Episode 240 -- Anita Yates Andrews -- Goat Lady, Grit, and Grace

Ever wondered what perseverance sounds like at 4 a.m. in a cold barn? Meet Anita “the Goat Lady” Andrews, who runs a five-acre Alabama dairy with 120+ goats, Jersey cows, and a work rhythm tuned to full udders and empty stomachs. We explore how once-a-day milking protects long-term herd health, why fly control is real preventive medicine, and what it takes to read an animal’s nonverbal cues before trouble hits. Anita’s path runs from training horses to breeding parrots to building a teaching herd for Auburn University vet students, where hands get dirty and learning gets real outside the perfect conditions of a clinic.

The conversation moves through the tough and the tender. Anita walks us into kidding season—barn cameras, sleepless nights, breach deliveries—and the sober truth that some fights you win and some you lose. She shares how grief and love are twins on a working farm, from the loss of her first Jersey to the quiet healing that comes when a child collects an egg or a stranger holds a bottle baby. We talk about social media as a lifeline for small farms, why festivals are powerful but punishing, and the commitment behind every jar of raw milk and bar of goat milk soap.

Threaded through it all is Anita’s faith, not as a slogan but as a way of making decisions under pressure. Fear doesn’t help you pull a kid; a steady mind does. Strength, she says, is perseverance—showing up, doing the next right thing, and caring without shortcuts. If you’re curious about homesteading, small dairy life, or kinder goat care—or you just need a story that puts courage back in your chest—this one’s for you.

If this conversation moved you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a rating and review so more listeners can find the show.

Music "STOMP" used by permission of artist Donica Knight Holdman and Jim Huff

Transcript

Meet Anita, The Goat Lady

SPEAKER_06 0:20

Welcome to Stacked Keys Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Stackhouse. This is a podcast to feature women who are impressive in the art world, or in raising a family, or who have hobbies that make us also incurred. Want to hear what makes these women passionate to get up in the morning, or what maybe they wish they'd known a little bit earlier in their life? Kind of by accident, I met through looking at her social media. So we'll get into the letting Anita tell you who she is. But that's how we met, because I was interested in something she was doing, and and it's not what I do. And so it's really cool to meet people who are passionate about something that that I find interesting. So welcome Anita Andrews today. Thank you. I'm really excited, Anita. Right out of the gate, let's let's just go ahead and start. How do people know you both personally and professionally?

Lifestyle Of A Small Dairy

SPEAKER_05 2:10

Um, well, I'm pretty well known around here now after about 10 years as the goat lady. And before that, I bred and raised parrots for almost 30 years, and I was known as the bird lady. Oh wow. It seems to be an ongoing trend of how I know. So um, you know, in the community, I am I at this point, um, a lot of my sales are word of mouth, and I have kept goats for nearly 10 years now. And so people um they, you know, they they get in touch, they're either looking for like raw milk or they're looking for some type of goat product, or they have a sick baby goat, or they have a sick goat at home, or and I'm pretty much that's you know, that's um that's that's just kind of how I've known, even though we keep Jersey cows and we have chickens and we sell eggs and we sell cow's milk too, and but it's the goats that are the most prominent way I'm kind of known in the community now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:16

So that kind of crosses over into both professionally and personally.

SPEAKER_05 3:22

Yeah, I mean, it is uh, you know, it's I mean, you know what we do is a lifestyle, so it it affects it, it does it's what drives your life. It's you know, it's whether you can go anywhere or do anything depends on what's going in your bar going on in your barn, or like right now, we're waiting on a Jersey cow. Her name is Noelle, and she's getting ready to calf. And so we're kind of on calf watch. And so she should be out laying by the creek cooling off right now. She doesn't, she's not showing imminent signs, but we're looking at it could be a if I walked out there and saw a baby, I wouldn't go like, oh, I can't believe it. You know, there wouldn't be a shot to it. Um, but I don't think she's quite there yet. So, you know, so it's always, and with the goats, I'm a little more hands-on about the deliveries when they're kidding, then I try to be there a little more in case something goes wrong. And so, um, and kidding season for us is usually from about mid-January until April, and that's just a time in my life that you can't talk to me and you can't ask me questions, and you can't bother me because I'm not sleeping and I'm not eating, and I am literally just pulling baby goats out of the backsides of their mamas. So it's just so it is, it's it's it's we don't we don't do this, um, we don't do this lightly, you know, and it is a lifestyle. It is because it's every day. There's not days off, there's not time off, there's not vacations, there's not, but the other side of that is there's an absolute passion and a joy and a love for what we do. And so me and my husband both. And so it's we don't really want to take a vacation because there's not any place that we'd rather be than here with them.

Path From Horses And Parrots To Goats

SPEAKER_06 5:10

Wow. Okay, how'd you get involved in this? Have you did you grow up with animals and and that being a part of what you did?

SPEAKER_05 5:19

I did grow I did grow up with animals, and I started out um in my early adult life, around 18 or so, I started showing horses, and and I was um and I had the opportunity to learn to train and so and I ended up doing that about 15 years. I rode and trained horses professionally, and so it's been the running theme of my life, and so and it went from that to parrots, and I did that for a while, and I'm 62 and goats are easier, and so now we're doing, you know, and it and it I you just and then it just seemed like it was a good idea, honest and truly, if you tell the whole truth, this was something that I knew God was calling me to do. And so it was it, this is what he wanted me to do. And I followed, I followed that calling into this. I had no idea there'd be this many animals. We're on five acres, and we are pretty desperate needing to go to bigger acreage because of the amount of animals that we have. But I mean we manage them, but it's not a it would be easier with a bigger property. So, you know, so it it but it's a call, and I try not to I try not to question the call too much. Um, there's a lot of hard days. My average day is 15 hours, and that's every day. It lightens up, it lightens up some as we go through and we get um, you know, the kids get bigger and there's not so much going on with does that are having babies and then the milking. But anytime you look at anybody that lives a life that they run any type of dairy, milking is a full-time everyday commitment. They have to be milked every day, and so we only do once-a day milking just because the commitment of twice a day milking literally makes you stop having a life. You just don't have a life. So, and it and it's we do it for a few reasons. It's it's a little bit easier, it's less demand on the the cows or the doe's body um because they're not milk, milking animals, no matter what, if it's a sheep, a cow, a goat, it doesn't matter. Um if you're milking, they're gonna produce milk according to the demand. And if you put a huge demand on their body, I mean they'll drain their resources within their body to try to meet that demand, especially those that are genetically bred to be good milkers, and that's we have a lot of really good genetics. Cows are the same way, and you know, we're in this for the long term, and I don't I hate losing. Probably my deepest attachments are with the milking does because it's an everyday relationship. Every day they come in there to eat and you milk, and it's a partnership that you and the doe has, and losing a milking doe is just crushing. I mean, it's it's hard to lose any of them because you love them or we love ours so much, and they're like extended family. And goats are very um bond-oriented as animals. So, like when you see my does laying out there and they're piled up, normally I can tell you that it's a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter all laying there together, and they lay in their family groups and they form very, very strong family bonds, but they're also capable of very forming that really strong bond with you, and they're in their personalities, they can be very similar to a dog, but they are different, but the bonds that they form are just incredible, and so the milking does are the ones that because they are handled every day, that's who you that's who you, you know, it's just like your best friends, and so it it's that's pretty incredible, you know, um, to be part of something like that. But even the cows, I didn't know that you could. I mean, I've always I've always been around cows. My grandparents farmed, and my grandmother was a milker, and so I'm kind of thinking it might be a little bit genetic, yeah. Um, you know, that it it it passed down, you know. My mom is not. My mom, my mom would not, and she and she didn't care anything about being raised on a farm, but it it it jumped that generation, but it embedded itself in me. And um, so but it

