Tag Archives: kids

for the love of goats

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One of the New Kids on The Block at Yellow Springs Farm

Ha! That title caught your eye, eh gentle readers?

Good! I love my Yellow Springs Farm goats! Well they aren’t really my goats but I love them. And every year, this time of year Yellow Springs Farm has open farm weekends :

Sat, 05/18/2019 – 10:00am to 4:00pm
Sun, 05/19/2019 – 10:00am to 4:00pm
Yellow Springs Farm Native Plant Nursery and Artisanal Goat Cheese Dairy, will be having our Springs Native Plant sale over 2 weekends in May. Originally a dairy farm 150 years ago,the farm and nursery consists of an historic farmhouse, dairy barn, a springhouse with pond on 8 acres of land. We grow native plants, design and install native landscapes and produce over 25 varieties of fresh and aged artisanal goat cheeses. So come on out and take a picture on our Open Farm day weekends(May 11th/12th and May 18th and 19th) with our Nubian Goats, sample cheeses, and see our blooming wildflowers! Plant experts will be available to help you select plants for your garden or landscape plan.

It’s a little slice of heaven. The goats are total characters. The plants are awesome – I have planted three gardens with them now. And the goat cheese and yogurt? Award winning for a very good reason – totally delicious.

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People visiting with the goats this weekend.

I have known the farmers Catherine and Al Renzi for years.  I remember back to circa 2001 when they decided to start their farm and when they bought it.

Over the years a well-deserved following has developed and the event has grown…as in the number of visitors increases every year. And this is where I am going to open my big mouth because it is a distinct privilege being able to visit Catherine and Al’s farm. And no, I don’t work or speak for the farm, I am speaking my mind based upon what I saw out of guests this year that I thought wasn’t the best behavior ever considering these farmers open up their farm (where they live and work) to all of us. 

Let’s start with parking.  They know their farm and their road so they tell you quite politely where to park.  That doesn’t mean the road and it doesn’t mean parking in roped off areas of the farm or blocking people in or even taking what amount to multiple spaces. Be polite, you are a guest.

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This is a farm. Not a dog park.

Pets.  This weekend people bought their dogs. Yes their dogs like it was a dog park.  It’s not a dog park, it’s a working farm with valuable animals including the farm’s own dog.  It is simply not fair to presume YOUR pets are welcome.  Keep them at home. Please. That’s like bringing uninvited guests to a sit-down dinner party.

The goats.  The goats are lovely creatures who are independent minded.  So listen to the goat herders. They know their charges.  And please do not feed their charges.  They have plenty of their own food.  Yes, they look at you with those big brown eyes but resist LOL, resist!

The plants. The plants are awesome!  Around 200 varieties of native plants. From all over the Mid Atlantic and Northeast.  I bought my first witch hazels ever here years ago.  On Saturday I had an impulse buy: one of my favorite kinds of oak trees, a Chestnut Oak. It was here at Yellow Springs that I discovered one of my favorite native perennials called Indian Pinks. Also flame azaleas.

And the cheeses? Mmmmmm mmmmm mmmm.  I recommend the goat cheese with mushrooms that was recommended to me this weekend. I can’t remember it’s proper name but it was delicious.

Yellow Springs Farm is located at:

1165 Yellow Springs Rd  
Chester Springs, Pennsylvania 19425
 (610) 827-2014
 www.yellowspringsfarm.com

Enjoy the goat photos and thanks for stopping by.

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the difference between right and wrong

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kidsParenting is never easy.  It is why there are so many books devoted to the subject, blogs, magazines, you name it.  You can have great kids but then have awkward situations.

Such is the case I heard of recently.

Someone I know has this utterly awkward situation to deal with.  Their kid had someone over to hang out and something got broken.  What got broken was a gift from a grandmother.  Headphones – something not particularly inexpensive.

So now what?  Do you think kids should take responsiblity for their actions after a point?  Do you think their parents should be told when they break something expensive belonging to your child?  Accidents happen, but where do you draw the line?

Apparently the kid who broke the headphones isn’t too interested in stepping up and replacing them and told the other kid NO he’s not replacing them and if he has a problem with that go to his parents. He is not even particularly sorry he broke something belonging to a friend.

Sign me once again the new Victorian.  Is everything so disposable in our society that it also affects personal accountability?

To me this isn’t necessarily the question of money or the object, it is the question of doing what is right.  After all if the kid who did the breaking of things said to his friend “hey man, I’m sorry. But look my parents can’t afford to replace them and I am going to get into soooo much trouble if they find out.” maybe I wouldn’t be wondering about this topic.  But because this kid is sort of cavalier and seemingly uncaring about breaking something that belongs to a friend, I have an issue with that.

If this happened to you, what would you do?  I have been thinking about it and personally I would go to the other kid’s mother at a minimum.  I would be honest with them and tell her it’s not about the money or the object it’s about the principle of it.  Accidents happen, and I’m sorry kids aren’t ever too young or too old to learn that it might be harder to own up to something but it’s better in the long run.

Maybe this kid breaks things with great regularity at other people’s houses.  Maybe when these things happen this is the kid’s M.O. and other parents are too embarrassed to bring this up to his parents. Or maybe the parents know and don’t want to deal.  You can dissect this a lot of ways.

It is indeed a sticky situation. Some say to this that you need to pick your battles, but I don’t see the issue that simplistically.  I think kids should be accountable for their actions, and even if they don’t replace what they broke, good lord it costs them nothing to apologize.  And it is the responsibility of that child’s parents to teach him that. That however in and of itself is another discussion.

Are you a parent?   What do you think?

 

am I just the new victorian?

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No one wants to be an unhip mom.  That is like the fate worse that death.  But what if you really don’t like something?

I was never a player of PacMan, Ms PacMan, anything Atari or you name it video games. Truthfully, I am not a huge game person, period. I guess that makes me dull in that department.  Sorry, I try, it just makes my eyes glaze over.

I know kids, especially boys, love video games.  And I desperately want to be down with gaming, but when you watch kids get their brains sucked out after a couple of hours, where is the comfort level? Where is the love?

It’s like when the game goes on, the brain goes off.

So I am putting it out there to moms everywhere to check the pulse of moms and gaming.

Am I wrong to want balance?   Am I wrong that kids need to communicate other than just electronically and on social media? Everyone texts for example, but what about the lost art of a thank you note?  Sorry, but the Emily Post in me still thinks these old fashioned things have value….

I don’t want to be the new Victorian, so I am opening the floor to moms everywhere.  How do you approach games? Is game time unlimited and whenever or do your kids have a specific amount of time they can play video games? Do they have specific times of day where it is ok?

Is there a specific area where electronics live (as in not in the bedrooms at night so as to avoid wall eyed zombies that can’t function the next morning)? Because gaming also occurs on smartphones, do smartphones stay in the parent zone when bedtime rolls around?

What are the electronic frontier rules in your house? What happens when rules are broken in your house?  Are privileges lost, electronic items removed? If so, how long? How do you talk teen and pre-teen?

Tell me. (before Ms. PacMan rises from the grave and gobbles me whole.)