One of Wisconsin's best eco inns

We were thrilled to be promoted this past year as one of the best “eco-elegant” inns in the state by the Wisconsin Department of Tourism. It was very gratifying to have our efforts for our accomplishments recognized.

But even if we had not been recognized we would still be doing everything the same way we do. We were “green” long before Travel Green Wisconsin was ever created. Conserving resources and saving money have always been a part of both of our lives, even growing up.

Because we grew up on farms, living off the land, we are much more connected to the land than people in town or in the city. You have to be a good steward of your land and its resources if it is to remain productive and sustainable. Our farm B&B is one of the most diversified if not THE most diversified in Wisconsin. We raise pigs, sheep and Highland beef using natural, organic methods. We grow and harvest crops to feed these animals. We also direct market slaughter lambs.

Our one-acre fruit and vegetable garden produces most of our family’s food as well as the B&B in summer. We’re the only B&B in the state that offers homegrown harvest dinners throughout the growing season.

Late winter we produce maple syrup on the farm, in between delivering newborn lambs. We’ve established a home vineyard for winemaking in addition to our strawberry, blackberry, raspberry and rhubarb country wines.

This year we added an energy efficient heat pump for air conditioning. We heat our B&B using dead trees harvested from our woodlands – a 100 percent renewable resource. Our lovely nature trails teeming with wildlife provide the ultimate green experience for guests.

We also do things everyone – even people without land – can do, such as: using energy efficient lighting, turning lights off when not in use, recycling garbage, using energy efficient appliances, larger but fewer loads of laundry, mulching gardens, combining errands to cut down on auto mileage, install energy efficient doors, windows, siding and insulation. Eat healthier. Shop local. Buy used when possible – shop thrift and resale shops. Don’t use paper plates and disposable Styrofoam cups. Wash your dishes instead. Shut your computer off when not in use. To save more, unplug appliances not in use when it’s practical to do so. Compost non-meat food scraps.

Being ecologically green leads to savings of another important $green$.

There be Highlands here!

Running a farm is expensive. Equipment costs are outrageous. Fuel is costly and is needed to run tractors, to plant corn and cut, rake and bale hay. Little by little we have invested in fencing, livestock shelters, water pipes and a pump near the animals and buying sheep and pigs.

As an English/Scottish style B&B, we thought our Suffolk and purebred Scottish Blackface sheep were great additions to the farm. For a few years we’ve wanted to add grass-fed beef to our operation. More specifically, Scottish Highland cattle. These beautiful, shaggy beasties are rugged and largely self-sufficient. They will eat scrub brush and less than ideal hay other animals would turn their nose up at. The animals grow slower and take longer to mature than other beef breeds. Their meat is leaner and healthier than other beef.

This fall we took the leap. We located a small herd for sale a reasonable distance from us. It took a month to find a trucker that was able to transport the cows for us. We bought three pregnant cows and a bull calf, which we plan on selling or trading for another bull.

The cows arrived at night, after dark. We had waited for these animals for several weeks and had desired them for a few years. We were excited that they were finally here. It was like the scene in the movie “Star Trek IV” where Scotty beams the whales and the water into the makeshift aquarium in the cargo bay of the stolen Klingon spaceship. He excitedly declares to Admiral Kirk and the bridge crew: “There be whales here!” With the same enthusiasm we thought “There be Highlands here!”

Horror of horror, only one minute later they were GONE! As they stepped off the cattle truck, Lucky, the very naughty farm dog, couldn’t resist chasing them. Immediately they spooked and burst through the barnyard’s barbed wire fence, which they could not see in the dark. We were sickened. Those poor animals were wandering the 600 acres of the farm at large, not familiar with the lay of the land. We prayed they wouldn’t breech the fences of the perimeter of the farm.

A neighbor had other cattle grazing on the farm as well. We hoped they would hang out with them, eat at their feed bunk and be sorted out when the other animals left for their own home after the pastures froze. Alas, they did not.