Once-A-Day Milking And Herd Health

SPEAKER_05 9:40

it just you know, when you're milking, there's not you don't take days off and you don't take it's just it's it's very cyclical, it's very rhythmical, and it and it is very much your lifestyle, you know. So when you see dairy farmers, you you gotta admire them because they you have to be devoted to it to do it. Yeah. Yeah, you you said it was a calling, a calling to what? Um, you know, sometimes God calls you to something that you may not know for sure what it is or what he wants you to do, but he gives you some of the information and you know that you're doing what you're you're where you're at and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, but you don't always understand it. But then when I see this whole thing kind of started, the first thing that I started doing in this line of of I don't know, you know, when people homestead and people they start growing their own food and and and it mine never really started out like that. I always knew I was supposed to do it and then offer it to other people. Um goat's milk is very healing, but the very first thing I started with was making soap. That's where I started before I even had any animals. I didn't even have chickens, and I started making soap. And but I started making soap after my mother was 71 when she um when she got diagnosed with breast cancer. And from her breast cancer diagnosis, I started reading labels and looking at what and and then you know all of a sudden there was this interest in it, and you started looking around and um bath and body stuff and makeup, and I mean, it's full of a lot of really, really bad stuff. Um and then you start learning. So I decided I'd make soap because the the biggest organ on the body is your skin, and everything that gets on your skin gets in your body, and and so you've got to take care of it, and and that kind of started the the beginning of a journey learning about more natural and better ingredients and just doing everything a little more natural, and it that was kind of like the catalyst that that I knew, but I had known for a long time there was a farm in my future, and um so when we started, it was kind of like you you wondered if you needed to go buy a farm because I lived on a little two and a half acre property, and it was like I don't, I mean, we don't have a farm. And so, and you know, and and God just says use what you have. And now here we're sitting, there's over 120 head of goats, there's um four jerseys on the property right now, and there's a few other cows on another property. Um, and there's over 200 chickens, and I don't know, and we use every inch of this property, we use it from one fence to the other, and then uh there's another three acres that's been added, and and like I said, we use it from one end to the other. Um, there's not hardly any part of it that we don't use. And um, my poor dogs were used to a great big yard, and then it kept shrinking and shrinking. And we built barns and we built buildings, and we, you know, and and then all of a sudden you looked up one day and you have a you've got a a it's not a big farm, but it's a it is a working farm, you know. Yeah, and so um, and I mean, and by numbers, like my dairy herd will be one of the largest, probably in the state. Um, so and Auburn is now we're in the rotation and we're used as a teaching herd for the large animal um hospital for Auburn University. So they bring students out periodically to spend the day and basically just anything that needs to be done or that'll be educational for them, you know, even as simple as trimming feet and giving vaccines. But I mean, like I said, there's 120 ahead here, so there's plenty experience for them to get on learning to function in a farm environment, you know, and and because when you're working, when they're doing their vet work and they're learning at the school, well, the the school is the

Calling, Faith, And Daily Grind

SPEAKER_05 14:20

perfect environment, and so you got to figure out how to do it when you're at a farm without a perfect environment, you know, and so but um they've come in and done castrations for us and so that the students can hands-on learn, you know, and they're fantastic teachers. The senior vets at Auburn are fantastic teachers, they're not just fantastic veterinarians, they are fantastic teachers, and so it's a it's a it's a pleasure to be able to share the farm, you know, and see students grow and stuff like that. And then on the other end of that, we try to do a few open house farm days through the year, and that just gets dictated by how much time and energy I have. And the open house farm days are you're trying to let people come in and see where their eggs come from. And and we do tours, we do paid tours where you know you can pay for a couple of hours to come through and you get my personal attention. And I let your kids go in the picket chicken house and pick up chick, you know, pick up eggs from the chickens so they know, you know. And you got some kids that are game for anything, and when you say, Okay, put your hand under that chicken and get the egg, they will. And some of them look at you and they're like, I'm not touching the chicken, I'm not touching the chicken.

SPEAKER_06 15:30

What a cool way to learn. I mean, that's just um so many do not have that opportunity. I mean, I I really have not been um exposed. I mean, I I know where our food comes from, but you know, it it's not a place that I lived or did. And um uh one of my girls worked for extension for the um University of Georgia extension, and she went out with her ag guy, and they were counting flies on cows for you know different producers in the in the field. And it's like those those things are so very important, that research is so very important. And it affects me whether I know it's going to be.

SPEAKER_05 16:17

Because flies can cause a lot of health conditions. Um, there's like fly strike, and then when they're biting the biting flies that you know, that can make the cows bleed, they can create sores. Um, if they get an injury on them, a fly flies are one of the most dangerous things to an open injury that you're trying to get to heal up because they they you know they can um introduce germs and cause it to cause a wound not to heal. So, you know, being able to control fly populations is pretty major for us to keep the animals healthy so that they can do and be what they're supposed to be doing and being, you know. So, but you know, you you think why would you go count flies? And it's like, well, flies don't matter to y'all as much as they matter to us.

SPEAKER_06 17:02

Right, right. And and so I mean, there's all these elements that are so important and that exposing students to different things is huge. What would you say is the biggest waste of time in your day?

