Sadly, no rabbis milking cows.

During the planning stages of our trip, Rabbi J. Gordon in Encino told us that we should take a tour of Kfar Chabad. My memories of the place was a "rabbi" milking a cow and a giant 770 replica. But he told me he really wanted my family and my parents to go and he would "hook us up".  Within a day or two we had our tour set up with Rabbi Yossi Swerdlov.
On the way we stressed to our 3rd son the importance of not getting lost because asking some one if you have seen our son, his name is Menachem Mendel, in the middle of Kfar Chabad, would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

We were greeted with a table laden with snacks and drinks and given a history of the Kfar and a basic layout and features and programs. The kids were busy munching away and we were all comfortably listening to stories from our tour guide, but there were people to see and places to go, so off we went.
Our first stop was where the Children of Chernobyl are brought when they are rescued from Russia. They grow up dormitory style and are educated and loved and cared for in Bais Rivka. We visited the girls art class and music. They put on a little concert for us. We went outside with the girls for a photo op and some ice cream. (note to tour guides everywhere, keep the kids cool and well fed and you are guaranteed a happy audience)

We then went to the esrog field and learned about the trees - did you know they only produce fruit for 7 years? and that leaves and bugs cause the discolorations and blemishes causing a very valuable esrog to be nearly worthless? Since it is approaching the time of collecting the esrogim for sale we couldn't walk around or touch anything, but it was very interesting none the less.
Roeber's leather seforim binding factory was next. We saw the leathers (only crazy bright colors for the Lubavitchers), the blocks for the covers, the impression plates and the embossing letters in action. Dovie loved to see where his Chitas was born.


The replica of 770 was our final destination as the matza bakery is in action from Rosh HaShana on wards and the honey making area was busy (or buzzy...). We saw the storm drains to no where and the bars for no purposes. We watched a Rebbe video and the tour was over.