The Goat Life

That’s right we are living the goat life at the Cremeans farm. Two Sunday’s ago our staff and elders gave Michelle her ultimate 40th birthday gift: Two baby Nubian goats. I have never seen her more excited. Part of her dream of moving out where we could have some acreage was so she could have some animals. We have dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks…now it was time to get something a little larger. These are actually dairy goats.

So here is where the story gets interesting. The initial place Michelle went to pick up her “babies” didn’t pan out so she began to put some other feelers out. Long story short, she ended up finding a family in our area that had three babies they were trying to find a home for. Apparently the “contraption” they used to milk the goats burned down (can you believe it!) so they were trying to get out of the entire “goat business.” Michelle called me at work to tell me we had hit the goat jackpot! Now we could get two momma goats, and the daddy along with the three babies! Can you feel the excitement building? This was Friday night. There was much to do. We would have to work on fencing some of our pastures and Michelle had to build the “contraption” for milking. In case you didn’t know it, I can’t build stuff. Michelle can. It’s all good. She is pretty amazing!


So we got everything ready and it was time to get the goats. Somehow I seemed to remember that they would deliver these goats but here I was in our Honda minivan driving home. The middle seats were out and my kids were holding two of the babies in the back with the two momma goats standing in my van. As I was driving I looked to my right and there was this big fat goat head staring at me from like six inches away. All I could say was … “hey goat”…kind of a surreal moment. This get’s better because a state cop pulled out behind me and I was trying to figure out what I would say if he pulled me over.

Anyway…we made it home finally. I want to say a special thanks to Kevin, Shari, Ray, and Jim for helping us get everything ready. That evening I saw Michelle get off the phone jumping up and down – she looked like she won the lottery. She had just heard from the owners and we could have their other three males for free! I didn’t know we were trying to get the other three …now we could be the proud owners of nine…that’s right, NINE goats.
I am such a city guy but God is helping me adjust. You know what? Goats were never in my dreams, but Michelle was. She is an amazing lady. Loving her like Jesus loves the church means making her dreams the priority in my life. She did that for me a long time ago and I am still learning. Here is the crazy part – I am loving being a goat owner. That is kind of how God works things I guess. Yes, they still freak me out and I don’t like it when they start biting on my jacket but it’s all good because I am living “the goat life.”