We drove around the farm, looking for them without success. Chris and his dad walked the fence lines, looking for signs of escape. We distributed fliers throughout the neighborhood. Finally, 10 days later we sighted them in a heavily wooded valley. Since there are numerous springs and a creek on the property they had water.

Deer hunting week we managed to contain them in a fenced corn field where they could eat corn stalks and be safe from gunfire. It proved impossible for the two of us to move them to a series of lanes and corrals leading to the barn. They just wouldn’t go through the right gate without circling back around us.

Now that we have snow cover, we are feeding hay bales, bringing them closer to the corrals and buildings each day. These are skittish Scottish!

But soon we will have them close enough that with the help of several other people we can get them through the series of pens and gates and finally to the safety of the small barn, where they were unloaded. From there we can also observe them from the house. The bull calf will be removed and share digs with the sheep until he is needed, leaving the cows to have their calves in the safety of the barn and barnyard this spring.

In the summer they will graze the ridgetop nature trail. We will continue to keep the female offspring of Flora, Skye and Heather, slowly growing our herd. Most of the bull calves will be destined to become gourmet beef on our dinner table or marketed directly to consumer.

A magical winter wonderland

It's definitely winter at Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast. Large, heavy snowflakes fell the first weekend of December and coated the trees on our farm. With little wind and cold temperatures, for several days just looking out the window gave you a sense of being in a magical winter wonderland.
Guests sometimes ask us what winters are like since we live at the end of the road and we can get snowed in. We tell them it's wonderful.
With a four-wheel drive truck and a town that plows the road, we're never snowed up for long. But when you have four freezers full of food and a crackling log fire to keep you warm, watching the snow fall is very peaceful.
Here are some photos of our farm after the recent snow.

The road leading to Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast.




A bald eagle perched in a tree doesn't seem to mind the snow.

 

Our bluff hiking trail (above and below) was a path less traveled.



Brambleberry framed by snow-covered trees.





Mr. Bingley, our Suffolk wether, stands beside Pixie, a crossbred ewe lamb.

 

A hillside winter scene.

A wonderful Iowa winery

Nan Smith and some her crew bottling Red Fox wine at the Stone Cliff Winery.

As bed and breakfast proprietors, we don’t get a lot of vacation time. We do try to get away for a few days each year, usually during the middle of the week when Brambleberry is not open and during a time of year when garden and animal chores are a little less intensive.

Recently we did a three-day trip and headed to Dubuque, Iowa and Galena, Illinois before heading home. Since we enjoy wine, we always try to visit a winery. So we picked Stone Cliff Winery in Dubuque.

Stone Cliff is located along the Mississippi riverfront in the historic Star Brewery building. The winery grows grapes on a vineyard outside of the city and makes its wines in the Star Brewery building, which features a comfortable tasting room with a decorative bar.

We happened to luck out the evening we stopped because winemaker Nan Smith, who owns the winery with her husband Bob, was relaxing after a long day. As we sampled Stone Cliff wines, we talked about how we make homemade wine ourselves and that we write a weekly wine column for area newspapers.

Nan gave us a tour of the winery, which includes a fantastic reception area available for parties or meetings. She invited us back the next morning so we could observe the bottling of Red Fox wine, one of their estate-grown wines.

We stopped in after staying overnight at a Dubuque bed and breakfast and watched Nan and the crew bottle and label the wines. Nan even let Sherry run the labeling machine on a few bottles.

Stone Cliff is a great place and we recommend that you visit if you get a chance. Not only was it our first time observing a bottling machine, it was also the first time that we sampled wine that had been poured through an aerator, a device that helps red wine to breathe faster.

Of course we purchased a few bottles of wine to take home. Also coming home with us was a black sequined “What happens at the winery, stays at the winery” t-shirt that caught Sherry’s eye.

