Kentucky Down Under

We took a trip to Cave City, Kentucky yesterday to visit Kentucky Down Under.  This is the neatest place to visit for a day trip.  The staff are so nice and so friendly.

We visited the Wool Shed first.  The guy doing the presentation told us about the different breeds of sheep.  This one pictured is a Romney.  He told us about the climates the sheep live in and what the sheep are bred for.  It was a very interesting presentation.

This one is a mixed breed of sheep that (those working on the farm) are uncertain of what breeds mated.  Steven, the presenter, said that this particular sheep was the most unusual looking because it's spotted.  He also said that it is the most laid back of all the rams.  While Steven gave his presentation, this guy laid his chin on the step above him and fell asleep.  The next thing we saw was his chin sliding off the step until it landed on the step he was laying on.  It was so funny.

All of the kids attending the presentation got to feed the sheep.

Then they could volunteer to milk the cow.

The next presentation was about sheep herding.  This dog, named Cat, was amazing.  She and her handler, Jesse, are such a team.  Cat was trying to herd the sheep out the gate, but the sheep absolutely refused to go out the gate for her.  Cat herds the sheep by stalking and acting like a predator.  It seems to me, though, that at some point the sheep would realize that 1.)  The dog is much smaller than even the smallest sheep in the herd and 2.) They outnumber the dog.  I asked Steven if sheep were maybe not-so-intelligent.  Steven said that he would be blunt and say "sheep are dumb."  Those two thoughts never occur to them.

We went on a tour of the cave.  It was discovered in 1799 by a 13 year-old-girl.  After discovering the cave, she went to find her older brothers and show them.  They lowered her by a rope the 30 feet down into the cave.  Yikes!

The cave is estimated to be 200 million years old.  The rock formations and flow stones inside the cave were so neat.

The lorikeets were fun.  They flock to you when you enter because they know you have food for them.

These birds are anything but shy.

They liked playing with my earrings when the nectar from my cup was gone.

Grandma is the bird whisperer.  As soon as she walked in to the aviary, she had about 10 birds on her.  They were fighting to sit on her.  She hated it too.  **wink, wink**

My favorite part was getting to be up close to the kangaroos.  This big guy was hand raised at the farm.  He is super laid back.  At one point when the handler was talking about the kangaroos, this guy rolled over to have his belly rubbed.

The kangaroos are SO soft.  It was almost like petting the softest fleece.

There was another aviary as we left the park with parakeets.

The parakeets didn't flock to you like the lorikeets did.  One or two would come over, eat, and then leave.  They were not as friendly.  By this time, the kids were tired and not very patient.  One of the birds took the little cup out of Grace's hand and dumped it on the ground so she was mad.  We fed the birds pretty quickly before heading to the car.

It was a fun day.  I'd like to go back, if for no other reason, just to pet the kangaroos again.  It is so neat to have a little piece of Australia practically in our backyard.