Well howdy, friend!
From all of us here on the LDF, we sure do hope your 2026 is off to a great beginning!!
If it’s been a bit since you’ve read a weekly Farm Note, I should mention we’ve changed the format from a weekly newsletter to a monthly publication schedule. There’s nothing you need to do on your end—just don’t forget about us the other few Sunday’s of the month and we’ll catch you here on the last Sunday of each month in 2026 for a monthly Note!
At the start of January, Chris and I left the farm and all our critters in our trusty sitter’s hands so we could sneak away for a weekend Baby Moon in Boston.
Some of you might be like, Wait, what?! Baby Moon??! and if that’s the case you’ll want to go back and read the Week 48 Farm Note from back in November to get caught up!!
We were really chancing it to try and do a weekend away in Boston in early January and told our sitter we’d keep an eye on the weather beforehand in case we needed to cancel for bad weather either here in New York or in Massachusetts. But we lucked out and got one of the most mild weekends with decent temps and great weather for leaving the care of the farm and animals to someone else and spending a weekend outside walking all over our favorite city.
We got a nice hotel. We wore our nice clothes. We somehow managed to walk 55,000 steps in a weekend headed into the third trimester. We drank the best coffee. We stopped at the most incredible bakeries. We stopped by all our favorite parts of the city, went candlepin bowling, ate at some of the best restaurants for dinner, and thoroughly soaked up the quality time together…just us.
We basked in the sweetness of this being our last little vacation together just the two of us…Sarah and Chris…before we’re mom and dad.
It’s wild to think we’re in the final stretch here before our little love arrives!
We’re slowly nesting and getting the house just the way we want it. We’re preparing and stocking the freezer well ahead of time with nourishing meals. Soon, we’ll be unboxing all our registry gifts from our amazing village that spans far and wide to make way for the newest and tiniest member of our family in our cozy little home.
This winter has been keeping Chris quite busy here on the farm! It’s been consistently very cold and consistently very snowy thus far this season, which means more trips back and forth to the chicken coop and donkey corral to make sure everyone is warm and well fed and has warm water and is happy. It means lots of de-icing and clearing paths and keeping an eye out for slip risks for yours truly. It means lots of shoveling and scraping car windows and warming up vehicles and trips back and forth to the wood shed to keep a constant pile of logs coming into the house to keep our cozy fire going all winter long.
Last night before bed I found myself scrolling back through photos and videos during the summertime here on the farm. When we’re in the depths of winter, and it feels like there’s no end in sight to these bitter cold, dark days, it helps me to remind myself that these chill hours in winter are required for us to be able to enjoy picking an apple off our apple tree, biting into a fresh tree-ripened peach, watching the first dahlia bloom, or sitting in the kitchen with the windows open with a coffee in hand while the cats watch the birds out the window while the sun comes up.
I’m wildly grateful to be the most pregnant in the deepest part of winter. Though I wish I was able to give Chris more of a hand with the day-to-day tasks outside, I’m glad to be cozied up in comfy lounge clothes and enjoying hearty meals and not being pulled by all the demands of a farm in full bloom. Our timing just so happened to be impeccable for life here on the farm. I still can’t believe we get to welcome a baby into the world in spring—how special.
Now, I know you’re wanting to know how everyone is doing and what’s on our minds, so let me quit jabbering on and give the people what they want!
I know your first question—how’s Molly-Max?
For a very old, very wonky, very poorly-footed donkey, he’s taking this winter like a true champion. Our farrier, Matt, was just here a few days ago, and said this is the best his hooves have looked since he started working on him. I think we can attribute that both to the quality of the trimmings he’s been doing for Max in collaboration with our vet, and that we’ve consistently kept his orthotic shoes on for the better part of the last four months. We’re really proud of Maxy—he’s just such a trooper, our old boy!
I mentioned at the end of last year that we’d picked up some coats for both Molly-Max and Dominic and we’re really happy with how that’s been going for them. We sure have been glad to have them this week when the temps dipped well into the negatives with “feels like” minus 21 degrees being the worst of it just this morning!
Like many of you across the US experiencing this upcoming storm, we’re expecting 12-18 inches of snow in the coming two days. We did our preparations as best we could and we’re as ready as we ever are for another big dump of snow in this already very snowy winter.
Next up, our three little hens are all keeping on just fine. We recently decided we won’t be adding any additional hens this year. We’ve been having issues with far more birds in our coop than in previous years and we’re worn out trying to resolve the chicken coop issue. When it’s not birds it’s rats, which thankfully we’ve not had a recurring issue with. But if it’s not rats it’s the birds giving the chickens mites. So, for this first year of parenthood, we’re going to eliminate the headache that comes with adding more hens and just enjoy the three we have until we no longer have hens for the timebeing. Our focus is surely changing.
And finally the Furmers—our seven crazy cats!
