Foggy Oak Fairy Tales

It's the start of summer here and this month I am bringing you a story that happened actually just a couple of weeks ago on the farm. Last month's episode focused on some of the odd nests and places we have found mamas and their babies on the farm, and coincidentally enough, this spring brought us yet another one of those situations. It is a surprising tale involving one very lucky and p...

Every spring we seem to have a series of incredibly odd location choices for nests among our chickens and ducks. This month, I thought it would be fun to share some of the strange and silly places hens in our flock have decided to make their nests.  If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it with others! It's the most important way to keep this podca...

It’s spring here on Foggy Oak Farm, and in addition to baby animals and nicer weather that also means it's the time of year when things start growing again and mowing season begins. This month’s episode is about one of those parts of farm life that happens every so often – getting a tractor stuck, and the multi-step, often ridiculous process of attempting to rescue it.  If you like our show,...

It's spring here on the farm and for those of you who've been listening for a while you know that in addition to the typical explosion of chicks at this time of year that also means it is fox season. This month’s episode is about our efforts to outsmart our resident fox…most recently by putting our livestock guardian dog Rose to work guarding the chickens.  If you like our show, please s...

This month’s episode is all about fiber (no, not the kind you eat)! We talk about the process of creating yarn from shearing sheep and retell two fantastic Greek myths related to threads and fiber: a tale about the great craftsman Daedalus and the story of Arachne - aka the origin of spiders!   Let me know if you can figure out what all the emojis in the episode title mean! If you like our show, p...

Have you heard the expression "to bell the cat"? This month we tell the fable that gives us this expression for attempting an impossible task, and consider what lessons it might be able to teach us.  We cover (at a kid friendly level) the collective action problem and the tragedy of the commons as some of the lessons from this tale. If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite...

Hi friends! It’s been a cold and snowy December here at Foggy Oak Farm, and for this month's episode I thought you might enjoy learning about some farm mechanics we haven’t talked about before – dealing with winter. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and see you in 2026! 🎉 If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it with others! It's the most impo...

For this month’s episode, we have an adaptation of a classic, but less well known, fairy tale called “The Seven Ravens”. A version can be found in Grimm’s Fairy Tales , but there are many variants from across the world. Seven brothers are transformed into ravens when their father curses them for laziness, and their youngest sister sets off on a quest to find and rescue them.  It offers a moral to...

This episode of Foggy Oak Scary Tales is not scary in a spooky sense, but is definitely scary if you are a pumpkin farmer! It is the true story of a rainstorm that hit at exactly the wrong time and washed all the pumpkins away from the neighboring farm..and onto everything downstream…including our farm. Join me to learn about that – hopefully – once in a lifetime flood.  Thanks as always to sister...

Hi friends! For the month of October, Foggy Oak Fairy Tales transforms into Foggy Oak SCAAAAAAAAARY Tales, where I bring you kid-friendly scary or Halloween-related stories to celebrate the spoooookiest month of the year. If you’re not a fan of scary stories no worries! – we’ll be back with our normal Foggy Oak Fairy Tales in November, and you can join us then or listen to past episodes of the pod...

Hi friends, this month’s episode is an adaptation of the fairy tale “The Buried Moon”, gathered by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales . In this story, the moon goes missing after saving a father and his daughter who are lost in a carr – or bogland. Can the villagers find and rescue her?   If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it with others! It&a...

Secret eggs, surprise chicks, and a mother hen who made her first chick raise her second chick...this month's episode is full of strange, true chicken stories from the farm. Don't we all adore the eternal weirdness of chickens?  If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it with others! It's the most important way to keep this podcast going ❤️...

Hi friends! This month’s episode is an adaptation of a fairy tale found in several cultures called “Why the Sea is Salt”.  In this adaptation, a young woman trades for a magic quern (or hand mill) that can produce anything she requests. It’s a story where sharing and selflessness are rewarded and greed and selfishness reap what they have sown.  Thank you so much for supporting this podcast – I hop...

