Sunday Review 3/28/21

It’s been a busy Winter full of trailblazing, snowshoeing, and plowing but we have a lot of great things to look forward to this Spring!

We’ve spent a significant amount of time clearing and improving the field trails that were started last summer and are excited to continue using them as the weather gets warmer.

This month we’ve also welcomed a few new baby faces at the barn, with a new Brown Swiss as the latest addition. Next, we’re gearing up for the arrival of some baby goats- a set of twins and triplets due in April.

Finally, the surest sign of spring appeared this week with our first few compost customers. You can now find our red bags roadside once again.

Sunday Review 10/25/20

It’s almost Halloween! We’re so excited our “Haunted” trail was able to get so much use this year! We had a few more friends and family members stop by to check it out. 

We’ve also sold through all of our pumpkins for this fall. After such a tough year it’s good to know that people are trying to celebrate as much as they can.

We also welcomed a brand new baby calf, G.

Sunday Review 9/20/20

This was a sad week as we had to say goodbye to our beloved farm cat, Tibby. She has been ruling the farm for the past 16 years! She held many roles including farm greeter, watchcat, mouse chaser, milk tester, and farm kitten foster mom. 

She was born on the farm and originally named “Tux” due to her markings. But we decided she needed a more feminine name and since Aryn had just finished reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, she picked the name Tibby after one of the book characters. While we’ve had many cats stroll across the farmyard without really knowing exactly where they’re coming from, Tibby was a true constant for the past decade and a half and we’ll certainly miss having her around. 

It was also a little sad to have to say goodbye to summer. The weather took a pretty dramatic shift this week and plunged us into the 40’s but it is exciting to watch the seasons change on the farm and we are working hard to get into pumpkin mode. We were also able to take advantage of the temperate weather to fix up more of our field trails- this time adding a culvert

Sunday Review 8/30/20

This time of year is typically when we’re traveling around the state to attend and participate in cattle shows. Since this year is unlike any other, this weekend was our first opportunity to do so (on a very small scale). We supported the local 4-H club during their practice show at the Cumberland Fairgrounds. The small gathering followed all COVID guidelines and finally allowed the 4-Hers to demonstrate their hard work from the past 11+ months. 

Here at the farm we spent more time working on our trails and we were even able to construct another bridge! 

Our painting project from last week is still in progress and we’ve finished the initial coat on the barn. While there’s still lots to do, it’s so nice to see what just a little paint can do. We also took in a little inspiration when we visited our neighbors at The Barn at Autumn Lane for their Farm-to-Table dinner.

Sunday Review 8/16/20

This drought-like weather has allowed us to keep making progress with our farmyard upkeep this summer. Aside from haying and painting the barns, we’ve continued work on our trail by bush hogging and have even spotted our first garden pumpkin! 

The mid-August sunsets are not disappointing this week!

Sunday Review 7/19/20

We are back in the field on this hot, humid Sunday evening to start work on second crop hay, but earlier this week we were able to tackle a few non-hay-related tasks!

You may remember last week we mentioned starting a little foot bridge project. We were able to finish it up this week and are so excited to start using this field trail. 

We decided to take advantage of the warm summer evenings and have added a projector screen to the back side of the barn. Our fitting pick for a Friday night showing was the series finale of Friday Night Lights. 

Finally, it’s national ice cream day! We highlighted some of our favorite flavors and spots earlier today. This afternoon we stopped by Papa’s and celebrated with a Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip in a waffle cone and a dish of soft-serve with chocolate sprinkles!

Sunday Review 7/12/20

This week brought a little bit of a break from haying (we were still in the fields of course, just not every day) and more time to tend to other projects around the farmyard. More rain means more blooms so it was fun to check in on all the plants and flowers. 

We hosted a few out-of-town family visitors who were especially smitten with the goats. They were also able to test out some of our newly-cut walking trails through the fields. We are always looking for new ways to enjoy the land we have and COVID certainly brought about a renewed interest in walking and hiking for us. After some of the rainstorms this week we were able to identify the damp areas of the fields and have even started construction on a small foot bridge to help make our paths more accessible. 

The humble beginnings of a foot bridge.

One of the best parts about summer is being outside and being on a farm we’re often outside until the sun sets. We’ve moved many of our meals to the back side of the barn and have started cooking nearly everything on our grill. Lately, our favorite recipe to make on the grill is Beer Bread. Using just a can of beer, some sugar, a bit of butter, and a few cups of self- rising flour, it has been the perfect low effort treat at the end of a long day!