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Felicity Acres started in our minds back in the early 1970s. We read the old Mother Earth News and all of the books we could find on the back-to-the-land movement. We thought of quitting regular salaried jobs and having our own self-sufficient farm. We moved from Rhode Island back to Washington state (with a job ...) and bought a run-down and repossessed 1.5 acre farmette. We resurrected the house (new roof, new appliances, new carpeting, new vinyl, new formica, refinished and added cupboards), tore down an old garage, and planted a garden. We were on our way . . . . But this wasn't to be the farm of our dreams so we sold the little farm after getting our feet wet.
About this same time, we saw a little farm for sale that was described as a "storybook farm". We went to see this farm and immediately fell in love with this charming 7 acre farm in the unknown hamlet of Vaughn. But because of the job thing and the long commuting distance, this farm was not to be our Felicity Acres.
Then some 20+ years later we took a summer drive from our home in urban Seattle -- hoping to go visit Mt. St.Helens. It was a warm, sunny day but very smoggy. By the time we reached Olympia, it was obvious that we were not going to see the mountain that day. So we ate lunch and altered our course. We headed up to Allyn on the Olympic Peninsula to see some waterfront recreational property we had seen ads describing. There were some interesting properties but nothing that said "buy me". On our way home, we decided to take a different route and follow the water to see if there was anything else we might discover. We also decided we should go to Vaughn and see if we could find the old "storybook farm". While driving down this one backroad, we happened to see a large clearing in the woods and some llamas. Upon slightly closer examination, we saw the "For Sale" sign. Though we don't generally drive up someone's driveway, we decided we had to see what the buildings and land looked like. Everything was lovely. We went home and called our realtor and said we wanted to look at this farm the next day. The rest is history, as they say.
By the way, we did find the old "storybook farm" about a year later -- no for sale signs. It still is charming and if you come for a visit, we might just drive past it for you to see, too.
The name comes from the dictionary definition for happiness and bliss. Our last boat, a CHB 34 trawler, was also named Felicity. Further, we love the old British television sitcom (about a couple who went "back-to-the-land" in a London suburb) from the '70s called (in the US) Good Neighbors. One of the stars of the show is named Felicity Kendall. So Felicity it had to be.
Farm Projects Undertaken in 1999
In 1999 we were getting a grasp of our undertaking.
We acquired a tractor and implements to work the land. We had a concrete
floor poured in half of our barn. We divided the llama loafing areas
to reduce the amount of clean-up the barn needed on a regular basis.
We had a 24' X 36' detached garage building erected. 
The former garage area could now be used for additional home space.
Two llamas were born on the farm and two others moved in to bring the llama count up to eight.
The pond was dug by the people that had originally cleared the land. The scale is a little hard to see in these pictures, but the pond is about 60' by 100' with an island in the middle. The water depth varies to about 8' near the island and slopes back towards the "beach" on the mainland. The soil removed from the pondsite was used to level the pasture somewhat. We were given some limbs from a weeping willow tree and were able to root them in the ground near the pond.
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We researched possible crops to grow and decided on small fruits. We placed an order with Spooner Farms of Puyallup, WA for nursery stock of raspberries and strawberries to plant in 2000. The plants are kept in dormant cold storage until you pick up your order. Fortunately they shut down the cold storage in June so you have to finish planting. ; - )
At the beginning of April, the farm supply store had a "free" chick day and we bacame the happy parents of about 35 day+ old chicks. We started with the chicks in the laundry room. Then we moved them to the garage. Then their space in the garage was expanded several times. Finally the dust and odor in the garage were getting overwhelming so we built an 8' X 10' portable chicken house and moved the chicks in. After a few days adjusting to their new home, they could finally start free-ranging outside their home. Later came nest boxes and various attempts to slightly control their free-ranging. First, our only rooster disappeared with only a few tail feathers left behind. Later in the fall, while visiting the Puyallup fair, some predators got into the pasture with the chickens and killed about half of the flock. Raising chickens was going to be harder than we thought...
Farm Projects Undertaken in 2000
We continued to work on the former garage space, raising the floor and insulating the under floor area.
Linda researched Livestock Guardian Dogs and decided on a Pyrenees. A good breeder with puppies available was found in Olympia. We made a few phone calls, paid a visit to see the puppies, and then arranged to make Orion, The Wonder Dog, a member of our farm family.
The area we picked for the berry garden was fenced and rototilled a few times. Then we made a number of 60' long raised beds and planted the 500 raspberries. If building the raised beds hadn't been enough work, planting the berries by hand was much more. Then came the two varieties of strawberries -- all 2000 plants. We nearly died but they were all planted. Then came weeding and watering...
We had some new fencing installed and a few modifications made to the fencing around the barn.
We investigated organic feeds and started buying organic chicken feed to supplement what the chickens ate free-range. We bought more chicks to add to the existing flock. By mid-August the two flocks had been joined (with, sadly, some losses) and eggs started to really fill the refrigerator.
Other possible farm animals were investigated and a lovely
little flock of Icelandic Sheep
joined our family in the fall.
Our llamas brought us an all-white male llama early in the year. We named him Polar Star. Later in the spring we were blessed with 10 lovely lambs from our Icelandic Sheep.
On the farm improvement side, we continued to improve our facilities. We built an office space in the barn that can be used for storing supplies that need to remain relatively clean and as a place to hang-out during lambing. We put a roof over the office to use to store all of those bulky items that normally clutter up the barn floor. We also painted white a lot of the wood surfaces used for partitions in the barn. The painting project along with moving clutter to the office attic really made the barn a great deal more user friendly.
We started a new flock of chickens and in the process built a "chicken tractor" for rearing the chicks. This device provided a way to get the chicks out on grass sooner and reduced a lot of our work. When the chickens were old enough, we gave away our older chickens and moved the new Rhode Island Reds and 1 Aracauna into the chicken house. The Black Crested Polish chicks we raised turned out to be a male and female pair who now occupy the chicken tractor. They are really pretty and quite stunning. The chicken tractor is a portable pen 4 X 10 X 3 feet high. The roof is corrugated plastic and is hinged for easy access for feeding and egg retrieval. One end of the pen has wheels and the opposite end has handles to easily move the pen to fresh territory every day.
Our strawberries really performed well, despite a severe
drought and no supplemental water or fertilizer of any kind. Our
little U-Pick operation got started and delighted many people who found the
berries to be the best they had ever tasted. We were really pleased
with the quantity, size, and flavor of the berries. It was fun having
visitors out to pick berries and be entertained by the animals. One
of our lambs, Velvet, turned out to be quite the PR (public relations) lamb.
She happily came up to strangers and loved being petted -- endlessly.
Our house is becoming more of a home to us with a family
room and office space created from the old garage space. Sheetrock
taping and painting remain to be completed in 2002. We tried out the
Armstrong Swiftlock laminate flooring which made a quite lovely back
drop for our wool Egyptian rug. A nice propane-fired Vermont Castings
stove makes the family room cozy and extra warm on cold winter days
(even if those days are in June ;) ).
Moving ahead slowly this year. We located a source for berry boxes for our customers to use when picking berries here. We now have a couple of years supply in the garage. Our berries were plentiful this year but much smaller in size.
We worked with our local conservation District to develop a farm conservation plan. We have a bit of a roadmap to move us towards being a more sustainable farm. A big improvement will be making better use of our pastures.
We did get a small deck built outside our little office area.
A new exposed aggregate porch was built , integrating our family
room entrance and the main entrance to our home. This is nice!
Under construction now is a new garden shed to house all of our tools, equipment, and
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