On Wednesday evening, February 12, 2014, our last goat left our property. That was only about a week and a half after I posted our herd of goats and cows for sale, though I’d been thinking about it for awhile. We still have a few chickens, but all our livestock are gone. So for the first time in almost 5 years, our pastures are empty, except for Max, the livestock guardian dog who has nothing left to guard. It’s bittersweet.
The two older kids have never been as interested in goat farming as me, though one did show more enthusiasm than the other throughout the adventure. So what was meant to be a family activity was more of me forcing my will upon them. Then there was the roller coaster of emotions that came along with the farming: the joy of goat babies all too often tempered by the sting of sickness and death. Any success becomes overshadowed by defeat. And when children start to expect, or become numb to, death, something needs to change.
So I’m no longer a goat farmer. Morgan expressed my own feelings perfectly when she said, commenting on her out of state move nearly 2 years ago and now this change: “It’s like our glory days are over.”
Maybe. Maybe not. I have to believe that this is just the next step in the journey we call life. And who knows what comes next …