Kent Treptow/The Olympian
L-N-OR, a llama owned by Rick and Viola Woods of Lacey, munches hay on the family farm as a cement truck drives past on Marvin Road and a neighborhood looms in the distance.

Down on the farm

Growth brings homes closer to agriculture

Orginally published August 15, 2001

By midmorning, rush-hour traffic has subsided at the corner of Marvin Road and Pacific Avenue.

But the noise still reaches the large brown farmhouse set well back from the street, where the Woods family is preparing to take some of their llamas to the Thurston County Fair.

Twenty years ago, there was another farm across the street from the 78-acre family farm where Rick and Viola Woods still raise llamas.

"It was pretty quiet," Viola Woods said.

"We thought Lacey was a long way in," Rick Woods added.

Now, Lacey subdivisions have them all but surrounded. They haven't had many complaints from neighbors -- but llamas are quiet and don't smell, Rick Woods said.

The noise and congestion of the traffic affects their daily lives.

"We get our daily dose of fire trucks and ambulances," Rick Woods said.

Trying to get out of the driveway in the morning can be difficult.

"The noise factor is a huge factor," Viola Woods said.

There are no active farms within the city of Lacey anymore; only some hobby farms with a horse or two or a large garden remain. But about 200 acres of active farmland -- including the Woods' farm -- remain within the city's urban growth area, said Steve Kirkman.

Farms are not necessarily being forced out.

A state program allows participating landowners to be taxed based on the actual use of the land rather than its potential value, said Carolyn Woodling of the Thurston County assessor's office. The goal is to keep from taxing farms out of business.

For 11 years, the Woods have been raising llamas as pack animals on land that has been in the family for five generations. The farm now looks across Marvin Road into the backyards of the Three Oaks Subdivision, which less than 10 years ago was still a farm with three old oak trees -- the first things to go when it was sold.

Behind the Woods' farm, an apartment complex has gone up.

The Woods soon will be gone as well. The land is under contract to a company in Oregon.

"I don't blame people for wanting to get out in the country," Rick Woods said. "But you can't have it both ways.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Day in the life of Lacey index