Misty-Eyed Who?

Merry Christmas from Misty-Eyed Goat Farm 2007. My brother took this photo for our christmas card, with Vanda and Neenia (in her favorite spot up off the ground away from the queen), Gordon and I in the barn. We debated about what we wanted to call our mini-farm. Gordon was telling his good friend Bruce about a certain look in Vanda's eyes...he called it Misty-Eyed, and that's how we often feel about our goats, so the name stuck.

Miss Neenia Arrives

Neenia, named after a character from J. R.R. Tolkein's "Silmarillion" came to us from Zederkamm Farm. For some reason I don't have many photos of Neenia that first year. She arrived at 5 months of age and became Nemo's companion while he weaned himself of mom's milk. It was quite upsetting for her (and me vicariously) because she was met with goat intimidation tactics immediately as Vanda and Pepper tried to tell her in no uncertain terms that she was NOT WANTED. This consisted of staring her down with scary and angry looks, butting at her gate again and again so much that Vanda's head was bleeding from this tactic. This is the side of goats I'm not yet comfortable with, but I'm sure it's a survival tactic for goat herds in the wild. As a result she cried a lot and was generally miserable, in my attempt to comfort her we became bonded. Eventually they got used to her presence, she and Nemo became buddies and she settled in.

Nemo's First Summer

Nemo was such a delight. Discovering the thrills of being a kid vicariously reminded us of being kids ourselves and since Nemo was an only 'kid' he was very secure, well fed and even tempered. He had everything he needed. He scampered and leaped, twisted and ran. Pepper became his best buddy to butt with and life was good...until he had to be weaned! My goodness he really did not want to give up milk or his momma. And so we brought home Neenia.

Our First Kid: Nemo Arrives

In great anticipation I nervously prepared every last recommended item for goat kid delivery, and came home one afternoon just about 15 minutes after it was all done. I fussed and cooed and did all sorts of silly mothering type things, but it was a done deal and I was just catching up. Nemo was the sweetest momma's boy and lucky little guy, he got all that milk to himself. We were in awe at the wonders of birth and nature and since we don't have children of our own...our first kid.

The Day After the Really Big Snew:

We counted over 25 trees down on our property with countless branches and debris all flotsam and jetsom everywhere. We are so thankful that not one of those trees created any harm and today we are making good use of the wood in our fireplace, in our garden and elsewhere. And the goats were just fine! But let's get back to the goats! Luckly before the big storm we had taken Vanda to do a tango with Romeo. Romeo is a lovely buck who lives at Pat Showalter's Zederkamm farm. The very place where Kinder goats began. http://www.kinderzed.com/goats1.htm and so she was expecting!

Old Man Winter Works His Magic:

There's not much browse for goats in winter, but we had an overgrown patch of blackberries and the leaves lasted for a long time. The goats loved to go out with us and it was a chance to take a deep breath of fresh air and just be. Soon we were in for a winter's treat, although some might say...trouble! The big wind storm of 2006 came in about 1:00 a.m. Huddled under the strongest part of our house until four in the morning, Gordon and I said many a prayer for our house, our barn and outbuildings as chaos and falling trees, branches and more were crashing outside. We took a small step back into the time of our ancestors when the power was out for nine days. Even with a small generator we ran for about 2 hours a day to keep our water pumped and freezers cool. it was amazing how busy we were just taking care of daily necessities like hauling wood for the woodstove, cooking on the woodstove and cleaning up after ourselves. The day power returned was a great relief, but I sure do appreciate the lives and times of pioneers in a way I never have before.

Farmer's Hours:

That first fall with the goats was fun and challenging. We thought we were really being challenged by having to milk once a day. Now we know that was easy street. I made lots of kefir, Gordon had enough milk for coffee and cereal and we relished the new experience of taking the goats out for walks and enjoying fresh from the goat milk products.

Got Livestock?

Gordon mentioned more than a few times that he wanted to have goats. I grumbled and thought one more thing to take care of was too much, but one day working at a local CSA, I was asked by a co-worker whether I might want some goats. "Well....I know my husband wants goats" I say. So sure enough within days we were putting up fence around our barn with our new friend Lucy who was so interested in selling her goats she helped us put the fence up! Soon Vanda, a Kinder goat and her lady-in waiting, Pepper, a dignified pygmy goat arrived. We had one lesson on milking and then, gulp, it was up to us...or should I say me. Somehow I got the hang of it a bit sooner than Gordon and soon we were in milk.

The Magic of the Land:

We have two creeks, one on each side of our rectangular piece of heaven; a pond, a douglas fir forest and an old growth forest, plus about 1.5 acres of open meadow. Scads of native plants including salmon berries, black berries - both native and not, many red huckleberries growing out of stumps that were logged in the thirties and reed canary grass...incidentally all very much relished by our goats. On occasion, I like to take the goats on a walk through the old growth part of the land. There is a nice path to walk on and plenty of yummy treats for them, sword, lady and deer fern, elderberry and oso berry, downed doug and hemlock branches for munching in winter with those ubiquitous salmon berries lining the path.

Our Dream:

We moved to our 15 acre mostly wooded property in East King County in April of 2005. This was a realization of our dream come early. Saving and planning for an eventual move to a rural area, Gordon sent me an e-mail one day with a link to an interesting property. He suggested I check it out and then said somewhat casually, "We wouldn't go look at it though". "What?" I replied, "You aren't going to dangle that in front of me and then not go look at it." So we went, and fell in love with the land, and soon it was ours. We spent a joyously relaxed and sensual summer that first year, exploring the land, flora and fauna and the wonderful quiet. A new roof and all manor of repairs plus working kept us busy. Then, in the fall of 2006 along came our first real venture into farming; Goats! These weren't any old goats, this was a Kinder goat named Vanda and her companion, a pygmy goat named Pepper. We had no idea what we were getting or getting into then, but many a story has started that way.