No one (who doesn't live on a farm) really thinks about fences. They're just...there. Many times I have been out hiking in the woods, and I encountered, perhaps along a park boundary, a barbed wire fence, barely supported by rotting posts. We all have noticed the endless fencing along rural highways to keep the livestock off the road. SOMEBODY strung up those miles of fence long ago, and now we just take them for granted. And so, when we were setting up our farm, I, in my

Meet Winnie, the newest addition to our farm family. Winnie is a mix of Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd. Both of the breeds are considered "livestock guardian breeds," which means that they have instincts to guard "their" herd of animals from predators. Eventually, when Winnie grows up, she will spend her time living among the alpacas. She will sleep with them, eat with them, and lie around the pasture with them. Most importantly, when an intruder enters the area, Wi

So we got the alpacas a couple weeks ago. I'd been preparing for that event for several years, and it was certainly exciting to have ACTUAL ALPACAS move into our yard. Now what? Admittedly, it's anticlimactic. Oh, I don't have any regrets at all, and I'm still happy with my acquisition and long-range plans to get more of them, but, so far, alpaca ownership has not been particularly life-changing. The boys just spend their time standing in the pasture eating grass. Occasi