Davis Farmland

“Wow Mama,” Matthew marvels at the sight of a cow head painted on the side of a building with two air conditioner boxes for eyes. I have been meaning to take him here, to Davis Farmland, all summer. Davis Farmland is a park with playgrounds, playhouses, a water spray park, a huge corn maze, and animals.

When we walk into the farm there is a pen of kittens for adoption on our right and a pen of rabbits for petting on our left. Matthew makes a beeline to sit on an out of service tractor in the distance ahead.

After several minutes of pretend tractor driving, I coerced him off the tractor and back on the path that leads to the water spray park.

Along the way we stop at a bull pen of calves being bottled fed. A bucket of brushes are near the fence for guests to brush their fur. “The cows are eating?” Matthew asks me.

“Yeah they’re-“ I pause because when I look over I see that he is using the cow brush on his own head. I show him that they are for brushing the cows and Matthew brushes between their eyes, and their hooves. The calves seem to give me a sideways look to each other, as this boy brushes the tips of their ears and hooves again. As we are leaving their pen Matthew gives them each a shy hug, “bye buddies.”

By now the sun is uncomfortably hot so I hurry Matt along the path and change Matthew into his bathing suit to spend the next hour at the water park.

Now cooled off we trek to a playground with lots of tunnels to climb in that lead to slides. “Happy, happy, happy, happy,” Matt sings from inside the tunnels. He finds that painting a wooden play house with a bucket of water and a wall sized paintbrush fun, which is a play idea I plan on copying at our home. Next we loop back past our cow buddies and over to the field of more farm animals, llamas, pigs, goats, and sheep. Matthew is at ease with all the animals, petting them solemnly at first and then laughing when they lick his hand.

By noon the farm is crowded and we only have a half hour before we must go. We eat a quick lunch at the “Herd Rock” café before heading home. Matthew doesn’t seem to notice we are heading back towards the car because he is excited to point out the buses that he sees in the parking lot. Anyway, almost as soon as we drive away Matthew falls sound asleep in his car seat.