I grew up on an acreage outside of Baltimore,Maryland, U.S.A. We had a pet nanny goat and a pet duck who were buddies. When I was two, my mother put me inside the fence with the goat so I wouldn't get lost. I cried!

My aunt had a hobby farm in Pennsylvania with sheep, goats, ducks and geese. My cousin and I had to take the two milking does across the creek on a fallen tree bridge to eat in the bushes. It was fun, and I liked all the animals and I liked the milk. When I was thirteen, my father bought me 25 laying hens. I made a little business of feeding my chickens and selling eggs. I was in the 4-H Club, but it was all sewing and cooking. We had friends who owned a big tobacco farm in Virginia. They had cows, mules and pigs. At this point cats were still my favorite animal. But now I knew I loved the country life.

In 1970 I moved to Canada with my first "French connection", American husband, which I met while we were students in France. We bought 100 acres in Alberta and built a large A-Frame house.

Now that we were "on the land" we would be "self-sufficient." For eggs we got chickens, for meat we got sheep, for milk we got goats.

In 1971 on my birthday we bought an old Toggenburg doe named Lady with her two baby daughters. We let them live in our school bus the first winter. Next summer he built a barn with salvaged lumber.

In 1977 I made my second "French connection" and married French Canadian John. He spearheaded progressive changes to the goat farm:purchasing purebred breeding pairs in Toggenburg,Nubian, and Alpine; improving and expanding fences; re-seeding the hayfields. Later on he constructed better feeders, became an expert at hay-making.and in 1992 built a fabulous new barn.

Not a business person at heart, my approach to farming has at less to do with economics and more to do with the life of the livestock under my care.

I do have a general perspective that the animals I keep should have a function. thus: the steers make beef, the lambs make shish-kebabs the pigs make bacon, the goats make milk and chevron chops, the chickens make eggs and Sunday dinners. The great Pyrenees dogs chase coyotes,the cats catch mice, and the 3 ducks are mobile ornaments.

As for their care, my prime objective is that they have sufficient freedom of movement:the space to function in a natural way.

Second, they must have the basics of "food, clothing, shelter": good quality feed summer and winter, access to salt. minerals, and clean water; ( they have their own coats), dry bedding; and protection from the elements-both extremes. And third, they need to be handled enough to be secure with their human, which translates into co-operative manageability, especially important in regards to milking goats.

A summation of my philosophy is: I must care for my animals and I must also care about them.

From a valley in Switzerland,a compact dairy breed, Chocolate brown with white tips including a pair of stripes down the face, with erect ears, and often bearded. My first breed, I've had great luck with the Togg's - excellent udders, nice disposition, easy kidding, hardly, good mothering and adopting.

I still have descendants from my first goat. Actually they got converted to Nubian, then Boer! 9 generations over 25 years.

First registered doe: Caithness Brown Owl. Bucks: Shunda Ajax, Caithness Hallmark, ALthea Meridian Micah, Conception Prophet Isaac.

From the province of Nubia in Egypt, usually a dark-colored goat, black or red, often with spots or patches. They have a "Roman Nose", long lop ears, and a shorter coat than most Swiss breeds. Before Boers, they were the ones used to improve meat-production. They have high-butterfat milk and frequently bear triplets.

Original registered doe: Sinklairity Wild Rosebud. Bucks: Lazy Daisy Acres Aquarius, Lazy Daisy Acres Clyde, Sinklairity Capricorn, Palowen Morning Star, Lonesome Dove Vodka.

From the French, Swiss, and German Alps, a large- frame goat, often in black and white, greys or tans, typically with black points, small ears, sometimes with wattles at the throat. Attentive mothers, good milkers, very graceful.

First registered doe: North Wind Bar Lotte Shawniece. Bucks: North Wind Rocky Mount, Edelweiss Midnight Smoke, Edelweiss Sir Lovealot, Norsha Acres Duke, North Wind Tina's Jerry Jr., Conception Prince.

Big-boned, all white swiss " Holstein of goats". I raised these majestic, methodic milkers for 15 years, but decided to phase them out when I got into Boers. Too many white goats! The last year I bred them Nubian, to lengthen the ears and get a color gene. Now these crosses are having half-Boer kids, retaining the good milk lines, mothering, and adopting.

Foundation doe: Dawmsdales Kinakin. Bucks: Heidi Saturn, Renown Bound for GLory, Conception Pyramid of Glory.

"Boer" meaning farm, development in South Africa,the meatiest goat in the world. Standardly white with red head, ears, and neck, a white blaze on the face.*

Our first Boer was a purebred buck, Keri Rose Subaru. He bred starting at 8 months and produced 7 half -blood daughters the first year. The second year he gave 13 half-Boer doelings. Meanwhile the South African transplants arrived: Conception Diamond Simba, Sabula, and Suzuki. They first bred at 6 months.

First purebred Boer female: Amigo's Ranch Trail Blazer.

*Long lop ears and horns curving close to the head.

