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I was amazed my grandfather could squirt milk straight from the cow into a cat's mouth.
Milking time was one of the highlights of my childhood visits to my grandparents' farm in southwestern Minnesota. For a city kid like me, it was a magical world.
I wish my kids could have that experience. I wish they could sit on the hog house roof and toss rotten apples to the grunting pigs. I wish they could feed ear corn to the horses through the fence and play on a barn swing.
I can't give them a summer on a farm, but recently I did find a way to give them a taste of farm life. I took my two elementary-school-age sons and my toddler to the Hugo Animal Farm in Hugo, where for the past three decades, Sharon and Tom Pogreba have been giving educational spring and autumn tours to families and school groups.
The farm is well run and tidy, but the ground is still mucky. After driving up a bumpy and winding driveway, we parked on uneven ground under trees in the farmyard just as a bus was unloading families from an early childhood education program.
We joined their group and walked across the barnyard. It was still soggy from rain that morning, and I was glad I had put the kids in boots. One mom wore slip-on shoes, which slipped off in the mud.
One of the nice things about the Hugo farm is kids can pet or hold the animals, so you get a sense of intimacy you don't get at a larger operation or zoo.
"They get to pet just about every animal on the farm, except
We stopped first to see a week-old black goat with white stripes over its eyes and white legs. It wagged its tail like a terrier as it slurped from a big bottle. The children were allowed into the pen, and every child got a chance to pet the goat and a lamb, whose wool coat felt like berber carpet.
When we walked out of the pen, the toddler demanded, "More animals!" That was to become her refrain throughout the morning.
We saw a tom turkey that fluffed up his feathers when he noticed us. We saw lots of hens and learned that young hens lay little eggs and old hens lay big eggs. We learned that the color of an egg depends on the species and that chicken eggs come in more hues than white and brown.
"This is my favorite," said the guide, holding up an egg that was a pale greenish blue.
We saw two Holstein calves and a half-dozen piglets that ran away from under their heat lamp and tried to hide behind their massive mother when they saw us coming. I knew why when the guide reached over to scoop up a piglet in his big hands.
"More animals!" said the toddler.
We held week-old ducks, light as a glove, and tiny turkeys that were just getting their first real feathers. We jumped off hay bales into a pile of straw and then watched "Farm-hand John" plug in the auger and bring down corn from the granary. He demonstrated how a big metal screw rotates in the tube to transport the kernels.
"Archimedes," he said with a sly smile to the parents, as the corn poured into a metal pan. "Yup, the magic of an inclined plane."
Each child was invited to scoop up a handful of corn and carry it across the yard to dump into a trough where a half-dozen young steers lapped it up with their impossibly long tongues.
"More animals!" said the toddler.
We sat on the floor of a shed and passed a gray kitten from lap to lap, followed by chocolate Lab puppies that squirmed and squealed like pigs. We patted big Belgian draft horses and watched a mama Shetland pony trot around her pen with a gangly foal that had been born two nights before.
"More animals!" said the toddler.
But even good things have to end. Finally, there were no more animals to see. There was, however, a ride in a flatbed wagon behind an old tractor that belched diesel fumes.
On our drive home to St. Paul, we passed the agricultural campus of the University of Minnesota and caught a whiff from the barns. It reminded me of childhood summers, and I smiled. But my kids wrinkled up their noses. I guess one morning on the farm isn't enough to make manure smell good.
MAJA BECKSTROM CAN BE REACHED AT 651-228-5295. FAMILY OUTINGS / THE SCOOP
What: Spring animal tours at Hugo Animal Farm
Where: 9441 180th St. N., Hugo
Information: 651-433-4455 or hugoanimalfarm.com
Hours: 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-noon Saturday. Through June, open again for fall tours. Reservations required.
Cost: $6.75 per person ($6.50 for groups of 25 or more)
Target audience: All ages
Crowd pleaser: Holding kittens
Avoid: Barnyard muck on nice clothes. Folks, this is a farm in spring. Dress to get dirty.
Tip: Bring sanitary wipes to supplement the available cold water and soap. Bring a picnic lunch to eat at outside tables or under the shelter.
SPECIAL EVENTS: CALL TO ARRANGE BIRTHDAY PARTIES OR EVENING TOURS. MORE WAYS TO GET BACK ON THE FARM
— Maja Beckstrom
