For the past two years Justin and Teagan Moran have worked at Leaping Lamb Farm, introducing us to rotational grazing, organic farming methods, detailed work tracking, and vegetables we have never heard of nor eaten before.

When we were first introduced to them, they were just a lovely couple finishing up a two year internship with Rogue Farm Corps. By the time they arrived on our farm, they were pregnant, had a puppy, and a yurt! While change for us meant an easing of heavy labor, theirs was the complexity of child and puppy rearing, building a house, and taking on the responsibility of managing a new farm.

As their daughter, Tulsi, grew to a point where she could run faster than her parents, and Justin and Teagan both took other jobs off the farm, priorities changed and family life evolved to a place that needed more time and space to themselves. Thus, a decision was made to move away from the farm and back to the familiarity of regular schedules and old friends in the Willamette Valley.

And with that, we welcomed Kate and Dennis Rivera to our farm as our new managers in May, 2019. In fact, Kate is well known to us. She has worked for me at Leaping Lamb Farm in her capacity as Membership and Marketing Manager for the U.S. Farm Stay Association since 2011. She has also focused on the LLF website and our Facebook and Instagram accounts. We knew Dennis mainly as a photographer, one whose photos of our farm have shown up in national publications.

In the last several years, Kate and Denny had taken up their own small farming operation – purchasing some of the LLF flock for their own, raising laying and broiler chickens, and working for a neighbor farmer in Monroe. When they applied to be our farm managers, it seemed like an easy glove to fit. Kate already knew how the farm ran and Denny had experience now not only in farming but construction, vineyards, and operating a tasting room (customer service).

We feel change is good all around. We thank Justin and Teagan for their hard work and wish them all the best in their new adventures.  And we welcome Kate and Denny onto our farm and into their new adventure. Farming is a small world and our paths are intersected forever. If you run across Justin at the farmers market in Portland, say hello for us. If you see Kate welcoming you at the front door, don’t be surprised if Denny isn’t right behind her… or out pruning our vineyard so we can actually toast with wine someday and not just make jelly for our toast!

With the wildfires going on around Oregon, air quality around the state had been a bit dicey in the days leading up to this huge camp-out, but our gorgeous coastal range blessed us with clean air just in time, and gave some of our attendees a break from the smoke. We had a great time opening up the farm and sharing what we do here with everyone who came.

We wanted to share some photos with you! We can’t share all the amazing photographs taken over the weekend, but you can see LOTS more at the event’s Facebook page here: Family Forest Fest Oregon

Our first gallery comes to us courtesy of Deanna Curry at HeartBeat Photography. Thank you, Deanna!

Our second gallery was shared with us by Laura Castro of Twig & Lens Photography. Thank you, Laura!

Thanks again to the organizers and all the attendees for a joyful weekend!

Preparing to re-skin the hoophouse.

Smooth progress, as Gillie supervises. We got ‘er done with teamwork – one of Tulsi’s first farm tasks!

Here, Rudy tests out our new, flexible, low-level overhead sprinkler system.

New roll up door frame – the door is full width so we can get a tractor in, and right up to the edges for an initial pass of tillage, to break up compaction. It also allows for maximum passive ventilation – air circulation being crucial to helping reduce the incidences of fungal diseases in greenhouses, especially in our moist climate.

Corner detail. I’ve found that sectioning off this little area made a big difference in reducing heat escaping from that top third of the door.

Note the geared hand winders for the roll-up sides. The doors also use the same winders.

Here’s Teagan unveiling our new field area (left), and the first results of our occultation experiment. The tarps germinated the weed seeds in the soil, and are currently keeping it at a good moisture for tillage. I had plowed some pasture/roadways that were to become one of our new production field areas, but the chunky clods needed to be a lot finer to allow our planned no-till raised beds to be easily formed by hand with shovels. Luckily the tarps had kept the soil at the perfect moisture for tilling. After one pass, we are looking good!

