Both Lynn and Peter grew up in Portland, Oregon. We had always dreamed of moving to the country, but once we had the ability to do so, we had become rooted in our Portland lives. We were establishing our careers, we had links to our community, and most importantly, we did not want to uproot our two boys in the middle of their school years. We decided to hold off on our dream until both boys graduated high school. As fate would have it, we were contacted by one of the realtors we had worked with in the past about a farm that was about to come on the market. This happened two months before our youngest son was to graduate from high school. The timing was perfect. We met the realtor at the property only to discover that the property had not been maintained for many years – more like decades. Our realtor actually apologized for the state of the house and property, but Lynn and I looked at each other and said, “This is perfect!”. We closed just weeks after our son’s graduation, and this was the beginning of our new life adventure.

We now have a flock of Suffolk/Hampshire sheep, four Nubian goats, and a llama, Tina, who guards our sheep. Please visit our Animals page for more about our animals. Each season, we raise and process our lambs, fed by grazing in on our pasture and supplemented with hay and alfalfa during the winter months. The lamb meat is sweet, tender, and lean!

We have also been working with the Tualatin Valley Water District on improving the farm for responsible water use and pasture management. With help from a grant, we have installed additional fencing for rotational grazing, installed gutters along the barn to keep the mud to a minimum, and are in the process of building compost bins to recycle the sheep manure for use in our garden. This has been a positive and worthwhile partnership! We welcome any visitors to our farm, we are proud to show it off! By the way, we have an orchard of apple trees that have the most beautiful blooms in the spring, thus our name!