SPEAKER_05 17:19

Oh, that probably depends on the day. Um, I'm pretty good at controlling like um customers and and and filling orders and getting all that to work and not getting too caught up in too many conversations. And those are never a waste of time, they're always important um for people to be feel connected to the farm and stuff, but they are time consuming, and that can be, you know, that there's not a lot of time in the day, extra time, and so I have to be careful about that. Um I don't really know I don't ever feel like I have a lot of wasted time because the day is so packed with with everything, you know. I mean, I go from my day's fairly regimented and I go from one thing to the next thing to the next thing, and it has to stay in order and you have to keep it moving because if you don't, you're gonna be really late at night trying to get done. Because I mean, like the feeding chores and the water and all that stuff, it has to be done no matter what, and it doesn't matter what time the gag gets to. Um, so uh I don't know, I'm not much of a time waster because time is my most precious commodity, and so you know, when when even more so probably than than the financial aspect, time is my most important commodity. And so, and everybody doesn't understand, so like like like when people visit in the shop and you get a conversation out of me, you're either probably getting into time that I could be resting, or I'm putting off what I've got to go do. And as soon as I leave you, I'm going to go and pick back up into my work so that I get done tonight. And you're never done, you're never done, you know. So so for me, with as precious a commodity as time is, we you know, my husband or I, either one, we don't waste a lot of time because we do work. I mean, we do work long days, and um, and that's like when you go to bed and go to sleep. I don't want anything to get in the way of my sleep, and because I need to rest, because I'm not I don't get a second shot, you know, if if I lose a night's sleep, and in kidding season, this is one of the hardest things, and you adjust to it, but you're either what I have cameras in the barn and I'm either watching cameras at night, checking does that are getting ready to kid, or I'm actually in the barn delivering babies, and I'm not gonna make that sleep up. There's not some of them in the day. You say, Well, you can take a nap, and it's like, no, and when

Soapmaking, Clean Ingredients, And Growth

SPEAKER_05 20:05

you have kiddings that go all night, like one of the funniest ones, I had a dough, and she started kidding about 11 o'clock at night. I got her done. So by the time you get them all the way through their labor and you get the kids, you know, getting the kids out is just one step. So you get the kids out, you get them cleaned up. Um, mom will get up. You got to make sure all the kids suck because they have to have colostrum because that's what kick starts their immune system, and without it, they won't make it. And so you get that done. You're usually about two hours or so in by the time a doe passes her afterbirth, which you stay and watch for to make sure that that happens. Um, so you know, you've just you've got a set of things that all have to happen, and it's about a, you know, it can run anywhere from two to four hours. So if you start at 11, you know, you're finishing up about two, sometimes three. And I know one night I cleared the door at 11. I cleared the door at 3:30, and I'm I'm I'm filthy. I was, you know, she had had a set of triplets, and so I have fluid all over me, and the dirt from the floor that I have been wallowing around in, and clean little babies, and so you can't go to bed, you've got to take a shower, you've got to get this off of you. And I got out of the shower, and it was probably about 4:15. I had wound down enough. I was gonna try to lay down. I looked at my camera, and another doe was down and starting to get into the birth position and start pushing. And I sat there, her name is Gelato, and I said, I went out to the barn, I got up, I put clothes on because you don't want to deliver in your underwear. I got up and I got dressed, and I went out there and I said, Gelato, I have been in this barn almost all night, and you couldn't do this before now. This is what it's like they're ready to come now, and I'm gonna have these babies. I said, I'm gonna put you on a barbecue grill for this. I'm probably gonna barbecue you. So we didn't, she's still here, but you know, so I finished about 7:30 that morning, and we start milking between 7:30 and 8. So I came in and I washed up to my elbows and got cleaned up and stayed in my dirty clothes from delivering another set of kids and went and started milking doughs.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_06 22:40

You don't have a lot of choice, you don't have a day to get sick, you don't have no how do you how do you balance that?

SPEAKER_05 22:47

Well, there's not it's not balanced, and it's it's not um you make sacrifices. Um I am I am a really funny person about somebody coming out here sick, and they'll say, Oh, I've just got a cold, and they come and you've been in my shop and it's just a little bitty building. And you if you're sick, please don't bring it to me. Please don't bring it to me because I won't have the opportunity to go to bed, and I will have to be really miserable dragging around with a bad head cold, still doing chores and still milking and still working. My husband will step in and try to carry some of it, but we're at a size now that it just takes both of us to do everything, and so it's um it's you know, getting sick is a it's so you try to take care of yourself, you try to eat good, and you I drink a lot of goat's milk and hope your immune system is just sturdy enough to handle it. But during COVID, um I I wore a mask all the time. Um, and when people came here, I wore a mask because I had people pull up and say, Well, we tested positive for COVID three days ago. Well, don't come in my building. I've told people they couldn't come in. And with COVID, I said you can't come in here because I can't get COVID. And don't touch the doorknobs and I'll bring your stuff out to you and I'll set it down here on the step and you can get it. And if it was rude, it was just rude. But it was like, you can't give me COVID. Yeah, you cannot give me COVID. So, you know, it just so if if I have a pet peeve that will make me speak up, it's that one. Don't don't come to me sick. Don't don't come to me sick. I'm with you on that because it's like something that's so incidental to somebody else can be catastrophic to you know, if you if you if you break a foot, um, we have we have one of the orthopedic boots, and you go put the boot on and you tape it up good and you just keep working, you know. It's just uh it's a lifestyle, and and it's you you have to do it, you know. I'm good at taping up um, you know, fractures and and stuff like that. When you've got a hand that you you got stepped on or got pinched, or and you're like, I probably fractured

Teaching Herd For Auburn Vet Students

SPEAKER_05 25:00

that finger. Take that finger to the other finger and just keep going.

SPEAKER_06 25:04

So it'll be okay. Wow. You know, that's not some bad life advice.

SPEAKER_05 25:10

I mean No, it's you know, we don't we don't feed into a lot of drama um because we don't have time for it. We don't have time for it. And you know, and people people say, well, when are you gonna retire? And it's like, I'm not. I mean, because I love what I do. It's not what I do is hard. There's not any, and I don't tell the stories to sound, you know, like some kind of um, I don't know, crazy, overindulged nut that I live this lifestyle. It's just a lifestyle. It's just a lifestyle. You do have to be kind of tough to do it. You do get hurt sometimes, you know, and you have to, you're you're always managing things. And maybe what I love the most about it is probably every day it's a little different, you know. The the work that we do is, but the animals make it different every day. And it's challenging. And it's, you know, and I tell people, I said, I probably won't, I won't keep this many animals as I get older because I won't be able to, but um, you know, as long as I can do the work, then right now I am trying. I'm I'm gonna have this year and probably next year, I'll do a lot of selling and I'll breed less. And because I I do need to reduce numbers. And so um, but it it but it's you know, for me, it's kind of a simple thing. It's just it's what we do. This is what we do.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

What about oh I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_05 26:35

We don't watch TV. We don't um both of us like we check the news and stuff on our phones. Um, I do social media mostly to help promote the farm. Um and and since but if you follow my farm, that's my life, so you're following me, you know. And if you want to know what I'm doing, this is why I do this every day. That's where she is. Yeah. If you call here about 8 30 or 9 o'clock in the morning and you go, what are you doing? Every single day it'll be I'm milking. I'm milking. That's what I'm doing, I'm milking.

SPEAKER_06 27:08

Well, how do we balance ambition with contentment?

