The Lonely Goatherd | Farm day | Finally

i know what you're thinking, let me get my coffee and or popcorn because this is going to be good.

you have no idea.

so, like i mentioned in our saturday adventure to roanoke, we met a goat farmer named spencer and got a little out of control with excitement about goats. we told him we would meet him at his farm on a wednesday, early enough to help with the morning milking. and sure enough, we left our little house at 4:00am and drove the winding mountain roads in the dark to reach the kohl family farm (the lonely goatherd)

side note: this is a very important piece of information for the day. i am a nanny and so sometimes i catch a cold from my little man. at this point in time, i don't know what i had from him, but it was the sickness from hell. i had been running a fever for about 5 days and sleeping every chance i got. barking cough, runny nose, all the great things involved. but i wasn't about to miss goat day. no sir. and so i brought along four boxes of tissues and water and headed to the farm with everyone else.

in hindsight that was one of the dumbest things i've ever done. but that day i will not soon forget. so maybe it was worth it.

maybe.

okay back to the story. we arrived, (in the dark still.) and were greeted by spencer and his wife. she said the kids were just waking up, (what!?) and would be out sometime soon. i think it really surprised them that we actually showed up, and with so many people. there were nine of us all together.

tara
jane
me
colleen
kathy
chad
clement
luke
nathan

spencer took us down to the bottom of the barn where they milk and we all got right to work. after getting all the goats in a pen outside the barn, we all squeezed into a small room and he told us about the process. i let five goats through a small door and they jumped up on the platform and stuck their heads through a mettle thingy. (i'm going to use that word when i have no idea what its called.) they ate, someone would squeeze some milk into a bucket to check it for bad things, then someone would wide off the teats with sanitizing wipes and the milking process would start.

i won't lie, it was hilarious to watch. i think the milking champions where probably jane, chad and colleen. they milked like they had been doing it for years. at one point spencer shot some milk into my mouth but it mostly just got all over my face. after that everyone pretty much had to join in and do it. aaand pretty much everyone got it all over their face and hardly any in their mouths. good times, and great memories. after all the goats were milked we went on a little tour of the farm and got different jobs assigned. at this point the sun was coming up and it felt like we had been there the day before. we saw their greenhouse and got to eat some of the things they grow in there. after we had seen all the farm and met all the dogs, we started on our jobs. a few worked in the greenhouse, a few gathered poles for the fence, a few cut potatoes, and a few started digging post holes.

we ate breakfast in there somewhere and i remember it being really good although i don't remember what we had.

we went back to our jobs and i ended up planting leeks with tara and jane and the two farmer kids. i honestly don't think i've ever met two little kids who worked harder, and were more happy than those munchkins. plus they were super cute and fun to hang out with. they told us what to do when we were doing it wrong and they stayed right there and helped plant the entire time. that was probably my favorite part of the day.

after that we were supposed to take the goats to the other pasture and so the kids showed us what to do. there was a lot of goat chasing and wrangling. i now know what it means to grab like by the horns. after that we had to catch baby goats and put them in their pen (to eat i think? i'm not really sure because i had a really hard time understanding Xavier age 5.) baby goats are much more fun to catch. we carried feed bags, and put them in buckets, we carried poles and put them in piles. we were directed to the top of the hill to plant purple potatoes. i honestly really enjoyed all the planting!

but here was my trouble. my nose was running. like, i have never had my nose run like this before in my life. if i didn't make it to the tissue box, it would just drip right out of my nose. i carried tissues in every pocket i had, in both my boots, i was like a bulging tissue dispenser. only most of my tissues were already full of snot. i sat around looking dazed and out of it most of the time. and literally at a few points i didn't know where i was. i remember enough to feel really sorry for the boys (and colleen) who were digging the post holes.

it was a rough time i tell you. chad came up and sprawled out on the grass at one point saying that he couldn't believe it was only nine thirty in the morning. i mentioned that i thought spencer was a lot like who chad would be in his thirties. chad lifted his head up and said, "i don't think i'm going to be a mormon goat farmer abbey."it took jane about 3 minutes to get hysterical laughing and repeat our whole conversation. chad just looked at her and said, "jane, we were all here for that..." i don't think i've ever laughed so hard at anything. that will explain how tired everyone was.

we did a lot more work and ended the day around two with a delicious lunch of pizza with goat meat and goat cheese on it. it also had greens from the greenhouse. we were so hungry it disappeared in minutes.

^^chad just jumped in there and milked that goat like a professional. 

^^yea, after all that the sun was just coming up!

^^jane is great at catching goats.

^^sorry that is so blown out. it was pretty bright out there.

when we got back in the car i don't think any of us could believe it was only two in the afternoon. it felt like we had been there for days. before we all fell asleep shared a good amount of laughes at how crazy we were and how we didn't think farming was in our futures. i am so thankful for the farmers of america making us delicious things like cheese and enjoying the work they do. you are my heroes and i thank you the bottom of my heart and stomach. 

goats are pretty cute though. and i think i could handle a chicken. 

i think its safe to say i will never do all that again. but what a good adventure to have, and with some of the best people. there are so many parts of that day i keep labeling as my favorite but i'm going to say that clements first milking experience was up there in my top five.

i am blessed with life and with experiences i get to have like this one. be thankful for our farmers today. they do this because they actually like it. and they do such a great job. yay america.