Puddles' Blog from the Barnyard at CabinCreekAcres.com

Updates, Babies and Sheeps for Sale!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2011-06-18T12:10:55-04:00

Wow, it’s been a while since we’ve updated, hasn’t it?!

There are so many new friends on the farm now - new ducks, chickens, a horse, lambs and a goat. Did we forget anyone? Oh yes, bunnies too!

Please take a look at our Flickr page, it’s got new photos of the babies.

Finally, we would like to announce that some of our friends are available now to new homes. We have a set of twins, ewe and ram, born on April 4. They are off-white.

Also available is a ram, also off-white, born on May 20th.

A bottle-fed ewe, black, was born on June 2nd. And is soooo cute!

There are 4 bunnies who need to hop into a new home.

Finally, a yearling, black, born on May 1 2010, ready to breed in the fall - not related to either ram.

If you’d like more information on any of our available friends, or any questions at all, please email Mama Bonnie today. MamaBonnie@cabincreekacres.com or use our contact page.

Meet "Sargeant" the Baby Goat!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2011-01-21T14:32:30-05:00

Born on January 18, 2011, a little boy goat popped into the lives of all the animals at Cabin Creek Acres. His name is “Sargeant,” named for Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps.

His parents are Hillary and Obama the goats. Only Hillary knew what was happening, because everyone else here at Cabin Creek Acres was shocked when feeding time came around, and there was another little mouth to feed. There was quite a bit of excitement in the barnyard that morning, with the animals gathered around. When Mama Bonnie saw little Sargeant, well, that was some really great news. Especially since Noah the dog had an accident recently and is in the doggy hospital recovering. We’re not sure what happened, but he hurt himself doing something. The vet says he’ll be fine, but it may take a while until he’s back to his usual self. In the meantime, there’s a special recovery bed set up for him, just waiting for his return.

Meanwhile, in the barnyard, the animals are tromping around in the newly fallen snow. Yep - new pictures are going up on Flickr at this moment.

And, they’re preparing for the coming FREEZE! Temps will get below zero over the next few nights, and BRRRRRRR. Little Sargeant and his mom Hillary are in the little barn with a bunch of straw and the doors closed to protect them from the cold. Apparently, Sargeant has a little hiding space in the barn with his straw, but we couldn’t catch it on camera. Head on over to our Flickr page to see new pix of everyone in the barnyard, and our little Sargeant.

Finally, here’s a video of Sargeant, directly from YouTube. Enjoy!

Live Nativity Moves to Church due to Weather

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-12-11T17:12:06-05:00

Unfortunately, our planned Live Nativity in the barnyard at Cabin Creek Acres has been moved to a new location, the Quaker Springs United Methodist Church. This is where everyone was going to gather before coming to the farm, so please join us at the church.

Our barnyard friends won’t make it this year. We’re expecting sleet and rain and mush all day and that just wouldn’t make for a pleasant event. We hope to see you at the church, enjoy the nativity, songs and snacks with all of us! See you there!

Live Nativity to be ONLINE

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-12-10T15:50:04-05:00

Sunday, December 12th at 6pm (Eastern), some of our furry friends at Cabin Creek Acres will be taking part in a live Nativity, taking place here on the farm.

If you can’t make it in person, then please join us for the event Live on our farm’s website: www.cabincreekacres.com

Send us good thoughts, as the weather is questionable... hope for the best!

Live Nativity at Cabin Creek Acres!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-12-01T12:33:13-05:00

Our furry friends at Cabin Creek Acres will be taking part in a Live Nativity on December 12th.

The Nativity will be here on the farm, and we hope every one of our friends can join us. Here’s the info:

The Nativity will be December 12th at 6pm. Please arrive at the Quaker Springs United Methodist Church by 5:15pm for a hay ride to the farm. The hay ride is provided by the Quaker Springs Volunteer Fire Department, and it’s first come, first served.

The Quaker Springs United Methodist Church is located on Route 32 in Quaker Springs, about 10 miles East of Saratoga Springs NY, depending on your driving habits. Here’s the location on Google Maps:

View Larger Map

The Nativity will take place at Cabin Creek Acres, then back to the church for a carol sing and refreshments! Every one is welcome to attend the celebration.

We hope to see you here!

