About Us
Our Family would like to invite your family to visit us . After being dairy farmers for 18 years we sold our rural farm and cattle in 1993 and moved to our Tomah location, where our farming became very diversified with beef cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs. In the fall of 1994, our family suffered a tragedy when the father of 4, my husband John was severely injured in a Horse Riding Accident. John spent a significant amount of time in the hospital and came home needing 24-hour care. With 4 children to raise, I knew that we needed to come up with a solution for income. Our first craft sale was held in the basement of our home, which brought about the idea of remodeling the barn and starting a craft and gift shop. It was a lot of hard work, but with the help of many friends and family, This Old Barn opened in July of 1995 with just the bottom section of the store filled with crafts. By January of the following year, we had outgrown our space, so we closed the barn for 6 weeks, and cleaned out the hay loft and remodeled. At this point, John had recovered from his injuries and helped with the expansion. Two years later, we added another addition to the back of the barn to host more crafts and collectibles, and to have a special room for our tour bus visitors for entertainment and luncheons. At that point, our diversified livestock also expanded to include sheep, goats, horses, miniature donkeys, a pot-bellied pig, and llamas. We purchased our first llamas as guard animals and from there fell in love with them. Our many visitors love to visit our llamas and for kids, its love at first sight. We now show our llama's nationally, In ALSA and ILR Shows as Well as Futurities across the nation. Our herd consists of 70-75 quality llamas. We specialize in preparing llamas for shows at the 4-H level, and also at the ALSA/ILR Shows and Futurities. We enjoy working with and teaching children with their 4-H projects. We have hosted many tour groups that came for a day of fun in the country.
In 2008 We decided to Close Our Craft Shop, and strictly operate the Llama Farm after 15 plus years of running our very successful business. My Daughter Amanda, had been helping run the busy store, and her life has taken on a new venue. She currently owns and operates two homes caring for Developmentally disabled adults which takes up a lot of her time. It has been a very rewarding Challenge for her and She keeps very busy with her new occupation. And I spend most of my time with the Llama's and working with the fiber. We Love showing our Llamas and have did very well in the showring, Our Sire "GNLC Caspian" won the "World Celebrity Futurity Get of Sire Class" in 2009 with his first offspring and then went on to win it again in 2012, and his offspring just keep getting better.
Thank you so much for visiting our site, and we hope that if you have not already checked us out in person, that you will stop by and see us soon !!
The coffee's always on !
Email us for more info !
The Ollendick Family
John and Marcia
Carrie, Nemo , Mya & Sebastian
John P, Kelli, Carter, Cale, Calynn & Collin
Amanda, Teddy,Taylor and Jacob
Kelly Jo, Todd, Morgan Jo & Macy