Here she is!!

We are pleased to announce that Cinnamon had her calf this morning at about 6:55 a.m.

 Many of our recent visitors and Facebook followers have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest addition! Well, here she is!! Be warned that she is wet, naked and slimy in these photos. She is only moments old in these photos; before she even stood up for the first time. They were taken before our photographer got on the bus this morning!

 Cinnamon is one of our oldest dairy cows. If you've visited the farm, chances are you've met her. She is a Jersey cow. She comes in the barn every night. You've likely even milked her!

The calf  is a heifer (girl).  Both she and her mama are doing well. She will need a name. We've one suggestion so far; "Nutmeg".

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.

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.

Falkenbury

We've been contacted by another Falkenbury. We bought this farm and it was named Falkenbury Farm when we arrived. On our big barn roof "Falkenbury Farm" is written in red slate. Many roofs are made of slate here in Vermont. There are a few other farms with their names written, huge, in slate on their barn roof.
Occasionally we get calls or e-mails from people w/ the last name of Falkenbury. They are chasing their roots and trying to put their puzzles together. I wonder how many Falkenbury's are really out there? I also wonder if we should host a Falkenbury family reunion of sorts? That would be a little different since it wouldn't be our family. Do you think people would come? It seems like the people who have contacted us do have a common bond.
Send me you thought if you're a Falkenbury please!
jojoerobert@yahoo.com

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).

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!

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.

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!!!

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!

Feels like winter

Wow is it chilly! We have both of our wood stoves going. It's a good thing we spent some time on Sunday getting wood.
The girls have their calves outside. They are taking them for a walk right now as I type. I can see them out of the window.
We have a new fullblood Boer buck. 150 days from now we should have some really cute babies running around. That will be the beginning of March. If you'd like to come and play with them when they're tiny and cuddly, that would be a great time to plan a visit.

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.

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.