LONGDOWN ACTIVITY FARM - JUNE 2015

Our little adventure to the farm and review

Today we hoped on a train from Southampton to Ashurst new forest and went to the farm! Tea in hand and selfies done we arrived at Ashurst station and walked to 20 minutes down the road to farm.
It was a little nerve wracking walking down the road with the pram due to the fact it doesn’t have a path, but we made it in one piece at 10:20am.

After paying for our tickets, she handed us a leaflet with all the times of the interaction activities and we were advised that at 10:30am there was a calf feeding activity, so we jumped at the chance and darted round to it. I even had a sneaky air kiss with a calf, they were so cute and it was so lovely to see Lucas’ little face as the calf sucked at the bottle. He went all wide eyed and giggly.

We wandered round and bumped into some pigs and piglets and Lucas laughed when they made there squeak noises. 

We then saw some Donkeys and a BEAUTIFUL horse, I used to ride horses and the first thing I ever rode was a cow when I was 6 months old, so my heart is most certainly very happy and whole in the farmyard setting.

We then got go to an animal encounter activity where I got to hold the smallest little chick, Lucas was completely baffled by it, but, with daddy’s help, stroked its little head.
Lucas and daddy also got up close and personal with a goat too, he found it very exciting.

We then had some lunch and Lucas enjoyed some Hummus and bread sticks and fruit, then we went on a tractor ride! Lucas loved it, he was bouncing around and talking to the other children and doing his “cheeky cheese” face. 

After the tractor ride we had a little wander around the bunnies, guinea pigs and chicks and chickens, we absolutely adored looking at the bunnies and guinea pigs and have decided that next year we are going to come and purchase some baby guineas and a bunny for our garden, but we need to get the garden sorted and perfect for them and make sure we can be 100% ready for them as we don’t want to get them until we are ready as it’s not fair on them and we also need the money for a nice big hutch and run for the rabbit and a little hutch and run for the guinea pigs and we have decided to purchase them from Longdown, which means they’re slightly more expensive than buying them from a random person, we would rather spend extra money and know they’re bred and well looked after.

We also found an egg! We hovered for 15 minutes until one laid one and then we came back later and found another one.
Lucas was very happy with his find and his sticker.

After that we went and fed the ducks! Lucas helped hold the cup and he did a really good job with it.

Then our final interaction activity was bottle feeding the goats.

Lucas and daddy loved it and Lucas didn’t really know what was going on when they started crying, he tried to compete by squealing back. 

We had a lovely day, and it was such a brilliant farm, I haven’t been since I was a kid myself and obviously it was a completely different experience for me this time taking Lucas, it mesmerises me watching Lucas so overwhelmed and excited by the animals and learning new noises. He found the funniest noise the turkeys “Gobble Gobble”  noise.
There is so much interactive activities at the farm, you can feed every animal really, we decided not to do everything so we could take our time and wander too.
The animals are so friendly and cute and we had so many cuddles and smiles today.
Thank you Longdown Activity farm, (formally known as Longdown dairy farm)
we had an incredible day and we will be back again!