Helpful Mom

In the pursuit of finding new places to take the kids I found this one thru a friend who now lives in Buffalo.  It’s a small farm in Clarence, NY outside Buffalo about a 1 hour drive from Rochester, NY.    Kelkenberg Farm is open year round by reservation only.  You need to either call or email them before visiting because they do full guided tours of the barns and introducing their animals, hay rides, and pony rides all included in the price of admission, $7.

learning to milk a goat

I emailed to pick a date and they replied within 24hrs.  During the spring they are open most weekdays from 10am-1pm.  It is field trip season for schools so you can pretty much pick any day to go on your own and just join up with a school group and go along for the tour and activities.  An added bonus of that was we only got charged the group rate of $6.50.  In the fall they are open on weekends too and their prices are $7.50 a person which includes a pumpkin for each person.  Also note that in the spring they only accept cash or check, but in the fall they do also take credit cards.

Katrina's first pony ride

I say it’s small farm but that’s when I compare it to Springdale Farm in Spencerport, NY which is a full working dairy farm.  This is more of an educational farm for families.  They do an amazing job of teaching the children in an engaging way and they have made it very hands on.  You start out touring the horse barn where you get to measure a pony and pet him.  Then you get to check out the turkeys where the tom is showing off, did you know turkey eggs are speckled?  We got to pet a chicken too.  Afterwards we headed into the big barn where the goats, sheep, pig, calves, and baby chicks all stay.  There we got to pet a sheep and feel the wool that had recently been shaved off him.  Did I mention that spring is the best time to visit a farm?  Why you wonder, because all the animals have recently had their babies so they are scampering about everywhere.  The girls got to pet 5 day old chicks and ducklings and there were baby goats, sheep, and a 3        month old piglet.

After our tour of the barns and all the animals the kids got to ride ponies!  Does it get any better than that at that age?  They have a nice setup for that too so the kids can be distracted while waiting their turn for a ride.  They have a mill set up so they can crack corn for the chickens, as well as tractors to climb on and books to read.  Afterwards they take you on a hayride around the perimeter of the farm.  Everything all together takes about 2 hrs.  Then you are free to wander around and revisit the animals, have a picnic lunch in their covered pavilion, or let the kids play in their large sandbox.

Logistically there is no running water on site, but they do sell cold bottles of water for $1.  No food is available for sale although they are within a few miles of various fast food restaurants.  They do have portapotty’s on site too and handwashing stations set up around the farm.  They are located a t9300 Wolcott Road • Clarence Center • NY • 14032  You can call them at 716-741-4862 or email them at charlene@kelkenbergfarm.com for reservations.  And enjoy!  We sure did!

Today we went exploring.  I told the girls I’d heard about this splash park but the directions I had weren’t specific so we’d drive up and down the road it was on in hopes of finding it.  The adventure was on.  It ended up being relatively easy to find, less than 2 miles from our favorite farm to visit, Springdale Farm in Spencerport.

I have heard tell of the spraygrounds in Geneva, NY but have not yet taken the girls what with the mix of my kids having some fear of the water, which this summer they are finally getting over, and the hour long drive to and from that park.  But when I read about a few closer to home on the Kids out and about website I thought I’d look into those since they are free so if they don’t like it nothing lost.  So today being a beautiful day and having all day to do whatever thought we’d go explore and see what gem we might discover.

Since I wasn’t sure if the girls would like the water or not we started by going to Springdale Farm for the morning and then going in search of Pineway Ponds Park in Ogden(Spencerport), NY.  It’s a public town park so it’s completely free.  If you take 531W from Rochester to the Spencerport exit Rte 259, go north on 259 about a mile, it’s just past the town center on the left.  They have a spray ground that is awesome.  There are all kinds of fixtures that spray in different ways as well as jets of water that shoot straight out of the ground.  The park also has a very large playground right next to the water so if you have kids with different interests you can keep an eye of all of them.  My girls enjoyed it immensely and want to go back tomorrow.  Well we most likely won’t go there tomorrow, but we might go check out the one in Webster…

If ever there was a time to go visit the farm this is it!  It’s my favorite time of year to go because all the animals are having their babies.  Yesterday we went out to Springdale Farm in Spencerport and they had a baby goat so small the kids could pick it up and carry it around!  They have a number of baby goats, lambs, chicks, and even bunnies.  They put most of the animals in their petting zoo area where they can run free and you and your kids can get their hands on the animals.

