Chickywiggle's Blogspot: White Post Farm, Farnsfield, Nottingham

Friday was a gloriously sunny day, so as we were camping near Mansfield White Post Farm seemed the perfect place to spend it.

We were really concerned when we got there at the amount of cars as we expected it to be packed, we were wrong. It was so well spaced out and organised that the only time we ever saw a crowd was during the pantomime (which we only caught the last few minutes of).

White Post Farm is open every day of the year (Apart from Christmas Day & Boxing Day!). As well as meeting the animals (llamas, rabbits, chicks, lamps, sheep, goats, snakes, dragons, geckos, snakes and many more), there are go-karts, shows, and food, toy, plant and pet shops.

Animals

Goats
There are loads of opportunities to feed goats. Whether it be at Goat Mountain (which is fab fun as you need to load up the feed trucks and send them on their way) or by hand, or even bottle.

Sheep
You can feed the sheep out in the paddocks, or again there are baby lambs that need bottle feeding.

Meerkats and Tortoises
Nope, not 2 words I ever thought I would put together in a sentence either. The meerkats are fun to watch as the explore their outdoors area while some huge tortoises roam around. step inside the reptile house to see some much smaller tortoises.

Birds
The boys really enjoyed the walk in avery, tho we expected the birds to be a little tamer and pop down to see us, however they stayed sitting on their perches or looking out the bird boxes.

Snakes
There were lots of different types of snakes in the reptile house and Grandma and the boys were soo please to be able to stroke one.

Reindeer and Deer
Ever wondered where Santa's reindeer's go for a Summer holiday? come and meet them at the farm

Chicks and chickens
While the chickens had free roam of the outdoors the chicks had residence in the incubator room and silver barn.

Whilst we were there we noticed one of the eggs had some shell broken and a patch of yellow could be seen. We stood watching for ages as you could see the chick wriggling around inside the egg and shaking the egg, sadly tho, even tho we kept going back to check it hadn't hatched by the time we left :(

Peacock
The peacock and peahen live outside, there was a sign on the fence telling us that the babies were due on
July 28th, we heard a few people mention this after a quick glance and they walked away, it was only when we looked a bit harder the babies had come early and were cuddling up to their mummy. They could only have been a couple of days old and were soo cute.

Ducks and ducklings
Turning around from the peacocks and you are greeted with ducks, and the sweetest baby ducklings.

Animal feed

You are asked when you get your tickets if you want to purchase animal feed, as there will be loads of animals to use it on. These come in 2 types "2-legged" and "4-legged". What you are not told however is that for the mountain goats and pigs you have to buy different food from the vending machines (20p a handful) and quite a few of the indoor animals have "do not feed" signs on. You basically therefore have bags of food for chickens and sheep. If we'd realised we would have done this bit first instead of carry the food around all day until the last hour or so.

Play areas

Show Barn
Because it was so warm and dry we didn't stay inside for very long, and certainly didn't spend that long on the indoor areas. However we did time the green indoor sledging slope just in time for Grandma to take a phone call so the kids had time for a play. And play they did, they were up and down the slope soooo often I lost count. Even when they toppled off the saucers they still laughed picked themselves up and got back on.

The show barn is also home to the big animal show/ pantomime where various animals gather to teach you about the farm. we joined it just in time to see a song about producing milk........... and a cow having a wee.

Milking the cows
The boys loved pretending to milk the cows, and with 2 there was no fighting :)

Outdoor play area

The outdoor play area puts many playgrounds to shame. There is a pedal go cart track (free), houses to play in, tractors to ride, 3 trampolines, climbing frames and slides. The kids spent a good hour playing and exploring all the things there.

Mini golf

I think the highlight of Noah's day, however, was the mini golf. Ever since he watched his daddy play golf on the playstation he has been a little obsessed by the sport. When we found out it was another free activity we were surprised. There were more than enough clubs and balls and we had it to ourselves which meant the boys weren't rushed and we could have a leisurely play/ putt.

Machinery
Supervised children can explore the tractor and combine harvester, drive it and see how all the levers work. The boys were in their element.

The Farm Shop

The farm shop sells lots of local produce like locally reared meat, bread, ice cream, eggs, milk, biscuits, jams, flour, pasta, olives and wholesome pies.

We would have loved some fresh eggs for the next days breakfast but sadly there were only tiny ones left by the time we went at 4.30.

Ice Cream
Of course no warm day out would be complete without sampling local ice cream. So whilst the kids settled down with Orange Juicies I had a carton of Thaymar Toffee Fudge ice cream. This was a gorgeous locally made, Creamy Caramel Ice Cream with Vanilla Fudge Cubes. WOW. Having just checked out their website they do loads of flavours and it is probably a good job we don't live closer to their tea rooms as I
would be there every day.

Cost

Tickets can be purchased online or on the gate..... it is worth remembering however that you can get reduced priced family tickets on the gate which aren't available online. The online ones are the same price as on the gate (but include a free bag of food), they are also day restricted, so if the weather is wet you cannot change plans and use them a different day instead.

Adults: £9.50

Kids, seniors and students: £8.75

Kids under 2: FREE

Family (2 adults & 2 kids): £35.00 (save £1.50)

Adult/child with special needs – one carer free with each guest: £8.55/£7.87

Groups of 10 or more: 10% off

Arrive by public transport (Show us your ticket!): 10% off

Special Events

White Post Farm host many special events through the year and I am hoping we can make a return visit next year to experience one.

2014's line up for the next few months include:

12th & 13th July - The Teddy Bears Picnic. Bring a teddy and enjoy story time, arts and crafts and spot prizes throughout the day. Plus loads more family fun!

30th July - Fireman Sam will be visiting with Jupiter.

13th August - Princess and Pirate Day. Come dressed as a princess or a pirate to get 10% off admission.

20th August - Superhero Day. Come dressed as a Superhero for 10% off admission.