Smarter than a homeschooler ?

The answer to that is No. I am not smarter than a homeschooled child. This fact was brought to my attention when a recent "Agri-Tour" was conducted by yours truly. A group of moms and their homeschooled children came to South Pork Ranch to see what it is we do. After telling the kids a bit about our Red Wattle Hog herd, one bright chap named Patrick asked "So regarding these RED Wattles...do they see things in color ? "

Hmmmmm. Sorry chap, I said, I have no clue. He accepted my ignorance quite readily. Perhaps he had been earlier warned about my simpleton ways. The conversations only improved from that point on. "What does castration mean ?" and "If you leave the calf on the mother cow but it only drinks for 30 minutes four times a day, how much milk is left for you to drink with your cereal ?" Now I know who writes those "If train A leaves the station at 10 am and Train B leaves Chatsworth at 10:10 am how long until it derails alongside route 24 ?" type of questions.

Brillant. These kids were brillant. And brave, as not one of them hesitated to try our fresh raw milk. (With informed parental consent of course) One little girl even drank the leftovers of several other kids. Wild little risktaker that one. Oh, one more thing. They were excellent listeners. When I said "everyone go climb on the old tractor for a picture" what do you think they did ?  They did this.

So to all you moms and dads out there who do so much work to educate your children at home, I salute you. And to all you agricultural types out there who complain that kids don't know anything about farms anymore I challenge you to do a few "agri-tours" of your own. The more youth we can send home with milk mustaches and dirty shoes, the better.