About Our Ranch

My name is Kari (pronounced Kah - ree). My husband, Todd, and our three kids (human ones!) live here on our little ranch with all our furry and feathered friends. We really love living out in the country. The kids have fun riding their motorcycles, exploring the creek, or going on "ventures." We are located on North Eastern Oregon, and raise Pygora fiber goats, Nigerian Dwarf Goats, Great Danes, and hope to soon be raising Marans Chickens and Sebastopol Geese. I sell the fiber from the Pygoras, and I also hope to soon have dried lavendar available for sale from my lavendar garden.

I started all this "madness" only a few years ago, but have focused from the beginning on quality with my breeding stock and products. We have accumulated some outstanding animals, and have had some great kids, fiber, and puppies produced here.

Though the land we are on has been in my husband's family for five generations, we lived in a second home on the farm that had no outbuildings or fencing, so we have had to build the ranch from the ground up. (My husbands folks live in the main farm house near the original barns/fences, and our house is about a quarter mile down the property.) The "ranch" started in the summer of 2006 when a friend offered me some little banty chickens and I decided to build them a little 3'x6'x6' chicken house - all by myself - first ever building attempt for me and I had no idea what I was doing! Everything snowballed after that, and now we have a much bigger chicken house (I had help from other people for that!), a barn and about half an acre fenced in - and it is all full-up with animals! It has been a lot of work, but we enjoy being connected with the land and learning about country living - and still have lots to learn! Below are some pictures of our ranch and our journey.

Our Gouldian Finches

We built this cage some time ago, but have not had birds in it for the last several years. We decided to give Gouldians a try again recently, and are really enjoying them. We love their beautiful colors and pretty little songs. Both pairs have successfully raised babies, which is a fun process to watch.

Our Parrotlets

We have two fun parrotlets, Boo Boo (blue) and Toot (green). Very happy little birds! Todd is their special person, and they will tell you very decidedly to stay away from him if he is holding them. But on a one on one basis, they are happy to go to anyone and have some play time out. Boo Boo is quite a calm, sweet girl - Toot on the other hand is a mischeif! You have to keep an eye on her!

Saltwater Fish Tank

Pics to come!

We are having a great adventure with our new tank learning about corals and fish.

This is Speedy, our Sulcata tortoise. He is such a cutey! Someday he will be GIANT! But I think we will have room for him in our daylight basement when that happens. Until then, he stays with us upstairs.

Almost before I was finished with the little chicken house, I realized it was pretty small and could only hold a few chickens. So off we went on the next building project - and I needed help with this one! I carefully set up cement blocks for the foundation...

...and then my husband helped my pound in rebar stakes and then fill all the holes in the cement blocks with cement.

We put the walls together on the driveway and they put them up one by one. Grandpa helped us with this too. One wall, two walls...

...three walls, four!

Got all the sides up with the siding on.

Then the roof - just in time for the snow!

We were able to barrow a bulldozer and luckily Todd knows what to do with one! We had to carve out a flat place on the hillside for the barn. The gravel is our driveway - our house is to the right.

The barn we put up is by Noble Panels - It comes in sections made out of metal pipes. The sections are then put together with metal fasteners. This view is from the other direction - our house is on the left.

Precut plywood (precut my me!), went up really easy by screwing it to metal tabs on the metal frame.

Then the roof - and Tah-Dah! We had a barn!

After we got the outside done, I still had all of the inside to set up. Big job! But I'm very please with the final outcome! Kidding pens on the left. Goat pen on the close right and horse area on the far right. (However, right now, the goats have taken over the barn and I'll have to build a different shelter for the horses!)

Diamond Award Received at
Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival (OFFF)
in Canby, Oregon - Sept. 2008

Honoring the memory of Pat Copa

I was very overwhelmed and honored with the presentation of the award for Best New Breeder at OFFF in memory of Pat Copa of Verdant Vistas. Pat was a big leader and mentor in the Pygora world and touched the lives of many. Our doe, Wini is from Verdant Vistas and Pat always wanted me to keep in touch with her about how Wini was doing. Though I had never met her in person, I did have e-mail correspondance with her, and it was obvious through her e-mails that she was a very caring person, and dedicated to her goats and their people. I appreciated, and am touched, with the presentation of an award in her memory. For more about Verdant Vistas, you can visit their website at verdantvistas.com (Pat's husband, George Copa, pictured here presenting the award)