You read it right…Dave has cleared trails for hiking, snowshoeing and xcountry skiing. How exciting is that??? I’ve dreamt about being able to easily walk through our woods without getting lost (we did get lost last year..don’t laugh) and now thanks to Dave I can. It’s so relaxing to walk amidst the splendor of our property knowing I can find my way home.

Our B & B guests, friends and relatives are going to love this added experience at our farm. I remember last year when we had our first ever guests, Geri and Jim, arrive they wanted to go snowshoeing. It was getting late and I directed them to start out the back side of the barn with directions not to stay out too long since it would be getting dark soon. Well, it was getting dark and they hadn’t come in so I began to worry that they had gotten lost and I would have to notify the police that our first ever guests were lost in the woods. I went down to the barn to call out to them and there were Geri and Jim standing at the pasture fence talking to the goats. Whew!! I was so relieved. Now they can take the trail…easy!!!!

I thought things would be winding down here at the farm. Not so. We’ve decided to build a hoop house (looks like a quanset hut with plastic sides) to try our hand at raising some winter crops. Our meat chickens have been in such demand that we are also thinking of growing some more this winter in the hoop house where they can kind of free range.

We’ll also be picking up our Great Black Pig piglets after Thanksgiving. They were just born 2 days ago. This is a breed which was popular before the industrial farming revolution and is on the brink of extinction. I can’t believe that I have this wonderful opportunity to help save one of G-d’s creatures. Oh and yes for those that are wondering…they will be grown to feed us. How does this constitute saving the breed? Because when there is a demand for their meat it creates a need and reason for their existence.

So now I’m dreaming of taking my goats, piglets and dogs for a walk on our new trails…Irene

How lucky can one get? Just when I thought I would not find the right person to live with us and help us grow our farm and B & B, along comes Dave, Georgia and Gideon. We didn’t just get one person, but a whole family to join forces with us. Dave is an electrician and loves growing vegetables. Georgia is a marketer, event planner and website developer.  It’s really nice having a woman in the house since I’ve been the only female (the dogs are males).   And then there is Gideon….a delightful 5 yr. old who envisions himself as a little man and loves to help his daddy in and around the farm.  Oh..and he also tells Ed he has to behave or he’ll be put in timeout.  I wish I could say that to Ed.  Dave and Georgia are avid snowboarders and are certified as snowboard instructors. Georgia is the new manager of central reservations at Stratton Mountain, Bondville, Vt. and Dave will be a snowboard instructor on the mountain this winter. Gideon is attending the Mountain School at Winhall and is looking forward to boarding on Stratton this winter.

They have only been here a week and have already taken the bull by the horns. Dave has been busy electrifying the new barn which house our bucks, weeding, cleaning up the barn and property, hanging our new Cold Moon Farm B & B sign at our property’s entrance, weed wacking to expose the stone wall along our driveway, taking care of the laying hens, meat chickens and meat goats as well as trying to milk the goats. It seems his hands are too large and the goats’ teats too small. But I have to give him A+ for effort and he’s making headway. He also has plans to create hiking and cross-country/snowing shoeing trails on our property.  Best of all..I didn’t have to tell or direct him to do any of these things..amazing.   Georgia has been connecting us to the social media, getting our name out there, planning events and milking the goats (her hands are just the right size) and staying up late at night to get all these things done after a day at work on Stratton.   Gideon has been helping us to harvest eggs, vegetables, playing with the baby goats and keeping a smile on our faces.

We’ve been busy with wonderful guests this summer and it seems that the fall season will be busy as well. It was wonderful and gratifying to see the smiles on our guests’ faces when they met our animals and had the opportunity to interact with them. Farming chores were a joy for those who wanted to actively participate and some told us it was a spiritual experience for them. Everything went just as I had hoped it would.

Now that Dave, Georgia and Gideon are here we are looking forward to a little more free time (if we choose to take it) and the knowledge that other than me there is someone else that can milk my goats. It was tremendously worrisome to me to think if I got sick who would milk the goats. Now that problem has been solved…YEA!!

