Buttercup is a very patient cow.At least not until last week, when we arrived at the museum early to help Farmer Wayne with the morning milking. Buttercup is a gentle cow and she patiently allows dozens of visitors to milk her every day under the watchful eye of one of our farmers. After Wayne gave us a tutorial of the basic milking technique (pinch and squeeze), we were ready to try milking Buttercup. 
Farmer Wayne shows us the pinch and squeeze technique before we get started.
Farmer Wayne shows us the pinch and squeeze technique before we get started.
Kajsa milking Buttercup 
Kate milking, and not getting her foot stepped on. I went first and my city girl savviness ensured that I immediately got milk all over my hand (and might have had my foot trampled if Farmer Wayne hadn’t warned me to move my leg out of the way!). However, after a few pinch-and-squeezes I started getting the hang of it. It was really an amazing experience. Now, I saw the steaming buckets of milk when we came in, but somehow my brain did not connect how warm the cow, udder, and milk really would be. Being that close to a living, breathing thing that could produce such an amazing product (please recall the earlier ice cream comment) was a humbling experience. I even got the two-handed milking down (if not mastered) by the end of my turn.
I loved milking Buttercup. I’ll also admit to being a little apprehensive about the whole thing, but I only have to milk a cow for the first time once, right? 
Erin milking Buttercup My biggest problem, actually, was trying to get dressed in the morning knowing that I would be milking a cow AND attending an important meeting in the afternoon. Thankfully, I got all of the milk to go in the bucket and my clothes stayed clean. Farmer Wayne is absolutely amazing. I understand why so many families run to the barn yard starting at about 3:15, and why our members bring their children after school to ride the carousel and milk the cow. What a way to spend the afternoon!
Erin milking Buttercup My biggest problem, actually, was trying to get dressed in the morning knowing that I would be milking a cow AND attending an important meeting in the afternoon. Thankfully, I got all of the milk to go in the bucket and my clothes stayed clean. Farmer Wayne is absolutely amazing. I understand why so many families run to the barn yard starting at about 3:15, and why our members bring their children after school to ride the carousel and milk the cow. What a way to spend the afternoon! 
My first workshop experience was at our Heritage Vegetable Garden class in early April. We learned about historic vegetable growing, usage, and storing first, and then got to try our hands at building a hot frame. Hot frames are designed to give you a head start on spring planting. How? By using horse manure as a fuel to keep the inside of a wooden box warm enough so that seeds and plants can grow. Building the hot frame was definitely a workout for me and my fellow workshop participants, but it was incredibly satisfying. Make sure to check out Gwen Miner’s post about hot frames to learn more about the specifics and to see how our plants are doing in the completed frame.
If jumping on a big pile of straw and manure wasn’t enough to get me excited about the opportunities on the farm, then I certainly got a taste of the hard work of farming in the second workshop I attended, our Farm Chores workshop. This workshop is designed to give visitors a taste of what getting the farm ready in the morning really means. I did everything from throwing hay bales from the loft, to letting out the animals (did you know the preferred language for steering sheep to pasture is “good day”?), mucking stalls, harnessing Zeb the horse, and cultivating a few rows in our hop field. I was tired and smelly by the end of the morning, but I had a truly wonderful time.
If this has whet your appetite for getting your hands dirty in one of our workshops, make sure to check out the 
On May 15, 1948, the Giant arrived at The Farmers’ Museum where he was “laid to rest,” as it were, by a group of workers. The exhibit was opened to the public four days later and crowds began to arrive to once again gawk at the “stupendous stone statue.”
All was not wine and roses for the Giant, however. Less than a year after his arrival, the Giant was at the center of new drama when a man by the name of Michael Fitzmaurice sued the museum, stating that his grandfather had created the Cardiff Giant and had loaned him to P.T. Barnum. (Those of you who have been to the museum and seen our most recent display will know that this was, of course, a false claim—P.T. Barnum never owned THE Cardiff Giant, but had created a fake of a fake that he exhibited at the same time that the Giant enjoyed its greatest success).
Three years after his arrival, the Giant was done with life in a pit. He determined that life above ground had many more benefits. In 1951, he was moved to an above ground display where he remained for the next fourteen years until, in 1965, he moved to even fancier digs in a covered enclosure at the end of our Main Barn.
Again ready for a change of scenery, the Giant moved in 1984 to a new exhibit in what is now the Louis C. Jones Center called the “Museum of Wonders.” There, he joined the ranks of some of the most eclectic items from the collections of museums across New York State including a two-headed calf, dinosaur tracks, and relics of the American Revolution. This exhibit was meant to show museum visitors what the very earliest museums—such as the 
Though he enjoyed the company, the Giant eventually tired of sharing the spotlight with the other objects and again sought a relocation—this time to nearly the same spot that he had occupied on his arrival in 1948. He was exhibited in a tent that was meant to recreate the manner in which nineteenth-century spectators would have come upon him.
In 2003, Giant and tent were moved to become a part of the museum’s new 
Even the most stoic of giants eventually becomes antsy and yearns to roam free. After 58 years of living within the museum’s walls, the Cardiff Giant was allowed off the grounds for a special treat—a central part of the 
Since his time in the sun, the Giant has recently retired to a quieter location at the entrance to our Main Barn. Make sure to pay him a visit when we open the doors for his 61st season at the museum on April 1st.