The three kids you see in the above photo were born here a week ago tomorrow in the midst of the coldest weather we'd seen in a long time and during a random snow. It was seven degrees with the wind chill when I took this photo. It was a busy week that doubled our goat herd with five kids born in three days. Last Friday, covered in birthing fluids, standing alone in a drafty barn watching these three totter around as they found their legs and in between texts from one of my best friends about what was going on, I found myself laughing and in the quiet late night hour saying "thank you" to God.
I could say farming is in my blood and it wouldn't be a lie, though many years separate this farm with my father's experience with hogs over the Summer as he grew up. I didn't necessarily come by this lifestyle conventionally. Now it has become increasingly common for folk to leave city jobs and move to acreage to raise their own food. Most of them complete novices in the world they were stepping into. I grew up in a neighborhood. We got chickens when I was eighteen. Until six years ago that was the extent of farming knowledge that I possessed. There is a joke that chickens are a gateway drug to farming and I can promise you that it isn't so much a joke as it is a fact. What started with a flock of various chickens quickly became chickens and ducks, then quail. We kept birds for a number of years in that neighborhood backyard. Then we moved to the farm.
Henegar's Tennessee Shire is the technical name for the property but we just call it the Shire. Long before we moved, when I started planning on one day having land and a farm I decided what it would be called. I've got an immense love of Tolkien, his wonderful world, and the idyllic and slow pace of his Shire. Ironically farm life is rarely slow paced. It seemed only fitting that my own farm would be named as such with a slight twist. We quickly went from just poultry to adding meat pigs, dairy goats, and sheep. Eventually we added a cow, her name is Pattie, and she was supposed to be future food but she was a bottle baby that has since become a large pet. She is broke to ride if you weigh less than a hundred pounds. She was recently (hopefully) bred so we can get a bull calf to steer for beef.
Meat pigs lasted a few years and I finally purchased a pair of Kune Kune pigs that I'd wanted for many years. Small, slow growing, but with the temperament of a dog they are incredibly friendly and fun to deal with. If you rub their sides they roll over like dogs to be petted. Hopefully we will have piglets before long to sell and raise for meat. The goat breeds changed from Nigerian Dwarf to Nubian, to the now Mini-Nubian which is what the kids in the above photo are. I milk them because I love goat milk and cheese, and hope to eventually learn to make soap from said milk. The sheep were Katahdin hair sheep, my favorite animal on the farm, but after losing our first (and my favorite stock animal) to copper toxicity after she got into chicken feed we sold the others. Though I've been scheming up ways to reintroduce a small flock. Both because I love lamb and I've got Border Collies that like to herd (they are immensely useful for moving the goats) , and if you haven't noticed meat prices are crazy, raising my own means I've got lamb when I want to eat it.
Most of what I've learned over the past few years has come from our neighbors whom have graciously never laughed at my lack of knowledge and have readily jumped in to help at kidding, lambing, and general care (I spent my 27th birthday being taught by said neighbors how to trim goat hooves). I can now readily handle kidding season without feeling like I'm lost, take care of things that aren't poultry without worry that I'm going to accidentally kill it, and be comfortable in the fact that I had a great teacher and can pass this knowledge on to others.
So. why the title? That was the song I was listening to when I was cleaning this morning. It's by Switchfoot and I suggest you give it a listen. I also happened to text 'I love this life' to that best friend of mine Friday night. You see for a lot of years this life was simply a dream, a one day thing. Now, six years later, in the cold and snow, nasty, I found myself unabashedly laughing and thankful that THIS was my life and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's not always easy. It's certainly not clean. Occasionally there are times of sleep deprivation (like when a goat kids in the middle of the night). But it is where I want to be.