Enjoying fall rituals

Fall is here and along with it comes some of our favorite fall rituals.
1. The first apple pie of the season. We have a number of apple trees that produce from August through October. We always look forward to making that first pie with our own apples. In early August we have Lodi and the heirloom apple Duchess. Later in September we pick our favorite – crisp Cortlands. Also in September we pick the hardy climate Harralson, Northwestern Greening and the huge Wold River apple. In October the sweet Honey Gold apple ripens last. We freeze plenty for sauces, crisps and pies. We have new Honeycrisp trees that will bear in a few years.
2. The first pot of chili. When there is a chill in the night air, it’s time to make that first pot of chili. We let it simmer all day for the spices to fully develop. It’s always better when we use our own tomatoes from the garden. We’ve been canning juice to take us through the winter.
3. Fall decorating. The abundance of our garden supplies the majority of our natural fall décor. Squashes, pumpkins and colorful gourds all make the house more festive. A large corn shock graces the front porch to welcome guests. We scour the woods for bittersweet and bright red hawthorn branches.
4. Lastly, fall baking fills the house with the wonderful fragrances of the season. The aroma of apple and pumpkin pies and baked goods add a warm, spicy, homey welcome when you walk in the door.
Welcome fall and all the rituals that it brings.

Moving a piece of history

We have always had a deep sense of appreciation for history. We wake up every day in the farmhouse that was built by Chris’s great-grandparents. We enjoyed every minute of visiting cathedrals and old homes in England, some of them going back to the 1100s.
It’s in that spirit that we’ve embarked on a historical journey of sorts. A pioneer cabin – actually two cabins that were joined together – will join our farm sometime next year.
This summer we spent time working with the Preservation Alliance of La Crosse to carefully mark and label the logs, tear down the cabin and move the logs. It’s been a lot of work.
The La Crosse Tribune published a story about the process. In the story Chris was quoted as saying that we intend to use the cabin as a sugar shack. A wife of a cousin said those words drew some snide comments from co-workers who thought we were expanding our B&B business into some sort of cabin of ill-repute!
Sugar shack is the term that is also used for the building where maple sap is boiled down, which is what we intend to use the cabin for. We may also have some historically appropriate furnishings.
We hope to put together a family history of the cabin. After the story was published, we had many people come forth who grew up in the cabin or had connections to it.

The cabin was located about 40 miles from us in Monroe County. As of late August, with the help of our friend Carl Wallace at Village Lumber in West Salem, the logs are safely stored in our shed. Our goal is to prepare a site for the cabin next year and start the reconstruction process.
We’ll provide updates on that project next year!

Book a harvest dinner with your Saturday stay

The garden got off to a slow start this spring. It stayed cold well beyond mid-May. But finally the garden is at peak production.
Daily we are harvesting potatoes, tomatoes, beets, carrots, cucumbers, beans, summer squash and herbs. Our first sweet corn is just ripening.
Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast is the only Wisconsin bed and breakfast that serves dinner for guests who book ahead. There's only 2-1/2 months left of our special harvest dinners and feasts that comprise of our own homegrown organic vegetables. Meat is either raised on the farm or sourced locally. We try to keep between zero and 30 miles per meal. The average U.S. meal has between 1,500 to 2,000 miles on it. At $20 to $30 a plate, this is a fantastic value for an organic dinner. The folks at Outstanding in the Field charge nearly $200 a plate for a similar dinner. Some of our peak fall festival or fall foliage weekends are filling up fast. So book now to reserve your chance to experience a homegrown meal first-hand.

