Tilly our quilly

What happens when you page your husband at work and say: “I want a hedgehog!” Well he immediately goes out and buys one of course. 

Welcome little Tilly to Silver Hill Farm.

The "bird" feeder.

We started to notice last month that the snow and mulch under the bird feeder was all displaced.  We couldn't quite figure out who was making the mess.  Then one afternoon we saw a wild turkey helping herself to the dropped birdseed from the feeder.  The first few days the dogs barked in protest, but as her visits became more frequent, Piper would ever so calmly just sit and watch her from the door.

A few days ago she showed up as normal in the afternoon, but this time had brought with her 2 friends!  I figured that this wasn't a good thing to allow 3 turkeys to scratch my frozen mulch, so I let Izzy and Piper outside.  They didn't even get out the door before the turkeys had flown off into the woods.  Needless to say, neither our resident turkey, nor her friends have returned.

O Christmas Tree

This years Christmas Tree once again hailed from our back yard.  We chopped down the large hemlock behind the barn and gave the branches to the goats as a winter snack.  Rather than buy a tree, we opted to use the top of the hemlock instead, giving us a nice wispy, whimsical tree.

Merry Christmas!

Israel - The Holy Land

We just arrived back from a great trip to Israel through Pilgrim Tours.

Our tour guide was fabulous.  We greatly enjoyed Yatzuck's morning off-key singing, his "go, go, go" speed, and the caring oversite of his "people."  This photo really captures him well.

We spent 7 days in country stretching from the Mediterranean Sea on the west to the Dead Sea in the east.  It was absolutely incredible walking in the footsteps of the Israelites and Jesus.  Below are some pictures of our favorite places.

Fall Recap

Where did the time go?!?!  Apparently we've been so busy that we didn't even have time to post the past two months.  Here are some of the highlights from our Fall.

1. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!

Yup, still kickin'.

Eric even made a banana cream pie!

2. The garden harvest was successful.  We enjoyed many fruits and vegetables along with a great pumpkin and gourd harvest this year.

3.  The goat's hay was delivered in one BIG wagon.

4.  The piggies all went peacefully and have since returned to the freezer.  They sure were a happy bunch rooting around in the woods all summer long!  We definitely enjoyed having them and are now enjoying the bacon.

5. We started refinishing the wood floors in the house.  First stop was the living room. 

 (Sadly no one warned us about the dust)!

Before and after.

Happy Farm Animals!

Hanging with Harriet

We returned home from a day up in Burlington on Saturday and much to our pleasant surprise, we found "little" Harriet attached to a post on our porch, starting to spin a cocoon.  Eric cut her out and we added her to the tank.  Hopefully in the spring we'll now have two cecropia moths hatch!  

We're keeping our eyes peeled for more caterpillars as they seem to be everywhere!