New Directions

Bully & Sting (behind the brush) sample spring greenings.

We've come far since the day we arrived on the farm with a scruffy cat and two geese in the back of our truck. We've learned so much about livestock and feed, forage preferences and grazing practices, fencing and willful animals, and--of course--the joys of animal husbandry. We've learned about overgrazing, parasite loads, housing for hens, and managing water supplies. We've come to know our animals--as livestock, yes, but also as individuals and some as friends.

Thumbelina adds to an afternoon's lengthening shadows.

The decision to move away from the small goats and concentrate on our large dairy herd was a long time in the making, but now the changes are here. On Sunday we dispersed our Nigerian Dwarf herd. The last full blooded kid went to a young family in nearby Watertown. MollyMoo left the farm wrapped in the capable arms of a young woman whose burgeoning pregnancy spoke of joys to come in her household. Later in the day the remainder of the herd--BullyBob & Sting, Thumbelina, Jennifer, and Cocoa, Evelyn & Theresa were loaded into the trailer of a family now beginning their own adventures in goat dairying.

Crippled Evelyn sips from the pool while her dam, Cocoa, stands in rear.

The herd will be in good hands. Their new caretakers brought young grandchildren to help rustle the herd into their trailer, and their care for the creatures was evident as we worked to gather the herd together. The goats will be well cared for, even loved, as they were here. We're glad to have placed them all together and so well, but I for one will miss the characters I've come to know so well. My buddy, stinky Bully, who faithfully followed me about the farm like a dog, always eagerly looking up whenever I approached--he will be missed. The does with their individual personalities, whose bleats I could recognize and with whom one could hold conversations of a sort since they responded to their names and often answered when greeted individually, they are missed already.

Our large dairy does are heavy with kids.

But there's no time for reminiscing. The Nubian does--Leslie Lupine and Pamela Chrysanthemum--are close to kidding again. Some wild weather blew through Middle Tennessee today requiring fast adjustments to pasturing arrangements be made in the pouring-down rain. And garden beds are being readied for planting. With fewer goats to mind (and more animals for sale) we plan to focus more on planting and crops--greens that we can eat, not merely watch the goats devour when they get loose.

Stay tuned for tales of the ever-changing landscape of our little hillside farm.