It took us a while, but we finally made it to the Kangaroo Creek Farm in Winfield today. It’s been on our radar since visiting the zebra farm last summer, and I’m so glad we snuck it in before leaving.
Category Archives: around the Okanagan
A Day at Davison’s
Today we spent another lovely day at our Okanagan favourite, Davison Orchards. If you know me well, you know that my love of Davison’s has been around since I moved to the Okanagan when I was 11 years old. It was a place I loved visiting as a kid, a place I took the kids I babysat and nannied during high school and university, and it’s now a place I love bringing my own daughter. Delicious produce, beautiful views, and endless family-fun aside, I love Davison Orchards because it’s constantly growing and improving while staying true to it’s family-run farm roots – not an easy feat.
Grandma Sue and Rorie joined us today and despite our {very} regular visits, we tried two completely new-to-Gracen things this time around. First off, we jumped aboard the hourly tractor train ride and took a tour of the orchard while learning about its history and different fruits and veggies that are grown there. It’s been a few years since I last took the tour, and I have to say that I love hearing how passionate Grandpa Davison is about his orchard, even after all of these years. While the sitting quietly during the chatting part wasn’t Grae’s favourite part, she did love the ride and hearing about each of the plants/trees as we passed by.
Afterwards, while playing in the Crazy Cow Kid’s Corral, Gracen got to experience her first ever duck race after Grandma Sue gave her a toonie to buy a little rubber duckie. She’d plunk him into the tube, start pumping water, and as soon as he started moving, race to the end of the track to retrieve him. Such fun!
After a good long play, a visit to the animals, and some lunch at Auntie May’s Deep Dish Cafe, we picked up a big jug of Davison’s famous apple juice and headed home with our happy and tired girl. Another great day at Davison Orchards!
Zebras at Raw Hide Ridge Ranch
When I heard that there was a zebra farm right here in the teeny tiny town of Lumby (the town that is so small that it’s technically a village), I didn’t really believe it. Zebras, like the ones from Africa, right here in LUMBY? Sure enough, my good friend, Google, confirmed the story. Rawhide Ridge Ranch, located just 25 minutes outside of downtown Lumby (towards Mabel Lake), is not only home to four zebras. but it’s home to turkeys, cows, horses, sheep, chickens, coy, and bison too.
Curious to see what zebras living in Lumby looked like, and knowing Gracen’s love of animals, we picked a day and booked a ranch tour.
Today, we arrived to the ranch to meet James, one of the farm’s hosts, a big friendly rottie named Max, and this sweet little calf named Sophie.
Gracen wasted no time and wanted to go over and say hello to Sophie right away.
Our host, James, was wonderful. He was super friendly, truly excited to tell us all about the farm, and very mindful of the fact that we had a {soon-to-be} two year old with us. He even brought out a bottle of milk for Gracen to feed Sophie.
We spent the first part of our tour oohing over Sophie and this one week old foal, named Sky.
After a quick trip to the pond to admire the gorgeous water lilies and lily pads, it was off to the barn to meet a mystery animal named Tom.
Turned out that Tom was a giant, friendly turkey who roams freely around the ranch.
Such a funny looking guy – and with a personality to match.
We hung out in the barn for a while and visited with the other birds, and then it was time to be on our way.
Next stop – the fish! Strangely enough, this was one of Grae’s very favourite parts of tour (most likely because James gave her the job of feeding some of them).
It wasn’t easy, but when we finally convinced Grae to leave the fish, we headed down to the field to find Lucky, a very friendly ram who happily walks on a rope and visits with guests. We petted him, learned about what to do if he ever puts his head down and looks as though he might charge at you, and some of us (not me!) were even brave enough to try playing a butting game with him.
Then it was off to see the farm’s highlight… The zebras.
When we got up to their enclosure, they were all the way at the very back of it near the forest, so James went in, rounded them up, and got them to come towards us. The four of them, including 3 mares (2 of which are currently pregnant) and one stallion, came right up to the fence to let us admire them. They were beautiful and it was really cool to see zebras happily living in this sort of setting, rather than in a zoo. We learned all about zebra behaviours and even got to witness Apollo, the dominate stallion, keeping the herd close together by nipping the rump of one of his female counterparts.
After a visit to the bison herd, that was our tour. We stopped to see the fish again, visited the beautifully rustic guest house that can be rented out much like a bed and breakfast, said goodbye to Tom, and left with a dozen free-range eggs and Grandma Charlotte’s name on the list for an all-natural free-range Christmas turkey.
We had such a good time at Rawhide Ridge Ranch that I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to visit a real, working farm.
♥
UPDATE: Rawhide Ridge Guest Ranch has closed since our visit.
Rawhide Ridge Guest Ranch is located on Siglet Road in Lumby, BC. Contact them at rawhideridge@gmail.com to book a tour. Tours are $10 for adults, $5 for children, free for munchkins 4 and under and can be booked from April 1st to October 31st.