A Visit to Chase Tavern Farm

By Joanna Kushiner

One of our many proven herdsires on the farm, 4Peruvian Royal 'Black' Condor gives us over 85% females and grey in black in color.

In 1767, Chase Tavern Farm was a stagecoach inn that provided the perfect overnight stop for travelers on their way to or from Portland, Maine. Gentlemen and ladies ate a hot meal in the tavern’s long dining room and then convened in the front room to share stories by the roaring center chimney fireplace.

In 1993, just recently married, Cindy and Tim Lavan were living in Washington, D.C. Tim was born in New England and grew up on the coast of Maine where he spent many summers lobstering for his income. His family still lived in Maine and after visiting the state with its more than 3000 miles of coast, Baltimore native Cindy grew to understand Tim’s pull towards Maine. She herself spent many summers in Colorado with family and was used to and loved open space and the smell of fresh pines. Although they met in the nation’s capitol and had secure jobs, both Tim and Cindy had visions of a slower life among quiet trees, country air and Maine seemed the perfect location. This vision became clearer when they happened upon an article about alpacas. They decided to pursue the prospect of an alpaca farm in Maine and began looking at property.

When the young couple came upon the old inn, they found that over two hundred years later, the look of Chase Tavern Farm had changed little. The rustic, dirt road remains with only a few minor changes and the house still appears in its original form. Surrounded by all of the untouched land and with their heads full of ambition and dreams, Tim and Cindy looked at each other and knew they were standing at the doorway of their future home and business. In October 1993, only a short while after reading the article, the two quit their big time city jobs, bid farewell to life in the fast lane and embarked on the adventure of starting up, owning, and running a working alpaca farm in rural Bowdoin, Maine.

Originally, Tim was employed full-time at a local computer mapping company and helped Cindy part-time while she tended the animals and the farm. After four years working on and off the farm, Tim was able to come home and work the farm full-time with his wife. Beginning with six alpacas nearly nine years ago, Chase Tavern Farm was quick to take off and now boasts over 110 alpacas, Huacyas and Suris. They are proud to offer Maine’s largest and best selection of high quality breeding stock and fibered alpacas. Other animals found and continue to find a welcoming, spacious home at Chase Tavern Farm as well. Llamas, chickens, sheep and a bunny named Rice, all liven up the one hundred fifty acres that belong to Chase Tavern Farm. Cindy and Tim also added one of their own animal species; two sons, one named Charlie who will celebrated his 5th birthday and Petey, who just recently turned one.

Our children, Charlie, 5 (pictured above with Queenie) and Petey, 1, love the farm and the alpacas.

Cindy and Tim are quite a team. They manage the husbandry of the alpaca herd themselves from clipping toenails to administering medications to shearing to breeding (they have needed to hire help with the shearing lately – Cindy can usually shear only about 15 a day before going mildly nuts).

They also do all their marketing, including creating the farm web page which was the first alpaca farm web site ever on the internet dedicated solely to alpacas and alpaca education, posted in January, 1995. Not only do they have global web presence, they have global alpaca presence as well. One of Altiplano’s sons, will be a breeding male in Italy.

They work hard at promoting alpacas and the lifestyle they offer. They know alpacas are not right for everyone and talk with their potential clients and discuss honestly what is involved financially as well as emotionally in raising livestock. The business aspects of alpacas are one side of the picture, the animals themselves, another. They readily share with all interested facts about alpacas and their fiber. Cindy & Tim believe in an educated buyer and offer many wonderful advantages to their customers including their Annual Customer Appreciation Sale. Clients, who have bought breeding stock from Chase Tavern Farm, are given the opportunity to offer their alpacas for sale at no charge to them during this Memorial Day event.

The Lavans were first time alpaca buyers themselves and know what is expected of them as sellers: honesty, education, value and integrity. Chase Tavern Farm continues to grow and improve its stock. Breeding alpacas is not an exact science and even with strong biological backgrounds in animal sciences and genetics, Cindy & Tim are constantly striving to improve the quality of their offspring yearly. Managing the farm to run smoothly and efficiently has not only paid off for the Lavans, but it provides their customers with quality alpacas all parties can stand behind.

Living in Maine has offered a few challenges for the Lavans. For example: no electricity for two weeks during the ice storm of January ‘98. The alpacas manage well in all the weather Maine offers, including the blinding Nor’easters and ice storms. The alpacas fleece is luxuriously dense and warm, which helps to get them through even the coldest winter nights. During the opposite end of the weather, Cindy and Tim have fans to move the air throughout the barns and sheds. In extreme cases Cindy has laid out little pools for the alpacas lay in to cool down.

As fiber artists, we have focused on quality fiber from day one of our breeding program. Our hanspinning fleeces are sought after all over New England.

“The kiddie pools work best” Tim says.

“Except instead of our own kiddie in the pool it’s a four legged creature,” Cindy laughs.

Charlie likes the joke and looks up and laughs with his mother, which causes his father to join in.

