Lamb Video

Lots of people have been asking for an update on the lambs. Both Princess and Rameses are doing great! They are about 5 weeks old and are spending more and more time outside grazing alongside Suzy. The love to run ...especially in circles through one barn door, out the other, around the barn, and back again. In a few weeks, they'll be old enough to move outside with the horses and Ned (Papa ram).

How Sweet It Is ! Maple Syrup Time at Fokish Farm

Last week, our friends Hank and Katerina invited us to their farm to watch them tap and make maple syrup. Of course, we took them up on the offer! And we soon realized what a time consuming process it is. Did you know that it takes 30 gallons of maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup and the boiling/evaporating process

takes 8-10 hours. The pictures are 1) maple sap in the evaporating pan, 2) Byran checking out a maple tree, 3) Bryan and Katerina at the wood burning sap evaporater, 4) Katerina with her delicious maple syrup (in a "repurposed" bottle).

Looking for Love (In all the Wrong Places!)

We had a noisy visitor this morning.....Mr. Tom Turkey was outisde gobbling his heart out by the chicken coop! He gobbled...then strutted and fanned his feathers, hoping for some attention from the girls. But our hens had absolutely no interest, and stayed very happily inside the coop.

Bryan and I stood by the breakfast room window and watched all of this play out...until poor Tom finally gave up and flew off. We are surrounded by two flocks of turkeys, one on the pasture hill, and one on the berry hill...so we're sure he'll find company soon!

Springing Forward

This weekend we "spring forward". Although we lose an hour of sleep, I relish the idea that spring is just around the corner! Already I'm seeing glimpses ... the weather forecast does not include snow for the next two weeks and today we won't even get below freezing.

We'll let the sheep out today to graze, as there is actually grass showing. The chickens are outside this morning, grateful to be out of their coop.

As for me, I plan on spending my day outside as well - enjoying the sunshine. I'll put up the greenhouse hoops over our raised vegetable gardens and will tie up the raspberry bushes by the house.

2 Much Fun - More Lamb News

What a difference two weeks makes! Our little lambs are both doing well! They like skip around the barn, and hop...yes hop...straight up in the air. Their little happy dance. Today it was warm enough (actually 40 degrees!) for them to go outside with Suzie, their mom, to play in the snow and nibble a little grass.

Good Morning__America!

Well...we felt very honored (and surprised) yesterday morning! Our little Handsome Brook Farm Bed and Breakfast was featured on Good Morning America as one of four "eco-friendly" vacation destinations. Of course, we are delighted...and humbled by this designation.

We like to think that our bed and breakfast gives our guests the opportunity to better understand and participate in a farm experience, and better understand and appreciate how their food arrives to table. And, of course, we want our guests to have FUN!

Yesterday was a whirlwind. It started with a call from someone wanting to make a reservation because they saw us on "GMA". We were totally surprised, and the kind lady played the broadcast over the phone to me (she'd TIVO'd it!) so I could hear. We were then able to TIVO it ourselves, due to our unusual situation of having our "local" news come from San Francisco...another story for another time.

By the end of the day, we'd answered 20 calls, had 788 hits to our website, and began booking for the summer in earnest!

This recognition has only made Bryan and me even more determined to make our B and B Farm Experience something really special for the people who choose to stay with us.

Here is the link to the broadcast, if you would like to watch it. They beautiful woman feeding the calf is my mother-in-law, Nita Babcock.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6989108

Buried in Paperwork Tonight!

At the end of a busy summer, Bryan and I were ready for a quiet winter. Now, we are seeing that the relative inactivity of a farm winter is short. We're in February, and we find this time of year brings a heightened level of activity. Some of it is very exciting, like dreaming about our vegetable garden, looking through seed catalogs, thinking about how we're going to sell our berries....and all of the interesting people we'll meet this summer through the B and B.

Then, there is paperwork to complete...and lots of it. We are now required to undergo a food safety (GAP) audit by the USDA ...who wants to be sure we're picking and packing our berries in a safe manner. Can't blame them...with the problems that the vegetable people had last year. But there's tons of paperwork, which must be done by me at night, after I'm done with my day job (a wonderful job with Celergo...an international payroll provider).

In addition, I have paperwork to complete for our NOFA certification audit...the audit which certifies us as an organic grower.

But, its all worth it...and we want our products to reflect quality and safety, as well as great taste! We can't sell it as such if it isn't certified...so bring on the paperwork!

The First Dance

Lamb N"ewes"

Last night was quite an adventure! And today has been another one....


The lambs are as cute as ever! And SO tiny.

Our little boy lamb, Ramesses, seemed sluggish this morning, while his little sister was prancing around the pen like the Princess she is. Dwight came over to check on all of us and suggested that we bring Ramesses inside and bottle feed him and keep him warm as he was "failing to thrive."

So, of course we have! Ramesses has a little play-pen set up in our breakfast room...with a tarp on the floor, a nice warm towel to lie on, and some stuffed animals to keep him company. We'll feed him lamb formula 6x a day for the next few weeks....much like a newborn baby. Of course, I don't mind in the least :-) And, already, we can see him improving. Amazing how frail little lambs are.


