A Morning on the Farm

Many people believe me to be, how shall I put it in a totally cliche way, a "girly girl." And yes, they would be right. I have a Lisa Frank calendar hanging up in my office. I have closets and trunks and drawers overflowing with jewelry. And I nearly always wear pink when I go running, so much so that when I coach Girls on the Run, the girls refer to me as "Coach Pink."

Yup, it's no secret. I love me some jewelry.

But a lesser-known fact about me is that I don't mind dirt. I love any excuse to be outside, typically choosing muddy, rocky, hilly running trails over pavement if given the choice. Most of my childhood was spent chasing after bugs or digging for salamanders to keep as pets. And my fascination with animals big or small, creepy or crawly, fuzzy or slimy, hasn't changed.

Just put me outside, I'll be happy.

That's why when I got the opportunity to go to Heartland Farm Sanctuary for a story that I'm working on, I geeked out. A whole morning with adorable rescued farm animals? Um, yeah, OK!

Just because I'm getting dirty doesn't mean I can't wear cute boots, right?

Heartland Farm Sanctuary is an amazing place where unwanted and/or uncared-for farm animals are taken in and reside contentedly on several acres of land right outside of Verona. I'll be writing about them for a publication, and I can't wait to sing their praises.

My favorite animal on the farm is a pig named Winnie. Read her story. What a little fighter. Well, she's not so little anymore, as you can see from the picture below. She was a big fan of the apples I gave her. I learned today that if you give a pig an apple, you are her best friend for like a minute. Then she'll run away and hide with it like a dog.

Moments later, Winnie disappeared happily with her apple.

I also got to spend time with a bevy of other characters, like Lucy, a spokes-pig for Heartland that can often be seen parading around town in a pink sparkly tu-tu. My kind of girl.

There's a little sunscreen on Lucy's ear. Did you know pigs need to wear sunscreen outside? I learned that today.

Then there's Baby the turkey. If you meet Baby, don't wear red. When I went on a public farm tour at Heartland back in February, I wore a giant red coat. Come to find out, turkeys do not care for the color red. At all. Today I wore green and Baby and I got along much better.

Heartland's official greeter

I also met Jake, an elderly goat who loves to be scratched under his chin. He was making little purring sounds just like a kitty. A really big kitty. With hooves.

Jake's a sweetheart.

Ellie and Lola peeked out to say hello. P.S. Did I name these animals?

Enjoying the summer sun

And I had a little visit with the sheep inside the barn. I think this is Amy and Blossom (otherwise known as the name of my future sheep).

They would have smiled for the camera, but they were feeling a little baaa-shful.

So, all in all, a pretty darn awesome way to spend a Thursday morning. Soon, I'll be sharing more details about the piece I'm writing. If you live in or around Madison, you need to go on a tour. You're sure to get the warm fuzzies. Or the warm pricklies, if you're snuggling up to a pig.

Eventually Winnie hung out with me even though I was apple-less.