SPEAKER_05 27:15

Um I think that that'll go that'll go back to to to to trust in to trust in the call of God, that's gonna go back to my faith. And I'm content because I'm in order with him, that makes me content. And then everything else will balance from that. So um sometimes I don't, you know when people say, Why do you do this? I don't I can't besides telling you that I know that this is what God wants me to be doing right now, I know that. I know that all the way into my bones. I know that. I know that I'm in right order with the universe because I'm right or in right order with the creator of the universe. And that creates a contentment where you don't, and then the the the other thing about living the life that God allows you, instead of trying to make a life for yourself, living the life that God wants for you is is perfectly suited to you, and even though it's challenging, and if you notice, I rarely say the word easy, it's not living a life with God is not easy, but it you're content in it because you because he's pleased with you and you're where he wants you. And I guess that's what creates the contentment. I'm at peace. I'm at peace with God, and so and I don't and I trust God's goodness so that on the day my heart breaks and I bury a doe, um we lost our first Jersey cow, the first Jersey cow that we owned, we lost her last August in a freak thing with a retained placenta. This is not anything that we did wrong. This is not, it was just a freak thing. I had a vet out, we tried to treat her, and we just couldn't, she went septic and we couldn't bring her back around. Retained placenta is always very, very dangerous for infection and going septic. And it was in August and it was hot and we just couldn't bring her back around. And her name was Scarlett, and we adored her, and we lost her. And even on those days, see, I mean, it still hurts me. Yeah, but I believe in the goodness of God, I believe that with all that I am, I know that

Flies, Farm Realities, And Prevention

SPEAKER_05 29:45

his plan for me is always good. And I guess on the day that you're not content because you broke your heart and you fought all night, I was having to give her medicine through the night and because she was down in the pasture, and I fought her all night. All night to try to keep her alive. And in the morning we had to euthanize her. And it's you know, it I guess what I know about a broken heart is that God will take pick up my heart and put all the pieces back together again because that's his goodness at work. And then he reshapes your heart every time it breaks. And it's a little bit more of the heart that he wants you to have. And understanding that process and having lived with it through um 30 years of my adult life, not I don't I haven't understood it my whole life, but I've understood it the last 20 years very well. You still when you're when you're holding Scarlet and she's dying, you still believe in the goodness of God, even though I can't understand it. But but I trust God to the point that I don't have to understand it. I don't have to understand when things go wrong.

SPEAKER_06 30:56

I don't have to understand. There are so many life lessons that you just have right at your fingertips. Yeah, it's like it's almost like not fair that you get that.

SPEAKER_05 31:08

And I I pay for it. I pay for it. You do, don't you? Um yeah, you do, you pay for it. Um, but it and when you ask me why do I do what I do, is because in conversations with people, um I have these life blessings and I can share them. Yeah, and I can share my heart. And um, and sometimes I see people and they come to this farm and they're grieving and they're having a bad time, and um you'll just invite them in, you don't even know why. It's like, come on, let's go walking, let's just go look at the goats. And this is not a person that I'm close friends with, it's somebody just maybe buys me. I said, let's just have you ever walked through my goats and they take a walk through them goats because it's healing, and somebody, some goat comes up to them and loves on them and begs them for attention because goats are magical like that, and it's healing. I gave it this this comes to mind, and this this is this this lady is a friend of mine, and um, but she loves to come out here, and she came out one day and she I have a little bantom chickens running everywhere. You know, you've been out here, you've seen them, they're running everywhere, and she was just enthralled with those little chickens. And I had I had some mid-sized chicks, they didn't need their mama sitting on them anymore. But and she said something, and I said, I ended up giving her three chicks, however, the conversation came around. I gave her these three little chicks. Three little chicks out of 200 and something chickens is I'm not doing a big deal. I did not know, and she didn't tell me till later. She got she fell totally in love with these chicks, and she took them home. She had to keep them in the house for a little bit, they weren't quite ready to be just totally kicked, you know, kicked out. So she kept them in the house. She had a little boy, and she her and her little boy, they raised these chicks, and I did not know that she had had a little dog, and she had had it about 16 or 17 years, almost through her whole adult part of her life. Her

Time, Boundaries, And Kidding All-Nighters

SPEAKER_05 33:20

son had been born. This dog was part of all this part of her life, and she had put that dog to sleep the day before she came here. Oh, and she was crushed at the loss and not sure how she was going to manage it. And I handed her three chicks to raise, yeah, to soothe her heart. She didn't tell me till later. I didn't know what I was doing. I just and she kept saying, No, I can't take these chicks. And I said, Sure you can. It's just she had a couple of big, bigger chickens, and I said, You already got chickens, you got chicken food, you give them water. Take these three chicks. I need to buy them. I said, No, you don't need to buy them, just take these three chicks. And and I knew that she needed those three chicks. I can't tell you why I knew that, but I knew that. And so she she told me later, she said, You have no idea what you did for me that day. Well, her heart was so broken from losing her best friend. And I know that we have family, and we have our husbands, we have our children, and we have and but animals for some people are they just you know they they just help us get through the world. Yeah, and she wasn't, you know, and this dog, like I said, 17 years. Holy cow, that's a long time to have a dog. A lot of dog years, and she had lost him, and so now she's got three chicks, they're chickens now, and and I hear from her once in a while, and she tells me what the chick chickens are doing, you know. Oh so you know, that's that's why you do what you do.

SPEAKER_06 34:52

Well, and it's interesting because you just you just move through life and can can respond uh when when you need to. Um, what do you fear most, whether it be for the animals or or your lifestyle, or are there any fears that you just kind of crop up on a continual?

