I am a 59 year old that retired from public education this June, 2011. It has taken a little while to learn to relax, but each day I am finding that I don't HAVE to get everything finished, there is always tomorrow... ;-) My husband, Steve, and I have raised four children to adulthood. We have three daughters and our youngest is a son. We have eight grandsons and one grandaughter who keep us on our toes. We have been married for 41 years, 4 months, and several days....(not that I am counting or anything)
Ten years ago we decided to move to the country. Neither of us had ever lived on a farm. Our home is located in a little valley nestled up against the Doyle Creek about a mile away from Florence, Kansas. We have 24 acres of mostly waste land along the creek. We have about 40 head of goats, two old geldings, a donkey named "Pink", and some chickens. It has been a learning experience for sure! I need to market some of the goats we have raised, but I do NOT want to sell any of my goats for meat. I know if I had to kill my own meat to survive, I would be a vegetarian. Normal farmers do not name all of their animals and remember the grandparents and great-grandparents of the animals in the pasture. I guess I am not a 'normal' farmer.
Since retirement in June, I have been gardening, working with the animals, trying to learn to cook better and to bake things, started my own massage business and we have a house in town that we have made into a bed and breakfast. We call the house in town the Old Goat's Inn or TOGI's.
We recently decided it was time to start downsizing the goat herd. It seems that if you don't have a web page, you might as well be living in a cave somewhere. Today I created our Janzen Goat Farm Web Page. I have thousands of pictures on my computer, but finding the right one in those many files is a trick in itself. Every day I tell myself I am going to organize my pictures so I can find what I want when I need it without having to search for ever on the computer to find that special picture. I did put a small folder of goat pictures on my desk top so that I could find it when I needed it. Today that helped hasten the completion of the web page.
Selling my goats is always traumatic for me as I feel like I am breaking up a family. I always pray that the animals will be taken care of and will be happy in their new homes. I hope with this new web page, we can begin to downsize the herd.
Ten years ago we decided to move to the country. Neither of us had ever lived on a farm. Our home is located in a little valley nestled up against the Doyle Creek about a mile away from Florence, Kansas. We have 24 acres of mostly waste land along the creek. We have about 40 head of goats, two old geldings, a donkey named "Pink", and some chickens. It has been a learning experience for sure! I need to market some of the goats we have raised, but I do NOT want to sell any of my goats for meat. I know if I had to kill my own meat to survive, I would be a vegetarian. Normal farmers do not name all of their animals and remember the grandparents and great-grandparents of the animals in the pasture. I guess I am not a 'normal' farmer.
Since retirement in June, I have been gardening, working with the animals, trying to learn to cook better and to bake things, started my own massage business and we have a house in town that we have made into a bed and breakfast. We call the house in town the Old Goat's Inn or TOGI's.
We recently decided it was time to start downsizing the goat herd. It seems that if you don't have a web page, you might as well be living in a cave somewhere. Today I created our Janzen Goat Farm Web Page. I have thousands of pictures on my computer, but finding the right one in those many files is a trick in itself. Every day I tell myself I am going to organize my pictures so I can find what I want when I need it without having to search for ever on the computer to find that special picture. I did put a small folder of goat pictures on my desk top so that I could find it when I needed it. Today that helped hasten the completion of the web page.
Selling my goats is always traumatic for me as I feel like I am breaking up a family. I always pray that the animals will be taken care of and will be happy in their new homes. I hope with this new web page, we can begin to downsize the herd.
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