Busy Yet Quiet
It has been very busy yet quiet at the farm. We have kids on their way to new homes, all needing registration and all that comes with it. I’m likely selling one of my favorite does—unfortunately for me, they’re all my favorites—and am looking to buy a new one to diversify my herd. It’s so exciting to think about the possibilities of having a new doe join us! If I do sell Fiver, I’ll spend a lot of time thinking about the first day I met her. She was born a runt, but a strong and tough one. Since she was one of the first Nigies to come to Moon Ruby, I would’ve had time to care for her should anything have gone awry. Nothing did, not one thing. She was strong as an ox…and tiny as a rabbit. She’s still small, yet she’s second in command in my herd, and just a great looking chamoisée dam who’s just a peach on the milking stand. I’m very good with troubled young ones and misfits, and I say that in a truly humble way. (In fact, I’m willing to help just about anyone out with troubled little goaties, as long as they come from CAE-free farms.) This comes from a very long family history of raising, training, breeding, guarding, watching, admiring, adoring and caring for animals of all kinds: zebras, skunks, camels, llamas, exotic deer, macaws…okay, how many words can I legally fit into a sentence? I digress. My uncle Chuck and his awesome family still own the building where my grandfather first started making his living working with animals. It’s now a family-run pet food and feed store in the Chicago area. My Papa went on to raise exotic animals, primarily as his retirement project if I understand it correctly. More on this later, as clearly there is much to be said! So I started this [first] post by saying that the farm is quiet and busy. You know what? It’s just busy. It’s not quiet in any sense of the word, as it is for any farmer. In addition to the embarrassment and guilt I feel when my goats are hollering and surely disturbing the neighbors, there are kids and dams everywhere, following me around like fat shadows as they search for the best things to eat and the biggest trouble/danger/just plain naughty thing they can find. Oh well. I’m not going to go back and change my initial take on things—“busy yet quiet”—because being with these loving and loyal little does is quiet enough.