Nope — clearly not goats! This farm provides cows’ milk to the Prodigal Farm goat dairy where I volunteer, though, so we can offer a wider variety of cheeses. Bonus? Wonderful scenery for my drive.

Recharging My Soul

“Open farm day on Sunday — any chance you can work it?” Let’s see…six hours of my Mother’s Day trodding through goat poop, 95 degrees predicted in the blazing sun, “Sure, why not.”

A lot of you know I hang out on a goat farm when I can. Once or twice a month is open farm day, where 1000+ people come from far away (some of them fly in) just for the chance to cuddle with baby goats, along with the yearlings and mamas, sample goat cheese, snarf beer, dance to some down-home fiddle music, and — chill. Just chill. Remember chill?

A field full of babies (150+), and the humans who flock to see them.

Requisite baby goat. If you want to see more, though, go here or better yet here. This post is more about farm life.

Lady and goat falling in love. Fairly certain she took him home with her for a lifelong affair.

The visitors are amazing. People who love goats are apparently people who love people. Rain or shine, people of all colors and backgrounds congregate in the goat poop, watch the babies bounce sideways, and smile. Smile big. And come again a few weeks later. With grandma, with children, with friends.

A lot of them bring a picnic or snack on the award-winning goat cheese (along with that newer cow cheese stuff), wander the 95 acres of pastures, tour the dairy, admire the historic buildings. Why not make a day of it?

The farm is 100-some years old, and there are buildings from all eras.

Imagine, perhaps, some oxen pulling this?

The old farmstead, currently uninhabitable. The owners want to fix it up, but haven’t made progress since I’ve been around. Farms are a lot of work!

We have a ton of volunteers, but there’s always plenty to do. The babies are getting bigger, and there’s a fair bit of heavy lifting. It’s exhausting, truthfully. Yet it never gets old. Beyond the affectionate goats, you can always depend on the air to be fresh and pure, the people friendly and caring. And it’s the only place I know of where I can count on all that. Maybe everyone should try it. Maybe the world would be a different place.