The Goat Dream

Being a small-time goat farmer/homesteader has been a life-long dream of mine (and one that Lena has always been excited about as well). I can't explain it beyond saying that I simply enjoy the company of goats. On my sixteenth birthday, my parents gifted me with two baby pygmy goats, and to this day I think that they were probably the best gift I've ever received (which explains why I'm always wishing I could gift my children with live animals on their birthdays). At the time, I was largely living in the city where I grew up, but my parents had recently purchased an old one-room schoolhouse on 11 acres in Vermont, planning to use it as a vacation home. The house came with a small barn, and while my parents originally talked about tearing it down, I eventually badgered them into letting me clean it out (quite a job) and fill it with animals. During the school year, we'd board the animals with friends and neighbors in Vermont and then fall easily back into farming life whenever June rolled around. When it came time for me to go to college, I had to choose between going to the one school that had said I could bring my goats with me (!!!), or selling the herd. I decided to sell the herd (since, as has been mentioned before, my main reason for going to college at all was to find a wife, not to be a goat farmer).

what I've been reading lately

But I have never stopped missing my goaties. Often when we're having a rough day with the (human) kids, I'll find myself sighing, wistfully, "if only we had some goats . . . " You know, because goats are much more tolerant of whiney children than human mothers are. And because sometimes I think a lot of our struggles with said whiney children come from them feeling a lack of purpose. It's only in relatively recent human history that children have had so much downtime and so few jobs (or chores). This is why I've said that in order for us to homeschool (or unschool), we'd need to be living on a farm.

our cute little barn
(the first roof that we actually OWN)

A few weeks ago we decided that NOW is the time to start living the goat dream. My mom owns 3 acres next door that are zoned residential/agricultural, and I finally convinced her (once again) that adding some goats to the mix really would be a wonderful idea (actually, I don't think that she'd say it's a wonderful idea, but she said "yes," regardless). Lena and I bought a little prefabricated barn last week, and we are picking up two pregnant Nubian does from a local goat cheese farm this Thursday (that would be the day after tomorrow!).

the response to, "are you excited about the goats?"

Luke and Jaz are very excited, and, just as I predicted, they are most excited about their long list of barn chores. Lukas likes me to repeat it over and over and over again. And then think up more jobs. And then make up a few more. The job he's most looking forward to? "Playing with the goats a lot, to make sure that they're all friendly."

This afternoon Luke and Jaz (and Zeb, sort-of) got to do their very first barn chore: they filled the goats' stall with straw. And they had a great time doing it.

Zeben's Zebra couldn't resist taking a break from
the work to hop in the straw.

I must admit that I do feel like maybe we're crazy to be welcoming goats into our lives at this exact moment in time (you know, just before we welcome our fourth human baby). It's not like I ever end the day feeling as though, "if only I had a few more commitments and a few more ways to use up my time . . . " I'm not exactly sure how I'll manage to add milking and goat care into our already busy daily schedule. But I'm sure I'll find a way. It does feel really good to be letting this part of our dream turn into reality, after years of being stuck on the back burner. The list of "things we wish we were doing with our lives" is getting shorter and shorter as the list of "things we are doing" grows longer. And I can't wait to get my farmer hands back.