Website for Quaker Springs United Methodist Church : http://www.gbgm-umc.org/qsumc/

Website for Quaker Springs Volunteer Fire Department: http://www.qsfd.com/

Visiting Mork at the Corn Maze

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-10-11T17:50:52-04:00

The crew from Cabin Creek Acres is heading out this weekend to visit some old friends - MORK the goat and his pals!

Mork is part of a petting zoo at his new home, Engelke Farm in Troy, New York. They have a corn maze and other fun things to do there, including a Zip Line. Who among the crew is going to ride the zip line??? You can get more information about the farm at www.engelkefarm.com, including their haunted hayrides.

The latest news from this new farm is that Mork is hot stuff in the barnyard and has another girlfriend. Men!!

Cajun's Catnip

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-09-21T23:15:51-04:00

Well, this didn’t happen at Cabin Creek Acres itself, but the Web Guy has to share.

Cajun is Web Guy’s black cat, and she’s spoiled rotten. She turns up her nose to lots of things, so it’s up to WG to keep the cupboards stocked with only the best. And, she has a schedule. If you’re not up at 5:30am to feed her, she’ll wake you up. And dinner is at 5:00pm. On the dot.

So, WG was on a mission over the last few days to get Cajun a special treat - some Great Live Catnip, especially since she turns up her nose at the dried.

Long story short - WG finds the only mostly-live catnip plant at the local nursery (who was selling half-dead plants for just 30% off). Seven dollars and a pumpkin coffee from Dunkin Donuts later, Cajun had her treat. Yum!

She purred, she chewed, she drooled and eventually rolled over into a stupor.

After she had her fill, WG, following the advice of the lady who sells the dying plants, the catnip was planted beside nine other plants in the pitiful garden, 4 pretty dead sticks, and five droopy ones sticking out of the ground. Cajun was sure to have plenty of catnip for the rest of the season.

The next day, Cajun wanted to be let outside. Answering her call, WG opened the door and she ran out onto the patio. Ah, a snap of catnip would make the perfect day for this kitty.

Across the yard, the sticks drooped in the pitiful garden. They weeped over a bare bundle of twigs. It was all that remained of the catnip plant.

We can only imagine that the neighborhood strays made their way into the yard and partied hearty all night long, meowing “Dude, don’t harsh my buzz.”

As for Cajun? She hasn’t noticed. Yet.

Mork the Goat and his New Home

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-09-09T15:33:55-04:00

Mork the goat left Cabin Creek Acres recently for a new home.

Turns out, some fans of our little farm decided to build their own farm and they needed some special friends to be the first to inhabit the specially built log barn. So, some of our friends hit the road, and now live with them!

The new farm has chickens, a little dog, a cat or two, Mork the goat, his girlfriend Mindy, and a batch o’ bunnies. Here’s a note from the new farm:

We are just loving Mork! He’s really a great little guy! He’s adjusted pretty well to his new home and is now comfortable enough to let everyone rub his head & pet him, he especially loves Paul.. SO cute! He’s the perfect addition to our family. We even found him a year old Nigerian dwarf doe named Mindy! They love each other, they just follow each other around all day and it was adorable to watch them snuggle last night! We've attached some pictures so you can see his new house and girlfriend. We also added some of the bunnies! We named the orange one Chewy and the white one Star. They love their new sisters Sara and Carrot!

Again thank you so much!

We’ve got some pictures up on Flickr, so follow the link!

A Note for Parents and Fans

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-05-24T14:28:28-04:00

Please click here for a special notice about a delicate issue. Thank you.

Baby Goats are Named!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-04-18T16:47:26-04:00

Meet “Mork” and “Mindy!”
There were some good suggestions for names for our newest friends in the barnyard, but Mork and Mindy just struck us as being too cute to pass over. This suggestion came from LeeRoy A.
Now, how long will it take for the babies to learn their names?

Pardon the Dust

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-04-03T00:50:27-04:00

Our front page is a little messy as we take care of some much needed fixing. Please come back soon for more news!

And, of course, news about our two newest arrivals - the baby goats!

We're On TV!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-03-18T13:20:38-04:00

Cabin Creek Acres is on TV! Starting March 19th, you can see a 4 minute PhotoShow we put together. It’s cute and great for kids, to give everyone a look at what you’ll see on our webcam and on the site.

The PhotoShow program is pretty easy to use, and the creation of the first show we did didn’t take long at all. The longest part was when we (okay, the web guy) kept going back and making little changes here and there. Perfection is a goal you can never achieve.

