Emu for hire.

Obviously, Windmill Farms has lots of critters running around, but they're mostly of the wild variety, plus a few beautiful horses added to the mix. So, the folks at Windmill Farms asked Carter's Farm to bring its Mobile Petting Zoo to Chino Valley. And this is something you've just got to experience. Each of the animals is really a Carter family pet, according to "Sheriff" Sean Carter, head herdsman for this wonderful menagerie of animals. They have brought cows, ducks, chicks, bunny rabbits and pigs - both regular and the Guinea pig variety. There are llamas, emus, goats, rams and sheep. And, they all love to be petted, cuddled and fed. Really.

Surrounded by bales of hay, little piggies, chicks and bunny rabbits are waiting to be handled gently and with love. Children can climb right in with these baby animals and hold them in their hands. Kids should keep an eye open for party crashers, though, because those little goats like to clamber up on the hay to join the fun.

While playing with the chicks, don't forget to look up occasionally, because there are lots of other animals wanting attention, too. In the center of the pen, is a small green, fenced area for larger animals like the emus and llama. If the larger animals tire of people, they can move out of reach by walking to the center, but this is seldom the case. Once you walk near the green fence, an emu will stick it's neck out to see who you are. Emus are very near-sighted, according to Carter, so they like to get up really, really close. 

In total, Carter brought 40-45 animals to Windmill Farns. "All up from Queen Creek, in the Phoenix area. All petting zoo, all pets, they're all family members," he explained. "All the goats that I have are dwarf Nubien... They're all very small. The biggest size we have is about the size of a medium dog."

Austin and Savannah Crowder show their sleeping chicks.

Carter grins at a couple of kids holding chicks that looked very comfortable. "Hey guy," a youngster named Austin called to Carter, showing the little chick in his hands. "He's asleep." 

"Yeah, he's sleeping like a champion, huh?" Carter replies.

"And you know what? I just have to sing 'em 'Rock-a-bye in the tree top,' and he just went to sleep," Austin explains.

Austin's sister, Savannah, chimed in, showing off her chick. "All I did was rock him."  

Carter's animals are used to traveling and being petted. "We are strictly mobile," Carter explains. "We don't have the facilities to house people to come out to our place, so we go to parks, birthday parties all that kind of stuff is all for that."

The group Carter is bringing to the Pumpkin Festival, is an unusually large one. "Normally, it's 20-25, which is still a lot for a standard petting zoo. Including your baby chickens and baby ducks, we'll have rabbits, we'll have pigs, pretty much the standard; you wouldn't have a lot of the large animals or the big birds. Those are a little bit harder to travel around with."

Carter talks about the animals the animals in his petting zoo, "All of my goats were born and raised into petting zoos. We've all gone through so all the babies have done petting zoos, so that's all they know. This is their life. The advantage is that on a lot of the farms, they get eaten, here they just get petted. And if that's the worse thing that happens to a goat, I think we're in pretty good shape... These are farm animals, most of them are raised for meat, pigs are raised for meat, chickens for eggs, and to be eaten, the goats are raised for meat, a lot of people eat goats out in Queen Creek, the cows are raised for meat. We're a slaughter-free farm, so the worst thing that happens to these animals is they get pet and hugged and loved on and fed very well... It's a good life for an animal that normally would be eaten, or treated very poorly, fed just enough to stay alive. We do a lot of rescuing on animals if they're friendly enough, we'll put them in the petting zoo and gladly take them."

Sean Carter loves introducing his pets to you.

So, what kind of events does Carter's Farm go to besides Pumpkin Festivals? Birthday parties, family reunions, company picnics, anything that sounds like fun, actually!  And, Carter's Farm keeps pretty busy; each of three teams typically does 3-4 events a day on a weekend, for a total of 9-12. 

And, yes, it's a long way to bring the animals up from Queen Creek, but Carter says he'll accomodate folks in the quad-city area. He does warn that it can be an expensive adventure. He suggests that if anyone is interested, they find other groups to share the cost with, which makes it easier on the budget. The standard cost is $150 per hour, and if you want pony rides, that's an additional $75. Travel expenses are what really add up, though, so see if you can find a couple of kids who want to invite a few animals for their party! (It might be a nice change from electronic games and pizza!)

But, maybe the best option would be to bring your group out to Windmill Farms during a weekend in October where you can enjoy the Carter's Farm Mobile Petting Zoo while picking out pumpkins and checking out the other activities at the Festival.

Cost: $3 per person gets you in and up close to the animals. Families/groups of 5 are $10, and 6 or more are $15.

$1 cups of sweet feed are guaranteed to make you very attractive to all the critters. 

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