The kids had me at Baa-AA-aaa ~

The last of the DEFINITELY PREGNANT goats had her kids just the other day. So now all of the goats are in high milk production, everyone's online. The girls produced 56 quarts of milk in the morning milking. And since we pasteurize after about 80 quarts, and there's an afternoon milking, it looks like the cheese house will be pasteurizing daily for the next several weeks. I like my work on the farm. I love being down in the barn with the girls. Every goat is named for a different female singer, and they definitely have different personalities. Kim's a screamer. Alanis will kick anyones' butt with a headbutt to have a few more minutes of horn scratching all to herself. The girls don't really have horns, just little buds because this farm takes them off at birth. I went down and witnessed it. It seemed pretty awful, this sweet baby boy goat, just two days old, being held still by the farm manager while the assistant took a big iron and ringed the horn buds to stop them from developing. It smelled like burnt hair and the wound looks charred, but this brave baby boy didn't make a peep. Which makes me love him all the more, and then when I think that the baby boys will most likely end up on a dinner table as cabrito makes me want to cry just a little. But it's also part of that circle of life, which I have to remember. Although honestly, there's a part of me thats still eight-years-old and I want to scream out "It's not fair!" I mean, these sweet kids are going to be supper and only because they were born boys. ***Advertising plug here, the boys will be sold to chefs unless they are adopted by a family as a pet. They're really good lawn mowers, they're great companions and trust me, nothing warms the heart like listening to them call to you... BaaAAAaaah! And at only $35 each, they're a bargain pet. And, if you really really can't stand being a goat owner, you can always eat them, because that's where they're headed otherwise. I posted a video on youtube and facebook of some of the babies. The youtube link is here: http://youtube/u0EyNzzMq3c But ultimately I am okay with the fact that the boys will go to the table. I sort of have to be, it's part of that pact of farmer and animal. I think Novella Carpenter, of the book FARM CITY said it best although I read her book ages ago and am having difficulty finding the exact quote right now, not to mention that I don't even have her permission to publish an exact quote, but it's a really good read (Shout out to Susie Russell Lueth for recommending the book to me and to Lauren Dobkin for putting it in my hands). The really interesting thing is I started on this goat journey with the end-up goal of being a cheese maker. But it's the animal care that really has captured my heart and my imagination. It's like connecting to this entire village of really cool beings, and learning a new culture, a new language. I dig it. Baa-AA-aah.