Welcome to the Barn

“A farmer, as one of his farmer correspondents once wrote to Liberty Hyde Bailey, is "a dispenser of the 'Mysteries of God.'" Wendell Berry

                                                                       

                                                                   Big Maple Farm

I invited myself to a barn. Not something I do every day. Or once a year! But I did it! And you're invited inside!

If you've read my posts very long you know I have a special affinity to lambs. Back in Maryland I had a favorite field I'd go to every March to snap to my heart's content. And a few years ago, a special friend from church contacted a client and asked if I could come see their lambs. I went to that barn twice and enjoyed walking among sheep and lambs and getting some great snaps!

But here I am in PA. Where are the sheep farms? I'd do what any reasonable person did. I looked up sheep farms in Brookville. I found two, both about an hour away near Ridgway.

Now comes the scary part. I called and asked if I could come see their lambs and take pictures. There was only a brief description of the farm on the internet, but it also said they had fall harvest days. So I thought if they do that, maybe they don't mind people coming to the farm.

I spoke to the mother of the farmer first, who then gave me the number of her son, Ray. And Ray said yes! So off we went on a cold, windy and soon to be wet morning to visit lambs.

Ray met us as we drove in and spent an hour talking with us, educating us on their farm operations, and seeming to be enjoying himself.


                                                 Come on it!

 It was dark in the barn. (I think most barns are like that.) So that means I didn't get good snaps. For some reason my flash wouldn't go off, so I confess the pictures aren't great. But we did have fun.

Jerry and Ray learned they both hated computers!

Momma looks like she's in dream land! All is well.

They have 3 horses, a miniature horse, a goat, chickens, including a rooster, rabbits, lots of cats, and sheep. And during the month of March, many little lambs brightening the barn.

His father started with a dairy farm in the 60s, and when he retired Ray brought on sheep. Then Ray's daughter, Amanda, went into business and started Big Maple Farm's Natural Therapies and brought in the other animals. So now there are two separate farms running at Big Maple.

                                             Ray said this one is the leader of the pack.

Ray has a full time job but said he could never give up sheep farming. It's a part of him. The work is hard; the pay is like the lottery, sometimes good, sometimes bad.

                                                         This one was 2 days old.

I took a picture of their sign out front when we left. I was about 50 yards away and didn't see that the sign was one-sided. :) Oh, the joy of Photoshop! Turned that sign right around.

Ray invited us back in the fall when the colors are alive. I told him I just might take him up on that.

I sure enjoyed my trip to the barn. We even stopped at a country store on the way home and I got 2 ice cream sandwiches! Hope you enjoyed your trip to the barn!


I was taking some snaps through the rails and caught this 4 day old one climbing on her mother's back.

“Men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden