2004 News from the Farm
It has been a very busy and exciting year at Lone Tree Farm. The focus
has been more on ponies than on produce. We again scaled back on
Farmers
Markets in 2004, selling only at the local Boonville market through the
end of June. After 10 years of Farmers Markets, I have decided to
discontinue
that aspect of the farm sales. While Farmers Markets are wonderful, all
the time we spend on the road, packing and unpacking, late night
harvesting
etc.--for a small operation like ours with no employees the time
commitment
is greater than the small profits can justify. In the future I plan to
concentrate on selling more of our produce direct from the farm, as
well
as shipping by mail, instead of at Farmers Markets. We will also expand
our farmstay program and classes offered on the farm.
A crossbred filly, Tiree, was born in April (the dam Skye is now with
new
owners). Tiree is for sale and will be here at our farm once she is
weaned
in the fall.
Our first purebred foal, Lismore, was born in June. She is lovely, and
we are delighted to see that Quartz and Shuna produce exactly the type
and quality of foal we had hoped for!
Quartz made an appearance at Dressage in the Wine Country in August. We
did a ridden performance for the rare breeds exhibition with live
bagpipe
music provided by Peter.
A lot of time went into getting the Scottish Highland Pony Society of
North
America website up and running this summer. The Society was established
in 2001, but is getting more attention now that it has a presence
online.
T-shirts with the logo created by Wendy are now available. Have a look:
http://www.highlandponies.com/SHPSNA.htm
The highlight of our year was a trip to Scotland in October. It had
been
6 years since we were there last. We were away from home for an entire
month, which was a little worrying, but wwoofers extraordinaire Hannah
and Chris took excellent care of the farm and all the animals while we
were away. We spent 2 weeks camping in the Hebrides, and even had
beautiful
dry (but cold) weather most of that time. We were also able to pay a
brief
visit to Margaret Fay Shaw Campbell, who still lives on the island of
Canna
at 100+ years of age. Mrs. Campbell's late husband Dr. John Lorne
Campbell,
the well known Hebridean historian, kindly provided Peter with the
historical
documents that enabled him to make his Western Fencibles CD (click
here for more about the Fencibles CD) a few years back. Mrs.
Campbell
spent much of her life studying and collecting the gaelic folk songs of
the Hebrides. She has written a wonderful autobiography "From the
Alleghenies
to the Hebrides". What a fascinating life! Dr. and Mrs. Campbell
donated
the Island of Canna to the National Trust for Scotland, and their
library
is to remain on the island.
Highland pony mare, Isle of Canna
We visited 10 different Highland pony breeders all across Scotland and
saw a pretty good cross section of the breed. Many beautiful ponies and
wonderful hospitality! Traditional working ponies are alive and well in
the Highlands. An especially interesting experience was spending some
time
out on the hill with the working deer ponies on the Island of Rum.
November and December have sped by as we try to catch up on
all the
work here after our time away! The garden got a little behind
schedule--it
looks like most of our winter vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, kale,
leeks)
will be early spring vegetables instead. The tomatoes, peppers,
cucumbers,
and eggplant lasted until Thanksgiving, when we had a week of hard
freezes
every night. We are still enjoying our excellent crop of carrots,
beets,
chard, and winter squash.
Lismore and Tiree were weaned in November and are growing by
the day.
Shuna is back under saddle since weaning her filly, and making
excellent
progress.
 
Peter has been working with Shuna and Quartz, so that I can concentrate
on training the younger ponies. Harris (1/2 Highland) and Mist
(purebred
Highland) both had their first ride in late December and I will
continue
schooling them under saddle over the winter.
Ronay is almost 3 years old now--hard to believe the time has gone by
so
fast. Like her mother she is a very easy one to train, and I am
enjoying
bringing her along under saddle. Watch for her at the shows in the
spring,
if she hasn't sold by then. |
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