Charlie is a mixture of both his mother and father. At times he is social, enthusiastic, and outgoing like his mother but at other times he’s quite, thoughtful and suddenly generous like his father. Charlie loves to show visitors around. An always wondrous child who helps clean stalls, collect chicken eggs, and who understands the miracle of watching baby alpacas born and understands the breeding. He has asked his mom on many occasion, “ Are we going to make a baby now?” as they lead the males around to the intended females. Petey is experiencing farm life to the fullest as well. He loves watching the babies or cria romp in the fields and play with each other. “I know he wants to get out there and run around with them like his older brother does,” says his mother.

All year round having a full-fledged farm with so many animals and demands can prove challenging to a family. Over the years, Tim and Cindy have gotten a rhythm down which helps them distribute the responsibilities. They seem innately to compliment each other, as husband and wife and as full-time co-workers. “Communication is key,” notes Cindy,” If there is a time I need to get away or he needs to get away from me, one of us heads out to the barn for our time-out.” They manage quite well working the farm as a team and each has their own distinct duties the other is not allowed to do. Cindy washes and spins the homegrown soft, beautiful alpaca fiber into spools of yarn. Her evenings are her time to create products to sell or give to friends. Their alpaca fibers are blue ribbon winning and are well known in New England and the farm does well with fiber sales. Tim is creative also and is the mastermind behind the original shed and field design construction along with being the builder. When asked how he learned these arts he almost modestly and simply answered, “ I don’t know, no one taught me how to do it, I think I’ve just always known.”

This quote seems to sum up the talents of both Tim and Cindy in having their successful farm. They go to as many possible livestock or fiber exhibitions as they can manage to show their alpacas and the wonderful fiber products. From local farmers’ markets and fiber stores, to local and national events across the United States, the Lavans show-off their alpacas. They have been featured on local television, in local newspapers and newspapers as far away as Washington State. They have been on Boston television and in national publications such as Country Living and were recently featured in the national magazine, Country Woman. At night they answer e-mails, letters and phone calls, create their own publicity for the farm, take care of their young sons, check on the new arrivals before bedtime, and still always seem to have enough energy the next day to greet visitors with lemonade and home-made apple pie.

Our alpacas consistently do well in the show ring, both locally as well as nationally.

Being so consistently busy with never-ending projects is not a lifestyle that many people would desire. Tim, Cindy, Charlie and Petey wouldn’t trade in any of their days. “There is that little pocket of time,” Cindy shares,” when the sun is rising up in the morning and you wish you could just go back to sleep for another two hours or so. Then you hear the dogs crying by the bed to go outside and the sheep calling for their morning hay and grain, then before you know it, you are outside in the barns and sheds feeding, watering and making sure everyone is set for another day on the farm. After all the chores are done, you begin planning your day.”

Tim joins in and says, ”Then it seems like its already getting dark and you go inside to take care of the business end of it and then it’s bedtime.”

“Then you are lying in bed, dead tired and wonder if you can get up and do it all over again the next day, but you do,” Cindy says smiling, “because you love it!”

Tim nods in agreement.

In their spare time, Cindy & Tim are the area coordinators for the Fresh Air Fund Program of New York City. Since 1899, the Fresh Air Fund has sponsored inner city children from the streets of New York and placed them in homes from Maine to Maryland for two weeks to a month in the summer. There is also a camp in upper New York State where some 1,000 kids go for two weeks. Cindy & Tim first opened their home up to Christopher, then 6 years old back in 1994. Christopher comes to Chase Tavern Farm every summer for over a month to stay with the Lavans. ”He turned 14 this year. He’s a very important part of our family. We have watched him grow up and he has watched us change as well. From Charlie and Petey, to the animals, he helps us take care of things on the farm. He is independent, smart and a great young man. He has his favorite alpacas and helps me halter train the babies when he comes. Every year he gets better at playing baseball and basketball. He’s probably going to beat me in sports this year. I am very proud of him,” boasts Tim.

A dense fog creeps its way up and over the rolling hills on the way to the barns. Atop the hill, a long and low humming comes from within a wooden barn. In the main pasture a figure emerges out of the dewy mist. With an inquisitive face and a luxurious deep brown coat, the female alpaca is stunning against the morning hues. This angelic creature is followed by another, smaller more tentative one. She slowly drops her nose to the ground and then raises her head as she pricks her ears forward to attention. The youngster sniffs the air for what seems a spilt second as she slowly revs-up her spindly legs for a spirited yet graceful dance through the misty morning field. Suddenly, another youngster appears and joins in the romping play as the whole herd joins in with soft sounds echoing back and forth.

In all the fog and quiet mystery, you almost expect to see a horse drawn carriage slowly walking up the road toward the inn. Then you remember, its 2001 not 1799, and Interstate 95 has replaced this dirt laid route between Portland and Augusta, Maine.

As the sun starts to work its magic on the morning dew, the land waits still and quiet as the fog moves further and further above the tree line. All the farm creatures have awakened. Soon Cindy, Tim, Charlie and Petey begin their day at one of the barns. Morning has broken at Chase Tavern Farm. Another day of life has begun.