So it seems that my dream of finding someone to help us out has been more than met…I never dreamt that it would be a family…and a loving, willing and able one at that!!!..Irene

Well I guess we just got lucky last year. The word is out in the bear community…the Glazers’ have bee hives…let’s go there for dinner. And come they did..ate the honey and destroyed the hive. Very messy and not in the least bit considerate diners. Two nights in a row the hive was set upon. We got lucky however since the queen was not killed. These little buggers are so smart…the queen was on the ground so the workers formed a mound over her to protect her. Ed was able to retrieve her and put her back in the very mangled hive. After the second night of being invaded our good friend Yuval came and took the queen and her entourage to one of his hives and fostered them.

So Ed had to make the decision of whether or not to continue to be a beekeeper or give it up to the bears. He decided if he gave into the bears then what next. So it was off to New Hampshire to the fencing company to purchase an electric fence with energy enough to zap a bear. We were assured by the fence people that this would work and we should set it up before putting the hive inside the fence. They suggested we hang bacon on the fence to attract the bears so their nose would touch the fence first and get zapped. This would result in the bear being frightened off never to return. So we did indeed set up the fence and put the bacon on the fence and sure enough the bacon hanging there became too much to ignore and so Ernie and Hawkeye (our two Golden Retrievers) learned not to go near the bees. As for the bears…so far we have not seen hide nor hair of them. So the hive is back in its place and seems to be thriving and the bees are doing a fantastic job of pollinating my gardens.

So that should answer the question and we now can dream of eating apples and honey in September. What a sweet thought!!

I must be since my Knight in Shining Armor…no wait that’s not quite right…my Knight in Faded Blue Jeans (ahh..that’s better) has come to save the day..no, no not the day but the Farm.  Who might this Knight be, none other than my very own wonderful husband of almost 49 years.. Ed.  He has come to save my dream of running a farm.  When our associate farmer, Steve, left last week  I thought this dream was finished.  Ed would have none of that and and promised that together we would make it work.  He has definitely fulfilled that promise and has been doing the watering, feeding and the other chores it takes to keep our animals and veggies happy and healthy. 

So I am really very happy that this not a dream otherwise I would be waking up to the reality and sadness that would come from having to stop farming.

My new dream is to find someone who will fit in with our dream farm and be willing to help us make it grow and prosper.

Thank you so much my wonderful husband for making me so happy!!!!  Irene

It’s great to be back!!! We went off line so we could make my blog part of our new Cold Moon Farm website. Thanks to my terrific son Tg (pronounced TeeGee)  who developed our new, beautiful and soon to be packed with info on what’s happening at the farm website.
So where do I begin??? I guess I’ll have to do as they do in the movies…a flashback!

December, 2010..got the call from Taylor Farm, located in Londonderry, Vt., that they would like to carry my line of fresh baked breads at their farm store. Wow…that blew me away to think they thought so well of what I produce to sell it to the public. I dove right into baking up a storm. I would chuckle to myself at 5:00 a.m. as I was shaping the dough and sliding them into the oven that I was like the “time to make the donuts” man. The best part was my breads sold quickly and so I had to keep making more!!

January, 2011…”The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing…” It’s very white here and the snow banks are getting higher. Good thing we can cozy up by the fire. In hindsight I should have done some more cozying. Little did I know back then how busy we would get. We’ve had a pretty steady stream of wonderful guests staying at the B & B. We are really enjoying meeting new people.

Febuary, 2011…Still snowing…..”Goat School” takes place Sat. thru Mon. of Presidents’ Day Weekend. What a blast!! Ken and Jan Spaulding of Stony Knoll Farm, Maine made learning about goat keeping fun. We all got a big laugh when our Golden Retriever, Hawkeye, discovered the frozen goat hoofs Ken & Jan had brought for us to practice hoof trimming. Hawk came prancing into the room with one in his mouth feeling very proud of himself. We had a total of 30 people attending and some couples booked rooms at the house. How great it was to spend a weekend with people who share the same interest and love of goats. I prepared a buffet lunch for the attendees for each day and if I do say so myself the chili I made with goat meat was ass-kicking. Everyone left happy and more self-assured about taking care of our goats.

