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.

Welcoming Families w/ Special Needs

This morning a Facebook friend mentioned it was "Special Education week, and this is in honor... of all the kids who need a little extra help & understanding".
At Falkenbury Farm we welcome families w/ special needs. They find the private 3 bedroom guest house works wonderful for them. Many show their children our website before arriving to make the transition of being away from home easier for them and they have an idea of what to expect. They find that the house vs. a hotel allows them an easier way to relax and do their own thing. Always a good time for us as well as the families! We are lucky to meet so many wonderful people.
If you are a family of a special needs child and would like to visit, give me a call and we can discuss any specific things you may like to know about our farm or guest house.
I am happy to say making the house downstairs handicap accessible is one of my goals. Unfortunately we do not have a ramp to enter the house yet. If anyone knows of any possible funding that may be available for such a project PLEASE get in touch.
Let's hope this week helps shine some light on these great children and their families.

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).

Little guests help with chores

Friday night we had guests from New York that helped with chores. The littlest boy was the biggest helper! He filled water pail after water pail and carried them to the milking cows. The family enjoyed watching the cows come in and feeding them their grain for dinner. They helped feed the goats, pet the bunnies and get the eggs.

We have 4 batches of bunnies at the moment and 5 baby (kid) goats. We even had a calf born during the night when our guests from New York were here.

Tonight we are expecting visitors from MA. They are hoping to arrive on time to help w/ chores too!

Happy New Year!

I had big plans to show everyone some photos I took for Christmas. My computer had other ideas.....
On Christmas Eve we had a new baby calf born. He is adorable. He is big and strong and blocky, yet still adorable. He is also very friendly. He's black with a white face. His name is "Nick" after St. Nicholas for Christmas, get it?
There are also some of the cutest bunnies ever in the barn right now. The littlest ones are a light red with some patches of other colors on them, like calico. Actually there is one grey one in that litter too. Kind of strange, but what can you do?
We had all of our kids here for Christmas. That was the best part of the holiday!!
On New Year's Eve we had a few friends over and had tons of food. At midnight we were in the hot tub as planned. Several tubbers made snow angels and then jumped back in. I really wish you could see those photos!
We hope everyone celebrated their holidays happily and we wish everyone a very happy, healthy New Year!
Oh! And we have snow!! Come on up and play!!!

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.

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?

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.)

-22ºF this a.m.

Too cold! It was 22 degrees below zero and no school delay. Borderline crazy, especially since the bus was 45 minutes late!
It is so cold we let the goats stay in this morning. I think they are healthier when they go outside every day but this is ridiculous. Maybe around lunch time I'll let them out for a bit?
The boys start exams at the high school today. They'll be done at noon. One will go to work, the other will be home on the bus. He gets dropped off almost a mile from home so I should go pick him up so he doesn't freeze.
A family is coming later today for the weekend in the guest house. I would love to write about our guests on this blog because they very often are quite interesting but I guess that wouldn't be right. We've had people from many different parts of the US and world and it is extremely fascinating to meet them and have the kids learn things about their ways of life. It is very enriching.

Welcoming children with special needs

Recently we welcomed a family with a child with Autism to our farm. He seemed to enjoy his stay immensely. You could see that his parents were relaxed and comfortable during their stay. They really enjoyed helping out at chore time. They fed the cows, goats and llamas. Their child seemed to particularly bond with the goats. They really have unique personalities and can be very curious. While talking with the mom she conveyed to me that is often difficult to find places to go that are "hands on". At Falkenbury Farm you are welcome to be very "hands on" if you desire. I've read a bit about Autism and understand that it is often helpful to show your child photos of where he will visit before arriving so that he is more comfortable. On our website we have many of the animals that are here on the farm. Also there are photos of our own children on the website. They love to meet new people and will be in the barn to help visitors get to know the animals. It is also quiet in the guest house since you are not sharing it with others as compared to a hotel or B&B. If you need to take a walk to 'get away from it all' and have some quiet moments alone, there are also plenty of places for that. If anyone has any questions about our farm, please feel free to contact us. www.falkenburyfarm.com We are located in Benson, Vermont.

Another snow day!

Snow, sleet, freezing rain here in Vermont today. Kids just left to go up to their fort. Their fort is awesome! It's a tree fort. It's up in the woods. They brought their sleds and their calves. Yes, calves. They have a special corral for them up there. They made it themselves. They bring hay and the calves are happy all day. I wish my son's snowmobile wasn't in the shop. I don't like to go out alone. The roads haven't been touched by the road crew yet. That's the best riding.

Fog is stealing our snow

It was 37ºF at about 6:30 this a.m. It is supposed to get near 60 today!
We finally get some decent snow and now, between the rain and temps, it's going fast.
The girls have some great luge runs up at their fort. They shoveled paths when the snow was deep and packed the sides. They are pretty clever. Then of course the rain iced them so they are F-A-S-T too.

Rain and crazy temps

Two days ago it didn't get out if the teens. Actually I don't think it got above 10º! Last night it was about 47º at 10pm. And now it is about 32º at 3:30 in the afternoon and it's been raining all day so we are in for a frozen mess. Girls called to say after school activities have been cancelled.
The goats are still outside. Since it was so warm this a.m., we let them out. It is breeding season, so 150 days from now we should have baby goats coming out of our ears! That is when you really want to visit even though it will be mud season. They are the cutest little things ever!