Please let us know what you think of our PhotoShow. We just might do more in the future!

For Time Warner Cable customers in the Capital Region of NY, and the Berkshire Region of Massachusetts, starting March 19, tune to channel 1005. Our PhotoShow will be in the “Pets & Animals” category, and is called “Life on the Farm at Cabin Creek Acres.” It should be there for a week or so.

After viewing, please send us a note by going to this link and filling out the form. We hope to hear from you!

Goat Watch! Is the third time the charm?

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-03-18T13:20:53-04:00

Hillary the goat is busting out all over. It certainly looks, this time, that she’s going to give birth. We’ve been fooled before.

Hillary, and anxious father Obama the goat, have settled into the little barn in the barnyard. In the daytime, Hillary is anxious to get up and run, or waddle, around a bit. Obama tends to tag along beside her.

But in the evening, many of the animals in the barnyard take a turn checking in on Hillary. The other night, three mini-horses crowded into the barn for an hour. Obama paced back and forth in the little room that was left, in front of the pen where Hillary stays at night. We thought this might be it. But no. The mini-horses soon left, and Puddles the donkey took their place, laying himself in front to the doorway to their wouldn’t be any more disturbances. He did the same thing last night.

We think there will be twins. Please send your best thoughts to Hillary for a safe delivery. And restful thoughts for Mama Bonnie, the caretaker of the animals at Cabin Creek Acres. She’s been up non-stop checking on Hillary, along with her usual chores on the farm. Have you seen her new tractor on camera yet?

Happy St. Patrick's Day - coming up

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-03-08T15:00:30-05:00

The decorations are up. The animals are dressed in green hats - unless they’ve eaten those along with the decorations.

Well, at least the light’s are up, and the music is playing.

No babies at Cabin Creek Acres yet. The bunnies were a no-go. Maybe they know something? Maybe they just want the weather to be warmer? Maybe they just wanted to enjoy the warmth inside the cabin while we watched over them? Hmph. These animals are tricky people, aren’t they.

Spring may be in the air. It’s getting warmer, a degree at a time. No snow in the forecast. It’s already into March. Did we escape a big winter here? Looks like we did!

Babies! No, no babies. Sigh.

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-01-28T16:23:44-05:00

What the deuce?!?

There were three opportunities for lil’ ones to arrive in the past few weeks - and it looks like each opportunity was a bust. Mother Nature has a funny way of reminding us that SHE’S in charge, and that’s the way it’s gonna stay. Okay, we agree. But, does she have to be such a tease?

No baby goats, no baby bunnies over at bunniesforbabies.com, our other site. Just a few furry friends, snickering to themselves as they get extra attention. Hah hah.

Meanwhile, the PC that powers our webcam in the barnyard froze up, screeching to a stop one day when the temperature dove into the single digits. Day one, things were okay. Day two, not so much. The PC was brought inside, wrapped into a Snuggie and babied back to health, reporting for duty at the barnyard a few days later at a pretty good 98%.

Cabin Creek Acres was comforted by a poof of warm air, with temperatures teasing 50 degrees. The weatherman said something about fronts colliding, but the animals didn’t care - it was warm out. Then came the rain.

And it poured. The water rose, the animals went into hiding, and at some point, the PC blipped out. What happened? We don’t know yet. Will it work again? Not sure. We’re working on a backup plan. Hey! Anyone got a spare laptop they don’t need anymore?

Meanwhile... the animals are fine, enjoying a recent delivery of goodies from friends of the farm. Yum yum yum. And we’ve got a Flickr page now, so check there for photos too.

Snow, a New Year and... Babies? Wha?!?

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2010-01-12T18:15:10-05:00

Welcome to 2010! The animals celebrated the holidays with peppermint treats, lots of hay, special feed - basically breaking their New Year’s resolutions to lose a little weight. Turns out there are pigs on the farm. Heh.

They also danced to the holiday music under the holiday lights and twinkling snowflakes that decorated the barns.

They like the nightlife, they like to boogie, so we’ve put up some winter lights and have started playing music again in the barnyard. A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and all kinds of music will be heard over tapping hooves.

There was some sad news during this time as Gracie, the farms first lamb, left us on New Years. She was 17 years old, and enjoyed her time on earth, right up to the end as she greeted the new year with her friends gathered around her. It was a sweet and a sad sight. She will be missed.

