Governor, Students Join Trees for Troops Effort at The Rocks Estate

Gov. Hassan at The Rocks with the family of Kyle Ferland.

Governor Maggie Hassan and students from Bethlehem Elementary School helped spread some holiday magic this week, as they joined the annual Trees for Troops effort at The Rocks Estate.

As proud and happy purveyors of holiday cheer, The Rocks has actively supported the Trees for Troops program since its inception a decade ago. Founded in 2005, Trees for Troops works with farmers all over the country to deliver farm-grown Christmas trees to U.S. military personnel and their families throughout the United States and abroad.

Each year, students from Bethlehem Elementary School, just down the road from The Rocks, help raise money to purchase Christmas trees for the Trees for Troops effort and spend a morning at the farm loading trees. This week they set to work tagging 450 trees from farms in New Hampshire and Vermont with holiday messages and loading them onto a FedEx truck bound for a military base in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Governor Hassan arrived at The Rocks later to select a tree to cut and send to Kyle Ferland of Sugar Hill, who is serving aboard a Navy aircraft carrier currently stationed in the Middle East. Hassan’s task underlined the importance of the Trees for Troops mission to share a bit of the joy of the season with military men and women who are often away from their families during the holidays – as well as the families at home missing their loved ones.

Since its inception, Trees for Troops has delivered more than 139,000 farm-grown Christmas trees to military personnel and their families on dozens of military bases throughout the United States and abroad. FedEx has donated more than 493,000 miles of shipping to Trees for Troops in that time.

Amid the hard work and heavy lifting during the Trees for Troops effort at The Rocks each year, the children’s laughter rises through the frosty air, spontaneous caroling sometimes breaks out, and the joy of the holidays is carried with the trees to servicemen and women far from home.

To find out more about this effort, including how you may contribute to it, please visit the Trees for Troops website.

For a video of this year’s effort at The Rocks, check out this production by the Littleton Record.

Wildlife Habitat Trail tour this weekend!

The natural world around us is bustling with activity this time of year. If you’d like to learn more about the myriad wildlife habitats in northern New Hampshire, the animals who live there, and what they’re doing as we approach summer, join us this Saturday at Bretzfelder Park in Bethlehem for a guided tour of the new Wildlife Habitat Trail.

The 1.5-mile trail traverses several habitats, including wetland, beaver marsh, spruce-fir forest, and deciduous forest. Colorful and descriptive signs along the way explain the habitats and the wildlife living there. The trail was created through collaboration between the town Bretzfelder Park Committee and the Society forthe Protection of New Hampshire Forests, which owns and manages both Bretzfelder Park and the nearby Rocks Estate.

"My children had so much fun learning about the different animals and trees in the habitats along the trail, looking for signs of the animals who live there, and just exploring the woods," said one recent visitor to the Wildlife Habitat Trail. "And the adults in our group were just as enthralled with the trail and the information we found there as the kids were."

The Wildlife Habitat Trail is one of several trails included in the 77-acre Bretzfelder Memorial Park, which serves as a year-round outdoor classroom.

“The trail is a fun way for children and adults to discover and explore the natural world in our area,” says Priscilla Didio, a local naturalist and teacher who helped to design the trail and the interpretive signs along the way. Didio will lead the tour of the Wildlife Habitat Trail this Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m.

For more information about the guided tour of the Wildlife Habitat Trail, please visit The Rocks Estate’s online calendar.

Mail order, music, magic and more Christmas!

We’re in the full swing of the holiday season at The Rocks Estate

and hope you’ll join us for some fabulously festive fun! From horse-drawn wagon rides and roasted marshmallows to one-of-a-kind gifts and – of course – the most beautiful farm fresh Christmas trees, we have everything you need to get into the holiday spirit.

If you can’t quite make it to the farm to select a tree from our retail lot or choose-and-cut one from our fields, we invite you to visit our online gift shop, where you may order fresh, fragrant Christmas trees, handmade wreaths, ornaments, gifts – everything you need for the holidays! To ensure holiday delivery, Christmas trees should be ordered by December 15^th.

Those who visit us at The Rocks will find plenty to keep them busy and entertained – on the farm and off. A sampling of holiday happenings in Bethlehem includes the Annual Cookie Walk at The Gallery at WREN (yum!) on December 10^th, The Magic of Christmas magic show at the Bethlehem Public Library at noon December 10^th, a guided Full Moon Snowshoe tour at the Adair Country Inn at 5:30 p.m. December 11^th, and Adair’s annual Christmas concert December 17^th. The Inns and Arts Tour of the North Country, featuring the works of local artists and receptions at area inns, runs through December 10^th.

We hope to see you soon ~ and we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Open for the Holidays at The Rocks Estate

The Rocks Estate is now open for the holiday season!

Our fields of Christmas trees await you – come search the rows of fragrant firs to find your perfect tree, or select one from our retail lot at the farm.

With plenty of festive holiday cheer and beautiful Christmas card scenery, The Rocks invites visitors to make a day of selecting a farm fresh Christmas tree for trimming, perusing our shop for gifts and ornaments, and enjoying the historic Rocks Estate property during a horse-drawn wagon ride.

The Rocks also has several festive events planned throughout the holiday season…

Our own special Green Santa will return to The Rocks this year, spreading holiday cheer. Children are invited to have their picture taken with our Green “Eco” Santa, who will give the gift of a fir tree seedling to each child. Green Santa will be at The Rocks the following Saturdays: November 26^th, December 3^rd, and December 10^th.

Add a special Christmas touch to your holiday cards this year! Employees from the Bethlehem post office will be at The Rocks each Saturday afternoon and Sundays from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. with the town’s special holiday cancellation stamp. Created many years ago, the stamp features a group of Christmas trees reaching toward a bright star. So be sure to bring your Christmas cards along when you come to The Rocks for your tree!

The Rocks is also supporting Trees for Troops again this year. Trees for Troops collaborates with Christmas tree growers throughout the country to provide farm fresh Christmas trees to U.S. military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad. This year the program will deliver its 100,000^th tree! Check out our Birch Deer during your visit to The Rocks. All proceeds from sales of the Birch Deer support Trees for Troops. The Rocks also offers Trees for Troops teddy bears, sold by the Combat Vets Motorcycle Association to benefit Trees for Troops.

To learn more about what’s happening at The Rocks, we invite you to view our informative YouTube videos – and don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook. And, of course, our online shop is always open!