5th Adventure – #31 Explore a new Metro Park

“What, were you raised in a barn?” I can answer that question with a sound yes. I spent half of my childhood playing in my neighbor’s barn. The rest was spent in the woods. We play acted GI Joe, Annie, Star Trek the Next Generation, and Saber Rider (an anime cartoon before anime was cool). There were squabbles over who got to play the girl character, and we made up supporting girl characters for those who didn’t get to play the lead. We let our imagination run wild. We played with the barn cats and the dogs. My dog chased their chickens. We just had fun. There were lessons along the way, like how to care for garden tools, some cooking lessons (My favorite was how to make mashed potatoes), and how to resolve disputes with your friends. I would not trade my childhood for anything.

Today, I was feeling out of sorts and knew I needed to get out. I remembered reading about how one of the Columbus Metro Parks had a farm. It was calling to my inner child. Off we headed to Slate Run Metro Park and Historical Farm. The farm replicates what is was like to live in the 1880s. Yes, we even found the outhouse. But, I am getting a head of myself.

We somehow managed to dodge what Winter storm Jonas threw at the places south and east of us. The Farm ended up with a little bit. My soul started to relax with the snow, mixed with the fresh, crisp air, mixed with the familiar hominess.

The first person we met was one of the farm care takers. We spent a lot of time talking to him and learning about the farm. The gothic revival house was closed for repairs, so we were not able to go inside. He also mentioned that later in February they will tap some maple trees to make maple syrup. I am marking that in my calendar, as that sounds really interesting! Our next friend that we met was a barn cat. Yup, in true Susan fashion, there was a cat to make friends with. (Do you see the cat on the front porch?)

We then ventured on to the barn. The barn had some more new friends to meet. There was a gaggle of noisy geese, four huge plow horses, and five moo cows.

Out in the barnyard there were even more friends. We met more geese, some turkeys, and a few pigs. There were sheep and goats too, but they were in the pastures.

By the time we made it back to the barn, one of the care takers had let the horses out in the pasture. These horses are HUGE. Because of their size, I am guessing these are plow horses. They were so beautiful.

There were still a few friends left to make, the chickens. A few of the brave ones went out into the cold, but most of them were hunkered down in their coop. I don’t think they liked it much that our faithful friend, the cat, followed us down there.

I noticed on the way in there was a sign the said there was a covered bridge. So we drove over to the trail head to hike the path to the bridge. It was a nice loop through a thicket to the bridge. There were a ton of song birds flittering about. It was quiet. Just being out there and taking pictures was so relaxing.

At the trail head, we saw a huge, and I mean huge, gaggle of geese of the Canadian variety do a fly by. So we decided to take another trail to the lake. Most of the lake had frozen over, but there was one place where some could still swim.