The Story of Cabinwood Farm

What does a banker who wanted to be a cowboy when he grew up and a nurse with a law degree "wannabe" farmer do when they get married later in life? With kids almost grown and retirement getting closer by the minute many folks would look south to Florida or the Carolinas or at least into downsizing… but not us...We went and bought a  mini-farm in Northeast Ohio in the middle of an Amish community, in the snow belt, and then we filled our empty nest with dogs and donkeys!!!!!

Actually it was a beautiful (and unusual) sunny winter day in February 2005 when we took a ride to escape a touch of cabin fever. Al and I had finally tied the knot a few months earlier and were at the point of trying to decide what to do with the rest of our lives and where to live while we did that…. Should we live at his place? My place? Build a new place? But, as soon as we saw the For Sale By Owner sign and pulled into the driveway, we took one look at this beautiful log cabin, the outbuildings, dog boarding kennel and the surrounding woods and pastures and all those questions had only one answer….Cabinwood Farm!

Unlike many who fell into an addiction to donkeys unknowingly, I knew well in advance after hugging my first donkey at a local breeder's farm that I was on my way to a life with donkeys! I read every book I could find and surfed every donkey website. I joined all the organizations before I even had a donkey, and I spent hours at a local donkey farm watching donkeys, holding them and observing as the farrier did his work. I visited other donkey owners to see their barns and pastures and even spent a few times searching for escaped jacks and wandering jennets!! So, once we purchased Cabinwood all I had to do was convince my husband Al that in a year or so we'd be ready for our first donkeys. Being the WONDERFUL husband that he is, when approached with the idea he said ..."Whatever you want dear is fine with me as long as you know two things…they are YOUR donkeys and I don't do manure!" 

Well...instead of a year and a half it only took a few months for the fence posts to go in the ground, the old saloon carport to be remodeled into a donkey barn, and by July 2006 the new Cabinwood Farm sign was hung out front and there were six beautiful miniature donkey jennets in the pasture...and by golly...by August Mr. Al was talking to donkeys and doing manure, too! ☺ 

By Christmas 2006 there were 7 mini jennets, 3 foals due for spring 07 and 2 weanlings purchased and scheduled for pick up sometime before March! Then by the summer of 2007 we added our first herdsire Ozark Red Sierra, another in Big Wood's Secret Weapon, and still another as we excitedly found our very first Ivory jack JT Chance! Two more beautiful adult jennets also came with Sierra and since then a "few more" lovely girls of assorted colors and ages have arrived. As of this summer of 2008 there are now 25 donks grazing the pastures here, and we are in the midst of a re-direction in our breeding program. By this time next year, almost half of our herd will be either Ivory blue-eyed white donkeys or at the least, ivory recessive gene carriers!! It is our hope that we can serve the miniature donkey market with a real diversity of color and personality! One thing for sure, we will NEVER sacrifice good conformation and personality for color! We believe with careful breeding you really can have it all!!!

So, amazingly we are now officially full fledged miniature donkey breeders! We are hooked on donkeys and the rest is history...Well, more like history in the making…..

WELCOME TO CABINWOOD FARM!