Birthday at the Farm and Thank You!

First of all I want to thank everyone for the wonderful well wishes for my birthday. I'm beginning to wonder if I want to celebrate at all. The only changes I am noticing are MORE gray hairs sprouting out of my head and these days I can't seem to catch up. It's like someone poured fertilizer on my head. Ugh! :) What causes gray hairs anyway? I hear it's stress but I'm not sure if that's true. If anyone knows, let me in on it.

The farm my girlfriend and I visited was Geercrest Farms in Silverton, Oregon. The day was perfect and the drive was breathtaking. Geercrest is a working and educational farm open to the public for volunteering. They have also opened up their farm to educating grade school children...how to grow and pick vegetables and teach them how to make wonderful meals out of the vegetables. When we were there a group of kids were cooking away in the farmhouse kitchen...some standing on stools because they were too short to reach the counter. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that but there was alot going on inside and I didn't want to disturb. :)

The pictures are kind of going backwards but oh well. If you've noticed, in my old age I'm less and less of a perfectionist. These days it's more like, eh, close enough. Here's a wonderful view from an adorable little restaurant we ate at for lunch in Silverton. It sat right on the river. I mean how much more relaxing can one get?

Here's my best friend Susan, checking the coop for eggs.

Isn't this Peony just gorgeous?

Mr. Handsome Rooster and his current girlfriend. :)

I caught the owner chopping some wood in the back.

I love this window. This picture was actually taken from the porch looking in. There's a little kitchen sink outside...isn't that cool? I can easily see myself doing dishes on a hot summer night here.

Susan getting ready to go into the chicken coop! I'm sure farmers don't usually have a big smile on their faces when they have to do this everyday. Lol!

Mr. Handsome Rooster insisted I take a picture of just him. He was a bit conceited.

Befriending some baby goats.

I'm getting ready to steal some eggs too and I'm oh so happy about it! :)

Finding more furry friends.

A lone Oak tree.

They heard us coming and were so hospitable they ran to greet us!

Why hello there!

The old farmhouse. I believe it dates back to mid to late 1800's.

Eggshells the kids just cracked for cooking.

Seven, count them, seven eggs and we only came out with a few scars from the pecking attacks! We were so proud of ourselves.

Now this brings back childhood memories of mine. :)

Another furry friend. :)

Baby goats. Aren't they just adorable?

Egg laying in progress. Do not disturb.

Freshly picked celery. Look at those stalks!

Here are some artsy black and white photos I took. :)

Believe it or not, I still have more but I didn't want the post to get too long. I had such a great time that day. We also ran into a place called the Oregon Gardens. 140 or so (I may be wrong on that number) acres of gardens! We are planning to go back and hike some of those acres so I'll leave that for another post. I'll share some of the rest of my farm pictures in another post. :)