Calling Nashville #1

Well, I tried to call the Tennessee Dept. of Agriculture, today. It would appear State offices were closed for New Year's Eve Day.
I hope to have better luck next year determining what registration might be needed for a small farm.

The before pictures

I often seem to forget to take the before and after pictures. Today, I made an effort to take the before pictures. As a reminder to myself, one shows the corner of our porch and the other is with the utility pole to my back.
My plan (or is it a hope) is to cut down the LARGE trees, cut the logs into 10-20 foot sections and split those into posts and fence rails.
I've also included a drawing of how I envision the fencing, with a poorly drawn goat shed behind.

You gotta start somewhere

I've decided that 2013 is the year I'm going to get a goat... ok two goats. I've liked goats since I was very young. I won't say "as long as I can remember" but a very long time. My sister volunteered her time at the Macomb County Humane Society in Utica, Michigan. How I remember the place is fogged by 30 years of life. I remember a gray, single story building, a big barn with white wood fences and a few large cages outside housing recovering wild animals, hawks, owls, and 3-legged deer. The barnyard was my first real experience mingling with goats. I recall four or five goats. There were a couple of blue-gray pygmies with big bellies, a Nubian or two and then the memory fades. They would stick their heads through the fences to be pet or fed. But more than that, since my sister was a premiere muck-and-raker, I got to enter the fenced area from time to time and play with the goats. At first it was just to go in and pet them, but as they came to know me, I was the target of playful butting games and was often laughing and turning this way and that, blocking a lowered set of horns. I think this act scared my parents a bit, but it helped secure my adoration of these lovable animals.
That's all I knew about goats for many years. I liked them and they were playful. I'm pushing fifty and that's still enough for me. But now I want to actually own a couple, so needed to know more. I own about an acre and a half in Southeast Tennessee, henceforth referred to as SE TN. I've decided where I want to put the goats. I've found a great group of online goat lovers at The Goat Spot forum. My wife is friends with a goat owner. My neighbor has goats; I've made at least one local connection through Goat Spot. Most recently, my wife gifted me with "Get Your Goat," a book for small area goat owners.

This blog is going to be a record of my attempts (both good and bad) to have goats. At this point, I plan to have two goats to clear my land of some scrub and to give milk.
You gotta start somewhere, so I'm starting there.