City Folks Down on the Farm

What happens when you take dyed-in-the-proverbial-wool-city-folks and transplant them down on the farm. Well, you make mistakes. Last summer, thinking we were doing a good thing, we mowed our pastures routinely. Llamas like short orchard grass, right? So we mowed, and then the drought came, and what sparse sprouts of orchard grass remained, the llamas finished.

Mr. Miller and son Dwane on tractor

Fortunately, our farm family, The Millers, with multi-generation experience, came to our rescue. You can tell we weren't born to the land; our four gates are 10 footers. That will change sometime this summer. They accomplished the impossible, managing to navigate our too-small gates with too-large equipment. We are so grateful to Donald and Dwane for their laboring against impending rains (came as they put away the last pieces of equipment on their truck). A special thank you to Adam for lending his farm machinery. In rural America, farm families pull together, help each other, and refuse remuneration. They will tell you, "it just what neighbors do."


Reseeding the Llama Pastures: April 2011 from RJ Stangherlin on Vimeo.