In high school, back in 1993… I designed for my science and social studies class; a prototype, environmentally self sufficient house. After high school, my first wife and I wanted to make that a reality; but it never happened. I got into herbology and aromatherapy in the later 90’s; in the 2000’s, I got into other things like how to grow the things I had been studying. After 9-11-2001, I started waking up and started becoming a Prepper/survivalist.
In 2012, after my third marriage failed; I decided to go OffGrid. At that time, I was also getting into foraging and wild crafting; and started to pursue sustainable community type living. The first project I joined, turned out to be a scam. So my friend and I were forced to regroup and find something else or make something of our own. In 2015; I started owner financing my own land, and we proceeded to start our own sustainable community.
Se7en years later, that was a bust. Now, I am a goat whisperer. I was a city slicker; I never saw myself growing up to be a farmer, let alone a goat farmer. I grew up in the military; my mothers side of the family were mostly truckers and farmers, my dad’s side of the family were more white collar. I was studying alternative energy, architecture, & building and trades in high school. After high school; I had my own business, as a contractor. I was planning to eventually be an architect, but I wanted hands on ground work experience first. After my divorce in the late 90’s and child support got the best of me, I became a trucker for survival; free room and board.
My friend came down from the Kansas City area in 2013; with his goats, chickens and geese. Cleopatra aka Houdini Jr was the first goat he brought down, and she is the last goat left of that herd; she is now ten years old. He had Nigerian Dwarfs, Nigerians are milk goats; but my friend never milked them. I think he milked them twice in the past ten years… People keep asking us why we have them; and to be honest, I am not sure. They were more or less POCM’s (Pet Organic Composting Machines).
He knew a lot about goats, presumably; but he wasn’t that attentive to them. I ended up taking over goat care and maintenance around 2019/2020, after we lost most the herd to worms… and neglect. I didn’t know much about goats, but it was time to start learning. To be honest, I only learned enough to barely get me by. I formulated an herbal anti parasite blend I have been adding to their feed since 2020/2021, and they have been parasite free for over a year. I hadn’t lost a single teenage or adult goat till 2022, when I introduced the Kikos to the flock. I understood the risk, so I kept a close eye on them while I was home. While I was on the road however, they didn’t have supervision. I came home to find four sick goats and three dead. I also just found out, 2022; that we should have been trimming their hooves all this time. We haven’t trimmed any of them in the past 10 years. So that’s when I decided to start looking for a new business partner or farm hand, who knows and/or cares about goats; and I am now going double time myself on goat research. Someone who can at least check in on them while I’m on the road 5 out of 7 days, to make sure they don’t die on me while I’m out; I can pretty much do the rest on my own. Needless to say, he and I are not so much friends anymore.
In 2021, I found a goat trader. He encouraged me to raise Kiko/Spanish cross, for meat goats; for that is what he prefers to buy and sale. Before that; an associate was encouraging me to go meat goat, since we weren’t milking the Nigerians. She is a smart business woman, whom I admire. A friend of a friend had Kiko/Bore goats; and my friend kept talking about getting Kiko’s to bread in with the Nigerians, but he never did.
Originally, when starting this new adventure; I was going to replace the Nigerians with the Kiko/Spanish goats. After buying the Kiko cross goats, I was planning to sell the Nigerians; but they are not as easy to sell. So that is when I came up with this idea. Nigerian nannies are easier to sale then the bucks, and it is said that Nigerian meat is one of the best; so I shall keep some of the bucks to breed with the Kiko/Spanish nannies. I will sale the Skigerian bucks for meat; keep the daughters, and sale the granddaughter. I will only keep a few Nigerian nannies, to produce more Nigerian bucks; I will sale the rest.
I still own 10% of the land from that other community I joined in 2012. Since it too was a bust, I will soon start buying out the other members. I will focus the meat goats over there when I get full ownership of the 20 acres or a new partner helps me buy out all the previous owners. I will focus the Skigerians on the 15 acres I have now.
Like I said; I never thought I would end up being a goat guy, but over the last decade, I kind of fell in love with them. When I am home, I spend maybe half my time with them. TriG, our three legged goat; is now my favorite and my mascot. She is a real trooper! If my project proves to be something people want, like the French Rove Goat and the Sirohi Goat of India; I will then hire someone to help me stay organized and start doing register breeds. But, I don’t see it going that far. Maybe someone else is doing this, maybe not. If anyone wants to join in, let me know. CainO’
