We are animal lovers, teachers, lovers of learning and nature, comfortable with stepping outside of the familiar. We began thinking about raising goats on a family visit from our home in Chicago to Carl Sandburg's home in South Carolina where he and his wife, Lilian, raised dairy goats' we've since learned that Lilian Sandburg started the American Dairy Goat Association - as the first goat registry, used today.       

 

Later, while living and teaching in the Loire Valley in France, we were surrounded by the culture of cheese making and goat husbandry.  Back in the U.S, with a teaching job on the Kitsap Peninsula, west of Seattle, we visited many local goat farms, observing set-ups and learning about goat care.  Finally, we began our own goat farm 20 miles west of Duluth, Minnesota, where we teach at the high school and university.

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Our farm is surrounded by state forest, the gorgeous Cloquet river and rolling farm land. The surrounding forest is home to a few black bears, a population of timber wolves, and coyotes.  We knew that our domestic animals needed the protection of a few livestock guardian dogs - we began our farm with Claude and Gertrude - our Maremma/Komondor cross livestock guardian dogs.

 

Our focus is on raising quality Nigerian Dwarf Goats, that are both solidly built as dairy goats, that are as charming and adorable as they are easy to care for and productive. We spend our summers milking, making cheese, yogurt, caramels, ice cream, and soap.  We plan to participate in the American Dairy Goat Associations milk testing and Linear Appraisals in the near future. 

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We keep a closed and tested herd.  We test every adult goat annually for CAE, CL, and Johnnes with consistently negative results going back to 2016 when we began testing.  Copies of test results are available upon request.