Our quarter is very hilly, along the river. There are only so many building sites. So the 20 by 30 foot barn opens into the barnyard facing north-east, and backs to the driveway southwest. Sliding doors open from a 16 by 16 foot sleeping area which can easily be cleaned out by the loader-tractor. 9 pens border the other 3 sides, with large windows in the south-east and south-west walls. The milking parlor and feed room are along the north-west wall. The 6 by 7 foot feed room is only accessible from the outside. The 6 by 132 foot milking parlor has an outside door, plus entry and exit doors from the barn interior. Two milk stands are built in. Another small door from the road accesses the main barn. One large pen is outfitted with a 9 by 8 inch opening and serves as the kid creep. A treated 2 by 10 inch baseboard fronts all the pens. The dirt floor is bedded with straw, topping daily. The shelter is open year round; on winter nights the doors are closed to the width of a pregnant doe, and a canvas curtain covers the opening. The goats are fed and watered outside.

The fenced corral attached to the barn is for overnighting in the summer and loafing in winter. A full acre, with a small bag and a couple trees comfortably accommodates the 50 to 150 goats (depending on kid count). The water trough is in a corner, and covered box feeders line the fence near the barn. The namure mountains are piled near the adjacent fence. These riches are spread on the hayfields annually. The kids love to play on the ever-changing mountains.

Three rolling pastures, containing both meadows and bush total 50 acres. They are fenced with 4 inch treated posts holding five 8 foot 2 by 4's, spaced closer at the bottom and up to a height of 4 1/2 feet. The does are rotated between 2 pastures. The buck yard has bigger posts and uses 7 rails up to 6 feet high. The bucks and steers share a 12 by 20 foot house and have access to 2 pasture. The 3 pastures open into fenced alfalfa fields which are offered to the herd after the second cut of hay is harvested. We tried electric fencing, we tried page wire, can't afford chain-link; we like the wood.

35 acres of mixed hayland provides ample winter forage and on a good year, hay for sale. John uses a haybine with a crimpler/roller, makes 50 to 70 pound square hay bails, and stacks with a bale wagon. Then they are covered with huge tarps. We have an old wooden granary and a whole barley/oat mix is delivered 5 tonnes at a time. The feed room houses "goat treat", mineral, chicken feed, dog food, etc. We buy square straw bales out of the grain farmer's field, stack half with hay, and put 200 bales in the barn loft.

One of my most cherished privileges is witnessing the five-month-awaited newborn kids, all dried off and pure - and getting to name them. Having named hundreds of goats over the years, I've chosen a cluster of patterns to keep family lines "logical". Sometimes it's a letter of the alphabet, sometimes it's a color theme, or I create clans of wildflowers, trees, birds, fruits, nuts, gems, or Biblical names. For example, the red Nubian line: Sassafras, Cinnamon, Sherry, Chestnut. The Toggenburg series: Coffee, Chicory, Dandelion, Cappuccino, Moch-Java, Royal Kona. The French Alpine family: Juliette, Jacqueline, Josephine, Jillian, Marie-France, Marie-Madeleine, Marguerite, Michelle. And the Saanen names: Mirage, Oasis, Crystal Spring, Spring Rain, Brooke, Image.

My house is not far from the barnyard. The east window gives a good view of the animals as they move from the barn to the feeders or in their explorations.

In the spring , kids bounce up and down playing king of the mountain. New mothers battle it out to re-establish their place in the pecking order. In the summer, Lazy goats lounge e in the shade chewing their cuds. In the fall, the kids experiment with the breeding behavior, and does in the heat stroll up to the buck fence and tease the "boys". In the winter, the herd makes trails in the snow, pausing to taste the white fluff, moving more laboriously each month as their bellies swell to term. Every so often I get to observe something really funny or especially endearing.

My favorite time of year is late spring when it's really warm, most of the snow is gone, and the outside hay-bed is dry. I like to sit on the ground and wait for goats to come up to me. There are some extra-bold kids, perhaps bottle-fed or just naturally friendly. If they don't climb in my lap, they do nibble on my boot laces, my jacket, the ends of my braids. Affectionate does come up for a scratch, and we all just soak up the sun. I talk to them about nothing , and they just listen peacefully.

Making notes is important for basic things like keeping track of the age of the goats, recording immunizations, and remembering when does are sue.

But it is very interesting to read back over the data to observe trends, such as times of kiddings, birth weight averages, and sex breakdowns.

I use a large spiral notebook, and for each kidding I record (across 2 pages):date, time, temperature (outdoor), name of dam, age of dam, breed of dam, name of sire, breed of sire, details of the birth, sex of each kid, color of kid, weight of kid, name of kid, state of kid's horns (including dissuaded when done), tattoo on kid (if done), and details of sale (purpose, date, weight, price).

In the same notebook I chronicle breeding dates, and list results at goat shows. On barn sheets, I tabulate vitamin/mineral shots, vaccinations, and medications given. Breeding and kiddings are also marked on my kitchen calendar, so my information is very handy.