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Blue Line Farm regrets to announce that, after four years, all farm visits and yoga sessions are canceled until further notice. They have released a statement detailing the circumstances that have led to this decision. After the statement was posted on Facebook the community reacted immediately, wondering how and why is the city reacting now after the Farm over the years has received extensive coverage including on the pages of Musings and the once hometown printed newspaper, the Observer.
Councilwoman Carrie Budzinski posted in response that she doesn't "like to speak without all the facts but my initial reaction is extreme frustration that this is where city resources are being used when we know resources are limited. Blue Line Farm has been operating publicly and to the benefit of the community; therefore, for this to have not been a personal conversation as a starting point is an added disappointment. I will look into it."
Councilman Brandon McCullough responded as well saying that he was "on it" and would be looking into what happened and why it was handled this way.
FridayMusings has in the past had corn husks from the Corn Roast delivered to Blue Line as feed for their animals.
Blue Line Farm posted that they have "been doing farm activities for 4 years. It was something needed during Covid with all the craziness in the world, small outside gatherings. From there it exploded into monthly farm visits, goat yoga, preschool/daycare field trips, local high school field trips, Girl Scout visits, and so many smiles, laughter, and joy in the community. People loved coming to the farm and getting up close with the animals.
"It seriously brought so much joy to so many, adults and kids.
"After 4 years a code enforcement officer for the city apparently has an issue with our farm. We think the day Stevenson High School came for yoga the code enforcement officer saw the cars and then went to town on us. We received in the mail yesterday 2 pages long code violation which started with “you can’t park cars on the grass” of our own home, to our sign up front to selling eggs to the tarp on the barn roof.
"Could we fight the city? Maybe. Have city council members come to the farm? Yep. Did they love it, yep.
"But since this is our home we don’t want to cause any more potential issues or possible fines. We are heartbroken. If we closed down we would want to do it on our terms, not someone telling us we had to stop.
"Trying to wrap our heads around everything. We are frustrated and sad. I have lived in Livonia my whole life and all this truly saddens me. Not the way we wanted to go out. We want to thank everyone who has supported our farm, it has meant so much. We have one family in particular who has been at farm visits from the start and we’ve seen them grow their family over the years, which has been incredible.
"The sad thing is the future of our animals. We do these farm activities to help cover the feed and care costs. Without the farm activities, we can’t keep all the animals. So it stings even more. Because of everything, and not wanting to cause even more issues, we have decided to stop all farm activities immediately. We wish we could have had at least a final farm visit and goat yoga, but don’t want to risk any other potential issues.
"We are sad and sorry."
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