llama Grove Groove

On the Move. Farm 3.0

kari — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:32:47 +0000

Step one:

find a new home for llama grove

What?

You heard me. Well, we needed to re-home the groovy grove, so, step one completed. Completed-ish.

I can’t say that there will be llamas. But there is a barn. See at the right? That’s a barn, yo! Sure, it needs work, but we can probably live in it instead of the house if we ever need to. And who knows, we might need to. The house has issues that we can discuss later.

Step two. Yes, let’s move on to step two:

move in llamas ?? I can’t answer to that at the moment. There might be llamas. Isn’t that a really bad

book? We can promise chickens, and maybe a dog. The little man didn’t do so well with Walter, our neighbor’s dog, but he loves dogs. It took him a while to warm up to horses, so we might get a dog. A ratter for the barn?

But definitely chickens. Orpingtons are a must. They are very protective of their areas, they lay at least one egg a day for more of the year than most chickens, and they are bright and affectionate. At least ours have been. Maybe a luxury bird like a silkie again? tiny little egg layers are cute and this farm is smaller than the last two, so maybe mini-chickens are the answer.

The farm house is more farm house than any Llama Grove farm house before it. It’s quaint and has barn siding inside. It’s awesome and scary. Let the remod begin! We can do this! Make it awesome! Any inspirational music out there? We could use it.

Let’s rething step two. Step two will be a garden this time. Let’s get some box planters and make an area for a green house to help the lack of CSA this year. Don’t worry. If you build it, they will come. The animals, silly.

Farm 2.0

kari — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 20:12:45 +0000

The farm is starting again. When the last of the animals left Llama Grove we thought it might be a long time before animals were brought to the new homestead. But a couple weeks ago, we did just that! Six baby chickens have made their way to the new Llama Grove. To the left is their chicken tractor. It’s pretty big, but we’re able to move it around the property. It also matches the house, with it’s steep angles and high-fronted design.

The kids love the little fluff balls. The chicks started off in the mud room. Today there is no wind and a lot of sunlight, so the chickens are outside enjoying the green grass and spiders that run through it. The chicks get a fair bit of handling, so we’re hoping for chickens that come to us and don’t jump when we reach for them. They already jump a lot. We never thought that we’d be trying to clip the wings of pullets before they were fully laying.

Mowing

kari — Mon, 17 May 2010 04:33:52 +0000

More mowing, more fields. This is a lot of fun, really.

Farmers

kari — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:42:27 +0000

Llama Grove is moving. Are you a real farmer when you say things like, “Gotta mow the field before that storm gets in.”

Spring Cleaning

kari — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 04:05:30 +0000

These are the last daffydils from the flower bed. It’s a little sad to think that we will not get flowers from teh same bulbs next year, but plans for moving llama Grove proceed apace. We may have to rename the farm now that we’re changing to the top of a foothill rather than an enclosed hillside.

It’s been wonderful planning how we can make this land viable, sustainable, and productive.

Ready to Go!

kari — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:23:27 +0000

Come on Spring! Bring that warm weather and beautiful veg. We’re ready for you! The spices are all organized and the last of last years sarkaut and pickling is done! When will the snow end? When will the sun come out? Will we be making our own apple juice or will we have to buy it? We’re ready for you growth. Come get us!

The top shelf of the pantry is kombucha, vanilla, ginger ale and other fermentation jars, the next shelf down is all spices, the next shelf is a combinaiton of baking needs, coffee and emergency cans of stuff we might not have been able to stock up on. the final shelf is flour, cane crystals, etc. Oils on the ground, more spices hanging on the door. We are so ready!

Homestead Here?

kari — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 01:54:13 +0000

We’re not sure if this is the permanent homestead. The view is unbeatable, but the slopes don’t accomodate the larger animals without putting the soil in jeapordy. The chickens love the space that used to belong to the female Alpacas! So roomy and full of worms. They also have the entire barn to themselves. We’ll be looking for a new site soon enough, but hope to return to the llama grove as soon as we can. <3

Growing Season Begins

kari — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:30:39 +0000

The rhubarb and garlic are growing already! We’ve had such warm weather that today I was sweeping wasps nests off the roof and found a wasp. The nights have been very cold, though. there is no cloud cover at night, so we have a real risk of frost taking the buds off the apple trees and killing the garlic and rhubarb.

Chicken

kari — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:53:24 +0000

The chickens continue to lay as though it was summer time. They are doing great.

Away From Home

kari — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:21:11 +0000

Well, everyone is gone now. We will miss everyone who went to live with other farms permanently. The cows were really lovable and the llama was probably the most beautiful llama we’ve ever seen. He quite a personality on top of that. We’d really been looking forward to training him for hikes.

Brody, the horse is staying at Gaston Irish Sporthorses. He will remain there and be trained by the extremely competent trainer until someone comes to take him to another home, or until we build a dry barn. Whichever comes first. He’s such a big love that we know he’ll be in good hands either way.

On the up side, we’re in the middle of winter and getting 6 to 8 eggs a day from the chickens! This is great news. The weather has been rainy, but nice and warm for the time of year. The big question is without llamas and alpacas, what will we do for large-ish scale garden composting?