We also met Steve and his girlfriend Tessa. Steve loves goats and I was looking for someone to help us grow the farm. What could be a better match? and his girlfriend of 6 yrs. is sweet and adorable. Steve had graduated from Univ. of Mass., Amherst with a pre-vet and biology degree. The guy is brilliant!   We agreed we would give the relationship a try this summer and then take it from there. We decided he would move to Vermont the end of March so we could get to know each other and prepare for the coming of kids the beginning of May. Tessa was to stay in Mass. since she is graduating with a degree in graphic arts this May.

Received terrible news…Brooklyn (our 10 yr. old Golden) has lymphoma and Hawkeye (our 11 yr. old Golden) has a mast cell cancer. Brooklyn will start chemo and Hawkeye will have surgery.

March…Still snowing….Brooklyn begins her chemo.  She is to go through the Wisconsin protocol which means a chemo injection each week for 16 weeks.  She handles the first injection fine and her lymphocite numbers go down from 50,000 to 2000.  We figure we have this thing beat.

Hawkeye has surgery to his left thigh to remove the tumor and he comes through with flying colors.  No extra treatment needed!

Steve moves in with us and he is a joy to have around.  He jumps right in, shares many of the day to day jobs that I ask him to help with and takes it upon himself to do jobs where he sees a need and I haven’t.  I bake breads to sell now and he makes goat milk soap that we will sell at the Farmers’  Market this summer.  We start planting seeds for the summer’s produce and it’s so nice to have someone share this task with me.  We seem to have so much to talk about and we’ve become friends as well.   Both of us are eagerly awaiting the May arrival of  Annie and Sophia’s kids.

Ed, Steve and I attend a series of 3 classes on bees.  Those are truly amazing little buggers.  What I learned to put it simply is the male (drone) bees impregnate the queen and then they die.  The queen is catered to as if  she is Cleopatra.  Food is brought and fed to her, she is fanned to keep her comfortable and is not allowed to lift a wing to help out in any way.  All of this is done for her by women bees.  I was truly jealous until I learned that she lays thousands of eggs a day.  I decided then and there she could keep her lifestyle…not interested!

April…Oh, did I tell you it’s snowing…but who cares.  My house is once again filled with the smell of earth from all the little seedlings sprouting and Ed and I are off to Kiawah Island, S. Carolina for a few weeks.  The family will be meeting us there to celebrate Passover together.

Brooklyn is not doing well.  She has stopped responding to the chemo.  I know this will be her last trip to Kiawah.   April 26th, 2 days after we arrive home we have our wonderful vet, Dr. Rob Treat, comes to our home to put Brooklyn down.  The whole process took  3 minutes and my canine best friend is gone from me for forever.  It was truly a very sad day!  Poor Hawkeye lost his soul mate and became very despondent and we were afraid he would pass away from a broken heart.  We included him in everything we did..but we could not cheer him up.

Mud season has begun!

May…Guess what it stopped snowing!!!  but still somewhat chilly and raining.  It seems the rain has taken over for the snow and the road is muck & mire.

 We are proud to announce the birth of 2 black & white spotted little boys (bucks) weighing 6.5 & 6.8 lbs. on May 3rd.  Mama Annie and kids are doing fine.  We are also extremely delighted to announce the birth of  3 little girls (does) weighing 4.5 lbs. to 5.8 lbs to Sophia on May 11th.  Mama Sophia’s delivery was extremely difficult since 2 of the girls where tangled up and it took human intervention to save kids and mama.  Sophia developed a fever 4 days after the birth and stopped eating.  Steve diagnosed her and suggested we start her on penicillin. Annie stopped eating as well and we found out we should have dewormed Annie & Sophia since the parasites multiply exponentially due to the stress of delivery.  Since both mamas were not producing enough milk for their kids we had to give them a homemade milk replacer.  It turned out to be too rich for their litte tummies and they came down with diarrhea.  My wonderful friends in the goat community helped us with their advice that comes with years of experience.  Even when I would call late at night they were there to tell me what to do.  I am definitely blessed to have such wonderful friends who share their knowledge so freely…Thank you…Thank you…Thank you!!  I am able to say that everyone is well and thriving.

