Do you really want to work??

Last night during chore time it hit me. Maybe our guests really do want to work when they visit. Maybe they really would like to be more involved and get a better sense of what it would be like to live on a farm. Granted when you visit it would be an option, not at all mandatory. What do you think? Do you want to shovel manure? Do you want to push the sawdust cart up the hill to the upstairs of the barn and shovel shavings to throw under the cows? How about getting dirty? Do you want to grease the farm machinery? Clean the chicken coop? Carry the slop up to the pigs? How it generally works now is visitors come to stay in our guest house and they come out to the barn in the evenings at chore time and help a little bit. They do the fun stuff. They feed grain to the cows, pet the bunnies, etc. They aren't scraping the cow flops off the walkway or spending an hour shoveling soiled bedding out of goat pens.


Are we not offering enough of a glimpse into the real workings of how things get done?

We really don't want to scare people off. Our guest house is separate from the farm. It's neat and clean and easily will accommodate your whole family. When we first started this business, one of the things that I had written was you could go for hikes with the goats. Well, word got back to us that people had no interest in hiking with goats so they steered clear of us! We are looking for more visitors, not less! And please remember, once again, you can stay here in a nice quiet place out in the country and never ever have to step foot in the barn. It's your choice. Many of our guests stay here when there is a wedding or family event in the area. It's simply a great spot.

We are really interested in your input on this. Please feel free to leave your comments here or e-mail us direct.
Thanks a bunch!
The Ambrozaitis Family
Falkenbury Farm
http://www.falkenburyfarm.com/
jojoerobert@yahoo.com

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.

Ice Fishing

It's been so long since I've logged in!!
Baby goats should start arriving this month. They are the cutest little things ever!
We've got enough snow to play in but we're expecting more today!
If you're looking for some fun this weekend, The Down Home Derby is headquartered here in Benson, VT. If you're into ice fishing or have never tried, this is your chance! There are even prizes! This derby is held on Lake Champlain.
Looking for a great spot for you and your buddies to stay the night so you can get up bright and early and try your luck again tomorrow? Give us a holler. 802-537-2979 or our cell since our phone service is having issues 802-683-0858.

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.)

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?

Something is eating my plants!

Something or someone has been eating all my squash plants AND my pepper plants. They seem to eat some of the leaves, but not all of them. Some of the leaves they just leave beside the plant. I have seen no woodchucks nearby but I have seen rabbits. More than one person swears that a rabbit will not do this. I don't believe it. I have put mouse traps and human hair around them. It doesn't help. Any ideas would be welcome. Thank you.

Naughty Pig

We have just one pig these days. She is a girl pig and I want to get her bred. Trouble is finding her a husband. I've been looking. Trouble is, she has decided she does not wish to be single any longer and would like to help me look! That would involve her getting loose! Have you ever tried to catch a pig? A big pig? This is NOT a fun thing to do! Let me tell you, she is fast and sneaky and she can cover a lot of ground! It took 6 of us to get her back in last night. There isn't even any sense to me going to check on her now because I don't have the manpower until everyone gets home from work and school to get her even if she is out!

New baby calf!

Black Jersey had a heifer calf this morning. She is a really neat dark red color. The girls are in love with her already. Looks like a beautiful day. There is some freshly smoked bacon in the pan in the kitchen. Have to run. I'll try to post a photo of our new addition soon.

Gardens

I have been soooooo busy trying to get all the gardens in order. Had to replant the green beans. I thought maybe it was too cold when I planted them but when I went to redo the area yesterday I found no old bean seeds. UGH!
Jake started all of our tomato and pepper plants in the green house at school. Great plants. He also started some herbs. I'm finally putting in a very small kitchen garden where I'll have my herbs.
The annual flower containers and window boxes look good so far.
The perennial beds are a LOT of work. So much harder to control the weeds when you don't till up the soil every year.
Something has been eating the summer squash plants. Think I need to sit out there at night with a pea shooter. We have mouse traps and human hair around them now. Anyone have the solution for keeping the nasty pests away, let me know!

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.