Goat Camp

In my recent issue of Hobby Farms magazine, there was a very fun article about a place called Stony Knolls Farm in St. Albans, Maine. Every year they host two different weekend camps for people who want to learn all-things-goat. This includes everything from the very basics up to hoof maintenance and recipes for goat meat. Considering the fact that I want to be a goat farmer but know absolutely nothing about caring for them, I'm putting goat camp on my must-do list before we officially become country dwellers.

The above photos were from an apple orchard we visited recently. Carl, Gus and Louise loved watching them and were intrigued with the idea of feeding them from the gumball/goat food machine, but Gus got a little goat shy when the time came to hold out his hands with the food. Louise made my day when she said in her 2 1/2 year old voice, "I want to kiss a goat." That's my girl!

Happy Goats

We went to the Minnesota Zoo recently to see the Farm Babies exhibit. If you haven't been to see the farm at the zoo, you better run, don't walk, to see it. Such a lovely exhibit and nice addition to our local zoo. In the spring for a limited time there is an exhibit of the babies that includes pigs, cows, goats, chickens, rabbits, sheep... what am I missing?

Of course, the goats are my personal favorite and always have been, even before we bought the farm and I began dreaming of making goat cheese. But this time, I studied the goats in a different way than ever before. I watched the baby goat, just days old, teetering around, sniffing his mama, stepping clumsily around in his straw-filled pen. For the first time I began to imagine them at our farm, in our barn, nursing from our mama goat, depending on me to take care of them and keep them safe. Me. Wow. I knew that I was ready to become a mom to these three children, but goats? All of a sudden I got nervous at the prospect of being a goat mama. Is there a "What to Expect When You're Expecting Goats" book? How about "A Girlfriend's Guide to Goats"? Hmmm. Thus far I've focused my energy on the cheese process, the milk aspect of goats and not much on the actual animal husbandry part.

Off to peruse the library's card catalog... goats. The Idiot's Guide to Goats... here I come.

(And here are some photos of the future home of the future goats when someday in our future we decide we are ready to move there and begin our agrarian dream. Did you get that it will be in the future?