It all started over 10 years ago, when mom was in college and wanted a pet sheep. I’ve always had a passion for the little critters, but after showing sheep with Block & Bridle, I fell further in love with the little ruminants. I soaked up every BIT of knowledge on sheep and goats that I could find, which at this point in time, wasn’t much available in college. I was still really determined to get sheep, but had to put it on hold for awhile. Once I was out of the dorms and Columbia, I was able to lightly start looking again, and began asking around.

Well, now, sheep aren’t the best animal for our types of terrain and foliage, so a friend suggested a goat. COME ON. NO. Goats are turds…. Right? Finally, he convinced me, I’ve got this little guy, that would really be perfect for you. So our first goat came home with us. His name was Moto and he was a Nigerian dwarf cross but mostly ND. He roamed our little homestead, hanging out with the horses, sleeping on the porch and riding in the back of the truck with the dogs. He quickly became a HUGE part of our lives and we were absolutely in love… with goats. Tragically, Moto and his partner, Thor were lost to predators, I believe it was 2019. This was right after we had bought our home and our youngest daughter arrived. We were overwhelmed and left with a huge hole in our hearts, but I wasn’t sure, if or when I’d ever be thinking about another goat.

Fast Forward, to our very own homestead in the making. We had a new home, a new baby, horses of course and had even added cows once we got ourselves comfortable in our new settings. Just about when our second daughter was getting into the independent phase, I felt like something was just missing….

I was longing for the companionship, antics and character, of a goat. I lightly began searching and really didn’t have much luck or have my eyes on anything in particular. One day, a friend sent me a Facebook posting, of a whole herd dispersal. Really I had no intentions of going that deep, one or two was plenty. Somehow, a 5 hour one way trip later, we bought the whole herd, and such our goat lives hit the ground running, for the second time. We made it home with 19 Nigerian Dwarf goats and haven’t looked back since!

Our herd goals have changed, once we realized that most of the 4-H events would require registered animals, we revised our plans slightly. However, most of the original herd still remains here and will stay as long as possible.