SPEAKER_05 35:14

No, because and and and I don't, you know, all the questions you're asking me, they all go back to my faith. They really do, don't they? They do. And so the Bible says, and and he's had to teach me this, and I can tell you that's I have a story, I have so many stories. Um, so the Bible says that God does not give us a spirit of fear, but he gives us a um a sound mind and power. And and so again, it goes back to just buying into it and actually believing it, um, and not saying that you believe it. And so um early, early on, this would have probably been about maybe my fifth or sixth time to kid a dough. So I didn't have a lot of experience. But when I started, I didn't know anybody that had goats, and that was local. I didn't know any livestock vets, and I was really, really out there on a tightrope by myself, and there was a lot of stressing over it, and you wanted to be afraid, but you couldn't because you've got to take care of what's ever going on, and so this was actually a doe I had raised. I owned her mama. Her mama was pregnant when she came here, and she had two girls and a boy, and then the two girls they grew up, and by then I had bought a buck and I bred both the two girls. And up until then, I had had little bitty bumps in kiddings where things might not have gone perfect, like a breach kid that you kind of had to help pull out, or but her name was Thelma, and Thelma started going into hard labor, and she was pushing, and we weren't getting anything. And she is laying in the stall pushing as hard as she can push, and she is screaming and bellowing. And I put my hand part way in to vaginally check her, and I don't have anything in that birth canal, and I don't have a clue what to do. I am way over my head, and I love this little doe. And if I don't do something, she's gonna die. And I was scared, I was terrified, and she is and she's screaming, and I can't get her voice out of my head to concentrate. I don't know what to do. And I got up, it was cold, it was in February. My husband was in the barn with me. Wayne was sitting right there, and he said, What are you gonna? I said, I don't know. And I got up and I left the stall. I walked out of the stall because I I could not find it, I couldn't find a voice, I couldn't hear anything, I didn't know what to do, and I couldn't think. I walked out in that cold air. I was in that stall sweating because it was just tough. And I walked out into that stall and I hit that cold air hit me. And very quietly, God just said, I don't give you a spirit of fear. And I confessed it and I told him, I said, I don't know what to do, and she's gonna die, and her babies will die with her. And I and I was crying and I didn't know what to do. And I looked at him and I said, I am scared to death. He said, But I don't give you a spirit of fear. So if I've got a spirit of fear on me, that's coming from the devil, and I ain't dancing with the devil, and I ain't fixing lose no goat because I am dancing with the devil. And he said, I don't give you a spirit of fear, I give you a spirit of power and a sound mind. Now go use your sound mind. Go do it. And you take a breath, and I went back in, and just that little bit of break, she had relaxed some. I put my hand up inside her, and suddenly I could feel I could feel something in the birth canal. And I have, I don't have very my hands are my hands are big compared to my body, but I've got long, strong fingers. And I curled my fingers into whatever I could feel, and I got hold of it and I pulled. And um she had she had a baby that was breach, and he was kind of bigger, and he was and breached babies will be sluggish. And I got hold of that little baby, and I just I didn't know if what I was doing was right or wrong, but I did something, and I got that baby out, and his little brother was right behind him, and he when she was pushing and I'm pulling, when I got that breach

Balance, Illness, And Protecting Capacity

SPEAKER_05 39:30

baby dislodged, every it came in a rush, one right behind the other. She had a set of triplets. And so, and that hasn't happened to me one time in my life, that's happened over and over and over. And sometimes you get scared and they die, and then you go back to the fact that God will take care of your grief if you let him, and sometimes you reach in and you get them kids out and they're not stuck, and everything comes out and it works okay. And you learn you learn to live, you learn to, and you it's like with Scarlet that night. I had a bad feeling, but I can't waste time on being afraid because if I can pull this back around, it'll take all that I can do. It takes all of my sound mind when one goes down, and you're gonna work as hard as you can work, and you're gonna give everything you got. Because then if they don't live, you don't carry any guilt. You walk away from that. I don't feel guilty what happened to Scarlet. I don't blame myself with what happened to Scarlet. It was it was just what happened, and so you know, I did everything I could do. I did everything within my power. I got veterinarian help, and she and I worked together, and we did everything that we could do, and I stayed with it all night, and in the end I lost that fight. And some you win, and some you lose. And I just need to know that when I lose, that I did everything I could. And if I did everything I could, it was beyond it was beyond me anyway. Right, and I don't and I don't have to understand when I don't understand why God lets me win some of them and I have to lose some of them. Um, it teaches you things like you know, one of the most important things I've probably learned here on this farm is that grief and love go hand in hand. That is so true. And when you when you're when somebody all of a sudden looks at you and they break down because they've lost somebody and they're grieving, there is so much power to be able to hug them and hold them and say you're only grieving because you loved. Because we don't grieve if we didn't love, yeah, and so grief is literally, and this farm has taught me that. This farm has taught me, and you don't have to be afraid of grief, you know. It's as it's as natural as the love you gave, it's as natural as the love you gave, and grief is just it, there's no way that you can love and never grieve, yeah. And I wouldn't miss out, I wouldn't miss out on the love for anything. I don't want to, I don't want to miss out on the love, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:10

That'd be a loss, but you know, while you're talking, I keep thinking about the the vet students coming through and and having stories and experiences like that, because they will if if they're a large animal or any animal, any animal, they see so much death, they deal with so much death because they don't get to see the animals on the day-to-day basis.

SPEAKER_05 42:34

It's just like you know, it was kind of funny when when Auburn approached me and they said, We want to come to your farm. And because Auburn only ever sees my sick goats, they don't see my healthy goats, so Auburn only knows me from every sick groat and broken legs and everything else I've drug in there in the middle of the night because they're sick and I don't want them to die. And and Auburn doesn't, but they but they know that I'm doing my very best and that there's there's a hundred and nineteen other goats here right but exactly. So, you know, the students can come and and see body condition and see, you know, and and see what you're doing, and and and know, you know, um, but yeah, it to me it it almost seemed like a little bit of an oxygen moron is y'all want to come to my farm, but all you've seen of my goats are the sick ones, you know.

SPEAKER_06 43:28

So that is that's kind of kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_05 43:32

They're able to make that discernment, you know. They know they they they know when you're when you're working at it and you're trying, you know. Right. So and and and they know they know how many are here that aren't sick, you know.

SPEAKER_06 43:45

Right, right. And they can see the care that has gone into it, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:50

So if I ask you your definition of strong, I feel like you just gave me the definition of strong, but is is that how you would define it of you know, overcoming fear and and going forward and what what kind of definition would you hang on the word strong?

SPEAKER_03 44:08

On the word strong.

SPEAKER_05 44:15

Probably I don't know. I mean, I guess I've always just taken it for granted. You know, um I kept bees for about eight years, and by my second year I had had a bees are can

