Spring 2015

Bike Ride and Mother's Day Brunch

On Sunday May 10th, 2015 Amberations will offer our annual Bike Ride and Open House as Well as a Mother’s Day brunch. Not only will participants in our Bike Ride continue to receive their complimentary breakfast, in addition we will offer a gala extravaganza of food for all to enjoy. Early plans include quiches, French toast, potatoes, sweet treats, fruits, yogurts, oatmeal and more.

Amberations is always a delight when it comes to our unique menu offerings and we are planning equally fantastic musical guests to complement the meal. The Perennials - with Bob Elfenbein, Jacqui McCarthy and Harvey Nusbaum - play the folkier side of folk rock as well as some traditional songs on fiddle, bass, guitar, banjo and mandolin.

Our animals will be at the barn waiting to greet guests and guides will be available to lead you on excursions through our grounds. The Treasure Chest will be freshly stocked and the duck race will be held at 1:00PM.

Keeping with tradition we will offer an array of prizes for participants in our Bike Ride including awards for first, middle, and last place as well as most colorful and youngest.

Entry fee for the scenic 17 mile ride around Otisco Lake is $20.00 per person and $40.00 per family (brunch included).

Brunch and music - $12.00 for adults and $6.00 for children under 12.

All proceeds from this event go to support the upkeep of our grounds and the feeding and care of our animals.

Please plan on joining us May 10th for this delightful, family friendly event.

House Update

The formerly pink house, now known as the yellow house, successfully weathered its first winter as Amberations caretakers’ quarters.

Chris and Mackenzie Russell, along with their newborn Theodore, helped to make sure our animals were well cared for during our coldest days.

Visits to the yellow house revealed a warm and cozy interior nicely maintained by the Russells. We would like to thank Chris and Mackenzie for all the support they have contributed to Amberations.

Life is taking them in a different direction and we will be looking for new tenants/Caretakers for the yellow house. The Russells plan to be with us on Mother’s Day and hope to be leading some of our guided walks. If you see them please be sure to say: Thank you Chris and Mackenzie!

A number of volunteer hours went into renovations on the yellow house.

Special thanks to Rob Rogers for helping us get a start on landscaping.

Thanks to Jim Smith and Mike Wheeler for mowing.

Diana, Barb, Mary Kate, Becky and Johnna — thank you for painting and cleaning.

Rick Frost — thank you for your donation of trash removal.

Sue and Rick, thank you for your countless hours of support.

Richard Hole — thank you for putting up with all the questions.

Steve Hewitt — thank you for consulting and all the help you’re about to give us.

Last but certainly not least, John Wiley — thank you for doing a little bit of everything and a lot of some things.

Animal Update

The animals fared well in spite of the cold this winter. Our eight guinea fowl are definitely the most vocal of the bunch. Watching them consecutively fly to the upper rafters like clockwork each night can be quite entertaining. Listening to them squawk at intruders can be quite annoying.

Big Joe our donkey is enjoying a bit of freedom as the weather gets nicer. Thursday feeding volunteers Becky and Diana usually let the animals out for a romp and Joe does love kicking up his heels. He usually will perform a rollover in the dirt, although he is not always making it all the way over.

Our cats Happy and Shadow stayed warm and cozy in the hay this winter. Their winter fur is a mess but little by little we are getting the clumps out.

Our hens are starting to lay eggs and we are adding two roosters to our flock any day. Katy, our only sheep now, is a giant fluff of contentment.

Our old goat Billy/Lilly just loves standing in the sun and soaking in the rays. He also loves eating all the chicken food.

Last but not least Boo. Our cute little adorable goat continues to butt Billy and Katy for no reason other than that she can. As bratty as she is, she continues to be the crowd favorite.

Visitors are always welcome to bring carrots, apples and pears for the animals.

As always, dogs are welcome to run in our upper field area but please keep them leashed, for their own protection, around the barn.

