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This morning we put in an offer on a house, and the sellers accepted. Of course all is contingent upon our financing, so it's not a totally done deal yet. The house is decent; we'll need to add on in a few years if not earlier. However, it sits on 21 acres of beautiful land, up on a hill. It actually has a barn and fencing. The people who live there now keep horses. I'm envisioning chickens and lots of kitties for the barn.
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Hmm. I think eventually we might get some other animals. What do you do with goats, though? I thought chickens would be good because of eggs. Oh, and just so no one thinks we're rolling in the dough - this property was at an insanely low price. We'll have to leave our current school district to move, but we think it will be worth it. It's funny how much property values differ.
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Goats are good grazers. My grandma used them as living lawnmowers. She also milked and butchered them. I drank a lot of goat’s milk and had to choke down a lot of the meat. I don’t care how it was prepared; it always had that “goat” taste to me.
Posts: 3771 | Registered: Sep 2002
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A horse, Farmgirl? Hmm. If you're getting so fed up with him that you want him to die, sure...just send him on down. I don't know anything about taking care of horses, but perhaps I should learn. 'Course, I don't know anything about chickens either. Now that I've found out that goats are lawnmowers, Mr. Opera might be voting for some of them too.!
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(sings) Farm girl, get out of my mind My love for you is way out of line Better run, girl You're much too... um... farm?... girl...
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Space Opera, I'll come down and we'll go horse shopping. I've always wanted to look at horses for salein kentucky, never really had a chance though.
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One nice thing is that goats prefer eating noxioux weeds over hay, clover, and other grasses. So you can grow fodder for feeding cows/sheep/horses while the goats keep the weeds from overrunning the pasture. As far as keeping your around-the-house lawn area trimmed and weeded, a couple of sheep (sheep are extremely social animals) in addition to your goat will probably be better.
Having a few goats and sheep around is also good for making some excellent cheeses.
And if you decide upon growing clover as your overwinter feed stock, a family-sized vegetable/etc garden, and/or a few fruit/nut trees, keeping your own beehive for pollination and honey would be nice. If you hate using pesticides, maybe you'll want a few predatory wasp nests to take care of common garden pests.
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Congrats Space Opera! But under no circumstances are we sending any kitties to you, at least from our house! *Glares at Farmgirl* However, you can have the thoroughbred, because much as I love him, he and my grandmother don't get along. He's really sweet, so I have a hard time seeing why, besides the fact that she's scared of him because he's so big. I think he's fun though because he's like a big baby. Ah well, to each his (or her) own I guess.
Pygmy goats are the work of the devil, they are smart, strong, fast, and small enough that you can't just tackle them. Good luck keeping them were you want them.
Posts: 1094 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I'm going to do some reading on both goats and sheep. There are plenty of weeds for a goat, so that should be no problem!
We walked the entirety of the property tonight. Oh my gosh!!! It's like a state park in your own backyard. The land is rolling, and has tons of trees. There is also a creek in which we saw tons of frogs - obviously the kids' favorite part. There are several nice paths due to the horses that were on the property. I'm going to kick myself if for some reason our financing doesn't go through.
Oh, what fun for you and your family. *Wildly jealous*
Oooh, I know a book you should get - chock full of information on how to use land (including stocking your own trout farm...). Back to Basics I have it and find it fascinating. Sure, some bits are slightly silly (home made coon skin caps, anyone?) but overall I love it!
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I worked on a farm with goats once... they're fun (they've got lots of personality)... but they can be a pain, too, most important thing being to have REALLY good fences for them (that they can't crawl under nor jump over)...
One thing about having animals = different fences work for different animals. So a barbed wire fence that's fine for cattle probably won't work for goats, an electric fence that's strong enough for goats won't work for sheep, etc., so when you put in your fences, keep in mind the different sorts of animals you'll eventually have, and you'll save yourself a LOT of $ and work...
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Word to the wise... get the barn cats spayed or neutered.
Trust me, thirty-seven cats is too many for one barn. My Dad and Step-mom didn't spay the first cat and then couldn't catch all of the ones from the first litter. And on and on...
Disease took most of the cats a few years later, it wasn't pretty.
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What L.A. said... and don't worry about how many cats you need to start -- if you're tender-hearted, you'll soon be adopting all the stray cats that flock to your farm...
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Congrats, Space Opera! Country living is good! Chickens are pretty easy to raise, and goats are fun.
We had some borrowed goats for a while, and since we don't have the right fencing we just kept them on picket lines, and moved them on to the next patch of weeds every few days. The had a bucket of water near them, and we checked them s few times a day to make sure they weren't tangled. They were pygmy goats. Super cute, my daughter adored them!
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Oh, cool! I did exactly the same thing in 1990. We now have a total of 88 acres, a dozen cows, a bull and a duck. I never want to live anywhere else.
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I have that Back to Basics book, Imogen -- and I LOVE it!
I personally prefer sheep over goats. I know that goats eat things that even sheep won't, but there just isn't much purpose to goats -- I mean, I've eaten goat meat (didn't care for it) and had goat milk -- and neither was enough to make me want to raise them.
Sheep, on the other hand, I grew up raising and showing in 4-H and that is really good eating! (I'm talking lamb, here, not the older "mutton" which isn't as good. Some people have eaten mutton instead of lamb when ordering lamb in restuarants and stores, and it sours them on the taste of sheep meat for life).
But I advise you to start slowly, SO -- don't overwhelm yourself with learning a bunch of new livestock information all at once. Do the chickens and get comfortable with them, then slowly add other things.
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Thanks for the advice, Farmgirl. I'm thinking that we'll start with chickens and once we get used to caring for them then we can think about adding a couple of goats. Since we'll be moving right before Thanksgiving, I'm wondering if I'll even have time to get a chicken coop and everything set up before it gets cold. I might have to wait till spring.
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That's right, SO -- you will probably have to wait until spring -- that is the normal time to add to a chicken flock, because that is when new chicks are available.
Unless you know someone that has extra grown chickens, wanting to get rid of them.
But that gives you all winter to take inventory of what you need, what you have, and get it ready.
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I don't know anything about taking care of horses, but perhaps I should learn. 'Course, I don't know anything about chickens either. Now that I've found out that goats are lawnmowers, Mr. Opera might be voting for some of them too.!![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
