Farmer Palmers Farmyard Fun

Today promised to be a gorgeous sunny day so we spontaneously decided to visit our local farm, Farmer Palmers here in Dorset. I have blogged about it before (see here), but it's such a great place - we have annual passes and not a week goes by when we don't pop in!

My husband decided to come along today so this was a real treat for Elliot - he couldn't wait to show his Daddy all his favourite animals. We had a quick picnic first and then decided to go on the deer safari. This costs £2 per person (under 3s free) and takes you on a tractor trailer ride past all the outside animals and into a field of red deer. You're then allowed to get off the trailer and hand feed the deer! It's a brilliant experience and the deer are so tame....and so hungry!! We also got to see one of Elliot's favourites - Dave the stag! Dave shed his antlers this week so we didn't spot him at first but there was no mistaking his alpha-male stance amongst his female companions. Elliot was a bit wary of feeding the deer at first - he was reluctant to hold any food in his hand and was just launching a handful onto the ground!

After the deer safari had finished we made our way over to the Animal Barn where it was Trotter Time and we got to meet Peppa, a very friendly Kune Kune pig and her 9 piglets. The piglets were born in february and are very cute! Elliot couldn't wait to have a stroke and he even said "I want a pig!"

We decided then to go on the Woodland Walk - I've been to Farmer Palmer's a million times (probably!) and we've never found the time to do this so it was nice to be able to finally tick this one off. There were a few other families walking around but it was lovely and peaceful with the stream trickling on past. There were things to climb on scattered round the walk and Elliot loved climbing up into the shoe and whizzing down the slide!

Elliot was beginning to flag at this point because he'd not had his afternoon nap so we took a slow walk up to the outside animal enclosures where we saw goats, alpacas, chickens (lots of varieties!), piggies, sheep and Alan the Barn Owl. I'd thought the other piglets from earlier were cute but we found another litter of baby pigs that took cute to a whole new level!!! These little fellas were born at the beginning of April and the poor mum has 13 of them to look after! (I can't imagine having 13 Elliots!!) . Elliot was fascinated and kept asking if he could have one....maybe if they stayed that size but the mummy pig was rather large, can you imagine having that in your back garden?!

After a quick play in the playground and an ice-lolly stop we decided to call it a day, Elliot was almost asleep on his feet!

It was another lovely day at our favourite local attraction and I'm sure we will back soon!