Mother Nature surprised us in the New Year. First, bitter cold, brrrrrrrrr. The animals appreciated their extra fat as it helped protect them from the wind that bit at caretaker Mama Bonnie. Whoa! Watch out Mama Bonnie - that ice is slippery!

Mother Nature is full of surprises. In a warm place, two bunnies sit and chew their food - chew chew chew - enjoying extra food and attention as we keep our fingers crossed. Will there be bunnies??? Only Mother Nature knows!

More surprises in the barnyard as Hill the goat certainly looks like she’ll have babies any second now. Which is funny, since she didn’t have babies when she was supposed to a few months ago. What happened? Only Mother Nature knows!

So check in again soon - you never know what might happen with our friends in the barnyard at CabinCreekAcres.com!

Webcam Back, But Where are the Baby Goats???

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-11-08T17:04:14-05:00

Well well well. What happened?!

Well, our camera got hit by a big internet fiasco. Our internet providers thought it would be a good idea to send some updates, or make some changes, or basically do something that went from them to us, to our camera and ka-blooey! It took a while to figure out what happened, and even after we fixed the internet, our camera couldn’t see that everything was okay.

To top it off, it rained and rained and rained, and our camera was in the middle of inches of water, mud and... well, barnyard stuff. YECH!

Today, we got what is probably the last day of sunshine until 2010. 70 degrees, sunshine, less mud and a few hours of effort and the camera is back.

We decided to move it to a new location, since we had to do all that work anyway.

Wha? Wait a minute, what happened to Bill & Hill and the baby goats?!?

Well, we waited and waited. Hill just enjoyed all the attention. We waited some more. And more. Now, if baby goats DO happen, it’ll be a surprise to everyone. Maybe even Hill. We’re still keeping an eye on her, and she and Bill are in the little barn, but we think it’s safe to assume that it was a false alarm. No baby goats, we think, this time around.

Huh. What to do now?

Well, we decided to take advantage of the good weather and move the camera to a new location, at the main barn. When the weather gets colder, the animals will gather in this area more and more. Also, it’ll look very nice as we get into the holidays. Ooh, lights!

We hope you enjoy the new location. And stay tuned - you never know what might happen at Cabin Creek Acres.

Name the Baby Goats!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-10-10T14:07:29-04:00

Bill & Hill the goats are expecting any time now. It could be one baby, it could be twins - we just don't know!

But, we do know that once the babies arrive, they are gonna need some names. And we'd like our viewers to help name the babies!

Keep watching. Once the babies are born, check out their personalities, look for something unique, then use our form to suggest names for them. The form will be live on the site once the babies are born. More info will come in the days, or is it hours, ahead. Keep watching and start thinking of some nice names for the babies!

GOAT WATCH Continues...

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-10-08T14:13:46-04:00

We're still waiting for the big event, waiting for Hill to have her baby. Or is it babies?

There's new straw in the little barn for her to make a bed from.

It's just a matter of time before we have baby billy goats!

New Friends in the Barnyard, and Babies are Coming!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-10-01T14:16:27-04:00

Have you noticed the new friends in the barnyard? Mini horses! There are 3 of them. We'll get some more info on them up later.

The barnyard is pretty active, isn't it? Oh, sometimes you can't tell, as the animals do like to run in the field, and eat lots and lots of grass before coming back for hay and more hay. And you thought there weren't any pigs on this farm!

The goats, Bill & Hill, are off in their own pen, as Hill is expecting. We're thinking she's having twins, and the babies are expected to arrive late this month, or early October. We're planning on moving the camera into the pen in the near future. Then, after the babies are born and walking around, we're moving the camera to a new location where we should get a better view of the farm and all the animals on it.

Speaking of cameras, our fancy camera finally called it quits and we had to take it down. So, just one camera at the moment - but it's a good one.

Keep watching, and invite your friends! We hope lots of people join us when Bill & Hill have their kids.

Tech Stuff - RSS Feed Now Available

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-08-31T01:57:00-04:00

For those of you that follow RSS feeds, like the web guy, Cabin Creek Acres now has an RSS feed. Woo. Woo.

Okay, it’s not that exciting, but the web guy is proud of himself. So please, if you want updates from the barnyard sent to your RSS reader, just click on the RSS button in your browser address line, or add this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/cabincreekacres.

