Welcome to our farm page! Prairie Mechanics is run by Alex and Olivia Baum. Thanks for taking a look at our little farm page, we’re glad you’re here!
As we lack the power to create a farm ex nihilo, it took a lot of work to get where we’re at now. Take a walk with us, let’s see how this thing got started…
Way back in 2021 Alex felt called to start a pasture based farm after returning from being a backpacking instructor in Colorado. (Olivia was unaware of his existence at this point, and Alex was apparently unaware of cameras. This is the closest we could get to 2021)
Olivia at this point was an actress, biding her time to make it big and move to New York City (and clearly knew what a camera was)
They moved in next door to each other – Olivia was quickly intrigued by the man who hid 20 chickens in his rental’s backyard while living in the middle of St. Paul. Shenanigans ensued.
2023-2025 Olivia and Alex met and were married…
And capitalizing on the honeymoon glow they immediately moved from St. Paul, MN, to Strawberry Point, Iowa, living in an old camper bought “as is” at auction. Bold move, Alex… (Fortunately everything worked in it except the hot water)
The next year had a lot of fencing and home renovations! This is the home base where the piggies feed stays, it has gates which open onto different paddocks for their grazing and holds out sows.
In 2025 the first piggies arrived!
…And a baby!
We typically keep our children’s images out of our public communications because we want them to have the choice of appearing or not appearing online. This is especially important to us with the advent of AI image generation and facial recognition – maybe in time they’ll make an appearance!
Have a question? Interested in getting started too? Feel free to reach out to us, baums@prairiemechanics.com