Happy Kids Farm

12/27/2025

Appreciating all creatures great and small. Being home is the best.

12/27/2025

Our goats love to gobble up Christmas Trees. Please remember nontreated trees, with no wire please.
It is our goats' favorite time of the year!
Thanks!

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12/25/2025

Wishing you a lovely holiday celebration. Thank you for supporting our fantastical farm. Here are a few of my favorite things. Boo Kitty, a book and Peggie's eggies.

12/24/2025

Priscilla enjoying a soft taco shell. Joy!

12/23/2025

Lots of reading at Happy Kids Farm. I have finished reading Poems and Prayers by Matthew McConaughey. " Prayer is paying attention. In a world that constantly consumes our thoughts but distracts us from from tending to our spirits, prayer gives our soul a chance to catch up with our pathologically busy minds, providing us with the contentment of self- awareness that gives us enough hope to admit that we actually do have the ability to live our lives."

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12/21/2025

Saturdays at the farm are busy. We both work full-time off farm jobs. Many people throughout the years have asked me : “ How do you do it?” It is a question which allows me time to ponder because the answer is that we do not really think about it- we just do it. The years have flown by and we find ourselves twenty years older. Our own kids have grown up and now we are two- plus fifty goats (give or take), one dog, two cats, twenty - three chickens, three llamas…
As we pulled back in the driveway yesterday, after we ran errands, Patrick grabbed the mail and I reset the nativity members upright as some had toppled over from the high winds. We do not use Door Dash- or order groceries online: as we still shop the old school way because we want to see people and have human interaction. Would it be faster and more efficient? Likely so, but easier as our Sensei would say is not always better. We resist.
When we arrived inside - Patrick told me to go in the living room and to take off my coat. He had me stand in front of our real Christmas tree and he presented me with my degree. Wow! It was one of those moments that do not arrive many times during life.
I enjoy learning, but I can say that climbing that mountain of doctoral studies was indescribable. The person who sacrificed right alongside me was Patrick. He has always been beside me.
We joked about what people call me now? Dr. Peggy, Dr. McLenithan, Dr. Mc? They can call me an advocate.
I am working on a dream that includes spending more time on the farm. I went outside and took a picture of the beauty that is part of our farm. I hardly ever have the time to appreciate all that is near and dear to me. I am thankful and feeling like a poet.

Yours,
Poet Peg

12/18/2025

We are an ASA conserved farm. Here is some interesting information about ASA as they celebrate 35 years. I did not write what is shared below, but it sure is a great tale.

An Irishman … A Poker Game … A Plot of Land
The ale was flowing. Cards slapped against a scarred table as shouts rose from the crowd. It was the early 1900s at The Line Bar, a rough-and-ready tavern perched on the Vermont–New York border. At the center of it all sat Charlie Young, a recent immigrant from Ireland who’d left behind the potato fields of County Cork in search of a better life. His luck that night – and perhaps his future – was on the line. With his chips all in, Charlie wiped his brow. A gasp rippled through the room. The wager on the table wasn’t just money. It was the tavern itself.

The room fell silent. One by one, the cards were turned. Charlie slowly flipped over his last card – and the tavern erupted. Against all odds, he had won The Line Bar in a poker game. The Irishman had done it!

Charlie ran the tavern long enough to save for something he’d dreamed of – a place to work the soil once more. In 1920, with thrift and savings, he was able to purchase 393 acres of rich farmland in Whitehall where black soil stretched along the banks of the Mettawee River.
Four Generations Later
That land – those same 393 acres – are still being worked today by Charlie’s descendants. His great-grandchildren, Rob and Janel Kingsley, own and operate Kingsley Farm, continuing a legacy 105 years in the making. In June 2025, the Kingsleys permanently conserved their family’s farmland with ASA – ensuring that the land Charlie once gambled for will always remain farmland. No poker face required this time – just vision, thoughtful planning, and a deep love for the land that has sustained their family for generations.

Across Washington and Rensselaer counties, stories unfold like this time and again – farm families conserving their plots of land, whether to preserve their heritage or make it easier for another farm family to start their own legacy, and strengthening our shared future. Since 1990, we’ve conserved 33,693 acres of farmland and forests.

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12/15/2025

At 8:00 am on Sunday- December 14th , I heard our landline ringing. The landline lives in the dining room and it reminds me of the past. I am a luddite to some degree. Society has forced us to have a cellphone and I have refused to embrace owning one. I know once you own one - it owns you. Patrick has a cellphone because it is necessary that someone has a phone in order to function in society. I digress.
As I picked up on the phone, I heard a familiar voice and she was telling me that church was cancelled. I had not looked out the window, so I was unaware that once again it was snowing. This year has felt a bit as if we have been living in a snowglobe. I was disappointed because this was the third Sunday of Advent. The third Sunday of Advent is called Gaudete Sunday or the Sunday of Joy. I had no idea at the time, that not going to church was going to allow me to experience joy in a magical way
It is much more difficult to take care of the animals in the cold winter months. My husband bears the brunt of all of the chores. That day because we had some extra time we went out to the barn together. Priscilla and her triplets are in a certain section of the former dairy barn. I was having so much fun playing with them while Patrick was throwing hay down the ladder. I stay and make certain that the babies are away from the dropped square bales.
The snow was continuing to fall from the sky and being inside the barn with the goats and the llamas was peaceful. I often share stories about the goats, however, the llamas are the more majestic creatures. I can identify more with the qualities of llamas. They are introverts to the extroverted goats. They prefer to be alone and they are keen observers.
When I was a kid, and when our kids were young, we went to Catskill Game Farm. It was family owned and operated for 73 years. I loved going there because you could pet and feed the animals. In 2012, a couple bought the old game farm and decided to reopen it. We continue to work on a dream of mine which is to continue to make our farm more about kids- of all ages visiting our farm. Afterall, our farm is Happy Kids Farm. I was thinking all about this when I noticed that Zane, our male llama, was lying down just outside of the pen. I started thinking about the Christmas hymns and started singing “Silent Night.”
When I went towards Zane - he did not leave - he listened intently to my voice. The goats also stopped in their tracks and they also listened to my voice. Patrick decided to video the moment. It was a mesmerizing few minutes. It would never have happened if we had gone to church. Also, the phone was able to capture that time. Experiencing the unexpected is Joy.

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12/15/2025

Church was cancelled today, so we had church in the barn. Zane our male llama was especially attentive.

12/14/2025

Church was cancelled, so we had church in the barn. Zane, our male llama, was entralled.

12/14/2025

Church was cancelled, so had extra time in the barn today. I have uploaded a reel as many as three times- trying to figure out the technology piece. A barn on a wintery (do not have to drive in it) sort of morning. Our male llama is Zane. He is more of a loner than any of other other animals. I decided to serenade him and all of sudden the goats also became transfixed. It was our way of celebrating the 3rd week of Advent. The season of Joy!

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