A new baby!

We have a new bull calf. He was born yesterday, September 2, 2012, at about 4:05p.m. (Of course he was, we were supposed to be at a dinner party at 4:00.)
Cupcake, the mama cow, and the new calf are both doing well. She had an easy delivery assisted by Heidi (since we were both dressed to leave).
He had his first bottle last night and loved it.
He is a nice big calf, dark in color.
Visiting hours are daily 6-7 p.m. , by appointment or by chance.

*For those of you who don't know; this is Cupcake's first calf. She will now be a milking cow in our little herd. She is a Jersey cow.

Almost kidding season

May 11th our goats are due to start kidding. I'm really hoping the weather is decent so they can kid outside. We raise percentage Boer goats. The does were all bred to a fantastic buck that looked as good in person as he does on paper. We're really looking forward to seeing what kind of kids he throws. He is a fullblood Boer buck. He was with us for only a short time. We drove for hours to meet and buy him. Then he bred mostly all of our does and I got a phone call asking if I had a buck for sale. After hesitating for a second I decided that yes, I guess I did have a buck for sale even though I didn't even know I did. So, a couple came, fell in love w/ him and away he went. Off to another farm to sire yet another group of kids.

They have no idea.....

Today we had visitors that asked our daughter what we did w/ the eggs after we got them out of the chicken coop. "Do you wax them or something?" she was asked. NO!!!!!!!!!!!! We don't wax them!!
I keep saying you need to bring your families and children to the farm. Any farm! TEACH THEM WHERE FOOD COMES FROM!!! THEY HAVE NO IDEA!!!!! You may think or assume that they do but they don't! Even adults that visit have no idea! "You're going to eat that?!" they ask. "Heck ya, we're gonna eat that! We're going to eat that over there too!" We try to explain to them that we like to know where our food comes from. We like to know where it lived and how it was treated. We like to know what it ate and what hormones it wasn't shot full of. The meat we eat does not come from a grocery store where they seem to think it magically appears. It is not shot full of red dye so it "looks good".
Please, I'm begging you, meet a farmer. Talk to him. Spend some time with him and learn to appreciate what he does. LEARN something!!! Bring your kids. Make believe it's them that you're teaching if you have to.
Our daughter was asked by an adult today if we waxed our eggs after we got them out of the chicken coop.........

Milk a REAL cow, gather REAL eggs

Many folks on Facebook play or do this Farmville thing. Do you?
If you really want to shovel manure or see how many baby bunnies your rabbit has in her nest, why not come to a real farm and smell, I mean, do the real thing?!
At Falkenbury Farm Guest House you can do just that. You'll have your own house right on the farm. You'll have a chicken coop in your dooryard, right out behind the house and you'll be able to see the barn out your bedroom window!
You want to milk a cow? Ride on a tractor? Throw bales of hay into the barn?
Well, you've come to the right place! http://www.falkenburyfarm.com/
We offer nightly rentals and are open all year round!
Give us a shout, book a few days and come and enjoy farm life!!

Stay on a Farm

Farm vacations are becoming increasingly popular in Vermont and the U.S. We own Falkenbury Farm Guest House in Benson, VT. We welcome visitors from all over the world, but the majority are from the Boston or NYC areas. The parents who plan the trips often plan all kinds of day trips and want to drive all over creation thinking that is what their kids want. It isn't. I've had parent after parent tell me they've changed their plans because their children beg to stay on the farm. The kids themselves know they need to take a break from it all and just be kids. It takes the parents a bit longer. It is wonderful to see folks unwind after they've been here about 3 days. They are often so high strung that it actually takes them that long to feel the relaxation set in. When they hit that point, something just comes over them. We'll just see them sitting in a chair out back sipping a glass of wine, reading a book or simply staring at the sunset. People don't realize how stressed their lives are until they take the time to unwind in the peaceful, relaxing, quiet country setting.

The babies are arriving

Our baby goats started to arrive the day before Valentine's Day. The are the cutest little buggers. They dance and jump all over the place. Delila had her calf. It's a heifer. A nice little Jersey heifer. The girls haven't decided on a name yet. They have a couple in mind. For the first time in a long time, all the baby goats have names so far. I'm not sure how we're going to spell them all yet so I guess I won't post them yet. We still have enough snow to play in. We're expecting ice in the morning. We'll see what that does for the school commutes. Since it's Sunday, it was pizza night. Jake made us 2 fabulous pizzas. Homemade mozzarella, ricotta, and pepperoni. Pretty cool to use all your own toppings. Bob has bacon in the smoker that we'll finish smoking tomorrow.

Fresh Turkeys

Our son raises about a dozen turkeys for Thanksgiving every year. He is a senior in high school this year. Anyway, these are some of the best turkeys you'll ever roast. They are delicious!
He charges $2.75 per pound. You can reserve yours today by calling 802-537-2979.

So HOT in Vermont

It is unbelievably hot and it's on 7:30 in the morning! I sure hope I can talk everyone into heading to the lake.
We have a new baby calf that is 2 days old today. It's a baby bull calf. He's a Jersey. His mom is a black Jersey. He is a dark brown. He is bottle fed and is out there waiting for his breakfast now.
We've made hay for the past few days and have all of our first cut hay in the barn. There was a nice stretch of dry weather and we were able to hustle and get it all done.
If anyone is looking for a fun place to stay this summer we have some open days. Give a holler and make your reservations.
We are close to several wonderful lakes that are great for swimming. Lake Bomoseen, Sunset Lake, Lake Sunrise, Glen Lake, just to name a few.
Our private 3 bedroom guest house you rent by the night and have all to yourselves.