Hi friends, this month’s episode is about a recent pig and goat escapade on Foggy Oak Farm where one of our pigs broke through a fence...and all the pigs and goats got out! And BOY were they ornery during their bid for free reign of the farmyard. Join us for a tale of hilarity and woe (at least if you're me, fixing a broken fence in 95 degree weather while trying to catch what felt like an ar...

This episode is about pigs. Specifically, it is about three recent additions to Foggy Oak Farm – Pua, Petunia, and Peaches, who are Kunekune pigs and part of the many spring animal expansions we have done this season.  If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it with others! It's the most important way to keep this podcast going ❤️ Social Media: Faceb...

This month, I’m sharing stories from spring lambing at my childhood home, Mossy Dell Farm. Lambs are silly, playful, and adventurous, and it was always my favorite time of year!  If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it with others! It's the most important way to keep this podcast going ❤️ Social Media: Facebook & Instagram Website: foggyoakfai...

This week’s story is an adaptation of an Aesop’s fable called “The North Wind and the Sun”, where the North Wind challenges the Sun to a contest: the first to get a traveler to remove his cloak wins! A classic lesson in the power of persuasion over force, this tale from 2,000 years ago still holds up! If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it with others...

Many fairy tales offer us the lesson “be careful what you wish for”. They teach us that sometimes getting what we want isn’t at all what we expected…and warn us about the dangers of making bargains we can’t control.  “The Magic Flounder” story from several months ago is a good example of this – each time the fisherman wishes for more grand things he and his wife become less and less happy.  This w...

Hi friends!  Last season we had a story about a fellow named Hans who was born on a leap year and believed he was the luckiest man alive…and interpreted every even that happened through that lens. This month’s episode features an old woman with a similar outlook on life, as well as a mischievous shapeshifter who really tries to test her sunny outlook. Like our recent story “Fairies in the Chimney”...

This month’s episode is about my parents’ black lab Henry, who we discovered takes an unusual and vast delight in stealing and returning sleds. Not just any sleds, however, only those that he believes are not sleds at all...but actually giant frisbees that it is his very serious responsibility to catch and return to us...even if we’re the ones sitting on them!  Let’s find out how we discovered his...

Hi friends! This month's episode is a funny adaptation of one of the oldest known fairy tales. A blacksmith makes a bargain with death, and then works to outwit him time and time again.  Iterations of this story trace back 5 – 6,000 years and have been found in 35 different languages all across the world! If there was ever a classic fairy tale...this would be it.  If you like our show, please...

Hi friends! This special Foggy Oak Scary Tale is about our cat, Idgie, who surprised us by coming trick or treating! It’s the final installment in this October’s Foggy Oak Scaaaary Tales!  Thanks to sister-in-law extraordinaire Lee Knight for the fabulously spooky intro and outro music for these special episodes! If you like our show, please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and share it...

Hi friends! Foggy Oak Fairy Tales is back, and spooky season is upon us! That means it’s time for us to dim the lights, light a few candles, and settle in for a FOGGY OAK SCAAAAAARY Tale – a kid friendly scary story vetted by my daughters to make sure I never make it “too scary”.  This one is based on a real life farm event from this very month, where a series of late night awakenings led to quite...

 It seems this spring is one for stories of celestial events because just last weekend we were treated to the exceptionally rare experience of being able to see the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, here in southwest Virginia! Join me this week to learn about the Northern Lights and the unusual experience of seeing them in the southern sky.  Big thanks to space.com for their outstanding article...

Hi friends! This week’s story is about three hens with big personalities who recently rejoined us at Foggy Oak Farm...and the hijinks they have already gotten into.   Flock additions are always interesting, but perhaps never quite so much as for these hens who had never seen a rooster, let alone an entire farm full of animals! Join me to find out how they are acclimating to their new  life on the...