"It was a horse woman that drove me to drink. And you know, I didn't even thank her."

When we bought the property it had a medium sized creek (named McGowan Creek) with a large ridge down the center.  After a few years a beaver family moved in and made the creek into a large series of ponds covering about 10 acres.  We thought this was neat, especially my husband and whatever keeps the male occupied makes him less likely to notice another horse snuck in.  During this time we were looking for a name for our farm.  We decided to go with a name that described the land.

Fen:  From Merriam-Webster, Etymology: Old English fenn: low land covered wholly or partly with water

Most people know what a Ridge is.

For ariel views of the farm go to http://www.fenridgefarm.com/facilities.htm

Here are a few of the species that the wetland has attracted:

• Beavers (couldn’t do it without them) http://www.beavers-beavers.com/beavers-management.htm
• Gray Fox http://wildwnc.org/af/grayfox.html
• Red Tailed hawk http://wildwnc.org/af/redtailedhawk.html
• White tailed deer http://wildwnc.org/af/whitetaildeer.html
• Owl – Don’t know which kind but ‘he’ has scared me a few time out on the trails by swooping by
• Blue Heron
• Snapping Turtle – these things are huge and mean!
• Canada Geese, Wood ducks, Mallards
• Turkey
• Vultures
• Rabbits, turtles, frogs, small fish

There has also been one unconfirmed sighting of a River Otter;

River Otter  http://www.chattoogariver.org/Articles/2004Sp/Otter.htm more on Otters http://wildwnc.org/af/riverotter.html