Fixed logo in the feeds.

Baby Gruffs & Bountiful Barrels of Bzzzzzzzy Bee Beverage!

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-08-21T19:22:56-04:00

Trying to contain ourselves, and not step too far out on a limb, but we think we’ve got a few interesting things coming.

First, and beyond our control, ready or not... one of the goats is preggers. We think the babies will arrive in October. We says babies, because in the case of these types of goats, it’s usually twins. When the time gets close, we’ll try to move a camera into their area of the barnyard. Yea! Babies!

Second... we’ll try to get some more pictures up. Maybe something that’ll help you identify the lambs?

Last, we’re planning a little store, where you might scoop up some delicious honey from the hives at Cabin Creek Acres. Did you know there were bees here as well?? And, we think we’ll also have some craftwork in the store.

BUT WAIT! THAT’S NOT ALL! Uhm, actually that was all this time around. Coming soon!

Thanks for coming to Cabin Creek Acres! Y’all come back now, ya hear.

Some Website Clean Up

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-08-11T19:55:08-04:00

If you didn’t notice, that’s a good thing. We did a little cleanup of the code, to make our site load properly on your PC.

If you are having issues with the site, please contact the Web Guy. Thanks.

New Arrivals?

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-08-05T22:08:54-04:00

Whispers around the barnyard about some new arrivals. Have you ever heard a chicken whisper? Yeah, not... that... quiet.

So, it’s not much of a secret, the herd is getting larger. And funnier. That’s all the tease you get for now.

Follow the Twitter feed for their first appearances! www.twitter.com/cabincreekacres

Welcome, Wilkomin. Bien Venue, Come on in.

webmaster@cabincreekacres.com — 2009-08-01T22:16:20-04:00

Sheesh. We don’t pick up for guests?

Ah, the dust, the grime... the smells... of a website just launched. Broken links scattered about. Watch yer step!

Yer, uhm, you’re at CabinCreekAcres.com, a spin-off, a sibling, of a site called BunniesforBabies.com. Over at Bunnies, we spent over a year working with (and buying) the latest webcams, tweaking and yelling at Windows XP and Vista on 2 or 3 different PCs, and saturating a piddling DSL connection - just so we could show off some baby bunnies.

We also put together a website, using a Mac. Pretty decent, if we do say so ourselves (pat pat). Our channel at Ustream.tv, which is what we show on our site, passed 9,600 views. Not bad.

In May, following the grand, live Bunny Funtacular, we knew that the BunnyCam would soon be without baby bunnies. They grow up so fast! And Mother Nature called a halt to any more bundles of joy. So, what to do?

Well, Mama Bonnie, caretaker of Cabin Creek Acres did have some baby lambs coming in June. They would join the big bunnies, the sheep and a donkey named Puddles. The hens would come later. Aha! We’ll put together a new site for the farm, CabinCreekAcres.com, and put some cameras into the barnyard. Easy! Not really.

Have you priced weatherproof webcams lately? Cha-ching. And, how exactly do you bring DSL to a donkey?

So, one day, the bunny triplets went to play out in the sun. And stayed outside. The BunnyCam shut down. (fade to black)

Behind the scenes, however, a plan was hatched. We made an attempt at weatherproofing the PC. We sealed up the cameras. Wifi and an antenna put Puddles on the internet. Some wire, some glue, a whole LOT of electrical tape and bubblegum later, the camera system was mounted in the barnyard. There was a chance something could go wrong, and fry our equipment. Ya think?

Yesterday, the system survived a huge rainstorm. And stayed on the air the entire time. Not bad.

Oh, there are still some issues to resolve - one of the cameras is too dark, and the other one doesn’t follow the action like it’s supposed to. The lambs tend to stay in their little barn much of the time, coming out as it gets cooler late in the day. But, after dusk, if the lambs don’t move around, the lights go off and you can’t see anything. Still, the channel stays up, using the latest version of a great program called VidBlaster to send our video to the reliable Ustream.tv for the world to see (unpaid plugs, we assure you).

So, enjoy the show. We’ll be adding things to the site over time, definitely lots of pictures. We’ll update you by Twitter, and Puddles will post to the blog. Bookmark, follow, and retweet - tell your friends about CabinCreekAcres.com!

- the web guy