farm life – Just Get in the Car

Getting to know Donna Wethey of Spotted Hill Farm

Just Get in the Car — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 16:12:46 +0000

Last spring we had a lovely visit with Donna and Guy of Spotted Hill Farm. We learned all about kidding season, and got to feed the baby goats! We thought it would be fun to catch up with Donna and ask her a few questions. Here’s what she has to share.

Tell us about you, Guy, and the farm. What does a typical day look like for you?

A typical day here:

We get up early, 6:30 most days, when we have kids [baby goats], earlier! There are animals to be fed and cared for, and babies to be bottle fed. The does [mama goats] are milked and then we pasteurize the milk and set up bottles for the next feed. When the babies are weaned, we will either freeze the milk for later use in soap or make cheese for family and friends.

In between feeds, there is hay to gather, grain to buy and pick up and numerous other things to do. Our garden is just getting started in Spring, so there is planting and weeding to be done. We never lack something to do around the farm and we are never bored!! Later on in the season we will be canning fruits and vegetables for use in the winter.

2. What do you want our readers to know about Spotted Hill Farm? Can people visit you?

We LOVE sharing our farm with others, especially young people! Guy and I believe every child should know where eggs and milk are made! Springtime is the best time to visit, as our goats give birth in the Spring! This year, we have 7 does due to kid in April!

We will be hosting our Open Farm Weekends every weekend in May from 10-5. We are open by appointment the rest of the week! Set up a time to come see our friendly farm pets or shop in our Barn Store for wonderful goods handcrafted by local artisans and farmers.

We host Yoga With Our Baby Goats in May and June! Our babies are bottle fed and obnoxiously friendly and love interacting with people! Check out SpottedHillFarm.com/yoga for schedule and tickets.

3. We know you love your town – tell us the best thing about Boyertown! Is there a hidden gem that we should know about?

Our little Boyertown has tons of gems!! Some of my favorites are Dancing Tree Creations, Colebrookdale Railroad and Taylor Backes.

4. If you had a day to explore around your town, where would you go, what would you eat, what would you do?

We would start out having breakfast at Brakeman’s Cafe, right across the parking lot from the Colebrookdale Railroad. Set in an old brick garage, it is a friendly and charming place with excellent coffee and food! Then, we would go take a glass blowing class at Taylor Backes, a wonderful gallery of handcrafted blown glass.

We would then stop by Grind [website appears to be coming soon] for a delicious lunch! We would visit with Keith, the owner and Tom, our favorite waiter. The food is wonderful and the people are even nicer!

After lunch, we would definitely take a ride on the Colebrookdale Railroad! The last time we went, we took our grandkids and it was the biggest kid, Guy, who had the most fun!

Then, we would go home as it would be time to feed all the animals.

5. It’s almost kidding season – right? Are there opportunities for the public to come and see the baby goats?

We will be open weekends in May from 10-5. Other times by appointment only. We are not set up to receive visitors on a drop by basis.

6. When we visited, our daughter named one of the babies! How is Gabbie doing?

Gabbie is doing well! She is living with a lovely young couple out in the western part of Berks County. We delivered Gabbie and Harvey and they have a wonderful life, going for walks every evening.

Thank you so much to Donna for sharing more about her farm, Boyertown, and the opportunity to visit the baby goats! Our family had such a lovely day with Donna and Guy and we can’t wait to head back this spring. It’s an experience you and your [human] kids will not soon forget!

-Kristin

A day with Donna and Guy at Spotted Hill Farm

Just Get in the Car — Mon, 29 Apr 2019 02:24:28 +0000

Just Get in the Car has been a work in progress since it started as a distraction from life over two years ago. Shawn and I really enjoy seeing new places, eating great food, and finding fun experiences both with and without our children. About six months ago, staring down the barrel of a long, cold, winter, I started lamenting over our lack of vacation plans. We had an amazing trip to Disney World last March, and our kids haven’t stopped talking about it since. Especially our seven year old. I would love to get him back there while the magic is still alive. But, ya know how it goes – money, responsibility, and all that.

I decided it was time to refocus our efforts into the blog, and make it a thing. Like, a real thing. I know there are people who are very successful at blogging, and so I decided to watch a free seminar on travel blogging, and I could not be happier that I made that choice, it led me to a very informative and supportive forum for learning the ropes of travel blogging. I did a whole post about that, you can read it here. But my point is, we are trying to make a real go of this, and of course my end goal is a nice tropical vacation or a return visit to Disney.

And guess what, I can see how this is an actual possibility. We’ve had the pleasure of checking out many local places, have received tickets to events, and we have been successful at making connections with hotels. If you believe it, and you learn how to do it, it can happen.

Several months ago, I happened to see a Facebook post about a cute little cafe in Chaddsford, Pa – Chadds Cafe. It looked really lovely, and I decided to reach out to the owner to see if she would be interested in having us out to cover the new space. She was so warm and welcoming, and thrilled to have us visit – and the scone I had was to die for. Pam Lau, the chef, was really great to talk to as well!