Black Kitty has turned into a total diva this winter and never wants to go outside anymore. When we open the door for her, she first steps forward, smells and feels the air, and then either decides to hop outside or retreats from the door if she doesn’t feel like going out in the cold. It’s hilarious!
Black and White Kitty and Buist have become the best of friends and you can find them at all times of the day and night snuggled up on one of the chairs together in front of the fire. They groom each other and rest their heads on each other’s belly and sleep all tangled up in the cutest ways. I’ve always had a soft spot for how loving and caring Buist is and how he takes to every animal and person he’s ever come across, but I’m especially happy for Black and White Kitty that she was scooped up off the streets of Philadelphia and found a home and a best friend here on the Little Dream Farm. We can’t get enough of the two of them. Here’s a photo of them just last night!
Dodger, Oliver, Micro, and Little Lady are all great, too. Our cats have their daily routine dialed to the most predictable science and we love the way they add so much color and silliness to our life. We’re very eager to see how they all react to having to share their mom and dad with a tiny human! We’ll have to report back on that!
We’re pleased to relay to you that alls well here on the Little Dream Farm as we anticipate this to be a year of a lot of change for us.
Next month, I’ll walk you though what’s on our mind for our Annual Farm Plan and the little dreams and visions and projects we have in store for this coming growing season and life here on the LDF.
This next month we’ll sit down and start talking about what we want to fill our farm life with for the year ahead, and while we both know it’ll be far less than what we’ve had on our docket in previous years, we’re still looking forward to another year of growing—in all the ways—here on the LDF.
Be on the lookout for the next monthly Farm Note to hit your inbox on Sunday, February 22.
Be easy on yourself and may life be good to you in the meantime until we meet here again!
Before you go…
I’d love to hear from you! How’ve you been? How’s life? How’s the new year? What’s new? What’s something you’re dreaming about this year? Working on? Working toward? Letting go of? What’s on your mind or in your heart? What’s something you’d like to share? What’s your world for this year or what are some thing stirring in your heart?
I happen to think this Farm Note is far better when it’s a two-way street, so I’d love to hear from you and will be reading all your comments as we watch the snow fall outside.
Until February, my friend.
Wait…is this a Sarah’s Favorites…back again?! YES!
I have just a few things I have to share with you!
Ok first, our friends at Darwin’s have TOTALLY outdone themselves and they’re offering 60% (yes, SIXTY!) off your first order of up to $100. You guys know how much we RAVE about Darwin’s and have been feeding it religiously to our cats since 2021. This deal is an absolute steal if you’ve been wanting to try raw food for your cat or dog. I always tell people, even if just 25-50% of your pet’s diet was Darwin’s, that would still make a massive improvement in their health. Give it a try using this link OR by entering SARAHBERGSTEIN at checkout to apply the savings. When you place your order, Darwin’s will also donate funds to Project MEOW in Philadelphia, the rescue we did the bulk of our foster work with when we lived in the city. We LOVE that!
I’ve had my nutrition dialed in while I’ve been pregnant and I think it’s the leading reason I’ve been having such a smooth, uncomplicated, enjoyable pregnancy. I recently got my hands on some of the best dang protein on the market and now every morning I can’t wait to rush home from the gym to make myself a shake to start the day. You have to try this protein—doesn’t make you bloat, doesn’t make you feel overly full, only made from good-for-you ingredients. I blend it up with a little milk, some ice, and some water and I’ve been having it every morning on repeat for the last few months now. Save $$ on your purchase using this link or enter code SARAHBERGSTEIN at checkout.
If you’re not currently taking a multivitamin may I sway you to start? It honestly made such a big difference in my Hashimoto’s remission and healing my bulging discs last year. The prenatals during pregnancy have also been a huge game changer in my overall health, and I’ve been receiving near-perfect labs at every check in. Now, nutrition plays the biggest part in this, but a quality multivitamin goes a long way too. This is the brand I recommend and you can use this link to save money on your purchase.
The BEST investment I made in my health in 2025 was doing this comprehensive panel of labs twice in the year. You pay one time for an annual membership and then you get more than 110 biomarkers tested at a six month interval. It allowed me to see all the things that were off—about 14 different markers at the start of the year, mostly associated with my thyroid. The platform recommends what foods to eliminate, what foods to add more of, and specific supplements to take. It was far more helpful than any doctor I’ve ever gone to, and by the second set of labs my numbers were all normalizing. I’ve already signed up again this year and can’t wait to monitor my postpartum health using this resource. Sign up today using this link and gift yourself the best investment you can make in your health in 2026!
One other incredible investment I made for my health last year is to begin using red light therapy. Both on my face for my skin health (this happens to be the best my skin has ever looked in all my life, even through pregnancy!) and for my thyroid. I simply sit in front of this panel for one session daily or every other day. If you’ve been thinking about getting a red light therapy device, do it…seriously, it’s actually worth it. And if you want the best one, use this link on February 5-8 to save $248(!!!) on your device during their Valentine’s Day sale—that’s huge!
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