Uncle Donald's Farm

Now that I'm living in Florida, one of the things I find myself missing this time of year is farms. I've always enjoyed driving by or going to farms with cornfield mazes and pumpkin patches. In Washington, our favorite was Stocker Farms in Snohomish. Vero Beach, and all of Indian River, is known for its citrus fields. There are no cornfields or pumpkin patches to be found.

This year, we decided to go in search of a fun farm, even if it meant driving all day to get there. Within an hour of Internet searching, we decided to visit Uncle Donald's Farm in Lady Lake, Florida.

We started the trip by driving to the C&D B&B last night. This morning, I awoke to an empty house. Dave had already left on his weekly golfing adventure and Cathy had to work. We were very surprised to find the thermometer on the back porch showing only 60 degrees! For the first time in a long time, I had to wear jeans and my soft, fuzzy, long sleeve shirt. After a quick breakfast, we were on our way.

Right out of the gate, we ran into delays. Susan needed to stop at a post office to drop off a package for her mother. While she was inside, Andrew complained to me about his toe hurting in his shoe. When Susan got back in the car, she looked for his other shoes, but said they were back at the B&B. We drove all the way back, only to find that they were NOT at the B&B, but instead, in the way-back of the car. DOH!

Back on the road, our GPS started telling us to take the next right, then take the next left. It didn't take long before I realized that I had no idea where I was. If the GPS had failed, I would have had no idea how to find the farm, or the B&B for that matter. Even though we were completely lost, the drive was very nice and it was good to see some hills for a change.

Upon arrival at the farm, my first feeling was a bit of disappointment; there were no cornfields and from what I could tell, no real pumpkin patch. Nonetheless, the farm quickly grew on me. We were greeted in the parking lot by a large, scraggly, friendly white dog. The farm was obviously planned with young kids in mind. Near the entrance, we found a pen that had kids for sale at cheap prices.

The main area inside the gate was setup for familes to have picnic lunches. There were dozens of picnic tables sitting about randomly under the trees. I'm sure the shade is most appreciated most of the year, but today, I was looking for sunshine. It was probably still in the low 70's and quite chilly for us thin blooded Floridians.

Our first destination was the "pumpkin patch". The pumpkins were lying about for families to pick up and purchase. Nearby was the maze, constructed from large hay bails set about. Luckily for me, I could see the entire maze, but Andrew had to find his way through by trial and error. Inside the maze were lots of little posters with silly kid jokes written on them. For example: What animal can jump as high as a house? All of them; a house can't jump!

Next up was the hayride. A large group of parent, grandparents, and kids climbed into a long, open trailer with hay bails for seats. We were pulled around a large field, past the ostrich pen, to an area with a small herd of cows. We stopped so the cows could converge on the trailer. At that point, we were shown how to make "hay bouquets" to feed the cows.

After the hayride, we spent the rest of our time looking at the animals in pens. They had an amazing collection, including: horses, goats, sheep, rabbits, pigs, ducks, cougars, a river otter, cranes, turtles, a fox, coyotes, deer, a talking parrot, turkeys, hawks, owls, chickens, and a peacock. We even got to witness feeding time. Everyone was interested to see the cougars devour their raw meat.

While on the hayride, we overheard a couple talking about leaving to eat lunch at a nearby fast food restaurant. We had to interrupt because A) we were hungry and B) we hadn't seen much of any civilization for most of the drive from Sanford. After seeing everything at the farm, we followed their directions and quickly found The Villages. What a shocker that turned out to be. Check out the web site and be amazed. Almost every store you can imagine is located there; and all accessible by golf cart.

After lunch, we drove back to the B&B via a different route. I've heard a lot about Mt. Dora, so I had to stop and see for myself what all the fuss was about. After driving through the small town, I must say that it is quite charming. There are several blocks of small shops and restaurants along oak-lined streets, with a lake at the bottom of the hill. There's even a small, scenic rail tour operator.