Ambition, Contentment, And Loss

SPEAKER_05 44:30

be hard to keep, they're hard to get started in. Um and I lost almost I had gotten up to about six hives and I lost almost all of them in the second or third year. And my husband looked at me and he said, You haven't failed unless you quit. And so I didn't quit. You know, I regrouped and I kept going. I ended up keeping bees about eight years. When I did finally quit keeping bees, it's because just time-wise the herd was bigger, there was more milking going on, the the business, the business side of what I do, the shop and selling stuff was growing, and I just didn't have time to do it and be fully dedicated to it. And so then I quit, but you know, it it and I probably will still go back and eventually get bees again. Just not why I have 120 goats. Um, that just doesn't that that math doesn't go. So I don't I don't know, you know, I think um I think that strong might go if I was gonna define it with one other word, I would say perseverance. You just persevere, you just persevere, and that's an old Bible word, you know. That's an old Bible word, and so um because Paul had wrote in in Romans, and I hope I can remember all this once I started. Um suffering produces character. Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us because of the love that we have through Christ Jesus. That's it. Romans Romans 5, I think, or the beginning of Romans 8. I'm not sure where that is, but so I think that strength, and I think we think of strength as just being tough or iron wheeled, or and I think it's a lot simpler than that. I think it's just persevering. You know, when you when you when you meet a mother that's buried a child and she's making it through life still, that's a grief that never goes away. And she just perseveres through it. And but we see her as strong. She doesn't and and people that we that we have a tendency to look at, well, you're just so strong, and it's like, nah, I just won't quit. I just I don't know to do anything else except keep going forward. And yeah, another thing I've learned in life is when you're in a bad spot, good golly, don't stay there. You know, don't stay there. When you're in a bad spot, and and I mean, and and life beats us all up, life beats everybody up. That's uh that is universal. Light is life is and if it hasn't got you yet, don't worry, it's coming. It's gonna beat the crap out of you. And and and so the thing of my my wisdom at 62 is when you're in a bad place, don't stay there, move forward. Don't don't get hung in in self-pity and and even things like depression and stuff, move forward because sitting there is not helping you. Move forward, and so I guess if you're gonna if I'm gonna define the word strength with one other word, it's perseverance. You just don't quit. Yeah, like you don't have time to quit. Yeah, I don't even I don't yeah, I don't even have time to think about it. So you know well, I mean something's hungry or it's and it's not like they're hungry. I mean, they're not they're they're hungry, they want to be fed, and it's my fault they're here, you know. It's my fault they're here. So and they just they just you know, in the morning I always laugh, and the joke is I've got full uders and empty stomachs. I gotta go because their stomachs are empty and their udders are full, and a full udder is painful, and so a full udder is uncomfortable and an empty stomach is too. So, you know, it's my job to go out there and fill up their stomach and empty their udder. That's my job, yeah. So and they hold me to it, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:38

Yeah, they I'm sure they do, and they know that you're the person that's gonna help fix both of those issues. Yep. Um, what's been your biggest business challenge and and how have you navigated? I mean, you alluded to the store and having things there, um, and just your time is is challenging, but is there a a business aspect that you had to figure out?

SPEAKER_05 49:04

Yeah, in a small community like this, like um social

Grief, Love, And Hard Lessons

SPEAKER_05 49:10

media has been has been pretty much a godsend because it's so difficult in a small rural place like this for people to know you're here. And it's it's easier now because you know, all the things I do, it's very in vogue now. You know, drink raw milk and get fresh eggs, and that's all very people are looking to do that. People that live in subdivisions and don't farm and you know, they're all they're all looking to that's people are looking for what you have. The challenge is getting them to find you, you know, and so and it's easier for me now because like I said, word of mouth, I you know, I'm the goat lady, and it's and it's like you know, and I have people just just call out of the blue and they'll say, somebody gave me your name and said you have goat's milk. I do, I do, and so you know, I've got when people are looking, my name gets mentioned a lot, you know. It's you know, Colinita Andrew, she's got it, and I got a sick goat, call and eat andrew, she can fix it, you know. And so it's it's easier now than it ever was, but I'm still shocked at the number of people that when they come like in the shop and and I'm meeting them for the first time, I had no idea you were here. And it's like, you know, I've been on Facebook a long time, and so it's just like, well, I do all I can to let y'all know I'm here, and and so it's um, and that's better than it used to be because you know, before social media things like Instagram and Facebook, where people could see pictures and you could put content and share your form and engage people, um, yeah, it's just impossible people know you're here. It's just and that's one of the most challenging things that's that's been um and then the the other thing I'd like to do, and I do two of them a year, but man, time just doesn't allow it. I like to do the the little um the little festivals and the the the uh flea market things and you know and the things like that, but that's such a that's such a it's such a huge time commitment. Yeah by the time you load everything and so many of those start at like 7:30 in the morning. Well, you know, starting at three o'clock in the morning and be there by 7:30. And so um, I do do the arts council, the the Chilton Arts Council, they do two a year, and because it's local and it it puts my name even more into the community, I try to do those. Um, as long as nothing blows up where you can go do them, and you know, you don't get up one morning and like, okay, this I can't leave today because I'm I'm either going to Auburn with an animal or you know, it just and you have to be very fluid in what we do here, you know, you have to be very fluid and you have to be able to change direction immediately. So probably the biggest challenge is and the other thing is convincing people to come out and give you a try, you know, and just give the farm a try. Yeah. So I have lots and lots of people say they tell me how they go to Gatlinburg and buy goat's milk soap.

SPEAKER_06 52:27

Yeah, you're like I had somebody telling me the other day that that they'd go to Birmingham, and I'm like, well, I can stop you before you get to Birmingham.

SPEAKER_05 52:36

Yeah. So you know, and that's like well, that's like people um they bring me egg cartons where they've gone and bought eggs at the store, but they give me the egg cartons to use to sell my eggs, but they don't buy my eggs. They don't buy my eggs. Oh goodness gracious. I mean, and that can be friends and family. That's friends and family that they don't buy from you, but they'll bring you into egg cartons where they buy commercial eggs, but they won't buy my eggs. All you can do is laugh about it, you know. It's it's just such a it it's it's just you know, and so but they it can be frustrating. It's like they'll bring you a whole and I mean, and I'll help tell I have people tell me I eat three eggs every single day. And it's like, wow, you make a great egg customer.

SPEAKER_06 53:24

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03 53:26

They're not my egg customers.

SPEAKER_06 53:28

Oh goodness. What legacy do you hope that your business leaves behind, both in your industry and in your community?

SPEAKER_05 53:40

Um, better and kinder care for goats. Um, and because goats can be treated as livestock. People think that goats can just be thrown out and not have any kind of care. And that's not true. And then knowing their little personalities, you know, if I have a legacy, it's to educate people and hope that people will um take better care of their goats. Um honestly, I don't really think about I don't really, I don't guess I've ever really

Vet Students, Sick vs. Healthy Herd

SPEAKER_05 54:10

thought about a legacy. Maybe not think I'm a terrible person. I don't, you know, I don't know. I don't I I don't know. Um I will finally be out of this and you know, and hanging out and finally being able to see God face to face, and that'll be great. And I'm probably not gonna worry about it. But I don't, you know, I don't kindness, you know, maybe love each other a little better. I guess really, you know, and this just bumped me, if anything, because there's so many times that so many of my conversations will end up revolving around God and and knowing him. And I hate I hate that so much of God sometimes he's portrayed as the great punisher, and that's not who God is. That's not who God is. Um and and I hope if I leave a legacy, maybe it's a better view of who he really is and a legacy of people finding out how to hear his voice and know him better. See, now I got all serious on that. Um, and be better goat mamas and daddies. But but you know, but maybe maybe find out who God really is. And it's real discouraging when like, especially like, and I've done a good bit of public speaking and stuff, and I've done um I've done some, you know, I I did a a lot of it for a while, um, going out and giving talks about God and stuff to to like smaller church groups and stuff. And and I remember one lady looking at me, she said, it's just in my nature to worry. And I said, Well, then you just need to get to know God. Oh, I know God. And I said, Well, if you knew God, then you wouldn't worry. You understand that's you can't do both. You can't have faith and worry. You can't have faith and worry. And and not saying it in a mean way, I just, you know, she she's at this retreat and she's a believer, and she's but it's my nature to worry. And I said, Well, God didn't give you that nature, God didn't give you the nature to worry. So if you got that, then that Satan probably gave you that, and I'm not sure why you go hang on to it. Yeah, just I'm just saying, I'm just saying, yeah. I'm not trying to be mean to you, I'm just saying God would not give you a nature of worry, it's not your nature, yeah. Because worry and faith don't go hand in hand, and so maybe it's if if I have a if I leave a legacy, it's somewhere along the way that somebody will remember something I said that helped them and helped them connect better to God, you know. Yeah, well, that's definitely a thread for you, and yeah, and found that voice, you know, found that get that voice in your ear. And and you know, when people say, Well, I don't think I've ever heard from God and I don't know how to. And the very first step in that lesson is to understand in the Bible, God says that He is not vain, and He doesn't do anything vain, God does everything for a purpose, and so here's the deal of how that connects to a person. If and God knows our hearts, He knows our hearts better than we know our hearts, and God already knows if you're not gonna give yourself over to obedience, then if you're not gonna give yourself over obedience, and then if He talks to you and He tells you to go do something, but He already knows you're not at the place in your life that you're gonna give yourself over to obedience, then that would be vain, wouldn't it? For God to tell you

