Blackacre State Nature Preserve and Historic Homestead

Earlier this week, we met Tonya and Carlton out at Blackacre for a morning of farm fun. It's only about 15 minutes from our house, but I've never been out there before. I had heard of it, both back in my environmental education days and as I was looking at places to volunteer--I'm really glad we finally made it out there. Next time, we'll have to take some snacks to feed the farm animals. They were sweet, even without treats for them.

First stop, of course, was the old blue tractor:

The very sweet baby horse saying hi to Lewis

The more timid baby cow 

Checking out the waterfall

 This pond will come back into play...notice Lewis' clothes now vs. later in the visit. :)

 Up into the hay loft

Lewis was a bit scared of climbing back down the ladder, understandably! This old barn reminded me of when I was a kid, playing at my friend Ellie's grandparents' farm, in their hay barn. So many fun memories. :) 

 The goats were a little less willing to hang, since we offered no treats. :)

A plane!

 Best buds

I am cracking up at how dirty Carlton's pants are--he found every mud puddle. :)

'Fishing' in the pond

A few minutes after this, Lewis stood up on that rock, verrry slowly and dramatically lost his balance, and went head over feet into the pond. He was noooooot happy about it. Thankfully Tonya had brought a fresh change of his clothes (from falling in mud at their house the last time we were out there). So it worked out! He did have to put his water-logged boots back on, but he was okay with wet feet.

Playing with Lewis' toy tractors

From then on, we stayed off the rocks and just hung around the perimeter. :) And Carlton lost his pants at some point because of how wet they were. Oh, boys. :) 

 Back to the tractor

Lewis was yelling out, 'I need a trailer!' and 'I need somebody to get the gate!' That might have been what Carlton was doing in the picture above...maybe? Who knows. (He's barely there on the left, messing with the gate.)

Saying hi to another sweetie--she was a very big/tall girl and very sweet (and slobbery) :)

It was a great morning with perfect fall weather. We'll have to go back on a weekend, too, when they are open for tours (I think Sunday afternoons, only). Lew would be happy just going back to play on the tractor, I'm sure. :)