OLD DANA FARMSTEAD
2001-2012
A Small New England Hobby Farm
Old Dana Farmstead
The Old Dana Farmstead website commemorates the history of this small farm, which was established in 2001 and closed in 2012. In its 11-year history, it was home to a wide variety of animals, including many rescue animals.
The site has extensive photo galleries to showcase the grounds and animals. The farm was a haven for eight rabbits, eight goats, three turkeys, over 30 ducks, over one hundred chickens, ten geese, and four red golden pheasants. The property had many natural features, including a hillside littered with rocks left by an ancient glacier with nooks, crannies, and mini-caves. The three-acre property had a triangular shape, and the main house was set back far from the road. This site does not include the interior of the log cabin home.
The farm was a very active place and produced enough income from the sales of chicken, duck, and goose eggs to meet its expenses. A local bed & breakfast in Barre center bought their eggs from Old Dana Farmstead for many years. When possible, the images appear in chronological order to show the evolution of the farm.
Enjoy this image-intensive commemorative website of a small New England hobby farm!
The Animals
Farm Buildings & Features
Chicken Coop
The chicken coop housed many, many chickens over the years. It had an upper loft, nesting boxes, and windows on all sides. Electric service was added around 2006, and the building had interior lighting.
Pheasant Palace
The Pheasant Palace was called a palace because it was 8′ X 10″ and housed only two pheasants. It was indeed a Pheasant Palace. It had a full-size door and was easy to walk around in for cleaning and maintenance.
Garden Shed
The garden shed held tools, car & truck supplies, and storage for the maintenance of the front property.
Barn
The barn initially housed goats, but in later years would become home to chickens and turkeys – as well as grain/feed storage. This building had electric service and interior lighting.
Goose House
The 8′ X 12′ goose house housed George and Lucy, who came to the farm re-homed from a neighbor. Later, it became home to a pair of Sebastopol geese that produced five goslings. The building had a full-width loft that stored lumber and wide sheets of plastic and metal.
Overviews
The view of the farm from the roof was great. I have many pictures taken from that vantage point.
Front Yard Features
Roadside Signage
With Additional Miscellaneous Signs
The Bungalow
Front Yard Screen House 12′ X 20′ (just inside the stone wall/property line)
Farmstand
24 Hour a Day Self-Service Egg Sales (Chicken, Ducks, Goose)
Pond
Front Yard Frog Pond with Fountain (12′ X 10′)
Notable Animal Friends
TRAILBLAZERS
RUFUS
Rufus moved to the farm with us from our home in Barre center. He was our first pet rabbit and the honorary founding father of Old Dana Farmstead. Rufus really loved people and would run towards them, often putting gh8mself in danger of being stepped on! Sometimes he escaped his cage and enclosures and went on extended off-farm adventures for days at a time. Each time he returned, we were amazed that a Fischer cat or fox hadn’t eaten him.
OREO
Oreo, an Alpine goat, and his friend Dusty were our first “large animals.” I think they are called large animals because they require a veterinarian. And each vet visit resulted in a large bill. Oreo was very playful and would head-butt people without notice. His favorite game was being challenged with hits to his head, and then he’d return head butts. He would always greet us attentively and sought out attention and interaction.
DUSTY
Dusty was an agreeable Saanen goat. She never head-butted or acted aggressively. In fact, this goat did almost nothing. But she was beautiful and gentle to anyone who came into the enclosure, which was a nice contrast to the head-butting Alpine.
GEORGE & LUCY
Lucy and George came to us from some friends who wanted to re-home these paired geese. Lucy was supposed to be 20 years old when we got her, but since she lived for many, many years after moving to the farm, I suspect she was younger. She often collected rocks that she would sit on to hatch. That never seemed to work out. George was a strong, slightly aggressive male African goose, although he was not aggressive towards me. He was capable of flight, and it was a sight to see!
SHARON
Sharon, named after Sharon Osborne, came to the farm on her own. She, and 2 of her friends, would come to the farm from a neighbors house almost daily. Eventually, she just moved into the barn and stayed. She was very friendly, and not a free-loader; she paid her room and board in eggs and was the reason we began keeping chickens.
Thank you for visiting Old Dana Farmstead
When we moved to this property, it only included the log home. We remodeled the inside of the house, removing walls, adding walls, refinishing floors, and did a lot of painting. I will add interior photo galleries to this website sometime in the future.
When we bought the property, the outside property was undeveloped. When we left, it had eight additional buildings (with electric service in the barn and chicken house). We also put in two ponds and an eight-foot concrete fountain.
On the inside, we installed a propane stove in the living room, a wood stove in the basement, and added a finished room in the basement (bringing the total number of finished rooms to four). We also moved the second kitchen the house had on the main level to the basement and made it into a large functional laundry room.
Both Allen and I thoroughly enjoyed our years on Old Dana Farmstead. Managing the animals and grounds was a big job, but the activity and abundant life on the farm made for an enjoyable lifestyle.