Still plenty of summer to enjoy

Once the 4th of July comes and goes, the rest of the summer seems to fly by. But there's still plenty of time to get out there and enjoy the many activities our area has to offer. Especially our local bike trails.
Bikers who stay at Brambleberry have much to choose from. We're a short drive to more than 500 miles of trails. The Trempealeau County bike loop comprises of 17 different scenic rides on 382 miles of paved backed roads with minimal traffic.
New additions this year include a stretch called "the majestic Trempealeau River basin." There's also a new section through Amish country, between Whitehall and Blair. The Trempealeau bike loop is the largest connected bicycle trail system in the United States.
We're also a short drive to the Elroy-Sparta and La Crosse River and other great state and river trails for bikers who prefer the crushed limestone surface.
Bikers also appreciate that they can make dinner arrangements with us and not have to head out in the evening after a long day of biking. This also allows bikers to park in Trempealeau and take a few days to do the loops without having to return to their car.

Sheep shearing time

Recently we had our sheep sheared – a good job to have out of the way.
Allen, a local Amish farmer with a few years of experience, does the job for us. Sheep shearers are hard to find and we consider ourselves fortunate that he is willing to do the job. He speedily and skillfully shears them, resulting in only a few nicks to the animals.
The first year we had our sheep; Sherry thought she could master the task, provided Chris restrained the animal. After 25 years of cutting hair on humans, Sherry reasoned that it must be comparable to cutting children’s hair. Just work swiftly and be prepared for sudden movements.
WRONG!
The $300 professional clipper we bought – called “Turbo Clipper” by our vet – snapped a spring the first time we used it. (Apparently it was never set in the proper position when it left the factory.) Its long, wicked combs vibrated violently and could easily have cut off a finger, teat or other appendage. The ram looked nervous.
Allen’s clipper was being repaired when we approached him about shearing our flock. But he was willing to give our clipper a try. With another new set of combs and blades we purchased he was able to make the necessary adjustments. He had such control over the animals and expertly “peeled” the fleece right off them in short order. He had one slight mishap but the sheep recovered nicely from her wound. It was clear to us he could do a much better job than we could.
Some people shear in the cold of February, before lambing. Supposedly the mother snuggles with and keeps her lambs warmer than she would with a thick layer of wool insulating her body heat from the lamb. You shouldn’t shear too close to lambing time because you can twist an umbilical cord or move a lamb fetus around too much as the ewes are handled.
We shear after everyone has given birth, when it’s warmer out. Some say the warmer lanolin makes it easier for the clipper blades to glide through the wool.
Unfortunately wool prices are low – at least for the wool type that our sheep have. We find that strange given the trend toward people wanting to use natural, renewable resources. Last year after paying shipping costs, we got a staggering check of $5.92 for 92 pounds of wool. It cost us $4 per sheep to shear. We had 15 sheep sheared. Alas, no government subsidy for us!
Our Scottish Blackface and Suffolk don’t have the right type of fleece for hand spinners. Their fleece is only used to make blankets and carpeting.
This year, because Allen wanted to shear on a Saturday, our weekend guests were able to witness the yearly event. In an interesting twist of fate, we actually had a guest who shears commercially so he and Allen had a lot to discuss and he offered Allen a few welcome tips.
For a few days after shearing there is some butting of heads and shoving around as the newly naked sheep try to re-establish their hierarchy. Everyone looks so much smaller and the new lambs look almost as big as their mothers.
The girls will be glad for their new haircuts, if it ever warms up this spring.

What do we on vacation: Remodel

The old Victorian bathroom, left, was replaced with a remodeled version that includes an antique clawfoot tub to replace a tired cast iron tub, ceramic tile to replace the vinyl floor, new walls, new ceiling, new baseboard heater, new lights and fresh paint, of course. In other words, this bathroom was a total gut job!

Guests often ask us: What do you do when you’re on vacation? Actually, with so many animals to feed and the gardens to be tended, we rarely get away for more than a day or two each year. (No need to feel sorry for us, though, because anyone who has stayed here knows that as nice as Brambleberry is, one doesn’t need to go anywhere else if you live here.)

