Yesterday was a big field trip day!  All I can say about Noah’s Landing is WOW.  It is truly an impressive family operation.  A mom and her now-grown children have basically built an animal sanctuary over the years.  There are exotic animals there that we would never have had the opportunity to see anywhere else.  And believe me the animals are well loved and cared for!

We learned about llamas.

If you knew how much Princess of the Universe loves animals…  Well, I’m sure you can imagine.  She loved this field trip.

I dreamed about this animal, the donkey, last night.  I’ll tell you why in a little bit.

Forgetting myself (and apparently where I was) I leaned in toward the fence at one point to get a picture.  Almost immediately I felt warm breath and something nuzzling the scarf wrapped around my head. 

But would you look at this face.  How could I be scared?  Or mad?  I’m just glad the children had food with them so that my fuzzy scarf was not such a disappointment. 

As the children get into lines for our tour, the very nice and knowledgeable woman who runs Noah’s Landing shares the rules and some safety tips, i.e. How many fingers do you have?  How many fingers do you want to leave here with?

I’m excited!!  Are you?

Ohhhh, now I can tell you about my sweet dreams last night.  The donkeys above are Sicilian donkeys.  We were given quite a bit of information about them.  Then I came home and read a bit in Matthew and different places about Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus.  I just slept really well last night and dreamed about a different landscape and a different time and a different way of traveling.  There were donkeys there.  Funny where we go in our dreams! 

Legend has it that the Sicilian donkey is the type that was used to carry Mary on the long journey to be taxed and to where she ultimately gave birth.  It is also apparently the type of donkey that Jesus would have called for not long before his death, when he rode into Jerusalem.  The donkey is the animal of peace, whereas the horse is the animal of war.  The legend says that the patient and lowly donkey had been such a good friend to Jesus that, even standing by at the very last, when the evening fell after Jesus’ death, a shadow of the cross was cast on the donkey’s back, leaving the mark of the cross forever.  We were told that many years of breeding have allowed people to perhaps alter the color and size of this donkey somewhat, but that cross has never been able to be bred out.  It’s the first time I had heard that story.  I found it inspiring. 

This ring-tailed lemur watched all of us walk away from its cage.

The serval cat acted like a great big kitten, climbing and playing.

I probably should have used my flash, but I wanted to capture this tortoise just as he looked, sitting under his warming light, with his wise eye looking at me.  He tracked my movements with his head.

She is closing her eyes, though she was not scared at all.  If only I could have gotten another picture with her eyes open, but my camera battery gave out.  Sigh.

If you visit the Noah’s Landing website you’ll see that the list of animals is most impressive.  There were many, many more animals that we met and learned about that are not pictured in this post.  This was a long and informative field trip, one that we won’t forget for a long time to come. 

Several other moms and children were taking pictures yesterday, so maybe I’ll get some more pictures soon – of things I was not able to photograph myself.

As far as school today, Princess of the Universe will be writing a journal entry in her nature journal about what she learned yesterday.  She’ll be looking at the atlas to locate the countries and continents we heard about.  Then, of course, is the standard math and spelling.  It’s a work day for me, so I’ll be right here, but not doing as much hands-on, so we’ll pick back up with our rowing of The Raft in a couple of days.

We read another chapter in Caddie Woodlawn last night.  

When Father or Mother made a decision, the Woodlawn children accepted it as final.  There was very little teasing for favors in a large pioneer family.

Caddie Woodlawn

Have a wonderful Friday!
Lynn