Three Stone Farm

We made it through the summer and are now gearing up for fall. Roger is outside currently digging our first pond, and Lily calved a couple of weeks ago. We named the bull calf Cricket as he butted his mom so much that he looked like he was hopping. Besides that, he is a very [...]

Here is Popcicle’s big bull calf, Pepper. We unfortunately didn’t get to see him being born as he was coming out backwards (we think). After freaking out and going inside to call the vet, by the time we came back out he was already on the ground with his mama licking him clean. Seriously, this [...]

Why we weren’t at market last Wednesday (9/23/20)…while harvesting for market, we both had the urge to look at Lily and saw her bag of waters hanging out. We quickly decided that we needed to stay home.
We knew Lily’s calving was imminent, but like human births, you never know exactly when it’s going [...]

I always cringe when I see eggs at the grocery store labeled “Vegetarian Fed!”. Contrary to what these protein-pushers believe, chickens are not vegetarian. And no, they are not carnivores either (since some people seem to believe that things are only either herbivorous or carnivorous). There is a third option: omnivorous. That is what chickens [...]

I hate flies!
That’s all I have to say.
ok, I’ll say more. Poor cows are suffering from the flies out in the field. It’s been hot and humid and that means lots of flies. Now’s the time for biting flies too, so we have face flies, horn flies, manure flies, horse flies, and these weird green [...]

We’ve dried off Popcicle, since she went down to about a quart a day. So now she will have a good three months to rest and build up her stores before calving in early October. The rest should do me good too, as I was developing carpal tunnel from milking. I may need to get [...]

When I set up this blog/website I had intended to try to keep up posting regularly about interesting things happening on the farm. And while I often think during the day, “Hey, that would make a great blog post!” the reality is that by the end of the day, I am just too tired to [...]

We FINALLY got a good amount of rain! I think about 3/4″. Never thought I’d be so happy about it since leaving Astoria, but after spending 4 hours a day hand pumping and hauling 5-gallon buckets to the garden, I am thrilled. The buckwheat looks twice as big as it was yesterday. We have been [...]

Actually, the best birthday presents ever…meet Lily and Popcicle.
Lily is on the left and is a heifer, which means that she has not given birth and milked yet.  Both she and Popcicle are bred and will calve sometime in late September/early October. They are Dutch Belted, though Lily is half Jersey too. Dutch Belted is [...]

Hard to see, but that’s a flock of migrating geese in one of our fields. We think we should put decoys up next year in the garden so we can get the free manure.

We consider ourselves equal opportunity omnivores, which means that we eat EVERYTHING. From nettles and lambs quarters to venison, it’s all fair game as long as it’s a whole food. Well, everything except nuts since our eldest is anaphylactic. We came to this path after living on various limited diets and, damaged and humbled by [...]

Wow, what a year it’s been…2009 was marked by many firsts for the Quennell family. It was our first full year in upstate New York on our new land, our first year gardening on the East Coast, our first year growing for and selling at the farmer’s market, our first year tapping maples and making [...]

Installing baby geese, ducks, and chickens into the brooder.