New additions

Ken and Barbie. Barbie-Q that is. That is what I was calling her when we were spending hours chasing her round and round this morning.
Our new piglets are naughty. Usually we name our piglets Pork and Chop. This year it's time for a change. Barbie is pink with black spots. Ken is white/pink.
We got them last night, and this morning we could catch an occasional glimpse of Barbie, but no Ken in sight. We just spotted him and caught him about 15 minutes ago at about 6 p.m.
Now we need to decide what to do with them next. They do not like their fence.

Guests Leaving

We said good-bye to some great people this morning. They helped with chores last night and again this morning. One of the children overcame their fear of cows quite quickly with Heidi's help last night. The baby goats were a hit as usual too. And I think they wanted to fill their pockets with cute baby bunnies before they left.
We sent them to the Wheel Inn for dinner last night. That's the place to eat in Benson. It's right in the village and has something for everyone and their dessert..........the best!
The sun is out this morning. The goats went outside. They're on their daily hike up the mountain (hill).

Still winter but someone else is getting our snow.

Happy Valentine's Day.

The kids are on vacation this week from school.

It's pizza night. We are redoing our kitchen and have ordered new ovens. In the meantime, our old oven burned out and for the past 2 weeks Jake has been making our pizza on the grill. It's pretty good stuff. It's a bit tricky to flip though. I think I'll either offer to help him flip it tonight or suggest he make 4 small pies instead of 2 big ones.

We had a new Jersey heifer calf born 2 days ago. She is little and really cute. She has dark features and looks as though she is wearing eye liner and dark make-up. She is being bottle fed still. Her mother's name is Cookie. She doesn't have a name yet.

Our grandson came to visit for the first time last week. That was fun. He will be one month old on the 18th. My how time flies!

Our renovations are still moving forward. Yesterday the new drywall got put on the kitchen ceiling. It's been quite a while since we've had a ceiling.
We need to make decisions on counter tops. If we go w/ Formica, I think I'd like one counter area that is a stone surface for dough and pie making. We also have to decide on what we're going to do w/ the floor. We put slate in the mudroom and bathroom. I think it's a tad too cold to do the whole kitchen w/ but I'm not positive.

We have very little snow down here by the house and barn. Up the hill it's still pretty covered. It's strange how it's like 2 different worlds.

Last week we got 5 pick-up trucks full of firewood out of the woods. It was 22ºF and it seemed so warm. It was beautiful in the snow covered woods. Our 3 sons and one of their friends along w/ 2 of our daughters made light of a lot of work. Everyone got along and the work went quickly. Just a nice day in the woods. Almost all of the wood fit in the cellar. There is a little still outside the cellar door on the lawn.

I'm about to head outside to check on the goats.

School vacation

Our kids have a 5 day weekend. They are so excited. Now if we weren't tied down with these house renovations, we could actually go somewhere and do something. But, the plumber is downstairs plumbing in our bathroom renovations as I type. I kind of need to be here to answer questions, etc. Our son is helping him this morning.
We have part of our hay field fenced in with what I call stretchy fence. So the cows are where they usually aren't and when you look out the window you think they are loose. The field was too wet this season and we weren't able to mow a second time for hay or we would've made big ruts and ruined the field.
Our new BIG Boer buck has been busy. If it's baby goats you're crazy about, make a reservation for the middle of March!

Fairy House

A little guest that is staying in our guest house made a fairy house w/ her godmother today. They left it by a tree here on the farm. They made it for a dream fairy. It was made from all natural things that they found around the farm. I hope to post a photo soon.
The same 3 year old guest fed most of the cows their dinner tonight. She was a great helper!

Full of Beans!

Did you ever hear someone tell somebody they were "full of beans"? Well! Let me tell you : I am FULL of beans!!! I bartered a friend for some of her fillet beans tonight. They are sooooooo good!!! We ate so many!
The work continues on our new deck. They are working on another set of stairs and a ramp now. We also went looking for some pickets today.
I played phone tag w/ someone at an orchard looking for a goat. Hopefully tomorrow I can catch up w/ them.
Bob smoked some bacon today.
It is lightning-ing in the distance but the stars are out here. Odd.

End of July...

Had the Jeep out today.
Helped a friend get some old water heaters out of their basement.
Tried to work on the plan for the new deck. I wish everyone I knew would stop by and give me ideas! Everyone I ask has a different idea. I love to hear what everyone thinks will work best. It's fascinating how different minds work.
Went to the firemen's auction in Whiting yesterday. Maybe should've stayed home? I really like auctions.
We had visitors in the guest house last night. They were nice people. The mom and I chatted quite a bit. We seemed to have lots in common. They left us a bowl of fresh peaches from Maryland. They were awesome!!
We are dog sitting. We haven't done that in about 20 years. He is a great dog. Very well behaved. (We don't have a dog of our 0wn.)

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.

Summer vacation

The boys have their last exams today. The girls got out of school Monday. Now if it ever stops raining we can make some hay!
We've got oatmeal cookies in the oven. Boy, do they smell great. Taste even better.
The girls are walking their calf to where their dad is working this morning. It's quite the hike. Over 3 miles one way! I'm off to meet them there with a picnic lunch.