Filed under: Uncategorized
Luna and Maude are the goats that we currently have. We have scaled back considerably in our animal program for 2009.
We have spent much of our time the last few years dabbling in various aspects of agriculture, often getting in over our heads and spending a lot of time catching up but learning much at the same time. Eric is taking care of the goats now (Luna was originally his and Laurie’s). Luna is pregnant (can you tell which one is Luna?) and is due soon. After she has given birth we will be milking her once again.
Goats are great animals in that they are very universal. They can utilize marginal agricultural for forage and produce milk, wool, and meat. The are also easier to keep healthy than are a lot of other types of livestock. They are also difficult to control and, without adequate fencing, will easily get into the garden or the orchard and do a lot of damage.
With Dan and Eric on staff we will spend most of 2009 planning and developing infrastructure to once again expand our animal program.
Filed under: agriculture, Education, sheep, Uncategorized | Tags: agriculture, shearing, sheep
On the 19th of April the San Juan Wool Growers held their annual sheep shearing clinic at La Boca. We had fiber experts from the Mountain High Fiber’s Ladies in Pagosa Springs, Steve LeValley from Colorado State University and Pam and Doug Ramsey, local experts (http://laplatafarms.com/) on fiber come as well as a number of expert shearers that demonstrated their skills. La Boca had their wool sheep sheared as well as some Angora goats. On the 27th Sonny Gustamante will be at La Boca to shear llamas.
Pam Ramsey (center) illustrating how to grade wool.
Filed under: agriculture, Education, School, Uncategorized | Tags: alpaca, Education, fort lewis college, llama, School
La Boca brought an alpaca and a llama to Barnyard Days at Fort Lewis College on the 11th of April. This was the 3rd year we have participated in this program. Barnyard days is put on by the Westerner’s Club and the FLC Agriculture Department and is a program where schools can bring classes and see a number of agricultural activities and animals.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hi, my name is Chester Anderson. I am the author of this blog and the Executive Director of La Boca Center for Sustainability. This blog is an expression of my opinions and not necessarily of La Boca Center for Sustainability or our Board of Directors. To know more about how LBCS came about visit: http://www.labocacenter.org/narrative/narrative.html
Filed under: interns, internship, internships, sustainability, Uncategorized | Tags: cobb oven, interns
We have several interns helping out at La Boca Center for Sustainablity each summer. Here the interns are building a cobb oven for baking pizza, bread and about anything else that goes into an oven.
La Boca Center of Sustainability is blessed to have so many experts that are taking an interest and putting so much energy and time into the place. One of those experts is Bevan Williams who came to La Boca more than a year and half ago. His ability to grow premium vegetables in substantial quantities is already legendary in the region.
Bevan’s family moved to Seattle after the 2nd World War. His interest in gardening came early, primarily from parents and grandparents that gardened extensively. By age 12 he had his own garden, experimenting with a number of ideas that only a 12 year old could imagine. His experimenting continues to this day as he tries a myriad number of crops, most often with success.
The only time Bevan did not grow was while in college studying architecture. He married at 24, had 10 children and now has 37 grandchildren. He worked for 30 years in the construction field as a general contractor, construction manager and construction administrator. Bevan is proud of the number of agricultural based communities that he helped begin along with farming several acres by hand and at the same time teaching his kids and the neighbor’s kids about farming and gardening. He retired from the construction field in 1996, relinquished his possessions and has since worked pursuing the creation of agricultural based communities for little or essentially no money, relying on his faith to provide him with what he needs.
Bevan now resides at Heartwood Cohousing where he is utilizing a greenhouse for his starts and teaching and enlightening those that will listen. He believes that La Boca has an enormous potential to assist with the revival of a regional food system. He is politically motivated by his concerns for peoples’ political autonomy and thus the need for everyone to have access to food without anyone else standing between a person and his food source.
Bevan’s favorite author – Rumi
Bevan’s suggested reading – Bonds That Make Us Free by C. Terry Warner
La Boca Center for Sustainablity is a non-profit dedicated to sustainable living systems. We define sustainability as the ability of people to meet their needs without compromising the needs of future generations and planetary ecosystems. Please see what’s new at La Boca Center for Sustainability in Southwest Colorado or visit our website @ www.labocacenter.org or tour our Web Portal, http://permaculture.labocacenter.org