Teagan hard at work building our raised beds in our hoophouse, while i ‘supervise’… ;o)

First planting of the season – thanks to a generous contribution of starts from our friend Beth at Goodfoot Farm! Teagan gets a colorful mixture of kale in the ground. Note the hi-hose, and the remaining beds, covered by landscape fabric – more occultation in action!

Justin is from Barnstaple, Devon UK and has farmed across Europe. Teagan is from Portland and met Justin while farming in England, although she too has worked on farms across the European continent. We are very lucky to have such industrious and energetic managers. Already they have put a hand to pruning and cleaning up the farm, worked on water drainage issues, and helped to prepare the farm house for our 2017 guests. Based on our conversations around seed catalogs, I expect we will have a highly diversified garden of veggies for you to choose from next summer, while our flower beds will abound with color as Teagan puts energy into her floral business.

I would be remiss if I didn’t promote some of the philosophy and interests Justin and Teagan bring to our farm.They are both very interested in community and interacting with others, just as they think education about food is vital to the choices we all make about our own health and the well-being of our planet. I expect you will find them engaging with you and your family quite a bit, willing to show you what they are doing, offering programs, demonstrating what farm to table looks like when one is only 100 feet from the other.

While Greg and I are not yet ‘doddering’, we welcome this addition of help and energy to Leaping Lamb Farm. We are still here. We are still working. We will still most likely greet you on arrival. But, this also means we can finally travel ourselves…together. Passing on farming duties and knowledge, as our generation of farmers begins to top 65, is extremely problematic and we feel incredibly lucky to have found Justin and Teagan to continue with new ideas, knowledge (and strong backs!)

Opal the Tennessee Fainting Goat was up first. She didn’t want to stay in the shot until she realized she could eat the wreath.

Next came Cocoa, this year’s bottle-fed lamb. Sorry to report that Cocoa is no longer a cooperative photo subject.

Finally, we stuck a bow on Gillie and asked him to sit.

Good dog, Gillie!

Happy holidays to all!

We’ve also got eggs in the incubator, and one lone chick hatched about a week before expected. Well, it’s a rare treat for our guests who stay here in March!

Scenes from Leaping Lamb Farm

We had a couple of hard losses on the farm this summer. Tom, our 7 year old Heritage Bronze turkey was starting to decline and he finally reached a point where his quality of life just didn’t overcome his problems any longer. He had a good run, at 7 years old!

Sadly, Goose had such a strong bond with Tom, and we think he was brokenhearted. He followed his best buddy to barnyard heaven a week later, at over 30 years of age.

We will miss these two irascible characters. Farewell, feathered friends…. may there be nothing but sunny pasture wherever you are!

All photographs courtesy Christopher Germano.

I hear a noise… oh, the rams are at the gate, trying to get at the purple grapes. Hi rams!

Wait a minute…

WAIT… WHAT…

WHAT.

Not. A. Ram.

So… there may be a lamb or two in January. Stay tuned.

The day did not seem to be ideal – it was gray, rainy, and cold! The artists took up spots around the farm that kept them (mostly) under cover.

After a few hours, they gathered in the barn to have lunch and review all the work that had been done during the morning.

Because they were having lunch… guess who had to be put into an empty stall for a little while?

Yep, Mr. Gillie “I’ll take that sandwich, thanks” Jones. He kept the recent sheared fleeces company for about 20 minutes or so. He’s a GOOD BOY. (He wanted me to tell you that.)

Below are some photographs of the pieces as they were that afternoon. Some were still in progress, some mostly finished. None of them are done justice by my photography!

I don’t have the artists names who created these, but we’re working on getting them, so I’ll update the post as soon as I have more info. I also didn’t manage to catch photos of all the pieces, unfortunately!

Click on the thumbnails to see more detail:

Artist: Tom Allen

Keep up with Vistas & Vineyards via their Facebook page, or website. Many of them will be showing artwork at a show at LaSells Stewart Center later in the year, and will participate in the Clothesline Sale of Art in Corvallis in August.