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.

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.

Planting fruit trees with Tina Evans’ Food for Thought program at Fort Lews College was a grand success. We had 2 classes come to La Boca on the 11th and 12th and we put in over 100 fruit trees. We also cleaned up some old fence and installed some gated pipe in the pastures.

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.

• Saturday and Sunday March 29th and 30th, Cleanup weekend at the ranch – getting the intern housing ready, cleaning up the river area and outdoor kitchen, cleaning up the scool house
• Friday, April 11th, Food for Thought (Tina Evans, Dennis Lumm and 30 students from FLC), prepping to plant 200 fruit trees, cleaning out animal stalls, making compost piles
• Saturday, April 12th, Food for Thought (Tina Evans, Mark Seis and 30 students from FLC), planting 200 fruit trees, finishing compost piles
• Saturay and Sunday, April 12th and 13th, Four Corners Draft Horse Club, discing and planting 10 acres in oats and alfalfa.
• Saturday, April 19th, San Juan Wool Growers shearing and general small flock care for sheep (see attached flyer and email below)
• May 5th, 6th and 7th, Dr. Kalin Grigg of FLC and 15 students camping at la Boca, working at and learning about sustainable agriculture
• Sunday April 27th, Sonny Gustamante will be shearing alpacas and llamas.

Fred Robyns, our local blacksmith talking about his trade.

Interning and apprenticing are critical to the success of La Boca’s mission and vision. I would like to recognize the long history of apprenticeships as a form of gaining knowledge and at the same time allowing craftsmen and tradesmen the ability to maintain a way of life – a way of life that results in very little cash flow but large amounts of satisfaction that comes with producing tangible products that have both beauty and function. Apprentichips are not based on a monetary exchange but rather on an exchange of information and labor based on shared values and interests. Tradesmen and craftsmen age and with a younger set of muscles and enthusiasm in the form of an apprentice, the trade and the craft and the associated creative aspects can also flourish indefinitely. I wish to see this exchange flourish at La Boca, for both the staff that are putting so much into the place and for those that would like to come and learn about sustainable agriculture.

La Boca Center for Sustainability (LBCS) obtains its fertilizer from compost, compost tea, and a large fish pond where nutrients are produced and cycled efficiently. A significant amount of our energy still comes in the form of fossil fuels. I would like to see La Boca transition this input to local labor and the horses that we use to farm the land and that get their energy from the sun and the grass.

Minimizing exports of pollution comes in the form of reducing uses of fossil fuels but also reducing runoff of irrigation water and impacts to streamside vegetation. Agriculture has by far the largest impact on streams and rivers of any of the other uses in the west. Diversion of water for irrigation, changes in hydrologic regimes due to dams, grazing of streamside riparian communities, clearing riparian communities for use as agriculture land and runoff of irrigation water all contribute significantly to the destruction of rivers and streams.

LBCS has implemented a number of ideas to reduce these impacts. LBCS has partnered with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Water Quality Program to install gated pipe, partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s Partner’s for Wildlife Program to create wetland for wildlife and filter irrigation water before it flows into the Pine River as well as fence off riparian areas to keep animals from grazing down the vegetation that is so critical to a healthy river system.

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.