I get the question of what it is like to own goats more often than not. People see videos on the internet of baby goats running around in small pajamas and they think that goat ownership must be an absolute blast..... While they are not wrong that goats are amazing and I have never once regretted my decision to own goats, the videos are not reality of goat ownership. I will give you an example... This week alone are some real life scenarios of what goat ownership looks like for us.
My husband and I sometimes like to get packages from meal kit delivery service, but only when we have a discount code, because they are fun, easy, tasty, and we enjoy making them together. Well this week we had a box delivered, and by the time I found it the goats had ripped the top of box off and eaten all of the recipe cards for the meals inside. Thankfully, I was able to go online and print off the recipe cards from the company's website, or we would have been making the meals blindly!
Next, we left to wash our truck and fill up our gas and diesel cans. To be safe we locked the goats up in the barn for the few minutes we would be gone. We rationalized it is the holiday season, and we have been getting several deliveries per day. It would be safest for the goats to be locked up while we are gone. As we pulled up the driveway from getting our fuel, we noticed that the goats were all standing on the front steps. I thought to myself, I must have done a bad job and not closed the man door behind me... As I looked up I saw that the garage door of my barn was wide open! One of my goats must have managed to climb in the hay, press the door open button and free themselves! They have been living in the same barn for 5 years and this has never happened before....
Goat ownership is full of ups and downs, its the excitement and nervous energy I get every time a doe goes into labor and new life is about to be breathed into our farm. Its not being able to sleep, because you know something is wrong with your goat and you and your vet have given her every medicine that is available. You have provided her with all the feed and care that you possibly can, and the rest is up to her and the lord. Its the frustration when a first freshner kicks a full bucket of milk over on the milk stand, or when my bucks act like wild buffalo while getting their hooves trimmed. Its me crying while giving an extremely sick kid nuflor, knowing how badly it will burn them and they will scream. The sound of their pain breaks my heart, but doing it anyway because its the best thing I have to treat their illness. But it is also the absolute joy and peace I get when looking out into my pasture to see happy goats grazing in the field, or the laughs I get when kids are young, playful and silly, bouncing and jumping on everything.
The way I look at it is, goats are not for the faint of heart, they will test you, love you fiercely, outsmart you and pick on you. All of those traits embody why I love them so much, they keep life interesting and I would not have it any other way!
Happy Goating!
