Stumbling, goats

While at the training, one of the suggestions to help us get started was to schedule time on our calendars to do the research we need to do to make the investments required for this to be a successful enterprise. So, Mama and I put meeting notices on our calendars to set aside two hours every Monday and Thursday evening. Right now it is not a difficult decision because the hours are after dark; however, in a few short months, during those hours it will still be light outside. I am curious to see what type of dynamic that sets up for us. Anyway, we dutifully packaged up our stuff and headed to the church where we can get internet service.

This was our first opportunity to focus on what we have been taught. Sadly, this session was more of a stumble than a step. We packed up the computer, the manuals and several other items but I did not have the tablet of paper on which I took fourteen pages of notes while attending the training. That is where the bulk of the information we needed was captured. We defaulted to a company website we were supposed to be given access to. I had that information with me. That did not work. I suppose our information had not been entered into their system yet. Mama and I called and left a message with our contact there. So, to make the most of time, we studied a map of states to pick six to investigate, cross-referenced those with county websites for population and then selected three counties in each of those states to begin our searches. It was not a waste. It just was not what we had planned. You have to start somewhere, and we did manage to get a starting point. We stumbled a little, but we are up and going.

When we got home, I started typing the notes from the training. There are a little less than fourteen pages of handwritten notes but I believe, as I take the thoughts I wrote down there and expand them to capture the background and supporting information consolidated in those scribbles, I will have ten to twelve pages of typed notes. My goal is to remember the intent of what I wrote and expand enough on that thought to make it relevant when I read it long after I have forgotten the nuances of the training. I want to remember the context as much as I want to remember the content. I want to use those as a teaching platform to bring others into this business – after Mama and I have succeed.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, Mama went yesterday to get feed. We were at the point of running out, so her timing could not have been more opportune. Before we left for the church we took all the feed and distributed it to the barn, the coop, and the well house. Any overage is stacked in a specific location in the garage. So far, we have not had any miscreant critters disturb the feed in the garage. When I take feed to the Nubians – where we have Solomon – I throw the empty sack out to the goats, so they can play with it. Solomon likes to rub his scent on everything that enters his domain. It is hilarious to watch him almost do somersaults as he drives his head and face into the bag as it lays on the ground. All the females dutifully gather around and watch. When I take the bag out of his enclosure, he tries to block my escape. Mama hates that part. I have to show I am bigger and push him back, so he will relent. I have offered to eat him but so far Mama has resisted.

We are about to inherit two other goats. Our Chinese family is going to Trade Days this coming weekend to buy two goats for meat. We will raise the goats for them to whatever size they need. I am not sure how it will work out. We do not know what size goats they are buying – whether they will be tiny babies or fully-grown adults. We do not know how well they will integrate with our established herds. We do not know what breed of goat they are looking for; if they will grow to be larger than our Nubians and dominate the herd. Added to that dynamic, we should be having babies in both herds starting in early March.

This should be interesting.