A Thank You for a Farm Visit

I wanted to share with you an e-mail I received recently. We had a family stay on the farm from the city.

"Thank you for a great stay! My family really loved spending time at the farm over this past weekend. We all learned a ton from your children and enjoyed some playtime outdoors. We even made it to the Rodeo not too far away. The kids are still squeamish of animals but a little less now that they met your friendly tomato eating goats!"

This is what it's all about. We love sharing our farm with our guests.

Ice Fishing Derby

The Benson Down Home Derby is one of the first of the season. This year, weather permitting, it will be held January 30 & 31. The headquarters have moved this year. They will be at Benson Landing. There will be signs in Benson Village showing you the way. The price for adult tickets is $20 and the prize pool is more than $2700. Tickets can be obtained through the mail by calling 802-537-2468 by Jan. 25th.
The kids' derby will take place January 30 and fish must be at the scales by 6 p.m. Youth under the age of 14 can purchase tickets for $5.
The fishing waters open to participants fall between Dresden, NY (Bouy 16) and Larrabee Point on Route 74 in Shoreham.
For more information call 802-537-3044 or tbarthol@shoreham.net
If you're looking for a place to stay, we offer nightly rentals of our 3 bedroom guest house. http://www.falkenburyfarm.com/
(We obtained the information for this post from The Lakes Region Free Press so please don't hold us responsible if any is incorrect.)

Haunted Hayride

Benson Vol Fire Dept is holding their Haunted Hayride this weekend in Vermont. It runs again tonight, 7-10. The 8th grade is selling concessions. Chile, hotdogs, burgers, etc. Come get yourself frightened in the dark spooky woods!
Our oldest is here for the weekend! Love it when she comes. Also another friend from CT is here.
Poultney town wide tag sales are on our agenda for today.
The leaves are great. The weather has been trying to cooperate. Come on up for a visit!

Too much rain

For the second time in days part of our road in under water making it impassible. There are no road closed signs posted either, which makes it seem dangerous to me, especially in the thick fog we've been having. We've been getting showers that are bringing large amounts of rain in short periods of time. The roads are washed out all over town. One of the drops behind the cows in the barn had about 2 inches of setting water in it tonight because the water table is so saturated. The farmers are having a bear of a time getting any hay made. Even if we get a day w/out rain, the fields are so wet they have standing water in them.
Two of our sons are in Oregon working on a ranch. There they don't have nearly enough rain and have to irrigate the fields. They said it did rain today. There was lightning too. They said where the lightning strikes it starts fires because it is so dry. They saw a fire like that today.
I wonder if anywhere between here and there they are having the perfect summer?

Construction Underway

The construction is moving along on our house's addition. We are moving things around a bit inside and making a new deck, etc. It is crazy. I spend more time moving things around than anything else. What I really need to do it throw stuff away. I'm not good at that!

The guest house is open for business. The baby goats are getting bigger but we still have some friendly and fun ones that like attention. We are close to a few great lakes and ponds that are wonderful for swimming, boating and fishing.

Yesterday's Storm!

What a storm we had yesterday. And what a close call!
This was the tree that was out front with the
rope swing in it. Just brushed the house and my
suburban. The back hinge on the door of my
suburban has bark on it but that was all the damage
that was done to it. We were a lot luckier than a couple of our neighbors that had trees fall on their houses! The boys were on one roof until about 10 o'clock last night covering up a big hole. The trees that fell on the other houses were so big they used an excavator to get them off.
It was crazy! We watched the storm come upon us. It was really scary! We were all outside near the barn. We were watching the rain move toward us and also keeping an eye on a cloud that was looking ugly. The girls and I ran to the house. After about 3 minutes we ran to the cellar!

Hay!

Finally made some hay today! I need to ask what the count was. We were rushing the clock when the clouds started moving in. It's pouring now. There was a rainbow earlier.

We have guests arriving any time now. I hope they get here before dark. I don't want to leave lights on for the bugs.

They started ripping and tearing on our house today. They made a few test holes yesterday but today they really got into it. The boys took 2 truckloads to the dump and there are 2 trailers full of wood for a fire. Oh, what a mess we are in for! There is a blue tarp trying to keep the rain out of the kitchen and bathroom right now.

Our 12 year old milked the cows tonight all by herself! She really had no choice, we were all busy. Dad was baling, mom was raking hay and the boys were unloading wagons. At least it got her out of unloading a couple of them.

Our 10 year old has been spending a lot of time with my camera lately. She has taken tons of photos. Some are pretty good. I keep telling her it will make a good hobby. Something to do on the side....She really loves taking pictures.

From the flower bed

Think this is called Sweet William.

Bob is mowing the first hay of the season this morning!!! Please cross your fingers that it dries! The weather, NOAA, seems to change every time we check it. This morning it has no rain posted for today and tomorrow so we're going for it.

10 Year Old Tour Guide

When you visit our farm you will be greeted by our 10 year old at some point. You will instantly take to her, and her to you. She is our tour guide. She is a natural. She chats away while leading you all around the barn. She is outside doing just that right now and it is so cute! She tells interesting facts and answers questions about every animal in sight. She knows birth dates, names and all about any calves, kids or bunnies that have been born. You'll get to pet the animals, brush them or maybe even help give her calf a bath. It all depends on what she has in store for you. If you are little, she will find something little and gentle for you to visit. If you look ambitious or outgoing, she may offer to let you lead something a bit more frisky around. Come see for yourself. You will be amazed and entertained.

Fun Day on the Farm!

Falkenbury Farm Open House
“Fun on the Farm Day”

June 13, 2009
(Raindate June 14th)
2-10 pm
Falkenbury Farm & Guest House
1520 Park Hill Road
Benson, VT 05731
www.falkenburyfarm.com

2:00 Meet our baby goats
2:30 Making (Shaking)

3:00 Egg Toss
3:15 Kid’s Games
Sack Races
3 legged race
Untie yourselves
Hay bale throw
4:00 Hike/Scavenger Hunt
5:00 Frog Catching & Frog Race
Prize for biggest frog caught
Prize for the fastest frog
5:45 Barn chores
Feed the cows, goats, rabbits, chickens, pigs
Watch the cows get milked
7:30 Potluck Dinner
8:30 Silent Auction closes

Bonfire, Lightning Bugs & Stargazing

CHILDREN MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT
NO DROP-OFFS
NO DOGS!
Schedule subject to change.

Spring Planting

We had a busy weekend. We planted 5 out of the 6 new apple trees that we bought. Our youngest and I also planted 25 new strawberry plants. Those somehow took up more space than I anticipated. I bought some new asparagus roots too. Jake helped me start digging for that project. We'll put them over by the other asparagus we already have. The peas I planted are up and so are the radishes. The flower beds need constant attention. I don't know if they will ever be done. Good news on the raspberries. Finally, they have caught on. It looks like they all made it thru the winter and there are many new plants. Oh, and the lawn got mowed. Jake did that w/ his own tractor. The manure pile is mostly spread. Bob put it on our hay field. The grass was really growing well and now it looks kind of beat down since they had to drag the field after spreading because the spreader was not working right. Anyway, we avoided the rain (knock on wood) and had a very productive weekend.