Blog by Tim Darby
I never wanted to have kids. I guess I had a pretty tumultuous adolescence (is there any other kind?) and
spent a fair chunk of the later half of my childhood fighting, evading or pointedly ignoring my parents, so my image of parenting, viewed in terms of time, money, emotion and energy appeared to give a rather poor return for investment.
Also I have (if I let myself go here) a fairly bleak picture of our future as a society and as a species (see Coming … ready
or not). I see us at the point of convergence of resource depletion, environmental degradation, increasingly
inhospitable climate, inequity and all the while a financial rollercoaster (plummeting down) that will leave us under sourced to adequately address any of these issues. All this leaves me doubting the wisdom of producing more kids and even more uncertain about my
ability to provide for them in our uncertain future.
So as I said, I never wanted to have kids. In fact, a few years ago I decided to put my money where my mouth is (well . . . not my mouth exactly . . . ) and get the snip (see The Snip).
So when I told my mum I was expecting the pitter patter of tiny feet she was ecstatic, confused and then suspicious in rapid succession. Had my little operation failed? Had the new Messiah arrived in South Fremantle? Had my long term, loving and loyal girlfriend jumped the fence? No, the explanation is both simple and (so far) wonderful. Goats!
In June this year, following an initiative of EMRC Earthcarers, my partner, Shani, and I undertook the Plastic Free Challenge; a month long
endeavour to eliminate plastic packaging from our lives (see ?) Between our chooks, bees, fish, rabbits and vegie gardens, we were able to make a pretty serious dent in our plastic consumption. The one thing we really struggled with was milk. I’m a bit of a fiend for dairy and
it all comes packaged in plastic. So partly motivated by this dilemma, we decided to get a goat. Did I say a goat? As it turns out,
goats are very social animals so you need to have at least two for them to behappy (and quiet!)
The decision about what sort of goats to get was easily made. We live on a 200m2 block in the suburbs, so for us small is beautiful. Enter the
mini goat. As far as I can gather, mini goats are not actually a breed so much as a size, originally attained by mixing a Nigerian Dwarf with a Nubian. Strictly speaking they have to be under a certain height at a certain age and measured regularly, possibly by a vet with papers and pedigrees and so on.
For our purposes we just wanted a little goat that could fit in our little yard. Did I saw our yard? Well, actually our neighbour’s yard. Luckily I live in the best street in Australia so when I realised that even the miniest goat would be too big our yard, I was able to find a couple of neighbours willing to lend us under-utilised yard space to accommodate the latest additions to our menagerie.
In preparation for our goats’ arrival I spent some time researching goats, milking goats and mini goats. What I discovered was that there are probably more thoughts, theories and stories about goats than there are goats themselves. The three most commonly held beliefs seem to
be:
1.Goats stink (and so does their milk)
2. Goats will eat anything (especially your washing)
3. Goats will escape from anywhere
Doesn’t sound like a particularly endearing series of characteristics, does it?
Nevertheless, we decided to give it a go and were fortunate enough to find a mother goat who was just weaning her kid (so she was ready to start milking straight away) and a baby that was just old enough to leave its mum for a bottle (so she would bond with us and be well socialized).
Welcome to Hulbert Street Spice (2 years old) and Sunday Clive (1 weesk old).
Three months down the track I could hardly say I’m qualified to dispel thethree big goat myths. (Try Mythbusters for that one). However, one the basis of my limited experience, I have found none of them to be true.
1. Our goats smell really nice.
Sometimes when we’re milking them or giving them a brush, I give them a big sniff (is that weird?) and find the smell quite light and kind of
reassuring. Sunday still smells a bit milky, like a puppy. The milk we get from Spice (about a litre a day) is almost indistinguishable from cow’s milk. Maybe a little bit sweeter and richer and it doesn’t separate like cow’s milk. (Apparently male goats spray themselves with urine to make themselves more appealing to the girls. Not something I’ve tried myself.)
2. Our goats are quite particular about what they will eat.
They pretty much always like hay and goat muesli but when we take them out for a walk, they will bypass apparently lush
pasture and then stop to nibble on one runty thistle. Fortunately, they usually seem to like coastal tee tree which is a weed in our area.
I’ve taken to early morning dumpster diving at the local grocers which provides a plethora of cast-off greens that go to the goats, rabbits, chickens or compost (in order of fussiness). One thing I have noticed is that our goats are very curious and a bit like puppies, always thinking that whatever you are eating (or reading) must be the absolute cat’s pyjamas of culinary delight.
3. Our goats don’t seem to really want to escape from anywhere.
We have developed a habit of taking them for a walk in the evenings, so about 5pm every day they bleat to be let out for a
walk. We take them for a wander, munching along the way, to an empty block at the end of our street where they wander around, sniffing and nibbling whilst we have a cup of tea and a bickie. After about half an hour (or two cups of tea) Spice starts insisting that she gets taken home again and, once on the way, rushes for home like one of those rent‑a‑ponies at a kids riding school.
As I said, it’s early dates yet but so far, despite the bad press that goats get, our experience has been absolutely fabulous. They have even made peace with most of the neighbourhood dogs, with the notable exception of a Portuguese water dog that lives over the back fence (do they have goats in Portugal?) who seems quite keen on the idea of eating Sunday.