Turns out that the owner of Chadds Cafe has a connection to another lovely lady, Donna Howard Wethey. Well, to be honest, I’m not sure if one has anything to do with the other – but I’m making the leap that Donna must have heard about or come across our blog in some way via this connection, and reached out to me to have us come out and visit her farm. And this is how it works. The blog thing. People. You meet someone, you have a good connection, they introduce you to someone else, and your world opens up. Donna may not know how much it meant to us to have her reach out to us unsolicited and invite us to her very special place for a visit, but it truly meant a lot. And, it was a super awesome and fun day for our family.

When Donna reached out to me, she explained that she and her husband Guy run Spotted Hill Farm, situated between Pottstown and Boyertown, Pa, and they were expecting ‘kidding season’ to begin mid to late April. She wanted to know if we would be interested in coming out with OUR kids to feed the new baby goats.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure how my kids, or I, or Shawn, would do on the farm, with the farm animals. But, it was really fantastic.

Since I was ecstatic to have someone reach out to us to come to them, I immediately said yes, and figured it would all work itself out (the suburban kids on the farm thing, that is). And it did.

Spotted Hill Farm is not similar to a ‘petting zoo, pick your own fruit, play on the playground, buy stuff at the gift shop’ kind of farm. It’s a private residence, and Donna and Guy are figuring out how to best invite the public into their space to have similar experiences to what our family had there during our visit.

Donna and Guy have goats, chickens, a horse, bees, fruit, and even a koi pond. I’m sure I’m forgetting things, too.

The best thing about Spotted Hill Farm, from my perspective, is the lovely couple who runs it. Donna bought and started the farm with her late first husband, and when he passed due to cancer, she was lucky enough to find Guy – who now continues the dream with her. Seems like a real love story to me.

The barn fluctuates between storage, baby goat nursery, and the twice a year, seasonal location for a barn sale, where people can come to buy local and handmade gifts, including the goat’s milk soap that Donna makes herself. During the barn sales, the public is invited to check out the farm and get to know more about it.

Oh, and there is one other way the public can currently interact with the farm – Goat Yoga! Held in the small pasture near the barn, participants can enjoy the unique experience of getting up close and personal with the adorable baby goats.

Prior to our visit, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect once at Spotted Hill. The one thing I did know was that Donna was looking forward to having us and seemed very friendly.

We pulled up and realized that this was in fact a private residence. A little unsure of what to do, we parked the car and got out. We peeked inside the barn, and at first we didn’t even notice this is where the baby goats were!

Guy saw us and called us over. We introduced ourselves, and Guy told us a little bit about the animals. He was tending to the mama goats, and in fact, when he peeked in on one of them he found a brand new baby goat. Apparently goats are pretty self sufficient at labor and delivery!

He tried to hand off the new baby to our daughter, but no dice. It did take a few moments for our kids to loosen up. However, I’m not sure I would have taken the new born baby goat either!!

Once Donna joined us, lovely as expected, we stepped into the barn to see all of the new babies! They were excited to see us, and started jumping around, anxious for their feeding.

Before we got down to feeding the goats, though, Donna and Guy took us around the property. The kids got to collect fresh eggs from the chicken coop and see the other farm animals.

But truly, the highlight of our visit, aside from talking with Donna and Guy, were those darn cute baby goats. All of our kids were excited to try their hand at bottle feeding the babies. To be honest, that is not what I expected at all! I assumed at least one, if not all, of our children would be too timid to give it a try. But they all jumped right in. And it was awesome.

We also acquired a new life skill while at the farm. Milking the mama goat! It’s truly my kids enthusiasm and willingness to do it that led me to try it out as well. It felt great to learn and do something new with the whole family. We all stepped out of our box and embraced the experience.

Since the newest kid was born just moments before we arrived, our daughter asked if she could offer a suggestion for a name. Being the gracious hosts that they are, Donna and Guy agreed, and thus Gabie, or MaybeGabie was christened. Now, Donna and Guy can think of us whenever they are minding those cute little kiddies.

After the baby goats were fed, we headed over toward the house, where there is a beautiful and peaceful Koi pond. The kids were able to feed the fish, which was a big hit!

All in all it was a beautiful family day, spent with new friends who were so proud to show off their animal babies and property.

As I mentioned before, Donna and Guy are brainstorming ways to bring the public in to experience their farm. I assured them that baby goat feeding would be a hit!

I encourage you all to keep an eye on this gem, and if you have the opportunity to check it out, please do! Tell them Just Get in the Car sent you!

Before we headed out, Donna told us about the quaint little town of Boyertown, just down the road from the farm. There are restaurants and shops, and the Colebrokedale Raildroad. Before hearing from Donna about how great the town is, we had already decided on visiting The Other Farm Brewery, which happened to be in town, and her enthusiasm for the area only encouraged us to follow through with the plan.

We said our goodbyes, with promises (and requests from our children) to return, and headed into Boyertown, where we enjoyed a walk around town, taking in the art of Bear Fever, and a yummy meal.

Spotted Hill Farm and Boyertown were an easy drive from our home in Delaware County, Pa, and we hope all of our readers will consider this as a town to visit in the near future!