At Grateful Goat Farms, we nurture a friendly working relationship with our goats. They fertilize the soil, provide the milk for our soaps, and keep the blackberries at bay. We strive to provide them with the happiest possible existence and will never take too much milk. Just enough, and with rests between, which means sometimes we source goat milk from our neighbor farms.

Starting Out

Moving into a property where 85% is covered in blackberries over ten feet tall is daunting to say the least. Looked into renting goats to clear them. Not cheap. But what about buying a couple goats? Pretty affordable. Forage? Not an issue. 

But of course there is always a catch…

In this case, the male Oberhasli and female Nigerian Dwarf already expected kids on the way.

We didn’t know that. How could you tell? Every goat looks pregnant after a few minutes of chowing down. 

The crazy screaming in the middle of a snowy night demanded immediate attention though. A thus commenced a lesson in how to deliver a kid with five minutes to study on the internet what to do. 

Three Makes A Herd

Cosmic Charlie Trucking In Style

Cosmic Charlie perhaps came a little too soon. Still a bit weak, standing proved challenging. So Rider walked away. What kind of Mom does that? Only one wired by thousands of years of DNA to know lingering could prove deadly to both. Better she live to deliver another than stick around to figure what predator might take advantage of the situation. 

But we could step in and help. We brought Cosmic Charlie in and our dog Chinacat went into full on Mom mode. She licked Charlie Clean and stimulated his nervous system. She let him lean on her as her learned how to walk on his own. She pretended not to think it was too weird when Charlie tried milking from her…

Then Cosmic Charlie helped bring life to another in need of some support.

Going Up The Learning Curve

The herd has swollen and contracted. Luckily, we have found good homes for those we sold off, where they became companion animals on farms, or even pets. But still, there is always more to learn…

Like finding out that Delilah is actually a French Alpine and not a Nigerian as we were told when we bought her. (Thank you my wonderful goat mentor Cathy!)

Learn something new every day!