On Saturday, May 21st we travelled to New Hampshire to pick up our new rescue Golden Retriever.  He was in a kill shelter (which means he had 5 days before he would be euthanized) in Louisiana when Golden Huggs of Williston, Vt. found him.  They retrieved him (no pun intended) and sent him to a foster home in Arkansas and then from there to us.  His new name is Ernie Kovacs (Ed’s pick) and he is truly a comedian.  He came strolling off the transport wearing this big grin on his face.  He cracked everyone up.  He’s about 2 yrs. and is a sweet, sweet pup.  He is also very handsome.  Hawkeye is beginning to perk up since Ernie’s arrival and this is good.  So he is filling in that hole in our home that opened up when Brooklyn died. 

So now another hole will be opening in our home…Steve has told us that he will be leaving us.  His girlfriend (now fiance) needs him back in Massachusetts.  I’ve come to rely on him sooo much and enjoy having him around.  He truly became part of our family and a good friend, so I’m feeling sad for me and at the same time thankful that I got to know him.

We started selling at the Jamaica Farmers’ Market on Sunday, May 22nd.  I made my artisan breads and Steve made Banana Bread.  We also sold chicken and duck eggs.  We did better than we expected and I sold out many of my breads.  As an extra benefit, we really enjoyed meeting an array of very nice and interesting people.

Oh..it stopped raining.  I am now dreaming of all the veggies that will be springing to life and ready for harvesting before too long…yummm!  Irene

I am pleased to announce that Annie and Jacob, Sophia and Fin are expecting kids this May.  It looks like I’m going to be a Nanny Granny.  How exciting is that!! 

Now I’ll be dreaming of floppy eared kids rollicking in the pastures…Irene

My dream for the coming year is that this nightmare of war, disease, poverty, neglect and abuse of the earth and all it’s inhabitants comes to a quick end and Peace, Respect and Love for all will reign.

One can only keep on dreaming and hoping…Irene

This past Weds. we put out the welcome mat and greeted our very first Cold Moon Farm Bed & Breakfast guests. It was an absolutely wonderful visit. They were celebrating their 26th wedding anniversary and they insisted we help them celebrate. They were a delightful, warm and engaging couple and have definitely set the bar for future guests. We thank them for making this a memorable experience. It turned out to be everything I had dreamt it would be.

Looking forward to the future…Irene

Last week Annie met and bred with Jacob, my new goat friend Dottie Cross’s buck. He was in every way a real gentleman. Upon meeting Annie he sniffed her rear, caressed and mewed to her and then gently mounted her and in 2 seconds impregnated her (hopefully). He did this twice and it all took about 4 minutes. Wham, Bang, Done!!

This week it was Sophia’s turn. She met Fin (short for Infinity) Dottie’s teenager buck and boy were his hormones raging. Before we could even get Sophia set he jumped right on top of her which freaked her out. She bolted right out from under him and out of the barn. Which meant Dottie & I had to set about catching her…NOT AN EASY TASK since Fin was also in hot pursuit. Much panting ensued and not from Sophia or Fin. Thank G-d Dottie & I are in such good phsyical shape (do I hear you laughing?) and we succeeded in catching Sophia and returning her to the barn where Fin promptly did his thing..3 times. Someone has to teach goats a thing or two about romance and enjoying the minute.

So my Christmas wish (since it’s after Chanukah I’m imposing on Christmas for my wishing) is to become a Nanny Granny this May. I should know in about three weeks if they are indeed with kids.

Happy Holidays to all…I’m dreamin of a White Christmas and Spring Babies…Irene

Poor Sophia & Shirley! They are both in heat and are in desperate need of a man. They kept us up most of the night moaning & crying out. At first I thought “Oh My God..they are sick or something has gotten into the barn”. They are sick…love sick that is. Alas they will have to wait another few weeks before I will bring them to their respective lovers. Thank G-d they are in heat for only a day or two…but then Annie will come into heat and I guess she’ll be moaning & crying as well. They will all come into heat again in December.

They’re dreaming of a love affair….and I’m dreaming of baby goats…will that make me a NannyGranny?