I figured it’s time to update you on a little something we got ourselves into at the end of 2024. We got goats! In today’s blog, I wanted to write about why we got goats, the process of getting them, and how it’s been having them on our home the last month. So let’s back up to how it all began.
My husband went on a short term mission trip last November. When he was away that week, I started looking up a whole bunch of goat videos on YouTube. People owning them and what their experience was, milking the goats, building the shelters, and even finding a YouTube channel that runs a micro goat dairy + farm that’s in the state below us. Can you say field trip? (insert mischievous emoji…but we’ll get back to that later) Little did my husband know what he was going to come home to haha! “My wife says she wants goats!” How random, right? For some, yes, this was very random! But to those who are interested in homesteading, you might find this ordinary. You know they say that the gateway into homesteading is first buying chickens, right? So the dream was born. I shared this desire with my husband and we started planning. We needed fencing and a shelter. Two super big projects on our home. We prayed about the whole process, and the Lord kept blessing us along the way. So now you know a little bit about how things got started, you might be asking, but why goats?
For me, the reason why I wanted our family to have goats was for two reasons: quality of life and milk. Owning livestock like goats and chickens is a dream to some people…and to others, well, not so much. When I say quality of life–it is truly a joy to have and take care of animals that you know are benefiting your family with their God intended purposes. Going down to the coop and getting those farm fresh eggs has been an added blessing to our family this year (read about our Chicken Flock and Coop here). I want to be able to provide milk to my family right from our backyard with our goats. It’s the act of doing it yourself that makes it special.
Are any of you mamas and sisters into sourdough? It’s the same process. Making that bread from scratch with your hands. Knowing it is something you made for your family gives you pride. Doing this small-scale homestead lifestyle is the same thing with owning our goats. As for the milk, did you know that over 65% of the world consumes goat milk? (according to Google AI) In the United States, goat milk isn’t as common as compared to the rest of the world where consuming it is normal. Goat milk has become a hot commodity, or a ‘specialty item’ for Americans. One gallon at your local Walmart runs about $12, and at a farmers market, the price can be as high as $24. Locally sourcing our products is something growing of more and more importance to my family and I. So as far as milk goes, the easiest and best way to know where it’s coming from is walking out to my backyard and milking the goat myself! I’ll leave you with the words of Laura Ingalls Wilder, “I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
So remember that field trip I mentioned? Well, I thought before we follow-through on this goat business, we need to make sure the experience is equally sound as the idea of everything. So I found this farm on YouTube that does a farm/exotic animal + goat dairy experience. Sure enough, they were located only about two hours from our home! We got to tour their farm, play with the goats, see the micro dairy, and sample their goat milk. I had to make sure I liked the taste of goat milk in the process of all this! Note: If you’ve had goat milk that tasted ‘goaty’ then let me assure you my friend, you had a poor sampling. Goat milk–when done right–is equivalent, if not better, to the taste of cow’s milk. The experience did indeed meet my expectations of everything. Now how does one buy a goat you may ask?
I hopped on my smartphone, opened up google, and typed: find goats for sale near me. Do your research though, friends. I was approx. fifty hours in with educational research on goats that included reading books from the library, online blogs, and YouTube videos by the time we picked up our kid goats…and the learning doesn’t stop! I told my husband that I’ve done the mental lifting with all the knowledge and need-to-know things with owning goats, whereas he’s done all the physical lifting building everything. We make a good team 🙂 Many local farms don’t have their kids ready for sale until the spring time; however, I was able to find a family that had some ready for sale the first day of December (about three weeks after this whole project started). They were only ten minutes down the road from us–another blessing. We visited them prior to our purchase to see the environment they were living in, ask the breeder questions about how they handle their goats, and any other important things we thought of. They had the breed we wanted and the amount of goats we wanted, too. When things fall into place, it is evident that the Lord’s hand is upon it. So how has the last month been?
The last month of owning our goats has been so sweet. My expectations were filled and then some. Of course it could just be the newness of it all, but these little kids have been so amazing to create a relationship with. I say that because the kid goats were pretty nervous coming around us at first. They were damn-raised–not bottle babies. There’s a big difference between the two! So my first goal was creating a positive relationship with them. Handling them and giving them a little grain here and there was all I had to do. My own two girls, Eva and Valerie, have loved being around them as well. We are so thankful for all the work my husband has done to create the space for them and make this happen–thank you, my love!
If you have any questions, drop them below. I have very little experience thus far, but I can recommend the books I read, the goat farm, and YouTube channels that have helped along the way. I’ll have to make a post about how things are a year from now for a true update. Thanks for reading all about our newest adventure on our home and I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Be blessed mamas, sisters, and friends!
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