visit to Upstate NY

Greetings from Upstate NY! We've just spent several days visiting our daughter and her husband in North Brookfield. It's a little south of Utica, not far from Syracuse and Binghamton. We had such a good time. Now we're staying a night in Cold Spring, and I have a few minutes to download some photos into my blog. This is the back of their barn. They're thinking of new names for their farm - any ideas?

This is a view of the farmhouse from the back. The place was built in 1810, so it's 200 years old! The original owners grew hops for many years until there was a blight. Now they're planting fruit trees and many kinds of berries, plus many vegetables including asparagus and tomatoes. For part of the year cattle graze in their pasture. They plan on raising chickens for eggs - more on that later.

This is the ancient doorbell on the front door. Have you ever seen such a thing? You twist it to make it ring.

This is my beautiful daughter, and there's a good view of the back area of their farm. Right behind her is a pond, with  frogs that sing at night. Behind that is the pasture, and the woods are in back.

You might be able to see that she is 7 months pregnant.

We went hiking in the woods behind the pasture. It's beautiful and peaceful up there! We saw deer tracks. Later in the trip we also saw wild turkeys and woodchucks from a distance, but I didn't get a good photo of them.

There are many shale stones in the woods, often with fossils on them. Here's a good example.

I'll post more photos tomorrow! I have a lot more to share. Now to take a quick walk around Cold Spring.