We love going to the farm regularly and it’s fun to watch these little babies grow from trip to trip.  There are quite a number of opportunities for the girls to observe and learn about animals and gardening throughout the farm.  It’s nice to have a place of learning that I enjoy going to as much as the kids, especially on the cheap.  The farm itself is free, the petting zoo is $1 per person, and you can take tours of the dairy barn for $3.  So wheither you live in the area or not search out a farm experience so you can enjoy those babies while they last.

Today the moms group I lead met at Springdale Farm in Spencerport, NY.  The farm is definitely on my kids top five favorite outings list.    Upon arriving the first thing you come to is the play ground which is great when you are meeting friends, that way your kids are occupied while you wait for everyone to arrive.  The farm is free to visit, although they do set up a petting zoo during the summer months which costs $1 per person and is free for under 2yr.  Once the kids are done on the playground they definitely have animals on their minds so we head straight for the petting zoo.  This is the star feature for the kids and we usually spend the majority of our time there.  They have goats, sheep, and shetland ponies

Climbing the hay bales at Springdale Farms

roaming free for you to pet and feed(there are quarter vending machines with food).  My favorite time to visit is in the early spring when all the animals are having their babies.  When I took the girls in April we were able to pet 3 weeks old goats!  Sooo cute!  The goats are bigger now but still very cute and friendly, not crazy like at some petting zoos I’ve gone to.  One we’d gone to the goats would butt you out of the way so they could eat straight out of the vending machine!  But not here, there is plenty of hay around so you don’t even need to buy feed.  Although one of the goats was set on proving the point that goats will really try to eat anything, it tried to eat one of my friends shirts, and tried to chew on my girls stroller!  Anyways they also have various breeds of chickens in pens in the petting zoo area and a pair of turkeys too.  They have also created a pyramid out of hay bales which the kids and kids(er goats) can climb on and through as they’ve made tunnels under it to crawl through.

Once your kids have finally had enough of petting and feeding the animals you can go check out the other barns.  One of which you can go upstairs in to check out some hands on learning displays about life on a farm.  Or you can walk around the large pens which contain more sheep, horses, and the

Katrina and her best friend David at Springdale Farm

biggest pigs you’ll ever see.  The one pig weighs in at 1000 pounds!  There are also a pair of peacocks and  lots of bunnies.  Once the kids have had enough of animals we move on to the beautiful gardens, there is an assortment of them which are labeled and divided up nicely to help teach the kids about where food comes from.  They have a “pizza” garden which grows tomatoes and onions, and garlic, etc.  And there are vegetable and berry gardens, and a cute play area surrounded by tall plants like sunflowers that create a hedge around it.  Then you see a green house which you might think about skipping, which I did the first number of times we went and then one day my girls followed a butterfly inside and discovered a sand table inside!  They love it and I usually end up finding a chair and watching them play for a half hour til they decide we should go see the animals one more time before heading back out to the playground again.

There is also a working dairy farm on the farm which you can tour for an additional fee if you are interested.  I have taken the girls once to see it and found it very interesting because they have this amazing automated system for milking the cows that washes them, milks them and monitors their

Mikayla feeding the baby goats

production all by itself.   I will definitely take the girls again in a few years when they are old enough to understand what they are being told, but they enjoyed it simply because they got to see cows and newborn calves.  Tours are available Monday through Saturday at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. Cost is $3 for Adults (ages 12-62), $2 for Youth (ages 3-11) and Seniors (age 63+) and free for Kids (ages 2 and under).

The farm itself is owned by Monroe County so it’s a county park but Heritage Christian homes leases it

to provide jobs and training for people with developmental disabilities.  Springdale Farm is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4:00 p.m. Please note that the farm is closed on New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.