This morning, I’m off to a historic farm about 45 minutes from Washington DC.  Rain spits at me when I walk out of the restaurant from breakfast, then stops, leaving cloudy gray skies.

The farm is from the 1920s and was turned over to the county to be a historic site as a living, working farm.  They even sell milk, eggs, and cheese when that’s available.  They also take baby farm animals from other places, like when a mama goat has twins (the mama will ignore the second goat).  Today, they have baby cows and baby pigs.

I’m surprised at how many people are here.  Lots of families, some people walking their dogs.

It’s a popular site.  I arrive about an hour after they open and am concerned that I won’t be able to find a parking spot.  But the farm is big enough that it doesn’t feel crowded.

My first stop is the pigs and this fellow snoozing away.  The pig pen is quite…odoriferous. 

A large light brown pig sleeps against the fence.

Then I spot this beatify, right next to the fence.  Look at those eyes!

Closeup of a black and white cow with brown ears and gorgeous eyes looking right at you.

In a pen nearby, these two calves have a rollicking good time.  One of them stands in a tub of water, splashing around.

Two black and white calves standing in a fenced in pen, one facing towards you.

Circling to the inside of a barn, I find the hiding place for the baby pigs.  There are two different litters, one group a little bigger than the other.  They’re all napping under a red light to keep them warm.  Aren’t they cute?

Nine baby pigs huddle together on the hay under a red lamp. One is black, one pink and black, the others pink

When I wander back a little later for a look, the tiny ones have woken up and are running and jumping all over the place.  They are surprisingly agile and fast!

I walk between two pastures in search of more cows and horses.  I find a goat grazing right next to the fence line and he’s happy for petting.  His fur is nut-brown with a black stripe, quite coarse. 

No cows, and the horses are out in the middle of the field, too far away to see (they are the only animals the farm has signs up about: No petting!).  But then I spot this beauty, though I’d don’t get to see him open his feathers.  His colors are amazing.  The peahens don’t look as spectacular, but they are both huge birds.

A cobalt blue male peacock lifts his head from picking at his eye feathers.

I stop by the historic farmhouse.  That’s closed due to COVID, offering only a virtual tour.  Virtual just isn’t the same.  You don’t get the full experience of the way people lived, even if museum-houses are dead places (there’s a difference between a museum and a historic house that’s lived in).

By now, it’s lunchtime, so I decided to go out to eat.  I’m lucky to grab a pot.  The shopping village is having one of those restaurant days.  You know, buy tickets and get samples.  I don’t pay any attention to the vendors, given the majority are local breweries.  I do check out all the beautiful dogs being walked, including a St. Bernard that is a service dog in training. Magnificent dog!

Back at home, I spend three hours working on marketing tweets.  I have another promotion starting November 1.  My goal is to get ahead as much as possible.  For October, it felt almost like I hadn’t done anything at all because I pre-loaded Tweets—and I did that weekly.  It makes that much of a difference to have them done.

So today, I spend 3 hours—3 hours!—writing two weeks’ worth of tweets.  I want to set as much up as I can so I can ignore it the rest of the month.  And I’m shocked at how much effort and time it takes.