Gone with the Goats

By Barbara Chavez

Despite its title, this is not a book about a feisty Southern belle trying to save her goat farm in the wake of the Civil War. Instead, it's the story of an ordinary 21st century woman, with more imagination than common sense, trying to get rid of her backyard weeds in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

As my story unfolds, you'll see why a suburban girl like me decided to get goats in the first place, and how, after reading numerous books about raising goats, I decided to experiment with time-, labor-, and money-saving schemes that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. My goal with this book is to entertain, and to encourage those who might have the land and the desire, to take the steps toward owning goats, while avoiding my mistakes and perhaps making use of my flashes of inspiration. 17,000 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barbara Chavez
• Release date: Jul 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386441397

Book preview

Acknowledgments

To my husband, Robert , for supporting me in my crazy experiment, despite his complete lack of interest in anything related to farm animals (except eating them); to my neighbors, Bob and Peggy, for their advice, guidance, and occasional goat-sitting; and to my friend, Maureen, who embraced this semi-rural Maryland life about the same time I did, and who was my partner in crime as we figured out how to care for our critters.

Introduction

Despite its title, this is not a book about a feisty Southern belle trying to save her goat farm in the wake of the Civil War. Instead, it's the story of an ordinary 21st century woman, with more imagination than common sense, trying to get rid of her backyard weeds in the most environmentally friendly way possible.

These days, goats are one of the most popular animals on social media. Their cute little faces and antics seem to be popping up all over the Internet. But I got my goats long before this whole goat craze started. As my story unfolds, you'll see why a suburban girl like me decided to get goats in the first place, and how, after reading numerous books about raising goats, I decided to experiment with time-, labor-, and money-saving schemes that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. My goal with this book is to entertain, and to encourage those who might have the land and the desire, to take the steps toward owning goats, while avoiding my mistakes and perhaps making use of my flashes of inspiration.

Caution: Please be careful when trying anything I might mention in this book. Goats are extremely unpredictable, and your results may vary!

Chapter 1: A Thorny Problem

Iacquired my goats in 2007, but I'm going to start my story with my discovery of my love for animals back in 1998. My husband Robert and I were living in Arizona, with no desire ever for children or pets, when we unexpectedly came into possession of a cute little puppy, a foundling in the desert. We named her Cream Puff, or Puffy for short. This fluffy little mutt was the love of our lives and we took her everywhere with us.

After about a year, and a lot of dog research on my part, we purchased a doggie sister for Puffy, a purebred Italian Greyhound puppy we named Nikita. Nikita was my idea of the perfect dog - small (a miniature greyhound), sleek, non-shedding, with no grooming required. My desire for easy-care animals was apparent even back then.

Another year and a half later, we got the final member of our doggie menagerie, a Pomeranian puppy named Wolfgang, a completely impulsive purchase (at Robert's insistence) found through a newspaper ad. Every day, I'd take my three little dogs hiking with me in the nearby desert, where they'd chase rabbits and coyotes, experiencing the true freedom that all animals deserve. Our hikes also gave me a sense of freedom from the day-to-day responsibilities of work and home and kept me feeling happy and at peace.

In 2002 I received a promotion at work, which was great, but it required a move back to Maryland, where Robert and I had lived before. Robert was tired of Arizona and ready for a move back to the greenery of the East Coast, but I was concerned. Maryland, especially the D.C. area, didn't have the wide open spaces I'd grown to love, and the thought of the dogs not being able to run free anymore made me sad.

As I pondered this problem, I realized that the only way to maintain the dogs' freedom was to buy a house that came with a lot of land. We'd had only an acre in Arizona, but we lived just a few blocks from miles of open desert where you rarely saw anyone; in Maryland, even if we lived close to a state park, the sheer density of the population would mean we'd need to keep the dogs on leashes when we were out hiking. And my dogs were not going to be led around on leashes!

So I began my Internet search for a house and property in Maryland that would meet my doggies' needs. I had about a year before I had to move, so there was time enough for thorough research. I soon found that, taking into account our budget and the distance I was willing to commute to work, the most land I'd be able to get that included a decent house was about seven acres. Would that be enough? Well, it had to be.

As the time grew closer for our house-hunting trip, I got in touch with a Maryland realtor, made spreadsheets of the houses I found on the Internet, plotted them on my mapping program, and added and deleted them as they came on and off the market. The year 2003 was a crazy time for real estate in Maryland, with houses selling within a week of becoming available, so quick decision-making and loan pre-approval were crucial.

In April 2003, fully prepared, Robert and I took our ten-day house-hunting trip to Maryland. Once we actually saw some of the houses on my list, we realized that