Recently while talking to my wife and possibly other people in a context that I do not remember the topic of animals was brought up.
(Side note: My lack of memory was not due to anything untoward. The situation was just unimportant.)
Much to my suprise my wife says that she would not mind having a goat. My jaw would have dropped, but I'm a pretty cool cat so I kept it together. You see, I have wanted to expand our current animal ownership for a while in an effort to be more self sufficient. My wife has not. Thus when she said she was open to an animal larger than a basset hound I was quite taken aback.
Eventually we got to the crux of the matter, though. Why would she be ok with having a goat? Because she thinks it would be cute to see our son playing with it...she wants another pet. This is not exactly what I had in mind. When she says goat, she is thinking this...
When I say goat I am thinking this...
Missed it by that much.
Regardless, the issue is now on the table. The wife is ok with goats; I am ok with goats...the only question now is would it be worth it? In an effort to help make this decision a little easier I purchased some goat products (which are rather expensive!) to give them a try. Not much sense in raising goats if you don't like what comes out of them. I liked both the milk and cheese; my wife was ok with them. We have yet to try the goat meat. Perhaps this weekend.
Similarly I have started doing a small bit of research on raising goats and I can tell that I have barely scratched the surface. In that regard, if anyone has any good resources on raising goats (books, websites, magazines, etc) I would appreciate it if you tossed them my way.
Ok, enough goats for one night. I have to go do dishes and whatnot. (This is where a clever sign off would be if I had one. Any suggestions?)
-Rob
I have never tasted goat meat (that I know of), but I like the cheese, never had the milk either. goats need roughage in their diet, not just grass so that's a consideration. they will eat just about anything around, sometimes what you don't want them to eat, they love roses, thorns and all. I used to feed my neighbors goats my rose clippings because I didn't want the thorns in the compost pile. I am sure there must be a blog about raising goats somewhere out there, good luck.
ReplyDeleteGood fences make for keeping goats. the neighbors trees always look better to eat.
ReplyDeleteThey are not big grass eaters when there are tasty trees to eat.
They do eat poison Ivy, which is a bonus.
Don't keep males unless you like the smell- bread females for milk- but know your stuff- things can go wrong.
And keep them safe.
oh man, why not have another baby instead? Maybe less trouble :)
ReplyDeleteHello, my husband and I buy a half a goat (locally raised) every year to have meat in the freezer, and we think it's really tasty. It's maybe a little like lamb, except the flavor is much milder. I get sick of beef very quickly, so it's a great "staple" for me. Also- lean goat tastes best. :)
ReplyDeleteMy two cents. PS. I like your Fibonacci vessels.
Thanks Iris. We did finally get to try some, although it probably was not top of the line as far as quality goes. I thought it was fine, my wife was not thrilled. She wasn't disgusted either, though.
ReplyDeleteI actually did get some information about a local farmer who raises meat goats. The kids were not up to butchering weight yet, however, so we could not take advantage of it at the time. Perhaps next year we will get half a goat and see what good goat meat tastes like.