Plump goat, a bulb of garlic and a lot of fresh olive leaf go perfectly together - for the first couple of bites. After that your vegetable garden doesn't stand a chance! At least not if the goats are as enthusiastic about herb gardens as mine are! For those of you wanting to butt my ideas - relax - my four legged kids would never tolerate being put in a slow cooker! Although with the amount of times they have managed to get into our gardens FarmerBuckaroo has threatened to make them a roast more times than I care to count. Good thing he loves me enough to overlook the damage wreaked. He also can't live without his morning coffee with fresh goats milk and cream cheese on hot sourdough bread.
When we moved onto our homestead a decade ago we had all sorts of romantic ideas about life in the country. How ignorant we were! And ignorance is not bliss!! Armed with plenty of self-sufficiency books we started to unpack. We imagined we would have plenty of free time to sip herbal tea and peruse books on goats and gardens, beekeeping and seed saving, rocket stoves and aquaponics, veld medicine and fermentation, chickens and ingrafting. But before the first box was unpacked my husband gave me Annabelle, my first goat. My obsession with all things goatie had begun. We enthusiastically began our raised beds for all the heirloom seeds we'd bought. Then the first chickens arrived along with 40 olive saplings and another 60 young fruit trees. Our beehives were filling up while we cut and baled lucerne for winter grazing. Then the chickens got into the new seedlings. The goats pruned the saplings and the old irrigation was springing leaks all over the homestead.
We were still setting up rain water tanks and laying new piping when I realized that the one goat had become a dozen. Before the solar was fully functional the dozen goats were dropping twins and the broody hens were sitting on eggs we intended to eat. The beehives needed to be supered up and the weeds were suffocating the new gardens. So my soap and cheese making adventures began. Reinforcements were called in so that the fences could be redone to keep animals apart from gardens and orchard. A small dairy had to be built for processing all that wonderful organic goats milk. And before we knew it we were working harder than we ever had in the city plus the money was disappearing like water instead of keeping us self-sufficient for the rest of our lives. Where had that perfect dream gone?!!
Necessity and a glut of milk created a perfect business opportunity - then two! We had some wiggle room. And then the flood came. With it the top soil was washed away and all those new fences and expensive irrigation. Plus we now had a load of illnesses. The gardens took strain and we started losing animals to bizarre illness. I was devastated. After burying the first dozen goats - which had become 60 strong - I tackled their health with fury.
I was not losing another goat. I began separating from the garden medicine for animals and food for humans. The goats devoured all the garlic, olive leaves and wormwood I could feed them. As fast as I chopped the bitter aloe ferox into all the water troughs the goats were fishing out the chunks while the chickens, sheep and calves drank the bitter water. The death stopped.
It took a while following the flood to realize there was no more rain! The drought lasted 7 years. Many farmers in the valley, and the greater area sold up. It was heartbreaking. We dug a deeper borehole. We sacrificed fields. I made the gut wrenching decision to sell most of my goats. Despite everything the two businesses continued.
Miraculously we survived; as did our animals - those few that we hadn't sold. How the animals self medicate has always amazed me. They will fast when they feel slightly under the weather. On the hottest summers day they will be catching their Vitamin D.
They will get a natural veld head massage to chase away those nasty biting critters. They do naturally what we have taken years to learn. Many of our gardens were dormant as we had been forced to disconnect the little water and carefully choose where the grey water went. There was still enough for what we needed and we learned to rely far less on the shops.
We continued to work extremely long hours for our survival and that of our beloved home and animals. We boosted our immune systems along with the animals. Selective gardening kept us going. We learned basic new skills. Then the rain came - HalleluYAH!! It took a year but the drought was broken. Slowly life is returning and it is wonderful to see what has survived - although much has been lost.
My goats have taught me a lot. Are they naughty? Absolutely. Even the most doting mother has to acknowledge mischief in her kids. But they are part of our homesteading life and happiness. In the last 18 months, as with most people, in the city or in the country, in SA or international, we have been affected by world events so much so that both businesses have closed. Does it cause concern? I would be lying if I said no. But like the goats we take a day at a time knowing in Whose Hands we are. Our ultimate goal was self-sufficiency and this is part of that journey.
We have never cried so many tears or had more reason for celebration. We have never worked harder or got by on so little sleep. We have never had more failures OR success! Would we change it? Never. Each moment, each step of the journey is part of who we now are. Our home is beyond what we could ever have imagined - and yes, more so than our wildest dreams. We work like slaves but we feast like kings.
It is a hard life but it is a good life!!
This is a marvelous write-up, just wonderful. I hope your journey will continue to go uphill, well, in the sense of 'getting better' - sorry, no English native speaker here - and your homestead and endeavours will get back on their feet and be fulfilling.
I think I'll be following your journey from now on.