Here are a couple of pictures of the two babies. Princess now has the sweater on, as she's out in the barn with Suzie....and Ramesses is on his nice warm towel.

Suzie Had a Little Lamb....Actually TWO!

Hi Everyone!

Bryan and I are the proud "grandparents" of two beautiful little lambs!

Of course today is the coldest, snowiest day of the year :-) At about 5:30 PM Bryan and I went out to feed the horses and sheep....and heard this little tiny "maa" coming from near the barn. Standing by himself was this tiny little lamb...couldn't be more than an hour old...and the size of a chihuaha! I picked him up and carried him, with Mama close behind, into our big barn. Within minutes our friend Dwight (the vet) came by to check how everyone was doing...and to teach me how to milk a sheep (sometimes new Moms need a little help). A few minutes later another neighbor who "heard" about the birth came by and gave us a baby bottle and a tiny little sweater to wrap the lamb in. Then...our dinner guests (we weren't really expecting to have a "baby" tonight) came by with dinner in hand, but spent the first hour with us in the barn. We ate dinner, played an hour of bridge...and after they went home we went to the barn to see how Suzie and lambie were doing. To our suprise, our little lambie was not wearing his sweater. How in the world did he get out of it?? WELL...it turned out little lambie had a new little sister (sweaterless, of course)...who was born sometime during our bridge game :-) The first 24-48 hours are risky for little lambs...so we'll sleep a bit fitfully...but look forward to getting up in the morning!

We have a webcam set up in the barn....so take a peek at our new arrivals!

To see them live go to ... https://online.wilife.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/MyLukWerks/Default.aspx. The user name is http://us.mc01g.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=bryancbabcock@yahoo.com and the password is lin3cor. PJ was born at 7:15 (on camera if you go back and look).

I'll post pictures tomorrow :-)

Integrity Lives

Our good friend, Pastor Bill Oudemolen recently blogged about the erosion of integrity in today's society (http://milehighrev.com/). He listed some of the numerous examples of this kind of behavior, from Bernie Madoff to Chris Brown. To me, the definition of integrity has its roots in the word "integration". The person and image you present to the outside world is consistent/integrated with the actions you take behind closed doors. Clearly that was not the case with the people mentioned in Bill's blog.

When it comes down to it, integrity is essential to trust and the building of community.

Perhaps the value of integrity has been lost in our disconnected society, where most people don't know their neighbors, let alone rely upon them. There is no personal contract between community members.

Thankfully, integrity is still modeled in rural communities like ours. Neighbors depend upon neighbors to act honorably and with integrity. Not just because it is the right thing to do (which it is), but because it is essential to the survival of the community. In small towns we depend upon each other as we live shoulder to shoulder. Individual community members can't hide. You will see the person you do business with or live near again...and frequently. At the Post Office, at community meetings, at the Tractor Supply store. This proximity keeps us honest...and connected. It also keeps us ever mindful of the power of words, and the importance of measuring them, as many of us will spend the rest of our days together. This connectedness is a responsibility and a blessing. It is what brings strangers to your door with offers of assistance when a flood strikes, what brings communities together to support a volunteer fire department. We celebrate it in little ways...with Memorial Day parades and park fund raisers. For those of us who have chosen to live here, we are thankful that integrity still lives.

With a Chick Chick Here!

Today is a drippy day. It's 40 degrees outside, the snow is melting, and the horses are happily sloshing around in the mud. A good day to blog about chickens!



The picture is of Bryan and one of our favorite chickens, Star.




Spring officially starts for us when we buy our little chicks....ususally around Easter. We only buy females, because we just raise the chickens for eggs and no rooster is required....Roosters are very noisy and don't just crow at daybreak (1am, 2am is fine too). For those of you who need a biology lesson...eggs are well..just eggs. To be honest, we didn't know that at first...and our friendly fence builder, Anthony, had to inform us...much to his amusement.


Our chickens are free range chickens. They spend the night in a chicken coop and are free to roam around the farm during the day. Usually they hang out around the horses, hoping to catch a few bits of grain that the horses don't eat. Then they happily eat bugs and grass for the rest of the day. At night, they head back to the coop on their own and Bryan and I shut the door so they can sleep safe and sound. One interesting thing we learned: It's almost impossible to catch a chicken during the day...they scamper away. But at night, they get very drowsy and will let you pick them up as much as you want.



The eggs are fantastic....far different from anything bought in the store. The yolks are bright yellow, and the whites actually stand up. And the taste is amazing. We raise chickens that lay brown eggs, and chickens that lay blue and green eggs (shells)...our Aracaunas. When kids come to visit, they get such a kick out of gathering the eggs every day.




Fortunately, the chickens prefer to lay in the coop...so we don't have to hunt! We built six nexting boxes for them...but they all stand in line and wait their turn for the preferred next up on the "chicken condo".



We now have 5 red chickens, all identical! Our feed store owner, Tammy, offered to give me 4 of her chickens. As it turned out the only four she could catch were also red! I'll be in need of new names for the new four....any ideas? By the way, the only payment that Tammy would take for her chickens was a plate of homemade brownies...and I had to insist on that!

