Pat's Pastured

Despite having no particular plans, we ended up with another big Saturday! Madeline kicked off the morning with some tummy time. The cats joined her once again on the periphery of the quilt. In addition to trying to crawl, Madeline made funny faces.

And, as usual, we went to the farmers market. As usual, we ran into friends, this time Mark and Joci. As usual, we got lots of goodies from our CSA farm. Finally, as usual, we visited Hewtin's Dogs Mobile for a delicious lunch on the lawn as Madeline napped.

On the way to the market, Madeline had ditched her hat! But some kind person found it and hung it on a fence-post for us to stumble across on our way home, as we did. Madeline stayed asleep and thus couldn't ditch it again. She woke up, though, when we parked the stroller at home.

She seemed disoriented.

But soon realized that she was at a good place.

We had just enough time to re-compose ourselves before re-embarking for Conanicut Island, making our way over the bridge of uncertain spelling (I noted today that the signs read Verrazzano), past Mackerel Cove Beach, and finally to Beaverhead Farm, where Pat of Pat's Pastured leases land for his livestock.

Several times a year, Pat gives a tour of his operations; today was a tour day. The first stop was an Airstream trailer that doubles as a chick brooder. Summer and Madeline checked it out.

We also saw some turkey poults before wandering over to some enclosures farther afield. Pat rotates different animals across the land in order to contribute to healthy soil, healthy plant growth, and healthy animals. This rotation method seems to be working well -- Pat apparently based it on a book by Joel Salatin, whose farming renown has been chronicled in a section of Michael Pollan's bestselling and brilliant Omnivore's Dilemma; the land and animals look great (and the final products are really delicious). His method means that the animals are spread far and wide across the property. Any extra time meandering around the farm, though, is very well-spent, as the land affords views of the bay and sailboat-filled harbors and general, quintessentially Rhode-Island beauty.

In any event, the pigs we saw next wouldn't allow an easy photo, but the sheep in the next enclosure over were feeling friendly -- and frisky -- today.

Pat showed us how his dog Trav herds the sheep.

Next we made our way to the barn where a farmhand was milking the dairy cows. Perhaps because the interior of the barn wasn't as easily visible as the herd of sheep, Madeline cast her attention elsewhere: on her overall strap ...

... and some low-hanging maple leaves.

On the way to see the grazing cattle -- a mix of Angus, Highlands, and Jerseys -- we met some guard-dog puppies. Conanicut Island has coyotes, and the guard dogs are good at dissuading them from taking any livestock.

Madeline continued from last night her trend of finding dogs fascinating.

She was generally a good sport. At the time of this picture, we were about 90 minutes into the tour.

As we moved on from a group of calves being bottle-fed and a nearby rabbit enclosure (no, they're not eating the invasive plant species; yes, apparently they're tasty) to get a proper view of the grazing cattle, Madeline was happy!

But soon she became distracted.

And then she suddenly realized that she was HUNGRY. Her timing was pretty good, as the tour was wrapping up, but she did fuss until we got her back to the car for a meal. As Summer nursed her, I purchased a pork butt (the plan is to slow-roast in the oven and then finish on the grill with applewood chips -- mmm) and some other tasties.

After her meal and a diaper change, Madeline seemed happy; once we'd irreversably entered a limited-access highway, however, she told us plainly that that was not the case. After twenty minutes or so of her howling and no good place to stop, she finally fell asleep. Back at home, she was happy again!

We had a quick dinner, a grandparental Skype, and then bed. Phew.