Harvest Party!!!

Waterfall Farm Harvest Party!

We are having a Paaarrrrtttttyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Saturday, 19th of October, from 11.30am to 3.30pm we are having a Harvest Party!

It will be mainly indoors, in the ‘Market Barn’ so never mind the weather. Bring your wellies just in case and put your costume over your winter woollies!

There will be loads of children’s games all of which are FREE.

Fancy-dress is strongly encouraged and there will also be face-painting.

We will have harvest fare food; BBQ’d sweetcorn, pancakes and the like!

There will be the usual farm animals to feed, pet and love.

Parking is FREE.

Entry is FREE.

So come along and enjoy a fun, fun, fun, family day out on the farm, with a Halloween twist!!!

For more information contact Hannah and visit our Facebook page and Twitter account!

 

Management reserve the right to change, amend, alter or cancel all or part of, this fun party day without notice. (But we will really try not to!).

 

Enniskerry Victorian Festival 2013

It’s that time of year again and the fantastic Enniskerry Victorian Field Day Festival is on this Sunday, September 15th. It is a super family day out with loads of fun events happening all day. This year it is in aid of several charities, The Wicklow Hospice Foundation and the local parishes. It is being held on Knocklinn Farm, Ballyman road which is within spitting distance of Bray and the M11. There’s loads of parking, children go free and adults are only €5 each all of which goes to the charities already mentioned. Have you ever tried sheaf pitching?? I have, it’s great fun but not for the faint hearted. You can really feel those tummy muscles getting to work!! There is also loads of kids games (which every adult wants to try), tug-a-war, archery, falconry, artisan food market, vintage cars and tractors, horse-shoie pitching, pony rides….. If you get to do or see half of it you’ll sleep well that night! Visit their website http://enniskerryfestival.ie/about-victorian-field-day/for all the information.

Rag Man’s Ball

In addition to the Field Day, there is also a ‘Rag Man’s Ball’ being held on Friday night. We are donating half a Lleyn lamb, freezer ready, valued at €90 to the auction! We also have are giving 5% of the price of every lamb (whole/half) that is ordered at the Ball to the charities nominated this year. Order forms can be obtained from Hannah on the night. See http://enniskerryfestival.ie/entertainment/ragmans-ball/for further details.

 

Quack Quack!!

Drum roll please! Du-de-du-de-de-dooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have arrived, the funniest, cutest, entertaining quackers! New to Waterfall Farm are our flock of Khaki Campbell ducks! We put a lot of time and thought and research as to what kind of ducks would be suitable for our farm, and the result is Khaki Campbell ducks. You won’t find these ducks everywhere and they are actually a special kind of breed. They are a breed that was purposely bred by an English lady called Adele Campbell in the late 1800′s who wanted a duck that would be a prolific layer and also be a good table bird. So she crossed her Indian Runner ducks with Mallards, there may also be Rouen duck mixed in there too, but the final result is the Khaki Campbell. It’s name comes from the original ‘creator’ Ms. Campbell and also it’s typical colouring which resembles that of the khaki colour used in military uniforms. There are three main colours,  khaki, dark and white.

Our drake is a dark colour and all the ‘ladies’ are a beautiful khaki colour. There is a perception that they are a skittish bird, but actually they are quite kind and gentle, which is important to us as we have so many little children visiting the Farm and Shop each weekend. Also they are quite a good laying breed, with as many as 340 eggs being laid each year, so we hope to supply the Shop with duck eggs shortly. At the moment they aren’t used to much human interaction, but they are getting more friendly by the day and no doubt in time they will be eating out of your hand! They are very entertaining to watch, it almost seems like there is an invisible string keeping them all together. As one stands up, they all stand up. One sits down, they all sit down. One goes left, they all go left. And so on!! Often they are splashing about in their water tub, which they get filthy and new water is put in for them every day. They would love a visit, especially from the younger people and are already proving popular with picnic makings and local families. Please visit our You Tube channel waterfallfarm to see a short clip of the quackers when they first arrived.

Peregrine Falcons & Silage bales.

Farmers and silage contractors put in a huge amount of effort when making their silage for winter fodder. So after all the work that has been done out in the field, and then bringing the bales in to be wrapped in plastic and then carefully stacked so they won’t tear, the bales are now safe in the yard, poised and ready for winter use. Hah! Not so. If the silage wrap gets torn the bale/bales are in danger of becoming spoiled by becoming mouldy and inedible when outside air disturbs the fermenting process. Even a little hole, made by a teeny-weeny little mouse can destroy all or part of the bale if not spotted in time.

So what kind of animals nibble on the silage bales and what can be done about it. Well, lots of animals like rats, rabbits, mice, birds, cats etc. So for the smaller rodents they can be more easily controlled by the astute positioning of bait boxes or traps. Cats are great at catching these little guys are their natural prey, but cats are also pretty good at sharpening their claws on the silage bales too, which isn’t desirable!

So then onto the birds, how to deal with these guys. Well I guess if you had all day with nothing to do you could just hang around your yard with a shotgun and make it a ‘no fly zone’ and invent interesting recipes such as crow pie, raven stew or pigeon stir fry. I don’t know many, or even any, farmers with that sort of free time. We did try using close mesh netting but it wasn’t satisfactory. So we were discussing our ‘flying rodent’ problem with a good friend of ours who is a silage contractor and he recommended the use of a ‘dummy Peregrine Falcon’.

Peregrines are about the size of a crow, but are very adept hunters and generally attack their prey during flight from above, at speed, killing it with a closed claw and then retrieving it mid-air or when it hits the ground. That is why it is important that you have your ‘dummy Peregrine Falcon’ perched on something to give it an elevated position simulating it’s stance hunting in the wild. You also should move it about a bit, so ‘familiarity doesn’t breed contempt’ with the birds you are trying to keep off your bales. As he explained it has to be a Peregrine Falcon because they are the type of bird of prey that hunt crows and ravens. So don’t go out and buy another type of dummy bird of prey because they won’t work, I’m told. You can buy a ‘dummy Peregrine Falcon’ in any hunting or fishing equipment shop.

Irish Times Feature.

Well much to our surprise we featured in the Irish Times magazine article “100 Things to do in Ireland this Summer”! It was a giant list of all sorts of things you could do to keep yourself busy in Ireland whilst enjoying some summer madness… and fun! We were number 66 but I don’t think there was any particular order. You can read the article by clicking here.