The Sternzon Family Farm, est. 2015, is under threat.

 

For the past 6 years we have rented a home on 1 acre in San Martin, CA.  One of the things the original landlord wanted was to rent to someone who wanted to start a farm. After a little more talking, we found that the property was owned by an LLC.  We happily signed up and rented the property with no reason to believe that anything would change.  As long as we paid the rent, we would have a home for our little farm.

During that time, we built our farm to include sanctuary for animals that have had no place else to go. More than 80% of our animals (around 70 total) are rescues.  And some are not easy rescues; some have health conditions and need lots of care each month to keep them well.   

 

 

Everything changed two weeks ago when we got an eviction notice to vacate the property by Dec 18th (1 week before Christmas!) Apparently, the owners now plan to sell the property.  All attempts to reach them have been fruitless.  All phone numbers, addresses for them have come up blank; phones are disconnected or ring with no answer.  We have asked the property manager to have them contact us and still nothing.

 

 

We would love to buy this property, but we simply cannot come up with all the down payment at this time.  We take in no donations for the farm; this farm is maintained via our own long hours at work to pay animal medical and special feed bills.  We also do fire rescues, going in to help evacuate animals from fire danger zones. We house them here, we pay for their care and feed while they are here (no reason for their owners to also worry about this, while suffering a loss of property from a fire). Then we return them to their homes as soon as it is safe to do so.  It has been something we have offered since we moved here.  

 

 

 

Regardless of whether we can remain here, we need help at this time. It is difficult to ask for help, as we always prefer to be on the other side of this coin. But we need to either get these animals to a new place to live or buy the current property so we can keep them here. (If we can get in touch with the property owners.)  We are selling much of what we own, including our tractor, camping trailer, etc. We are working to keep this property; our hope is that we won’t need help…but reality is that we will likely need some help to keep these animals safe.

Below are a few examples of some of our past and present animals that need special care. Just because they are ill or older animals doesn’t mean they should be discarded or thrown out or be put down. We humans need to be more empathetic with them and let them live out their lives until nature calls them somewhere else.

Hunter, the quarter horse

This boy is now 21 years of age, he has bad arthritis in his rear end, his hoofs are always having problems that require extra farrier service, and he can no longer digest grasses properly.  This last year we spent over $3000 in medical bills just to figure out the digestive problem he has.  We now must feed him processed kibble, but the bags are expensive, and we need almost 1 bag a day for him.

Rehoming older, high-maintenance horses is never a good idea. This is why we won’t rehome Hunter .


Owen, the farm cat (He wants to be outside, his choice)

Owen has a problematic eye that oozes periodically and is having some kidney issues so he's on a special diet.  His previous owner had to let him go because she was forced out of her house and the new place did not allow for cats.  He has become a good mouser and he appears to love his job.

Others that have come to our property but have moved on to better housing.

Adeline, the donkey

This poor donkey appears to have been used as a brood mare most of her life. Then she was sold to an unsuspecting family via a lie that she was great with children and could be ridden. (She was neither.) So we her took her in. She was fearful and wary of people, wanting nothing to do with humans.  Then we learned that she was pregnant.  She went to a wonderful trainer in Reno NV who worked with her until she had her foal.  She has since moved from there, after a lot of gentling training, to a forever home at a working ranch that could offer her sanctuary.

Here are some of the fire rescues that have spent time with us over the past few years. We even had a shout out from the Santa Cruz County sheriff’s Facebook page .


And here are alpacas and a llama rescued from another local fire. (They are now home and safe.)



This is why we are making this plea for help from our animal loving community. We need help to continue to protect these animals so they may keep the place they call home or find a new place to call home. We have accepted that this challenge may be too great to face on our own.  We have weathered and struggled with other hurdles in the past, but this one is a fight in which we could really use our community’s help.

Will you please help the animals with a small donation?  $1 to $5 is all we ask. And if you lack resources, we understand! You can help by spreading the word to as many as possible.  With enough people out there helping we can make a difference and we can keep this property available to those animals that right now rely heavily on us, as well as all the victims of nature disasters that may end up needing us here. This donation will help those who are here now and those who may need our care and help in future difficult times.

God bless and thank you for any assistance you can give to help these animals at this time.

Dave, Cecilia, and Shelby.

“We cannot control much in our lives, but we can control how we treat and help each other in times of need.”