Even though we don’t usually go away on a vacation, we do take vacation. And what do we do with those vacation days? We remodel, make repairs and redecorate the bed and breakfast, of course. March is one of our slowest months of the year as occupancy goes and we’re busy delivering lambs. We’re also collecting maple sap to boil into sweet, 100 percent natural maple syrup. So it makes perfect sense to rip the house apart then, when we wouldn’t be turning away as many guests.

Last year we had a commercial kitchen installed so we could get a restaurant license. This makes us one of the few select inns in the state that may serve meals other than breakfast. This year we’re adding a double whirlpool to the Wedgwood room because the demand is there. Our whirlpool rooms are always the first to book. We’re also remodeling two bathrooms and a bedroom, which is going to be a future guest room this fall when our son no longer needs it. Then we will have five beautiful, comfortable, very individual rooms for guests to choose from.

Unfortunately, no remodeling project ever goes as planned. There are always things that happen that are unexpected. Delays and cost overruns always seem inevitable. It is always stressful to get through the project, which seems to extend forever. But it is so worth it to have it done. And it’s a necessary effort and expense that is part of owning a bed and breakfast.

All of this helps us deliver to our guests a high quality, peaceful, relaxing getaway in beautiful, comfortable surroundings. That’s something we find very rewarding.

A sweet weekend at Brambleberry

Our philosophy at Brambleberry Farms is to live sustainably off the land, enjoying the bounties that nature provides.
One of the ways we do that is to make our own maple syrup from the trees on our farm. Brambleberry Bed and Breakfast will hold an open house from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 26.
This event is free and open to the public. We are a small producer of maple syrup and are starting our second season. We practice low-impact, labor intensive methods of collecting maple sap using bags on tree taps. The sap is manually collected, boiled down on a wood stove, and finished on a commercial gas range. The syrup is filtered and stored in glass jars.
The day’s events include sugar bush tours. Visitors can help collect the sap and watch the sap being boiled down into maple syrup. They may also tour the B&B and visit the newborn lambs on the farm. Enjoy coffee and baked goods featuring maple syrup.
Guests who book a room and stay overnight can enjoy our syrup with a pancake breakfast.
For more information about the open house, call (608) 525-8001.

Adventures in bottle feeding

This is an update of our previous post. We had two sets of twin lambs born last week, but we ended up with one lamb being rejected by its mother.
There are lots of reasons that a ewe will reject its lamb, but we suspect this was due to the sharp teeth that the little ram had. We tried several times for the ewe to accept the lamb, but she bunted it around and wanted to have nothing to do with him.
About the only solution – after you use an emery board to file down the sharp teeth (which are obviously painful to the ewe’s udder) – is to restrain the ewe with a stanchion. That way she cannot use her head to knock the lamb around and she will eventually get used to the idea that the lamb is nursing from her again.
We have no such stanchion in our lamb barn (another project for Chris). We managed to hand-milk some colostrum from the ewe and we used a feeding tube to get it into the lamb’s stomach. Getting colostrum from the mother is vital for the survival of the lamb.
The first night the little guy spent in a straw-lined box in our bedroom so he could stay warm and so it was easier for us to start bottle-feeding and they need to be fed frequently right after birth. It was also important for his safety so he wouldn’t be knocked around by his mother or by the other ewe that gave birth, since he was trying to nurse off her too.
After the first night we took the lamb into a separate pen into the lamb barn and we fed him with lamb milk replacer about every four hours. He’s finally eating enough that we can feed him before we go to bed – about 11 p.m. – and then not until 5 a.m. or so.
Ideally we’d like to get to the point where he can suck from a specially-designed bottle that fits into a holder, but the scalawag (we call all our rams scalawag) is spoiled and wants to eat only from the baby bottle.
In another week we can introduce him to some solid food and hopefully he will be strong enough to join the rest of the flock. We let him run around on his side of the barn (which is secure) during the day but make sure he and the rest of the flock are locked inside during the night lest his baaing draw the attention of the coyotes that prowl our woods. He’s very vocal about when he thinks it’s time to eat!
It’s been a long week as both of us have had little sleep, but it will get better. And while we have late-night bottle feedings, at least we don’t have to change diapers!

