Hopekidz Farm
I am a single parent to 8 special needs children, plus 3 birth children and yes that adds up to 11. I began fostering children with severe medical needs about 18 years ago, and some of them just had to stay. My daughter Jessamyn came up with the sign on my roof idea since I was always taking in "just one more". I retired from fostering and now enjoy time with my children and grandchi
ldren. Some of my children have many allergies and one has autism. I was reading about the benefits of goatmilk and thus it began. I bought 2 Alpines, both in milk. I can see that some of you are smiling, yep I had no idea what I was doing. I had no milking stand and had never milked a goat - how hard can it be? Well, I ordered a stand that first week and I figured it out in a few days, much to the relief of my goat girls! We drink the milk, make cream cheese, yogurt, cheese and ice cream. I had to put the milk in a store milk container before the kids would drink it and we drank a lot of chocolate milk at first too, then they were converted! The sign on the roof says "Come here, Linda will take you in"
When I was a child I spent time on my Grandpa's dairy farm, I gathered the eggs with Grandma and she taught me to bake pies and make jelly. I always knew that sometime before I grew old that I too would have a farm with chickens, a dairy herd and a bountiful garden. However, I didn't know that the dairy herd would be quite short..... and say baaaaa and not mooooo. After a lot of research, I purchased my first 2 Nigerians ( Rose and Harry) from Playrite Farm in NE, I drove all the way to Omaha where I met Carla for the first time. I was hooked, I immediately loved the size and temperment of these little guys. They were perfect for my children to handle as well. Rose calls out to me whenever I am outside, and Harry is a character and is producing some very nice babies. I then added Tiny Tales Rising Hope also from Playrite Farm to our herd, she made friends with Rose and the others. With 11 kids and 12 grandkids and ? goat kids, I guess you can see where the "Hopekidz" Farm came from!