Here's a video of the 5 Reds! They're not doing much except hopping around...but again, this is a pretty quiet, drippy day...and they're not too excited about going outside....so hopping around in a nice warm coop isn't too bad :-)

What We Did on Our Winter Vacation

Bryan's day job, and passion, is teaching Ancient Near Eastern History and Theology/Bible, at one of our local colleges - Hartwick College. This January, we took 16 of his Egyptology students to Egypt to see the sights up close. What an adventure! We spent 15 days on the road...seeing all corners of Egypt literally by plane, train, and automobile. From Alexandria to Sharm El Sheik. With Luxor, Aswan, Cairo, Abu Simbel, Sinai...and everywhere in between.

Above right is the Sphinx, with the Giza pyramid in the background. Upper left is the alter in the inner sanctuary at the Temple of Isis, in Aswan. I was struck by the similarities of the Egyptian temples to what I would imagine the temple in Jerusalem might have looked like. This sanctuary was very similar to how the Holy of Holies was described.

One of the wonderful aspects of Egypt is the fact that the ancient sites are in such good repair after thousands of years. The sand has served as a protector of the sites, covering them up and preserving them for millenia...so unlike Greece and even Israel, the buildings remain largely intact...and it helps my vivid imagination "see" what the Acropolis and other sites must have looked and felt like.

One of my favorite memories was having the opporutnity to live out my "Lawrence of Arabia" dream and gallop across the desert on a beautiful Arabian horse....it was amazing.

(For more pictures...for any Egyptophiles, you can visit the Trip Photo Album (see Ben's sub album for some terrific pictures!) at http://www.hartwickegypt.myphotoalbum.com/.

Wishing and Hoping and Thinking and Praying

We really do enjoy the relative quiet of winter. It is a time of rest and renewal after a busy summer. However after a time, we start anticipating the life that begins each spring and the buzz of activity that accompanies it when we get into full swing. In other words, we start getting Cabin Fever...big time!


This weekend we had a "heat wave"!


I don't know if it was the bit of warmth in the air (you know its really been COLD when 20 degrees seems warm!), but Bryan and I sat down yesterday morning and started dreaming about spring projects. Making the list and checking it twice.



Here's the Spring list so far:

1. Clean the upper barn.

2. Clean the run-in shed (where the horses hang out when they're not bellied up to the round bale!).

3. Suzie should have her lamb in March...yeah! Put wood shavings in a stall to get ready.


4. Pound 800 posts for the raspberry trellises into our rocky "Delaware County soil"....we now know why there are so many stone walls around here!



5. Paint the porch.

6. Add compost to the raised vegetable gardens.


7. Plant the vegetable gardens ,using "low tunnels"
over our raised beds.

8. Fix the barn doors, which are now stuck in a permanently open position, due to a buildup of
snow and ice.

9. Paint the fences.


10. Fix the electric fence in the upper pasture


11. Prune 800 blueberry bushes.



12. Weed the strawberries on the berry hill.


13. Pick up 4 Tamworth piglets in April.


14.. Purchase new day old chicks in March



OK....after reading this list, I need a nap! Perhaps I can wait a few more months for spring after all :-)

First Post!

Finally! Bryan and I have talked for months about starting a blog. But daily work and farm projects left little time to even think about starting a blog. That, at least was my excuse. The real reason was that I was terrified of the thought of setting up something technical!

But the long winter days have provided the opportunity...and the blog has been a lot of fun to set up!


As many of you know, Bryan and I moved here full-time in May 2007. One of the first questions that the locals ask when they meet you is , "How long have you lived here"? As we have come to know, you are measured by your response. And we have learned that there are two standards of measurement...."part-time" years and "full-time" years. Part-timers are people who have summer or vacation homes. These people are ususally from "The City" or "Downstate" - Manhattan, which is 3 1/2 hours away, or other cities within driving distance, like Boston. The locals look upon part-timers with amusment (if the city folk are nice) or tolerance (if they they are arrogant)....but show a very open spirit to anyone who is willing to appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the area and its people. You are not really considered a "full-timer" until you've stayed through your first winter, which lasts from November thru April....and, if you're not scared away, then your second. Bryan, Lindsey, and I started out as part-timers, buying our little farm in September 2003...and certainly fell into the group of people who were looked upon with amusement and curiosity. Amusement, because we were ernest about wanting to learn to farm....curiousity because we hailed from Denver, rather than Manhattan....and Denver is a strange and mythical place to many here.




We commuted here from Denver, then from Chicago, every summer, school break....any time we could...until the home in our heart became Franklin, New York. Over the years we came to appreciate and love the beauty of the area, the peace and quiet of our farm, and most of all the kindness and generosity of our newfound friends and neighbors. So, after 5 years of living here "part-time", we like many before us made the move to "full-time". And we are ever greatful that we did.

If I were to write about all of our adventures in this first post, it would be far too long. So, instead I'll continue with new posts...writing about our past adventures until we're caught up...and keeping everyone up to speed on what is new.


I hope you enjoy this. Please comment and give us your suggestions!

Betsy