Little Qualicum Cheeseworks

What a fantastic trip to Little Qualicum Cheeseworks!  Our almost full bus made great time to the Trees Diner via a pit stop in Chemainus. The weather cooperated, and we had an incredible scenic ride to Parksville, thanks to our intrepid driver, John.

After a great meal we headed off to the cheeseworks.

We were greeted by the friendly farm poodle.

Then we checked out our ride.  We were thinking this might be a cool replacement for our bus (in both senses of the word!)

Half of our group got the wagon ride while the other half checked out the farm, starting with the milking area.  Then we switched so that we all got to do both.

With 8 stations - no waiting- the lucky cows got milked in about two and a half minutes each, and each one would about half fill the glass collecting bottle!

This calf was born last evening - it was about as big as a medium sized dog.

These white faces calves were a few weeks old and were much bigger than the new-born. These calves will not be milkers.

The pig sty was not as dirty as a pig sty! Pigs are clean and kept their waste to a bathroom area of the pen leaving the rest clean and dry for messing around and playing with the tyre.

 And that's no B/S.  This, on the other hand is B/S.

The wagon ride took us past the manure area and on to the original homestead cabin.

There was some commotion on the farm as they were moving the sheep into the barn. A bullock and the sole lama (Carl the lama) took the opportunity to escape and had to be wrangled back into confinement. Once Carl had his halter in place properly he had some food and gave us a photo-op.

We didn't see any unattended children....nothing ominous there!

Next was the cheese making tour and the retail portion of the visit - tasting and purchasing excellent cheeses and wine, not to mention some candies. And, of course, we called into Russels on the way back to the centre.  Everyone agreed that this was an excellent Let's Do It day trip!