Making a Difference

by Becky Hudson

If you enjoy the outdoors, working with animals, carpentry and general grounds maintenance; please consider helping us with our Mother’s Day event or at your convenience any time throughout the year. Amberations has hosted youth groups, church groups, group homes, senior citizens and more recently - Onondaga Community College (OCC) students. Last Fall we were fortunate to have students from OCC come to help us with Fall Festival decorating, set up and activities. These students were very helpful and we all had fun working together. Later in October a group of OCC students came for Fall Service Day. They were an incredibly motivated and hard-working group. They helped us with grounds work, everything from taking down Fall Festival barn decorations to laying down shingles to extend paths around the gazebo in the upper fields. They did garden work and trail raking as well. I was so impressed with their work ethic. Whenever they completed a task, they would ask, “What next?”

General tasks we need help with range in scope from small to very large including: raking, weeding, garden work, trail & grounds maintenance, feeding our barn animals, making donation boxes, improving drainage and even building a pond.

If you are interested in joining our small group of volunteers on a regular basis or for a specific activity or event, please contact our volunteer coordinator Becky Hudson.

Spreading the Message

Nothing is more exciting than to see kids enjoying nature and animals. Many kids today do not have that opportunity.

Amberations exists as a place for them to feel free-spirited and creative, to connect with the animals and to explore paths, trees, ravines and expanses of sky.

You can help us spread this message by supporting us with regular pledges or donations.

Richard Wiley

We are sad to report that this winter Amberations lost one of our most loyal supporters - Richard Wiley. Father and father-in-law of our founders — John and Gloria Wiley — passed
away suddenly and unexpectedly this winter.

Dick was always trying to assist with making Amberations more successful in its quest to serve more people. He also tried to ease all the demands he saw placed on our few volunteers.

A world famous research scientist Dick would often humor Gloria by speculating on the possibilities of building a warming container for the animals’ drinking water that would be manure fueled. Lugging five gallon jugs of water to the barn during the winter months is quite a chore, as Dick witnessed firsthand. As far-fetched as this sounds Dick would
have successfully designed such a contraption right down to the BTU per inch had he just a bit more time.

Many friends and family made donations to Amberations on Dick’s behalf. Future plans include a small garden for introspection in his honor.

Thank you everyone for your kindness at this sad time and thank you Dick for always being there for us.

Sundays in July

This summer we are trying something new. Sundays in July we plan to offer a series of wellness workshops. We are working with local experts to bring informal information sessions on a variety of alternative health supporting techniques.

Chris Stahl will talk about chiropractic and ways to maintain a healthy body through a properly functioning nervous system.

Local Reiki Master Johnna Wiley will lead a presentation on this stress reduction and relaxation technique.

Lisa Jeske will offer her vast knowledge and experiences with the interesting and controversial Nambrudipad Allergy Elimination Technique (NAET).

A fragrant demonstration of essential oils will be presented by Vanessa Smydra. In addition, we are working on an acoustical music lineup to accompany our presentations.

Plans are for presentations at 6 pm in our gazebo in the upper field with music to follow. Follow us on Facebook or check our web page for updates.

Say Hello to Boo

Boo is our cute, very innocent looking, Nigerian Dwarf goat at Amberations. She has been at Amberations for about a year.

Boo used to be our family’s goat. She was going to take the place of Gertrude, our goat that unexpectedly died. Our other Nigerian Dwarf, Daisy, needed a buddy. We were told Boo was unable to have babies but was very “motherly” and took care of all the other goat babies.

We decided she would be a great friend for Daisy. From the minute we brought Boo home, she was very bossy. She would corner Daisy, steal Daisy’s food and butt Daisy until she would move out of the way. When people were near, she would completely change her character and seem to be the friendliest goat around. But when we would leave, we knew she was telling Daisy who was boss.

That’s when we decided to call Amberations, to see if they wanted a new buddy for Big Joe. They were happy to take Boo and see if she would fit in with the family.

We found out quickly, Joe was all Boo needed to calm her down. Her first day at Amberations, Joe told Boo who was boss. Clearly Boo had come to Amberations thinking she was going to head up the farm. Joe pushed her around a bit and quickly told her differently.

From that day forward Boo has fit in quite nicely at Amberations. She is many of our visitor’s favorite and loves a small treat of apple or carrot. Boo is usually (other than Joe!) the first face that will greet you when you pull into the barn’s driveway.

Stop by and meet Boo anytime, she would love to see you!

-Ashley, Vice President