Where's the Beef?

OK, OK, I know you are dying to find out what goat meat tastes like. Well, BOER goat meat tastes like beef. It has less choelesterol and fat than Chicken. Calorie-wise, it is the same as chicken. That makes it half of the calories of beef and a third the calories of pork. It looks like deer meat, very little fat and a nice red color.

So, I could eat the same amount of goat as beef, take in half the calories, and get less fat and cholesterol than I would from chicken. I wouldn't be eating any artifical hormones or medicines fed to the beef critters. That certainly sounds like it's healthier. I'm big on quantity and to be able to reduce my calories and keep my plate filled is very appealing.
In addition to being healthy, goats would clear my land and provide a new hobby.

Well, it looks like another impulsive decision is going to work out way better than I thought. It is enough to make reasoned decision making obsolete. By any yardstick our decisions have been impulsive and questionable at best. Still, they have led to incredible happiness and an impressive run of lucky breaks.

We have decided to have goats for less than a week and it has already changed the way I look at the back pasture. We were going to start clearing the brush, hard work in anybody's book. (George Bush is the only one I know that did it for recreation.) We walked around the area we are going to turn into pasture last evening and the blackberry and raspberry briar patches were as satisfying to find as a field of timothy and clover. Goats love them and they are loaded with stuff a goat needs. How lucky we are to have acres of almost impenetrable, thorny, scrubby, brush and small hard woods. To think I was about to start clearing away a cornucopia of nutritious tangle almost makes me apoplectic.

When the good lord gives you lemons, make margaritas is the only thing I can think of that even comes close to the brilliance of getting goats. We were concerned about the goats getting out and eating the garden etc. As it turns out, because of the increased size of these sturdy little goats, they aren't much on fence jumping. Looking at their conformation you can see that they are built for football not high jumping. Their nature is to be quiet and friendly.

Boer goats are used as pack animals for hikers. (I swear I am not making this up.) You get a young goat, bottle feed it and it follows you any where you want to go. They have small back packs that fit on them. They graze and nibble along behind you and carry your gear. It almost makes you want to be a hiker. Kris and I can use this ablility during mud season when we walk in and out instead of carring things ourselves or using the wheel barrow. We could make a goat cart and increase the load they could haul. Goat carts used to be common in days gone by.

This is extreme farming and therefore appeals to us greatly. The less conventional it is, the better we like it. I am sure it says something about us, but I can't quite figure out what. So, after the chicken coop and the guinea hen house, I will be remodeling the first barn to hold the new goats, until I can get a proper goat barn up and functional.