The Land

In January 2004 we bought some land in Colorado. This was initially intended as our 'retirement plan', but after much thought we decided that there was no reason to wait until we retired and that we should use the land sooner. So in February 2006 we sold up in the UK and started our move to Colorado. Alba ranch is what we have decided to call our land, Alba being the old name for Scotland, where my husband is from and where we lived previously.
The terrain is very steep, forming one side of a mountain, heavily wooded and with awesome views. We only have 55 acres, (hubby likes to joke that it would be 80 acres if it were flat!) but it is enough for a little homesteading. Power and phone lines were in place when we bought the land and the first thing we had done was the installation of a septic system. Water supply, the last of the utilities, will hopefully come from a well which we will be having drilled in the spring.

The Barn

Hmmm, what can we say about the barn without compromising our legal position? Well lets just settle for saying the the Barn, as it stands now, is in fact the mark 2 version. Not as big or as grand as we had originally planned, but functional and it serves it's main purpose to give shelter and protection for our livestock. As well as being internally divided for goat pens, there are storage areas for hay and feed, space for the dog kennels and areas to work in.

The Goats

One of my hobbies is spining and weaving, and to that end we have build a barn and some pens and we have some angora goats. The goats will be shorn twice a year and the fleece spun to make mohair for weaving with. We can breed the goats either for sale or to increase our own herd. As well as the angoras we also have a couple of milk goats which will supply us with fresh milk and cheese.

The Chickens

We also have two chicken runs, with Araucana chickens in one and Cochins in the other. The Araucanas (or 'little peeps') were raised from day-old chicks which were bought mail order on the internet they are a wonderful variety of colours and should produce different coloured eggs too. Although they were supposed to be all hens, the company supplying them could only estimate a 90% chance of them being female and as it transpires there does appear to be a Rooster aomngst them which means that we should be able to breed them too.
We got the Cochins from another local homestead. They were a little older when we got them and they have started to lay already. There are Roosters with them too, and Charlie jokes that one of them must be on UK time, as he crows a lot at 11pm!

The Livestock Guardian Dogs

As it is know that there are large predators in the the area, Bear, Cougar and Coyotes for instance, as well as the two legged variety, we felt that it was a good idea to get some livestock guardian dogs to protect our goats. Hence the arrival of Mitch, Rowan and Larick. Mitch is a Great Pyrenees while Rowan and Larick (who are brothers) are Anatolian Shepherd/Great Pyrenees crosses. There is a little bit more about the three of them on the dog pages.

The House

At the moment, the actual house is still very much in the planning stage. Largely, we have some very firm ideas of what and where we want with it, but there are sill a lot of details that we need to finalise before we continue forward.