Our Visit to the Roloff Farm

Our family had a chance to visit the Roloff family farm yesterday. For those of you not familiar with the family they have a show on TLC entitled Little People, Big World. I was excited to see a famous family and picked their farm solely because of their show. Their farm is only open to the public during the month of October on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yesterday was the only sunny Saturday we have had so far, and so I knew that the farm would get packed pretty quickly with everyone trying to get there to enjoy the farm without rain.

Our family got there around 11 am. The parking lot was already pretty full and pretty muddy. During our visit we got a chance to see almost all of the family and their spouses. The family was all around on the property giving tours, signing jars of salsa, helping the Will Call table, etc...I made a decision once we got on the farm to NOT take pictures of the family despite multiple opportunities to do so. I made this conscience decision because I saw how other people were acting and how they behaved in a way that almost made the Roloff family seem inhuman. People were demanding pictures of Zach and telling him how much they loved his wife.(Because we all know her so well, since we see her on a TV show, right?) Or they were crowding around Amy requesting that she sign their jar of salsa over and over again. And I just thought...these are people. Just because they choose to show us a part of their life on television doesn't mean that they owe it to me to allow me to demand anything from them. It doesn't mean that they are here for us to yell at them and make comments to them that would never be made to another stranger. Because that is what they are to all of us. They are strangers. I wouldn't take a picture of a stranger and show it to people, so why would I take a picture of a celebrity? They are just people. And had I not gone to this farm and seen how we, the general public, behave around celebrities I wouldn't have felt this way. I would have thought that these people put their lives out for the public to see and therefore their job is to allow the public to do as we please with them. When I left the farm I felt bad for them. I felt bad for them because of how rude we are. Certainly, they were gracious and kind which seemed to make the public all the more demanding of them.

In the end, I took pictures of their farm. Our family purchased tickets to enjoy their farm and we did so. Their property is absolutely beautiful and peaceful. I don't know that I would go back again to their farm as it is mainly catered to little kiddos. They do a nice job of creating a space for little ones to enjoy some Halloween fun. There wasn't too much to do for us bigger people except gawk at the Roloff family and after a very short while I realized how demeaning doing that is to another human being and so I stopped.

Going to their farm was a good lesson for me. It was another reminder that no matter what our station in life we are all the same at our core. The Golden Rule flooded my mind while visiting that farm, and it has been playing over and over in my mind ever since.

The entrance to their farm. Already we were waiting in line for a short while to get in and the farm had just opened up an hour earlier.

Quintessential farm land. It was beautiful.

The main house where Amy lives. This is the house you mainly see on their TV show.

An ark they are building to be open to the public next fall.

A peacock that has made its home in one of the many barns on the property.

Part of our ticket price granted us a tour of the farm. A lot of what you see on TV is off limits to the public which is too bad because it looks like it would be so much fun to use.

Home to their 3 Little Pigs...

This was the gazebo where Zach and his wife were married. The scenery around the gazebo is stunning.

This barn is over 100 years old and was beautiful.

This was a tiny village the Roloff Family has set up on their property. As part of the tour we were granted access to the village for about 5 minutes before we had to get back on the wagon and finish the tour. It was really a cute little town.

This tree house was built so that the tree can continue to grow without having the treehouse impede that growth. It was off limits to the public, but really, really cool looking.