Working at the cow wash

Yep, you read that right. The cow wash. As in a full grown, 1300 lb (as of his last weigh-in) cow. Maybe I should explain...

A friend of ours, Dionna, over at Nathan's office, has a daughter that is raising a steer as an FFA (that would be Future Farmers of America for all you city folk) project. Somehow, in talking with Nathan's mom one day, Dionna asked if Drew would like to come out and visit her daughter Cayla's cow before it headed to the fair in October. Kathleen thought Drew would love this and passed the invite on to us. Well, come to find out, not only would Drew be visiting Cayla's steer, he would also get to wash it!

Now, if I were to be honest here, I'm not sure who was more excited about this, Drew....or his Momma. I try, really I do, to be a city-loving girl, but there is nothing (and I do mean nothing) better than a barn. I love the sounds, smells, and most of all animals that fill them! And believe me, in multiple barns filled with all sorts of baaing, mooing, oinking, and neighing FFA projects Drew and I were both in Heaven!

Saying "Hi!" to the sheep...

...the cows...

...and of course, the piggies. We also tried to say hi to the mini horses (yep, they had those too), but they weren't up for leaving the tall grass at the end of the field just to come look at some little kid and the adults tagging along behind him.

After we had made our rounds and said hello to most of the animals around the barns, we said hello to this fine fella. Meet Kenny. The introductions were minimal as Drew was itching to get to work washing him. Kenny was very patient and stood still, which gave Drew very little reason to feel scared. In fact, he made Drew feel so confident that he insisted on washing the steer all on his own. We compromised with Mommy standing a step or two behind him, but honestly, Drew wanted nothing to do with a helping hand or a piece of advice on how to wash (unless of course, it was from Cayla...and then he was all ears).

Kenny got a really good wash....on one side. I managed to convince Drew that he could at least use a lift to wash the top of the steer. Not help, just a lift.

And of course, he did the bottom on his own

The other side of Kenny just got a good rinse. 3 yr old's attention spans are only so long...no matter how much fun they are having.

After a good bath, Drew got to feed Kenny a bucket of grain. Happy cow. Happy boy.

And as if the sheep, cows, pigs, and mini horses weren't enough, at the very end we went to see the piglets...

...and Cayla's show rabbit (along with the rest of the rabbits in the rabbit house)

Thank you again Dionna and Cayla! Drew loved every minute of his time out on the "farm" (as he has come to call the ag area at Clovis East high school).