2011 lambing season has begun

Today (Feb. 13) marks the first lambs of the 2011 season.
Our Suffolk ewes – Kitty and Fanny – each had a set of twins. Kitty had ram lambs and Fanny had a male and a female. They were born about 10 a.m.
Sherry had been checking the ewes about every four hours for the past few days. She knew when the lambs were due because they were bred one day last fall when our Scottish Blackface ram Mr. Darcy broke through the fence and ravaged them. It was not the coupling that we sought since these are two of our best ewes. We wanted our purebred Suffolk ram Colonel Fitzwilliam to breed them.
We were fortunate that the weather took a turn in the past two days. Thursday morning we had 25-below-zero, which is not an ideal condition for lambing. Today the temperature is in the low 50s, so perhaps fortune has smiled upon us.
Both mothers and their lambs are in temporary pens, where the lambs can get a chance to nurse and the mother can eat free of interference from the other ewes. Since these are experienced mothers, we will probably keep in them in the pen only a couple of days, as long as the lambs appear to be eating and getting stronger.
It will be two more weeks before we expect the rest of the ewes to start giving birth. The first two weeks of March will be crazy. Last fall we expanded our sheep barn and Chris built about a dozen lamb pens, so we should have plenty of space.
Until then we can sleep through the night without having to make 2 a.m. visits to the barn.

Finding the Christmas spirit

The shadow of twilight descended upon my farm as the sun slipped below the snow-covered hills. Christmas Eve had arrived. I treasure this magical transition from light to darkness on this special night. The Earth quiets with the hush of anticipation shared in the hearts and minds of young and old. We eagerly look for the stable. We prepare to rejoice.
Not this night. The stable was demolished. The lowing cattle were grunting and exhaling in pain and shock. The tidings were grim.
Several hours earlier, nearly 200 feet of shed roof collapsed under the weight of the snow. Six steers were killed immediately. Five more had to be destroyed. More than 30 others who survived had to be sold for slaughter because of their injuries.
I was outside about 1 p.m. when I heard the destruction. A loud crash, followed by several others, lasted nearly 10 seconds. My heart sank even before my eyes confirmed what I already knew. Most of the cattle shed had caved in.
Earlier that week the farm became a temporary home to about 100 cows that came from another farm near Blair. They came because the shed they had called home also collapsed. We had the room outside and the place to feed them.
Our large cattle shed was home to several dozen beef steers belonging to my cousin. Several were trapped beneath the wreckage. Some were mooing in distress. Others were too stunned. Volunteers showed up to help, and the Melrose Fire Department sent a crew to assist.
We first freed the steers still able to walk. The snow-covered crumpled tin was treacherous to walk on. Firefighters used saws to cut the tin around several steers buried under the rubble. To my amazement, some of them got up and appeared unharmed as they walked away. Others had walked their last.
By the time we finished, I missed the Christmas Eve church service. I was tired. My back ached, my fingers were numb from the cold and my clothes were wet. It was a miserable and horrific way to spend a holiday. I was certainly not in the Christmas spirit.
Later that night I tried to put my mind at rest. It was awful what happened. I worried about my cousin, who has had a tough couple of years.
But sometimes the worst gives birth to our best. In our time of need, neighbors, friends and relatives showed up. Among them were four members of the family that had just lost their own shed. They all gave the gift of their time without expecting anything in return.
We were, in fact, blessed. A farmer in the state had been killed a few weeks ago when a shed collapsed on him. No one here was injured. Sheds can be rebuilt. Animals can be replaced.
In the midst of the twisted tin, splintered trusses and the carnage of the red-stained snow, the spirit of Christmas had indeed arrived.
I just didn’t know it at the time. I was looking in the wrong stable.