Daisies

Daisies

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Family Farm Tour Day 1

Today we went on day 1 of the family farm tour. We are given a certain amount of time each day to visit as many farms as we would like. This is our sort of thing, so I made sure to take the weekend off, so we could enjoy the farms. Unfortunately, day 1 was not exactly what we expected. We had just finished touring our first farm around an hour away from where we live, and my van decided that it would not shift into any gears other than park. With a little bit of time and mechanical skill, we were able to get it started, but decided it would be best to drive it home and switch cars. By this time, we only had an hour of tour time left, so we rushed over to one other farm so as not to waste the whole day on car nonsense.









Pictures are of: the kids standing in front of berry bushes, one of the most beautiful handmade homes I have seen (did I mention that the family on that farm made that home themselves!), Bessie the cow, Ashleigh with the Apaloosa horses, the chicken coop, the garden that sustains this family completely and their solar panels(FYI, the power company paid this family $4 last month, because they get all of their electricity from the solar panels and small scale hyrdo power), the kids with Lily the dog, a wonderful pear tree, and an alpaca from the second farm we visited. We really enjoyed the open space and the kids thrived in the farm environment...this just seals my wanting for a farm of our own one day. The first farm we visited was "Sunswept Farm Conservancy" and we learned about being truly sustainable through alternative energy systems, no-till permaculture techniques, and biochar production. They have many many acres and have dedicated about 63 of their acres to forest conservancy. The trees that they have in their forest behind them are 2nd or 3rd generation trees and they hope to keep that land conserved for thousands of years to come. The home in the picture is of one that they built themselves and was truly one of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen, I believe it is listed with "Handmade in America" if you want to check it out. The second farm we quickly visited was Venezia Dream Farm and it was a purely Alpaca farm where they raised alpaca for their fiber. They also sell their alpacas to other alpaca lovers. We hoped to have lunch at one of the farms that makes brick oven fired pizzas and baked goods, but we ended up eating pizza at a downtown brewery(it was great pizza by the way). Hopefully there will be no car trouble tomorrow and we can have that pizza at that farm as well as visit a couple of other farms. Enjoy the outdoors while you can.
Peace, Yasmin

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Chimney Rock

It has been awhile since I have been on here blogging. My laptop decided to crash due to a virus and I basically lost everything on it, so I am just getting back to the norm. I wanted to share a bit of our last big hiking adventure, which was to Chimney Rock State Park. Beautiful views, hot sunny day, picknicking, and lots of hiking.
















I know it is a ridiculous amount of pictures, but it is hard to capture such a wonderful trip with just a few pictures. We hiked up 500 stairs to the top of chimney rock and then hiked up some more to the opera box. The kids were real troopers and we had a fabulous day.
Peace,
Yasmin