The dog’s owner, Jenny, is a lovely lady who has decided to stop feeding her hound on goat meat so as to reduce the pet’s link between food and goat.
Like I said, the best street in Australia.
Hey Tim – the baby goat has just escaped! I think we need to better goat proof that cage before she gets eaten!
Hey Tim, I was having one of those “my life has no meaning days” when your blog appeared in my email forwarded by Glenn. What a tonic! All I needed was your little goat story and to make me smile. Thank you for sharing your goat experiences so generously. I’m heading off into my day now with a light heart and a little goat dreaming. Blessings to your household.
It was great to meet you at Ocean Beach today (Friday), a relief to meet somewhat like-minded people, though you are much more dedicated to the cause than I.
I had 3 goats for years, just pets, and I loved them to bits. I agree, they smell good, have unique personalities and are very bright.
Hey there….what a fabulous read! Was just checking out your site for more info about Nicole Foss’s impending visit to us here in Albany, and I was side-tracked by the title of “I never wanted kids…”. Funny how we too made a similar decision about the human kids some 15 or more years ago, but didn’t go down the goat-kid route for the very “myths” you listed. Great to hear about the lovely goats.
Cheerio
Hi…… just found your blog after reading Nicole’s FB entry and doing a quick google. Isn’t the ‘net marvellous?
Well done on the goats…. we’ve had goats for years, couldn’t live without them now. They will eat almost anything (but never our washing!), they will escape given half a chance, and only the billies stink, they just loooooove urine! They urinate on themselves, they stick their noses in the nannies’ urine stream, and are truly disgusting animals. And unless hand raised like our lovely little (so far, barely 7 months old) British Alpine, they can be a bit aggro. But you need one to get the females pregnant, and that’s that.
Tim,
After years of living next door to your lovely Mum & Dad (please say “Hi” from me when you see them) we relocated to 5 acres in Margaret River. Growing heaps but there is still lots of paddock & I know there has to be a more sustainable (& easier) way of keeping the grass/weeds down than the mower. Would love to hear more about the goats. Have heard horror stories about them but your experience so far sounds great. I have the same dilemma you expressed in Earth Garden magazine about loving milk but hating the plastic packaging.
Can’t wait to hear more.
Cheers
Kate
Hi Kate
Shani here – I am on the web more than Tim at the moment. Goats are great! Great milk which does not have that strong goat taste if it is fresh, great manure and great company. Sadly they are not like sheep who will “mow” a field. They don’t tend to eat things that are low to the ground, them might nibble the odd bit of grass but not like sheep. The look for a variety of different weeds, bark, and tree branches. Despite lots of people offering their overgrown backyards, we tend to prune the council’s accacias near a carpark and hang them on their fence each day.
A few goats would however get rid of some grass/ weeds just by walking around with them.
Anyway good luck – we love our goats! Bet pet . . .you can milk them, walk them and they really grow to love you. Sunday our minin goat quite often jumps up on me for a hug, and Kirsh rubs her head all over your head and back and sometimes licks you! She recenly had kids – triplets so I am hoping Tim will write about that soon
Shani
Wow triplets!
Since reading Tim’s article I have done some research & while the goats sound good for milk I agree with you that the sheep would do a better job of “mowing” the paddock.
Talking of pets, I love my chooks to bits. Numbers have increased to 14 recently, so there is always wonderful activity to watch. We incubated eggs & have raised 6 fluffy balls to be the most entertaining producers of food a family could ask for.
Cheers
Kate
Hi Tim & Shani. Have just read your “kids” article in the city permaculture mag. Thanks for a great story. I have been interested in Nigerian dwarf goats as the perfect permie garden small goat. However I thought there were none in Oz due to quarantine restrictions. How did you find your goats? I am in Victoria on half an acre, with mostly overgrown gardens other than the veggie patch. Any hints? Thanks for the inspiration! Fleur.
HI Fleur
Yup you are right no nigerian dwarfs here. The “mini” goats we had were just bred here in WA to be small, not a separate breed as such.
Sadly in the end Spice was only producing about 600 mls a day and we found a farmer who was willing to put her out to pasture with the rest of his flock. We then ended up with a pure saneen (quite a small one) originally from a dairy who was pregnant. She had triplets in the end and after about 2 months of 6 litres of day she is now producing about 4 -plenty for us, my new cheese making obsession and feeding a few neighbours and kids with cows milk alergies.
Re overgrown gardens. We have found our goats to be quiet fussy about what they eat (maybe we feed them too well!) The get scraps from the local fruit and vege shop, overgrown branches we cut from laneways and roads, a bit of goat muesli and hay. They are not like sheep, the won’t mow your grass (but might try and climb your trees!
Anyway good luck with your goat journey!!
Shani
Bannister Downs Dairy supplies milk in calcium carbonate sachets – 100% clean and biodegradable.
might be a solution less drastic than owning your own goats!.
Heh Tim,
great to bump into you sand sculpturing on such a calm august morn; just like good social goats would do I imagine. I am a capricorn so already have an affinity with them without ever being around the real ones! Must have been all that rock climbing that really cemented the situation.
Anyway, all the best to you and Shani on your new and continuing adventures. I remember what it was that I wanted to send…an inspiring couple I caught on a TV snippet this week http://www.holygoatcheese.com/
Cheerio…Janean