From Connecticut to the hills of Oregon

Caroline — already a decade into raising her son Thomas as a single mom — met Dan in January 2003. They married in October 2006 at a rustic barn venue surrounded by fall foliage, a carriage horse, and an enormous bouquet. The farm was already foreshadowing itself.

Caroline and Dan packed up their life in Manchester, Connecticut and headed west — with two Jack Russell terriers (Jasmine and Oy, named after the beloved character from Stephen King's Dark Tower series) and a mixed dog named Pickle. They landed in Tigard while they looked for the right place.

It didn't take long. By that fall they'd found their place in the Laurelwood area of Gaston — tucked at the base of Bald Peak, with the kind of quiet that only comes when you're surrounded by fields and trees and not much else. The old leaning oak at the edge of the property gave the farm its name.

Their first animals arrived on Christmas Eve — eight chicks, full of personality and completely indifferent to the fact that their coop wasn't finished yet. Dan and Caroline built it themselves over the following months. The farm had officially begun.

While still renting in Tigard — before the farm was even found — Caroline and Dan visited Alpacas of Oregon. Caroline was immediately smitten. The dream of having alpacas of her own had officially begun.

In early 2015, five female alpacas were purchased — the farm now had its first herd. Sunny and Taiga arrived in June, with Flirt, Tiara, and Kamatee following a few months later. Two of them were already bred. The pastures were coming alive.

The alpacas' fiber has found a second life in Caroline's craft studio — handmade felted goods available at serenityfelting.com.

Two registered Barbados Blackbelly sheep came to Leaning Tree that fall — and they came with names already worthy of a farm legend. Shaun the Sheep and Mara Jade settled in, and what would become a beloved registered breeding program began.

Two more ewes, Anne and Priscilla, joined the flock in spring. Then came the babies: Arabella (Kamatee's cria, May 24), RamALamb (Mara's first lamb, June), and Luci-Fur (Tiara's cria, August 7). Mara went on to become the flock's most remarkable mom — consistently delivering triplets and raising every one of them with ease.

Thomas moved out to the farm and lived there from 2017 to 2020. The alpaca family grew when EasyGo Farm closed and Caroline took in Spangle and Copper. The cat population expanded considerably — Crowley and Wolverine arrived as kittens in 2017, followed by Mantis, Nebula, and Gamora in 2018. Beefcake, the original feral rescue cat who had transformed into the farm's gentle ambassador for every new anxious animal, passed away not long after the kittens arrived. His legacy lives on in every cat that followed.

Two new registered ewes, Tess and Tarah (both sired by Hazlett's Tiberius), joined the flock in February 2022. Their lambs — including the incorrigibly friendly Sir Nibbles, spared from his original destiny by sheer charisma — have added new generations to the Leaning Tree bloodline. Maynard joined in July 2024 (a shelter return who was kept forever after approximately three days), and Katy followed in November 2024 after months on the shelter website waiting for the right home.