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Dear Customers,
With midterms coming up, not much has happened other than studying. Along with the snow came many geese this weekend.
Fun Fact: The Thanksgiving snowstorm of 1950 was the deepest in Ohio’s history. Nearly the entire state had over 10 inches and most communities in the eastern half of Ohio measured 20 to 30 inches of snow during this storm.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
It has been a very relaxed weekend. All of the animals are doing great, including the new chickens which continue to handle the cold weather better everyday.
Fun Fact: On the 24th of March, 1978, a sheep was found under the snow that had been there for 50 days. The sheep’s warm breath had melted passages in the snow, so that it was able to breathe. His wool protected him from freezing.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
This weekend, we collected 3 more truckloads of wood. We are already building up a supply for next year.
Also, we sold the ram to a breeder in Pennsylvania. He will have a good home and next spring we will buy a new ram lamb to take to the fair and breed for next fall.
In addition, we received 48 more jars of peppers from Uncle Joe, so we have plenty in stock.
Fun Fact: When chickens are first born they need to be in a 95 degree area, but with every week that passes the temperature can decrease by 5 degrees.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
All of the animals are still doing great in this very cold weather and we are finally finishing up the wood deliveries.
When you see your family and friends this holiday season, we recommend giving them a HHF holiday gift basket! Please email us if you would like to order one, and we will have it ready for you starting next weekend. They will be supplied on a first-come-first-serve basis.
We would like to thank people who have been generous enough to give donations when we deliver firewood. The students in Chiltiupán really appreciate it. Attached are photos of the books in the school library your donations helped purchase. Thank you to Joe Morford and his daughter Jess for sending them!
Lastly, we would like to thank the Klimek family for the generous donation of $120 from their 4H winnings.
Fun Fact: In 1939, President Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving would take place on November 23rd, not November 30th, as a way to spur economic growth and extend the Christmas shopping season.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
The chickens that we are currently raising for our customers have started to fly and are doing great.
Please contact us if you are interested in buying one of our HHF holiday gift baskets, they will make be sure to make anyone happy.
We made three deliveries this weekend and we only have three more to go. If you are still waiting, don't worry we will contact you soon.
Our chickens have been laying less eggs, so we apologize if we are frequently out of stock.
Fun Fact: Most chickens produce eggs at the fastest rate when there is a better chance their offspring will survive to maturity. Chicks clearly would not survive as well in cold weather. For a chicken, that gives them no reason to lay eggs in the winter, so their bodies automatically shut off egg laying for the colder months.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
For the holiday season we have now introduced the Holiday Gift Basket. This new gift basket includes a dozen eggs, Uncle Joe's Peppers, homemade apple butter, and a frozen chicken. You can not only gift these objects but also use them yourselves to make a great meal.
Next week we plan to finish up most of the wood deliveries. If you have placed an order then we will most likely call you to confirm your order and to talk to you about delivery time.
Fun Fact: The current population of llamas and alpacas in South America is estimated to be more than 7 million, and there are about 158,000 llamas and 100,000 alpacas in the U.S. and Canada today.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
We hope everyone had a great Halloween!
With the holiday season approaching, don't forget to come pick up frozen chickens and apple butter to share with your family.
Fun Fact: The invention of DST was mainly credited to William Willett in 1905 when he came up with the idea of moving the clocks forward in the summer to take advantage of the daylight in the mornings and the lighter evenings. His proposal suggested moving the clocks 20 minutes forward each of four Sundays in April, and switching them back by the same amount on four Sundays in September.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
We had an eventful weekend at Hill House Farm!
40 chicks were delivered on Thursday through the post office. We bought a variety of breeds including Americanas, Buff Orpintons, Barred Rock, Golden Comets and Rhode Island Reds. Attached are pictures of the 6-day old chicks
We also made 5 gallons of cider at our neighbor’s house. We are learning to apply our chemistry knowledge to the real world!
We delivered another load of firewood, and we are most likely sold out except for our preexisting orders.
Apple butter and the meat chickens are still for sale!
Sorry for sending the newsletter on Monday, but we were very busy yesterday with making apple cider.
Fun Fact: Archeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples since at least 6500 B.C.
Thanks,
Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
We delivered another load of wood today and have 3 more to deliver, but we still have plenty to sell.
We filled 50 apple butters jars, and have already sold 8 (see below for a picture). Everyone so far has loved them. Next weekend we plan on making a brand new product, apple cider. We will be using my grandfather's apples for this as well, and if all goes well we might sell it.
We will be getting 40 more peeps in the mail this week for some of our customers, we look forward to raising them into laying hens which will be sold live.
Speaking of chickens, we recently had a customer give feed back on our chickens. She "marveled over how much breast meat it had...Thanks for offering such a quality product."
Fun Fact: For today's fun fact please look at the cartoon attached. We found it in the newspaper and thought that all of you would enjoy it.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
We will be selling apple butter on Wednesday for the first time. They will be $3 a jar.
We picked up two more bushels of apples from our grandpa's farm today. With the abundance of apples, we will begin to make cider next week and depending on how it turns out we may sell it.
We have also received orders for 25 live chickens. If anyone else would like us to raise chicks for you, please email us.
