Gavilan Trading Post

The Gavilan Trading Post is located on the Valley of the Moon Ranch in Gavilan, NM.
Valley of the Moon Ranch is host to a small community of family and friends building a diverse, self sufficient, biodynamic farm.

The ranch is also home to the historical Gavilan Trading Post, an old adobe store built in the 1920's. The Trading Post is currently out of service and will soon be restored as funds allow. The store is eventually to be reopened as store and art studio.

The people of The Ranch offer many services through the Gavilan Trading Post store front, including horse training, goat sales, glass art, designer cashmere handwovens, educational farming opportunities, computer/web services and more.

It has been a beautiful winter so far, cold and quiet with lots of snow, blue skies and plenty of sunshine. We managed to shut down all but two houses for the winter and we are currently running on minimal man power as there is about four of us here at the moment. As it happens, this works out okay because although the outside work is really tough in the deep cold snow it is generally not very time consuming.

We are still trying to cope with the loss of our natural gas last spring, we have converted all heating to wood and have been running the stove/oven on propane. Can't wait to get those alternative energy construction projects underway!

We start combing our Cashmere goats on the 10th of this month. This process takes about three week, each goat takes two to four hours to comb out completely, we comb about five to eight goats a day and have around 110 goats to comb. It is very labor intensive! Luckily we always end up with volunteers that want to work and learn the trade in return for room and board. We love having the volunteers for their good company and enthusiasm for the goats, we could not do it without their help.

We would like to say thank you to everyone that supported the ranch in 2009 by volunteering, partying, inquiring, funding and for just being here. We love you all and wish you all a happy new year!

-Danielle

I have added some pictures to both the Dairy and Cashmere goat folders. Hoping to have some goat pages for goat promotion very soon.

The ranch is very cold and wet today, Hoping to see the sun again soon!

So much to write and little time to do so.

-Danielle

We have new additions to the dairy goat herd!
First is "Nash" a light brown LaMancha/Nubian cross (LaNube). He is a strapping young man and as expected his LaMancha mother "Sally" hates him, luckily she will allow him to nurse if we hold her collar, not without trying to take a few nips at him of course. I think he may be growing on her though.
Second is Pepper, a shy, vocal, black LaNube out of Verbana LaMancha. Not as expected Verbana loves her new daughter!
Third and Forth are two purebred Nubian doelings out of the fabulous "Farewell Angelina". They are big, pretty, light brown and really sweet. Angelina is taking good care of these lovely ladies. We will try to have names for these two by the end of the week.
UPDATE, MORE KIDS!
"Sweet Genvieve" had two lovely purebred Nubian daughters. A big black girl, and a tiny brown girl. Eve is only really liking the big baby but we are hoping she will come around to liking the other one too. The brown baby has had a hard time and we almost lost her but she is starting jump and run with the other kids now.
"Tre Tap's Delightful" had a huge brown purebred Nubian buckling. We have named him "King".
"Geneva De Gavilan" had two very pretty half Alpine half Nubian kids. One boy one girl. The girl will be an awesome milker.
Kidding season is now wrapped up however we will be expecting a few late summer kids! I hope to add some photos of our new arrivals soon!

-Danielle
p.s All kids are by Big Brown (Spirit's Rest Ramblin Boy x Agape Cedar's Hannah)

Green is the color taking over the land, which means spring is here! We still have a few more snow storms to get though by the looks of it, but snow should soon be giving way to rain and we hope to see lot's more green in the coming months.

We have already had a few WWOOFers this spring helping with projects and we are so grateful they are here!
The yard fence is well under way thanks to Jacob and WWOOFer Matt. This fence will provide an animal free zone for people and plants. Hooray!
WWOOFer Sascha has appointed himself as ranch poop-smith and has been hard at work cleaning the winter's build up of horse/cow/goat manure. This manure will go into the garden and provide lot's of good fertilizer for the plants.
The Green house project has been worked on, and various other small projects are being picked up as the weather warms up.
More updates coming soon and pictures to come tonight!

-Danielle

I've installed a new shopping cart system that seems to work well, also working on getting the product pages up and running again.

There is also some reorganization going on with the site itself. The menus will all make sense soon.

Projected Spring Projects 2009 (For volunteers and other interested parties)

Goat fences need to be built on the east, south, and north borders of the property. This would mostly be wire stretching as existing posts are already in place, with only a few needing to be replaced. That’s about 1 2/3 mile of fencing. Also some cross fencing for horses may be in order as well as fencing the upper field (about 100 acres). Also, various border fence repairs are needed. We are hoping to have enough existing materials for this project; if not some fence fund raising may be in order.

The Ranch entry is in shambles and needs to be gussied up. This would include putting in posts for the entry/gaits as well as building some wooden fencing about 100’ or so for aesthetic value as well as to keep goats/horses/cattle off the highway.

The Gavilan trading post needs to have remaining “good junk” (Doors, windows, sinks, cupboards, etc) taken out, which may include building a small out building to hold said “good junk”. We will then need to start repairs on walls and floors. We will be trying to get funding and expertise on this project, so more updates to come on this project as we learn more. Do you know of any organization or person(s) that could help? Let us know. The overall goal for the Trading post, beyond making sure the beautiful building is preserved is to have a General Store and Art studio to help generate money for the ranch and to stimulate local economy in Gavilan/Lindrith area.

Orchard fence built, area cleaned up and prepped for fall tree planting. Location of Orchard is currently being discussed.

The Garden is a huge project that will include lots of soil prep, fence repair, weeding and plant starting. We need a good crop this year so lots of hands and love for the plants is needed. Also need to have a better Compost piles system established and cared for.

Water collection systems are in order, especially for a successful garden as water usage is always an issue. This will be a lot of gutter installation on all those huge tin roofs, possible canals built, and storage areas set up. Some brain storming will be needed for this one.

Quick reminder to friends, family, and other interested parties,
Please register yourself as a user on our new site! You can then do cool things... like leave comments on stuff like this poorly written article here (Hah!).

I hope to have a good update for you all very soon,

-Danielle

P.S Sign up!

It seems the growing season will be cut very short this year. The last spring frost was June 12th, and now in late August the temperature is already dropping to around 46 deg. at night. I can only hope to get another 5 weeks before the first frost hits. With the corn starting to pollinate a week ago, the tomatoes still forming, no capsicums or eggplant fruits to speak of, small flowers on the broccoli, and one melon ripening, I can only hope that the weather will be kind enough to let me get some seed for next year. I have at least managed to establish a few good perennials in the flower bed and throughout the garden, with some care and a bit of luck they should make it through what looks to be a very cold winter. Now I can only set up some meager defenses against the cold and pray that Jack Frost stays on vacation just a few weeks longer.

The Gavilan Trading Post online store will be opening soon.