The start of our little heard.....

I've always like the Green Mountains of Vermont and at one time thought I might just see our family end up there before we found our dream farm here at Bakers Acres. We made a trip to Leicester VT in the middle of a nice little snow storm. This was a two part trip and this part was the second. We arrived late at night and enjoyed the fun of a hotel for the night. This our boys thought was just a blast and the excitement of the trip was winding everyone up as tight as a top and finally they drifted off to sleep......



The next morning we approached a beautiful farm nestled into the country side. We were pleasantly greeted by Mr. and Mrs Moore and some of their 10 Children. All I can say is that it was such a breath of fresh air to see a large family that was such a wonderful working unit. They welcomed us into the the home and farm.



The Alpines that they keep and use are for a family run business Garland Goat Soap of Vermont. Please check them out at http://www.garlandgoatsoap.com/! We were very lucky to come home with two of their beautifully crafted bars. Not to mention the wonderful Raw Milk that they also sell at their farm. That of course didn't last long in our house as we here in the Baker Household go threw about 5 gallon a week. This was also a test for my boys. I felt that if they could handle drinking raw cows milk then I hoped they would be able to handle raw goats milk when the time came.

One of the Moores daughters was in charge of the goats and we were happy to meet her and hear all that she had to tell us about them. When going to a farm where animals are so well cared for to purchase animals I often wonder just how hard it is to watch them get loaded and carted away to a new farm......this is something that at some point we will have to deal with.....but I'm rushing to that yet.

Meet April she was the oldest of the triplets and looked very much like her Aunt.

This is May! She came second and looked much like her mother.

The third sister had been purchased by the families vet and her name was June!

They are 6 months old and as sweet as can be. They were bottle babies that had been taken from their mothers at birth. I know that this sounds harsh but from all that I have learned and from what the Moores daughter informed us that it was much less traumatic to take them right away then to take them after they had bonded for a week. That made since although I'm sure that I will have guilt over it even though we will put the milk to good use.

After a wonderful tour of the Moores homestead where we learned that the raised chickens, meat birds, processed their own birds, had beefers, a milker, a sugar shack and had the chance to meet the mother and Aunt of our girls the children enjoyed sledding! We enjoyed conversation. It was very nice, very nice indeed. Threw all of this the two kids were walking and playing with us. They have wonderful personalities and we really felt that they would be a perfect fit in our starting heard.

As we loaded our girls and thanked the Moores for their hospitality I felt a wonderful sense of making a right choice. The right choice to add goats to our farm. The right choice to have made this trip. All leading to the great opportunity to meet the Moores. I do hope that our paths cross again as some point......

April and May are settled in nicely and are very cozy in our barn. They welcome us every time we come into the barn and when we let them out they enjoy playing with us all. We hope to breed them this coming fall! We will keep you posted on them as they grow and enjoy the farm at Bakers Acres!