Silver Oak Farm

06/23/2025

Mmmm. Fresh corn leaves. I finally got around to thinning the sweet corn.

06/16/2025

Gretel loves her alpacas. She tries to always be "among them," including letting them eat around her in the hay. Gretel rubs up against them and even follows them out to pasture. She's an old gal and has been with our female alpacas for many, many years. She is happily bonded. :)

02/23/2025

Winter fun from long ago posted today by our local historical society — unfortunately, that lovely barn was no longer standing when we took over stewardship of this beautiful farm property 20 years ago. I just love old barns.

Ice skating on Stacy's Pond in the 1930s. Pond ice skating has made a come back in Ashby thanks to Ashby Parks Department!

11/17/2024

Wonderful and informative! Our friends at Faraway Farm did such a great job on this! It was done a few years ago, but it’s still as timely as ever. Check it out to see their beautiful farm and learn more about alpacas. Thanks, Leda and Steve, from Faraway Farm, and Faith Perkins from Quarry Ridge Farm! ❤️

For folks enjoying the new Martha Stewart documentary, here is a link to the segment she filmed on Faraway Farm: https://player.vimeo.com/video/442369212

08/25/2024

Update: These fellows will be moving to a farm in Pennsylvania.

As many of you know, we've been carefully working our way into retirement from breeding alpacas. These three gorgeous fellows are now being offered as a group to the right farm home. Please see link for more details: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MNGCzaE-S2UYOVn-q-qOlvX9jmAmBUoF?usp=drive_link

08/22/2024

It’s been good eating around here for the alpacas this year — well, us too with vegetable gardens doing well. We’ve had plenty of rain and the pastures are still pretty lush, which is great for late August. For dessert the alpacas get to enjoy fresh corn husks, as our sweet corn is abundant right now. What’s for supper most every night for we humans? Why, “cone,” of course! Green beans too. Is it possible to get tired of those fresh from the garden favorites?

08/22/2024

It’s not easy getting a group photo of our juvenile guineas! It was early morning and I think they were clumped to stay warm, since they no longer fit under mama. Mama keeps a close watch on them though.

07/20/2024

This is a tale of two guinea mamas -- one ferociously devoted and the other, "Meh . . . what keets?"

Mama #1, "good mama," hatched out her clutch of eggs about three days ago and, at risk of life and limb, we scooped the babes up and settled them into the guinea coop to protect them from myriad things (marauding males who like to peck them in the head, predators, wet cool weather, etc.) and to make them available to people who might like to purchase a few from us this year. Good mama heard her babies calling and promptly joined them in the coop, as a good mother should.

Today, mama #2 hatched out her clutch . . . but the only reason we even knew about this is because we heard a few hapless keets tweeting and wandering aimlessly in the grass behind our dumpster. No mama guinea stepped forward to take responsibility for these little ones. So, we tried to find as many live wandering keets as we could, which was only five (ok, would have been six, but I accidentally stepped on one and squashed it 😕) out of about a dozen that we discovered had hatched out under a nearby spruce tree. Welp, mama #2 is clearly a terrible, horrible, no good, very "bad mama." We figured out who she was, but she showed no inclination to care for the keets and didn't give a flying fig that we were scooping them up and carrying them off. We delivered the five orphans to good mama, who graciously accepted them (but hissed at me and showed me how mad she'd be if I tried to come any closer to her keets -- see photo), and whose devoted lavender husband steadfastly stands guard next to the nursery.

05/27/2024

It's been foggy here on the farm since yesterday evening. We don't usually have fog that hangs around this long. I rather like the fog and think the alpacas do too. I find it sort of comforting and serene. All I can see is what's right here, right now. A nice way to be in the moment and feel a little bit insulated. Like a cozy blanket.

05/18/2024

Hey, farm folks! Can’t go wrong with a few more feeders (grain or hay)! Also, lambing and kidding supplies, a Premier 1 sheep chair, and (for alpaca folks) a brand new Fight-O-Matic (takes care of those young fellas’ fighting teeth) … and more. Come on by to 1258 West Rd., Ashby today until 3 p.m. 😊

05/14/2024

I’m starting to stage items for our big barn/yard sale on Saturday, which is in conjunction with the town-wide sale. We’re fortunate to be able to keep things under cover in the event of rain. I’ll post updates as I get more things put out, but we’ll have antiques, furniture, children’s toys/new clothing/equipment, farm equipment, housewares, art supplies (including a very nice folding wood easel), and more.