There are pictures attached from today of us picking apples and turning them into apple butter! Thank you to October Moon Farm for teaching us how to make the butter.
Fun Fact: More than 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States, but only the crabapple is native to North America.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawke
Dear Customers,
We still have 7 ricks of firewood left and if you are looking for a cure to the winter blues then we highly recommend our firewood.
We will also be selling live chickens in the future. We already have an order for 8 and if we can get up to 20 then we will sell them. These are pre-orders, the chickens will be ready to lay in 16-18 weeks.
Also added to the inventory recently: Apples for $5 a peck and frozen chickens for $12 each.
Fun Fact: One cord of seasoned hardwood will provide more BTUs than 225 gallons of propane, 275k cu. ft. natural gas, or 133 gallons of #2 fuel oil.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
This week, I thought that we would share with you where your eggs are actually coming from in our coop. In the attached pictures, you can see the inside of the coop and the nesting boxes.
We still have plenty of firewood if anyone else is still interested, all of our customers so far have been very happy. We also will be going to Warren soon, so there will be more hot peppers for sale. As a reminder, we are still selling frozen, whole chickens for $12 each.
The price of eggs has changed to $3 to cover higher production costs.
Fun Fact: Sheep began to be domesticated between 11,000 and 9,000 B.C.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
We had another wonderful fall weekend and the animals are happier in the cool weather.
We delivered a load of wood and are still looking for more people who would like to keep their houses warm this cold winter.
Next week we will have more information about selling our apples.
Right now we are selling over a dozen Cornish Cross meat chickens for $12 each. We raised 25 since early July and took 8 as meat projects to the fair.
Attached are pictures from the fair. They include everyone from our 4h group.
Fun Fact: Llamas were first domesticated and used as pack animals 4,000 to 5,000 years ago by Indians in the Peruvian highlands.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
It was a busy and successful weekend at the fair and our 4H club won many ribbons. We will tell you more about it next week and share pictures.
Lauren and I each sold our pen of 4 chickens, raising a total of nearly $700 that will go towards the business and El Salvador.
This weekend we also completed 3 wood deliveries. Now is a great time to place your order and receive a delivery before the winter. The Farmer's Almanac predicts "that with a combination of below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation, the stage will be set for the Midwest, Great Lakes and central New England to receive lots of snow." Overall forecast for our area is biting cold and snowy.
Today we picked cooking apples at our grandpa's house. We brought home half a bushel and next week we plan on bringing home several more bushels. We would like to use those to make apple pie that we will freeze and have for sale. There will be an email letting you know when they are ready.
Fun Fact: The Geauga County Fair, which we participate in, is the oldest fair in Ohio. It has been around since 1823.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
This weekend we prepared for the fair with the other members of our 4-H group. We cleaned and sheared the sheep, so they look their best for the fair during labor day weekend. We had 11 people, and two stations for cleaning and it still took us 4 and 1/2 hours.
Most of you already know this: There will be an auction Saturday, August 31st at 3:30 p.m. on the Geauga County Fair Grounds for the chickens that Lauren and I have been raising. You would be bidding on a pen of 4 chickens.
Fun Fact: There are roughly 10 billion chickens and 50 billion eggs eaten a year in the United States.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
The sheep were sheared this weekend to help prepare for the fair, this year should be the best one so far.
We will be taking 12 shropshire sheep: 5 ewe lambs, 4 ram lambs, 2 yearling ewes, and 1 yearling ram. We will also be bring 8 cornish cross chickens for the auction.
We delivered another load of wood, and we are still taking orders if you would like to make this winter a warm one.
Fun Fact: The fastest time to shear a single sheep is 45.41 seconds
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
We hope you enjoyed the wonderful weather the past few days.
We delivered our first rick of firewood today, and orders can still be placed.
Next weekend we will begin preparing the sheep and the chickens for the fair. If you would like to see them, they will be at the Geauga County Fair during Labor Day weekend.
Dont forget that there are homemade jams in the refrigerator, so feel free to buy some when you come to get your eggs.
Fun Fact: Sheep do not have teeth in their upper front jaw.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
All the animals are doing well and we are preparing for the fair. The fair will be starting August 29th at the Geauga County fair grounds. This year we plan to bring 12 sheep and 8 chickens.
Once again we are taking orders for firewood, please let us know if you are interested.
In addition, we are getting low on egg cartoons, if you have some at home, please drop them off so we can use them again.
We are now selling jams from a friend of ours at Octobermoon farm. The smaller jars are $3.50 each and the larger ones are $6.50. We tasted them and they were outstanding.
Fun Fact: In the U.S., approximately 1 billion pounds of fruit spreads are produced annually. Per capita consumption is approximately 4.4 pounds per year.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes
Dear Customers,
All of us are back home, so the business will be able to run smoothly again.
We will be delivering firewood next Saturday, August 10th starting in the morning. Orders can still be placed.
We saved some of the wool from the last shearing. We are going to get it cleaned and we may have wool or yarn for sale in the future.
Fun Fact: The strength of an egg comes from its dome shape. The weight spreads along the curved walls to the wide base, allowing the eggshell to support more weight.
Thanks,
Harry and Lauren Hawkes