Defining Strength As Perseverance

SPEAKER_05 57:50

to do something that He knows you're not gonna go do because you haven't figured out submitting yourself and being obedient to God, then that would mean that God's doing something vain. So you're not gonna hear that voice. But at the same time, you might you might hear that voice because I believe with with Jonah it happened, and then the lesson had to be a little bigger than the yeah, but but but I but in even in Jonah, ultimately he was obedient. Oh yeah, yeah. I mean he did have to get swallowed by a fish to go be obedient, so because he was stubborn, but but God knew that if he pushed him hard enough, yeah, you're gonna get it, he would become obedient. God knew that about Jonah's heart, you know. And that whole story is you know, that whole story is just so crazy because Jonah was just um and it's just proof that God can use anybody, right? But God knew that God knew that he could get Jonah to the point of obedience and was ready to push it as far as he had to push it to get that obedience, and so and a lot of that is just at the places that were in our lives, you know, and and he he gives us a lot of chances, you know, to bring ourselves to obedience. And so, um, you know, and and we and we just go through things that get harder and harder because we're not obedient. And he finally pushes us to the place that is like, okay, now, you know, now, and so for Jonah, he had to be thrown on during a storm and swallowed by a fish. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 59:25

Well, it's interesting. It is very interesting, and to see how it plays out in your daily life. Um, and there you are um working, doing what you what you believe is exactly where God wants you to be. You wind up with relationships, relationships with the animals that that do you think that you could do you think the animals understand you when you're talking to them?

SPEAKER_05 59:51

Um at some level, yes. I think animals understand things. Um to me, animals and babies are very much alike. They're not that far from God. You'll never see anything as touching as a mama that that has lost a baby in front of her. And not necessarily right when it's born, but the baby dies. And they accept death without question. When they smell, it can be their best friend, it can be their baby. I've seen it with cows. I've seen it with um and when when they smell that life gone, um, you know, they just walk away. They just walk away. Um and because they just accept it that this is this is where this is and this is what's happened and and um and they don't look for them. And it's because it's funny you can take an animal out of the herd like you can sell something and they'll look for it. But if they if they smell a past animal, they don't look for them. They don't look for them. And so I think on a lot of levels they do know, um, you know, uh, but I think they they function more off of like the emotions that you're giving off and the you know, the instead of I mean they do know some actual words, you know, like like I mean, they know what I use to call them in. I use a phrase I say let's go goats, and I say goats real deep and strong, and they know when when they're out, and I and I holler and I say let's go goats.

unknown 1:01:32

Holling them in.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:33

They know get in the barn, you know, and I'm telling them I say get in the barn, get in the barn. And so, like if a storm is fixing to blow in and I'm trying to get everybody in and I can start moving through there and clapping my hands, and I say, get in the barn, and they run for the barn door. So they know, you know, the cadence of a phrase, just like dogs, you know, learn commands, and so um uh and but animals are so but that's like you know, little babies, and and I think I function probably better with animals than I do with anything because I function in a non-verbal world, and that's like I can watch little babies and I see so much what's going across their faces and stuff that other people kind of don't always pick up on because I live in a non-verbal world of my ghosts can't tell me that they're sick, but I promise you I can look at them and I know when they are, and you know, I can see a kid that's just he's a little bit head down, his body position's wrong, just

Social Media, Markets, And Visibility

SPEAKER_05 1:02:30

something's a little off. And it's like, okay, come here and let me see you because there's something you're not okay right now, you know, and you start taking a temperature or checking for diarrhea or checking and see what's you know what's going on, and so um, so they give you cues, but it's they can't come and tell you that they feel bad, you know.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:48

And so pick up on it.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:50

You have to pick up on it, and you learn you learn to read body language, and that may be what helps me, you know, when I'm talking to somebody and all of a sudden I can they haven't said that they're grieving, but you can see their grief or you can see their pain or you can see it is because I pick up nonverbal cues. Yeah, because I I spend my life with the only way they can tell me it's just like watching Noelle, and I'm watching her, and and Noelle is the cow, the jersey that's getting ready to calve. And so, you know, and there's clues there that we're getting closer. Her udder is full. Um cows will this is kind of gross, but they string mucus from their backside, and their backside gets real puffy, and um she's puffing up. I've I've seen puffier, she's not stringing a lot of mucus yet, and so I'm still a few days out, probably, you know. So but and she can't tell me that, but yeah, you know, but she can tell me, but she doesn't, you know, it's it's not words, and so but you know, I think they they know if you're real stressed, and you know, and a lot of times um, you know, they make sure they kind of get out of your way and they seem to behave a little better, and then some days they're just wild and crazy, and you're like, Can y'all stop? You know, so it's uh it's it's you know, and they're all different. Everybody's personality is different. That's I have a lot of sonin in my I have a lot of sonens in my herd, and sonens are a big white goat, and so I have a lot of white goats, and the one thing everybody says to me when they come here is I don't see how you tell them apart. And it's like well, they don't look like each other. I mean, they're all big white goats, but they don't they all they're all different, they're all different, you know, and that's like the little babies. How can you tell all these? And but they were born into my hands. I mean I don't you know it is getting harder with the numbers I have. It's getting harder. There's a lot. Yeah, coming up with more names is probably yeah, the name thing is yeah, the name thing is tough.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:55

So well, Anita, how do people find you? How do they get in touch? Um, what what could they look for you?

