Spring Warm up in February!

An unexpected warmup this week has me thinking of spring, which brings a new breakfast menu, and landscaping ideas. It also brings a host of events taking place in the area. The Pennsylvania Garden Expo 2/25-2/27 at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg will get you dreaming about how to live outside like you do inside. If you are a horse lover, like me, you won't want to miss PA HorseWorld Expo 2/24-27 also at the Farm Show Complex. My favorite portion of this event is Theatre Equus and new and exciting this year is the Extreme Cowboy Race.. Sure to thrill the young and young at heart horse fans in your family.

If you are just looking to have a quick getaway there's no two night minimum here! If you can only stay with us one night we'd still love to have you! We recently updated our suite, the Grey Mare's Quarters with a gel fuel fireplace, full sized living room and a queen size alcove bed. The suite will now sleep six for a family getaway with all the room necessary to keep those that you love near and dear. Our walking trails will be open soon- bring the wellies! And if you don't mind looking at ponies covered in mud.... then we've got a bunch here that would welcome a carrot, a pat on the nose and a kind word.

While the weather has warmed up, the slopes are still open and wonderful. We've got midweek and weekend lift tickets for that skier getaways and all through February our skiing kids stay free, so bring the family!

Looking forward to turning guests into friends,

Kim and Brent

Time to Book Weddings in the Harrisburg PA area!

The farm has been flooded with brides in the past three weeks, some newly engaged and others fulfilling their New Year's Resolution to "Get that knot tied in 2011!"
Its been wonderful meeting so many new people and showing them the property. While the property is certainly stunning with all this snow, it is hard to imagine a Spring or Fall wedding here. Regardless, our brides have great imaginations and can already see a White Tent with fairy lights, elegant chandeleirs, candles on the tables, and flowers bursting out of the beds and urns in the ruins. We're happy to provide a photo album of our past weddings to help them cement those images. If you are looking for a location for an outdoor wedding whether an intimate function for 20, a hopping party for 200 or an elopement for just the two of you, consider us at Fallen Tree Farm where are our staff will take care of all the details so the day is yours to celebrate.

Graduations

Its been ages since I've found the time to blog.. that's both good and bad news. What it really means is that I've been up to my eyeballs in guests which is great news.

We watched four Dickinson students, whose families have stayed with us many times, graduate in May. It was a joyous occasion for all of them and we were delighted to host several of those families for a dinner here at the farm.

A bittersweet moment- Cameron Kerr, who graduated from Dickinson in 09 and then was commissioned into the military, will be deployed shortly to Afghanistan as a 1st Lt. with the 101st Airborne, 2nd Combat Brigade. His family came from California and Scotland to be with us last May. It was a lovely time. Our thoughts and prayers are with Cameron as he travels to the "Big Sandbox"

Our neighbor Gillian, who has been exercising the horses here and helping with housekeeping duties graduated from Boiling Springs High School last week. We hosted her Graduation Party here last weekend. Gill has been accepted to Wilson College where she will be studying to be a veterinarian. We'll certainly miss her in the fall but she'll be here with us all summer which is good news for the horses and us.

Up next, Army War College Graduation in just a few weeks!

House Tour Success! 12/06/09

We had a lovely successful Bed and Breakfast House Tour to benefit Project SHARE, an organization that provides food and clothing to Cumberland Valley families. Over 125 people crossed our threshold and got to taste the wonderful cakes donated by Tami and The Fancy Cake Shoppe in downtown Carlisle as well as tour the entire house and get a peek at what an Innkeepers life is like? Our top question of the day? "What made you decide to become an Innkeeper?" Meeting great people like all the ones we met today. It was my first turn as a committee chair for our Cumberland Valley Bed and Breakfast Association and I had some wonderful support from Tracie, my good friend and innkeeper at Blair Mountain www.blairmtn.com and Mary at Carlisle House, www.thecarlislehouse.com. We raised $1820.00 for SHARE which actually results in the ability to purchase about $29,000! groceries from the Central PA Food Bank. Warms my heart. This is what this season is all about isn't it? Dee Fegan, President of the cumberland Valley Bed and Breakfast Association and Innkeeper of the Fabulous Pheasant Field Bed and Breakfast are shown here presenting the big check.

Best Wishes for a wonderful holiday season.

Family Reunion and House Tour!

What a wonderful weekend this has been. Today we celebrated Joe Keller's Birthday here at the farm with his family. Joe and his wife Mary Jane owned Fallen Tree Farm, then Kellerhaus, for 20 years and were instrumental in the beginnings of the bed and breakfast movement in Carlisle and charter members of the Cumberland Valley Bed and Breakfast Association. We regret so much that Joe passed away late last winter. It was wonderful having his family stay with us and reminisce about the farm. We certainly feel blessed to have found the farm and hope we carried it on in a tradition they would approve of.

Just a little over a month until the first annual Cumberland Valley Bed and Breakfast Holiday House Tour to benefit Project Share. Sunday December 6 from 1-5pm, 9 of our historic B&B's will open their door to the public. Come see the homes dressed in their holiday finest. Some wonderful local musicians and caterers are scheduled to appear at the B&B's. Come out and support a great cause and take a step back in time. Any guest staying at Fallen Tree Farm that weekend will receive two complimentary tickets to the house tour as part of the stay.

Best friend of Man's Best Friend

Wedding season has come to a close. We wish the four wonderful couples who were married here this season all the best and hope they will take time to celebrate their anniversaries with us in the coming years:
Congrats to Windy and Jason, Richelle and Josh, Rebecca and Mark and Kim and Etzer.
We had a really fun and interesting guest stay with us last week. Don Abney of
Abney Catahoulas was here for a week of canine tracker training with York County Dog Training Club. Don has literally written the book on canine tracker training "The Canine Tracking Guide". While staying with us he broke Sully of his sometime overly effusive greeting habit. Sully now manages to greet us and our guests in a nice pleasant "sit". We really enjoyed Don's stories with regards to his dogs. We( Sully, Sebastien and all us humans) were sad to see him head back to Louisianna. For more information on the amazing Catahoulas check out Don's website www.donabney.com

Don was kind enough to pose for a photo with his newest trainee and fan, Sullivan.

Wedding Success!

And here ends the tale of how the "Ruins" became the site for weddings at Fallen Tree Farm. After weeks of landscaping, brick and stone work, Richelle Hauck and Josh Dourte became Mr. and Mrs. Dourte on Saturday Sept 12, 2009. The wedding was lovely, the bride was beautiful, the groom handsome, the innkeepers tired! But they all lived happily ever after.

We had a fabulous staff of family and friends to help us park cars in our field which suffered from the previous day's downpour. The food was wonderful and all the associated vendors that came along with the wedding were great to work with. My only regret....We were too busy to take many pictures but we did get a few which I will attach here.

Thanks to all of our guests this year that have checked in repeatedly to encourage us and remind us to get some sleep!