Goats...

It seemed like a good idea at the time, as many of our ideas do. We wanted to recreate the feel of Italy and so we put in a vineyard. I wanted to make cheese and so we got our first goats. Both seem like quite a jump, don’t they? The vineyard was easy. We like to grow things. We knew that we wanted blackberries and grapes. I hate snakes and wild blackberry picking is unpleasant because serpents can be lurking in the tall grass and then there are also the thorns. It is dangerous work, berry picking. The vineyard idea solved several problems. By training the vines (both grape and blackberry) onto wires, we could manage the ground cover and I would be able to see if there was a snake nearby. The vineyard would also be visually appealing from the porch. We were even able to purchase thornless blackberries. Hurray!!!! The vineyard idea happened quickly. One morning as we sat outside, I casually said (and I know all of you have said the same thing a thousand times…) “I think a vineyard would look nice there.” Jerry agreed and said that he had been wanting to put one in and so we did…in four days time. The goats were a similar happening. I wanted to make cheese, but needed goat milk. Whole Foods has the only supply that I know of in the area. It is expensive to purchase goat milk, but still cheaper to buy the milk and make the cheese than to purchase the cheese. There was another option…get goats. I don’t remember ever saying “I want goats” and I don’t remember Jerry saying it either. The goats seem to have sprung from both of our minds. One day we were gardeners, the next Jerry is scoping out goats on Craig’s List. Then we were building a barn and putting up a fence. Before we knew it, we were bringing Maggie and her twins, Molly and Max, home with us. I would never consider myself to be an animal lover. Some folks just go gooey when they see an animal. Not me, although after our sweet female Corgi, also Molly, I understand just how attached one can become to a pet. Goats aren’t pets, though. They are barnyard animals, right? Oh, how wrong I was…