire summer chasing after the elusive poke-creatures).
I hope your weekend was full of baby animals, movement, and gratitude. I’m in New Hampshire this week with my family, but I have a new recipe coming your way Friday! Hint: it involves heirloom tomatoes and pie. Get excited!!
P.S. My hair was looking super orangey this day! Some days I’m a brunette, some days I have golden streaks, and then some days I’m mostly a redhead. Hair is a crazy, mysterious thing.