Goats in the city- how do you balance it all?

Megan Venturella

I have two Nigerian Dwarf goats. I found this last year that I could milk them only once a day without them drying up. It felt like a gift because twice a day interrupted the dinner flow and my family wasn't too thrilled. I'm always trying to balance my family and social life with milking and all the other responsibilities I've taken on. I began the adventure of goats/chickens/gardening/preserving with a very all or nothing attitude, but I've found the need to modify as I go on to keep it manageable. So now I milk just once a day and I'm careful to only grow things in the garden that I love or can't just buy. It isn't enough land to survive off of anyway. But I'm wondering how other people approach this. Is it all or nothing? I do want to be prepared for emergency, collapse, but I really live with one foot in each camp. I milk, I garden, and I shop at Trader Joe's. Any thoughts?

dottile46

Guilty - all or nothing was the start to our first gardening season after moving to our new place. By the end of the growing season Half way through the growing season I found myself exhausted and actually let my 72 tomato plants die because I just could not be anything to all things any more. I had to have a break! I had 4 sweet pepper plants, pole beans, sweet corn, cucumbers, potatoes, and the "oh my gosh" prolific Spookie Squash all harvesting at the same times.

The next year (summer 2019) I cut back to what would have been manageable if it hadn't been such a rainy year. This year my plan is to go for quality over quantity. I thought I was still hoss enough to get the quality out of the quantity I planted but sadly enough I found out otherwise.

I've thought on this several times this winter, if I can concentrate on quality, then the quantity doesn't have to be as enormous. In an emergency, collapse or every day life, quality will have more nutritional value making the quantity required less.

Megan Venturella

Thank you so much for replying!! That actually made me feel a ton better. I guess manageable is better than aiming for perfection and crashing.