SPEAKER_05 1:05:05

Uh Facebook and Instagram, it's Azure Farm, is our farm page. Um, and then um, and then I'm on, you know, Facebook used to, I don't know if they do this now. They used to make you, you had to have a personal page to have your farm page. So I have Azure Farm and I have Azure Farm Market, which is the market side of things where I try to let people know what's available or what's new in the shop, and then and then I have a personal page that's in Media Yates Andrews. And so any of that you can find me. Um, my understanding because I try to ask people how they find me, especially when somebody just drives up and it's like, how'd you find me? And so um it seems like we're bumping along pretty good in Google now. If you're looking for goats or goat's milk in Alabama, I seem to start I'm popping up a lot there, which is super helpful. Um, but uh so I think you can Google us. And if you look for goats in Clanton, Alabama, I think I'm popping up. You're the one. You're the one. I'm the goat lady. And so um, so you know, but mostly social media is the easiest way. Um and you know, and and and and I tell people send a message or the phone number is on the page, and you can but text me, you know. Everybody wants to give you a phone call and they well, how come you don't always have your phone on you? Because a doe well, I'm milking, but I mean, I get bumped around by the goats a lot, and you get cracked screens and you get broke phones, and the phone falls out of your pocket, and the 200-pound dough that's standing right beside you puts your foot flat on the screen and buried it. And so you only experience yeah, and you only replace your phones so many times that you quit taking them out there. So and I tell people the very easiest, quickest way to get hold of me is a text.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:03

Yeah, that's the best way. And you have a um an online store or

Legacy: Kinder Goat Care And Faith

SPEAKER_06 1:07:10

I do actually.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:11

I'm so glad you're asking. Yeah, we have a website. Like I didn't even remember that. Um, and it's asherfarmmarket.com. And you can shop from there, you can pre-order. We're not doing a lot of shipping right now because time management, it I you know, I really felt like I needed to focus on my local community, and so the website is for ordering for um you can online order for for um farm pickup. Okay, not as much shipping, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:43

Well, I will tell you, um, we came out there and got uh some goat's milk and cheese, and um, it was amazing, absolutely amazing. And um, Tom also got some um goat milk caramels, and he just thought they were divine. Um they are they are good, yeah. And so he he took them to the office and um and he just loved them. So so I know it's quality and it's it's made with heart and love and and you have uh best practice. You you have a lot of things that you have learned and put in place to make sure that it's safe and clean and uh a very good consumable.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:28

Try to we you know, we try to. We you know, it's just a it's uh it's been a it's been a long learning curve because there wasn't anybody to really learn from. And so, but it's uh and so then what you try to, you know, you try to help other people that want to do it too, you know. So, you know, we raise our doughs to be really good stable milkers. And I do have some doughs that I'll sell this year that are in milk. Um, this is the first time I've been able to do that very much. I sell a dough in milk once in a while, but um, you know, and it you're and you and you're always willing to help somebody else learn, you know, and step up into this lifestyle.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:08

And but it is a commitment. It's not a I don't think anything frustrates me more than someone who will get a dog or or you know, even get a goldfish and not be ready for the commitment. And you go into something, you know, like this, and right it you're not gonna have if you want to go to the beach, somebody's gotta take care.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:34

And well, I mean, I don't go to the beach because I don't trust anybody. I don't trust well at this at the level we're at right now, there's not I don't I don't have anybody, it takes months to learn my herd and be able to take care of them. And I have one friend that if I had an emergency, I would let her come in here and you know, and she'd come in and stay, and she could manage it. Um, and she could manage it just off of her knowledge, you know, not because she knows every goat in the herd, you know. And she does the very best she could do, and so um, but barring that, like a vacation, I can't enjoy a vacation because I worry too much about what's going on here.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:14

Yeah, well, I mean, you might be the goat lady, but you're the goat mama. I mean, as far as these are all yours.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:21

These are mine, and so and it but it is a it is a big commitment, and it is, you know, and then but even like what you said with somebody getting a dog, and then you get a dog and he gets he he finds his security and he puts his trust in you, and then you go, Well, he's not working out, we're not gonna keep him. Yeah, and I mean there's so much confusion for him to you know, and you just he he had a bond with you and you just didn't care, you know, and it I don't know. I just that's heartbreaking.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:48

Yeah, we don't do stuff like that. We just yeah, no, no. Well, uh this has been absolutely wonderful. Uh is there anything we haven't talked about that you want to make sure that we do touch?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:00

No, your questions were fantastic.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:03

Thank you. You've your answers are incredible. Well, I think I mean you just such a thread that goes through everything that you talk about, and then and it definitely is your Christian faith, but um, but it's just your character and and it just um it's definitely reflected in what you say and do.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:25

Well, that's that's very kind of you to say. So thank you so much. Thank you for that. So one more question for you.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:33

Um, if you had a superpower, and I know what superpower I would give you, but um, but if you had a superpower that you could choose for 24 hours and you can use it personally, professionally, which of course for you blends, um, what would you choose and how would you use it and why would it be your choice?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:07

Well the most obvious would be to call to be able to have a clone. So there were two of me doing all this for twenty-four hours. Um I don't know. Um

Animal Communication And Nonverbal Cues

SPEAKER_05 1:12:22

maybe time maybe being able to time hawk. Yeah, it it would be it would be something where I could get a little bit more done a little bit faster. Maybe just having that that super fast power, like um what was the what was the the the superhero that uh the flash and he could move so maybe it would be like the be look be like the flash where I could move about 10 times faster than I'm moving.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:51

Yeah, I that is definitely something I could could see that you that you would need.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:56

That or a clump.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:58

Either one would work, but you know, one superpower I would like to give you would be to um to give you 24 hours to share the insight and the bond and the the clear um parallels that you draw between the love of what you're doing, the love of Christ, and and being able to apply that in people's everyday. And if everybody in the world could have just a moment of that, just a moment on your farm to feel that. So yeah, that would be pretty spectacular. That'd be life-changing, I am sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:37

Yeah, but uh well, we try, you know, we try to let folks in. Yeah, yeah, you do, and it and it, but it is hard. It's you know, it's it's like I said, I I've got a lot of folks asking about a farm day right now because there's so we've got about 46 babies on the ground. So, and they want to come in and see the babies, and they just don't realize how much it takes for me to get to a farm day, and so um I had thought I'd try to do one through April, but this is May the 1st, so I obviously didn't get it done. But maybe, maybe uh maybe about I might shoot for about the third week of May and see if I can open the gates for a day and just let everybody wander around. Every year I have to get used to. I did maps and I did lots of, you know, now it's like, yeah, you can come, and we're just gonna be here working, and you can come and just wander around. Just wander through the herds and wander around this best we can do. You know, you got the grass mug and you did everything, and now you're just like, yeah, you can come, it's a mess, but you can come and hang out if that's what you want to do. Come on.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:41

So yeah, well, I think that's wonderful. Anita, thank you. Thank you so much. I know your time is precious, and I just appreciate the time that you've given us today.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:52

Well, it was fun, thank you. It was a great conversation.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:12

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