Just let me start out this post by saying I love cows. No….I adore cows. 
Little cows, big cows, fat cows, skinny cows, black cows, brown cows, Oreo cows, slobbery cows, shedding cows, sleek cows, pregnant cows, skittish cows, clean cows and yes—-oh yes—even the dirtiest cows are the ones that I love.
Yesterday Donna of DonnaHup.com, Jeni of JeniEats and Shannon from Enchanted Acres met Laura and Aaron Cunningham at their Nora Springs, Iowa farm, SkyView, to spend a few hours communing with nature. And cows. Lots of cows.
We started off with a lovely lunch complete with beef raised right there on SkyView Farm. It was amazing. Donna tasted cheesy potatoes for the very first time. I KNOW! This girl was raised in Florida and I guess cheesy potatoes weren’t a thing there but now I think she might just be hooked.
Aaron was gracious enough to give us tractor rides and Jeni and Donna actually drove the tractor. I guess I just wasn’t feeling it so I spared Aaron giving me a lesson but it was great to be in the RED tractor and talk to him about farming and his love of it.
We checked out the cows and the highlight of the day was feeding baby Lena. Oh my goodness. What an adorable little gal she is. Her mom was a young mom and really did not seem to have the maternal instinct needed to feed Lena so Laura assumed the role as surrogate mom and bottle feeds her 3 times daily. She actually took to the three of us pretty well but I suspect it was because Laura was right there with us.
She is adorable. I can not tell you how much I loved having the chance to feed her. Laura mixes up her whey 3 times a day making sure it is just the right temperature. Lena is pretty picky when it comes to her bottles and likes the smaller ones so that is exactly what she gets.
20150423_071057 from Beth Ann Chiles on Vimeo.
We visited with all of the cows when we were there and just spent a lot of time watching them watch us. Jeni and Donna have not had up close experiences with farm animals before so it is pretty fun to watch them interact. Of course there were some barn cats around.
Laura and Aaron farm corn, soybeans and alfalfa as well as raising cows so they have a lot going on. I admire them so much—young couples who commit to a life of farming is amazing to me. They are both passionate about what they do and want to do the best that they can do for their animals and for their crops. I was trying to think of a word that described what I felt when I talked to them and I think it has to be integrity. They are passionate about their farm, their animals and they run their business with integrity and that is such a wonderful quality, don’t you think?
The day was so much fun and I might just do another post later but I had to get some of these fun pictures posted right away. If you are interested in learning more about their operation I know that they would love to connect with you. They are both very patient and willing to answer any and all questions and they proved that when we visited because we asked a lot of questions. Oh and did I mention they have awesome meat for sale? I walked away with a cooler with some ground beef and ribeye steaks that will be grilled this weekend when Chris is home. Yum.
If you want to connect with SkyView Farms you can go to their website and blog by clicking here or their Facebook page by clicking here.
What a fun day with friends. I am blessed. (Yes–I had fun rain boots on because that is how I roll.)
Special thanks to Laura and Aaron for making this the best day ever.
Thanks to Donna, Jeni and Laura for some of the pictures of the group and of myself. I kind of lost track of who took some of them but I appreciate them all!