Thank you for taking the time to read @oceanbee! Your English is perfect. It is lovely to "meet" you
And much will be built over the time - we always try to build not giving up - Nature will upset us sometimes but with all honesty and integrity , some day it will regret to hurt us. Unfortunately many do not realize still.
What an engaging post! How do you pack so much into one? I can't address it all (without spending the rest of the day doing so) so here's a point that is salient for me:
and
I believe it is possible that we, too, are born with the knowledge to self medicate, but we are untaught it via many means. Education mostly, which teaches us that doctors and nurses do all that for us. Untrue!! If we would listen to our bodies, like the goats, we would know when to fast, when to eat herbs, when to get sun.
You are a marvel!!! I am so happy I came across you when you re-arrived on the hive scene!
You know @owasco reading your comment I don't feel like it is a good thing that I pack so much into one post. It literally takes me hours. And that is hours that I neglect so much more important things than writing! I can't do anything half measures but I end up running myself ragged. I get very little sleep. As I already wrote because the only time to finish writing and edit (and re-edit and re-edit...) is after my family is asleep. This post I started writing months ago.
Anyway; I totally agree with you. We do know intuitively and education (not limited to medical) but also schooling and often our own parents or grandparents preferences and ideas influences us. That is one reason it is so special for us to raise our children here. In this environment. I see how they instinctively do things that I have had to learn (while unlearning so much) It is exciting for me to watch them, as it is to watch my four legged kids.
Thank you for the compliment. If few people actually take the time to read my loooooooong posts I am happy that there are some that make the effort. I love sharing what I have learned
I wondered how long it took to put together. Some of mine contain less than half the information, and still take me a week to put together. I often wonder why I bother, but whenever someone finds value in my posts, my purpose in life, for that moment, feels fulfilled. I'd say you are fulfilling your purpose in life in spades! Holy cow. Do you ever rest? Maybe you don't need it as much as those of us who spend our days mostly in buildings, irradiated. You rest as you work?
Thank you for raising humans who live by nature's principles. And for being one yourself.
Wow, what a harrowing experience you have gone through! It is easy to get wrapped up in the romantic idea of the country, but mother nature likes to teach us tough lessons. I am glad you made it through with some of your goats, they really are amazing creatures. Survival is tough. We have been in a drought too, but finally had a good rainy season this year. I am looking forward to following your homestead journey!
Goats are amazing. I haven't gone too much further than seeing your chickens (and some goatie kids), do you also have goats?
No goats, although I have thought about getting them. We would have to do a really serious fencing job, and we have a lot of coyotes here.
There's an expression among goat people; if water can get through the fence, so can the goat! It is true. Sadly. I understand your coyote issue. We have wild cat and mongoose issues with our chickens. And with the sheep there's leopard and jackal. We have lost lambs but never the goats because I keep them close to home.
It sounds like it's been quite the rollercoaster ride! Buckle up and hang on tight would be a suitable warning. 😅
I've featured your post in the Garden Journal Weekly curation.
Thank you so much @minismallholding
You have a beautiful way of describing life in nature with all its charm and magic and at the same time facing real life that often is as opposite as it can get to charming and magic... What a story! You are truly an inspiration, love your strength and courage!
And believe me I can really relate to some parts of your story :) "We have never cried so many tears or had more reason for celebration" as you beautifully say.
I love seeing these beautiful creatures, not to talk about the photo of you with the baby and the goats that made me melt :)
Thank you!
What a wonderful read. I am so sorry about all the loss of life. We also lost so many young fynbos plants that year, I still remember all the grey water I used to water them and it was never enough! Although my home garden is nothing compared to yours. And, your post is kind of an eye-opener for me. I dream of the days when I have enough to buy some land and do my own thing. Your words:
How naive am I still to hold onto this idea. Reading books drinking wine or beer whilst the sun sets after a hard day's work, and so on. How naive am I haha.
But thank you for sharing this. What you are doing is surely slavish in nature (but is it though?) and you will be rewarded like kings! There is hope for us city slickers.
Don't give up your dream! Better to have the reality check now and plan accordingly. It also helps to be able to learn from those who have already done the hard graft. We would've done a lot differently if we had been given better advice. Although in many regards the best teacher is still experience. An invaluable tip that applies to life in general is to learn to choose your battles. I always just try to tackle EVERYTHING....it is simply not possible and more is at stake in the long run
This is an invaluable lesson indeed!
They, whoever they are, always say this, and in hindsight it makes sense. But as I read you and as I read some of my philosophy texts, the emphasis is always on experiencing it yourself. You will always get advice from people, and you will always say "if only I knew xyz". But the best teacher is experience, as you said. Even though it might be a bitter pill to swallow!
So let us hope for rain, and that we may learn from our "mistakes" (I do not think they are really, matter of perspective), and that we do not keep on making the same errors.
Sorry, the reply is very messy 🤣 I have been doing research for my PhD and my head is swimming all over the place.
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