Our goats consume our time, our thoughts, our money, and they have
given us a feeling of accomplishment and success, a sense of joy at their
antics, their frolicking, their prettiness; and a sense of frustation at their
sickness, and sadness at their deaths at difficult deliveries and their loss
from accidents and disease.
   Like our children they are part of the family, difficult to part with, pro-
vide a constant feeling of anticipation- like baseball spring training- any
goat (team) can win.
   We have culled a lot of goats- to improve our herd and to maintain our
sanity.  We have sold some of our best and now are starting to
appreciate when others - owners of our animals-  call late at night to share their joy at winning.  Half of our calls we receive in the barn because we spend so much time there.
   So many of our friends are "goat people"- part time lawyers, nurses,
anthropologists, truckers, teachers, and farmers whose other "part time"
is their goats. We have benefited from the warmth, guidance, and teach-
ing so freely shared by our friends.
   The goats have been capricious- our best kid with the best pedigree
and our hope for a dynamite yearling has freshened with the worse udder
in the barn. That special buck with so much promise who has not clicked
and done his appointed job. That plain kid out of an average dam who
freshens with a wonderful udder and becomes the "star" of our show season.  That average yearling who takes two or three years to mature
into a GCH. These are valuable lessons we continue to learn.
   The hand of fate, the beginners luck, the time spent researching pedigrees and making choices- who to purchase, who to keep, who to
breed to whom.   The major effect of good management - early detection of illness, doing some extra work when you really don't feel like it - feeding, watering, pasteurizing, vaccinating, worming, health testing, barn cleaning, hoof trimming, and never quite catching up with your list
   The goats seem to come with no guarantees. 
   The goats seem to come with special people attached.
   Perhaps that is why they have been so rewarding..