Super cool picture coming soon.

More on the continuing adventures of Algedi Farm in Oregon coming soon!

"The farm" is a dream come true for Tamara who pestered her mother non-stop as a child for "just one more"  cat, dog, hamster, well, you get the idea.  But since they were city folk there was not a chance of real country critters.  For many years Tamara's husband, Solar Mo, was able to hold off the onslaught of various critters until one fateful day.  Okay, maybe it was actually a series of fateful events. 

Shortly after moving to "the country" (at least it is by Southern California metropolis standards) their beautiful, indoor-only cat escaped during the night.  All that was found the next morning was evidence of a visit by a predator - the most likely being a coyote.  After crying for a few days and patching up the escape hole the family just accepted it as part of country living.  A few months later the Miniature Schnauzer was attacked by a predator, most likely a coyote, and only lived thanks to one of the large dogs saving him.  $400 of surgery and a drain in his side and he was ready to come home and recuperate.  A short time after that Tamara followed the dogs out in the yard only to watch them chase a coyote over the fence and out of the yard.  At that point the coyote turned and seemed to sneer at the bunch of them and then very s-l-o-w-l-y sauntered off, even as the canines aggressively barked and growled and Tamara stood jumping, shouting and pitching dirt clods.  The indignity of it all!  "ENOUGH!" Tamara cried to Solar Mo.  And then Tamara got out her weapon of choice.  The internet. 

Thanks to the world wide web Tamara found out that llamas can make great guard animals.  So began the search.  Tamara and Solar Mo visited many breeders.  Solar Mo was hooked and happily agreed to llamas.  They especially enjoyed meeting Norma and Dick Stevens of Mountain Oaks Ranch where they picked up their beautiful llama Tiara Star.  Tamara and Solar Mo have had their llamas since fall 2002 and up until the winter of 2003/2004 had not seen any evidence of predators. Chickens and ducks ran free.  Cats frolicked outdoors.  The little dog was growing old worry free (except for maybe when it would be meal time again). 

Time went on and the idea of milk goats was discussed with Tamara and Solar Mo's friends & neighbors the Caldwells.  Not just any dairy goats.  But small, easy to handle, delicious milk producing dairy goats.  Yes, Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. And why not add goats?  The Rousso family was already living with llamas, chickens and ducks. Tamara and Gianaclis (of the Caldwell clan) , with children in tow, set off in the dead of winter to Idaho (anudder story - pardon the pun)  where they purchased their first dairy goats from Quicksilver Farms. The dairy herds were born.  Goats are extremely amusing critters  and Nigerian Dwarfs are no different in addition to being great mothers.  The Rousso family has had many a laugh at the antics of their goats and been surprised to find that weaning kids causes some does to go into mourning.  Of course owning dairy goats, means breeding dairy goats which means becoming a goat midwife.  Yikes!  And then you have to learn to milk.  Oh my!  Once again the world wide web proved a great resource.  One of the best places to go for information is Fias Co Farm.  Tamara was able to get information about raw milk, making cheese, treating illnesses, and even birthing on that site. 

The whole family agrees that one of the very best parts about having goats is the milk.  Fresh goat milk is incredibly delicious.  Tamara, Solar Mo and the kids were quite relieved to find that it does NOT taste like store bought goat milk.  And they were quite amused to find that a wether they had purchased REFUSED to take store bought goat milk.  The day finally came when it was time to start milking their own doe.   Milking and other goat supplies were purchased from Hoegger Goat Supply and Caprine Supply. 

The Southern California fires of the summer of 2003 had pushed the predators out of the hills and trouble struck again.  Wiley coyote snuck past 2 dogs and 3 llamas to kill one of the drakes (male duck).  The next night the coyote climbed over two fences and took the other drake.  And 8 days later the little old dog was attacked.  This time the kindest thing to do was euthanize him.   The next week three large coyotes were seen by the children watching the yard.  Barking dogs and throwing dirt clods did little to scare the coyotes.  After much discussion among the family, and fearful that the 2 lb Nigerian Dwarf babies would someday become a meal, it was decided it was time to add a livestock guardian dog.  An Akbash was chosen and a deposit placed on a puppy from Tamara Taylor of Texas .  Livestock Guardian Dogs have been bred for centuries to bond with livestock and are very alert and  protective.  Update: Athena has proved to be just what we needed!  No coyotes have been visiting after Athena reached about 8 months.  She loves her goats, the kids are her favorites, she likes to lick the kids faces.  She patrols the fence barking from dusk 'till dawn. What a good girl! 

Athena our female Akbash.