Sometimes, I wonder why we bother with animals. Today was one of those days.

This was the day I did our semi-annual deep clean of the barn. It’s long, stinky, dirty, back-breaking work. Not fun.

The other times are the early, cold mornings when milking time comes. Tomorrow is the First of May, yet it’s still only in the 30s before 7 am still. Last week we had freezing rain in the mornings while I was out biking and milking. Also not fun.

Goat kids are cute and fun, but I don’t know that they’re so much fun that pitchforking goat manure seems worth it. Perhaps that sounds harsh, but there are a lot of aspects of goat tending that are pretty thankless and uncool. I might feel differently after we get back into cheesemaking and today is a distant memory, but at the moment my thinking is a bit callous.

That all said, I am grateful for it. Callous? Yes. But still grateful. I’ve learned a lot of things that cannot be taught, only experienced. Discipline is one of them. We often think of discipline in the punitive sense, when in reality it has more to do with formulating good habits and practices. I doubt I would be up as early in the morning to read and exercise if I weren’t tied to milking on schedule. So too do I doubt that I would be as physically active as I am. I’d much rather have goats than go to the gym – by far.

The other thing I’ve learned is empowerment. I often hear people say “I don’t know how you know how to do that, I don’t think I could do that,” or some other variant. I don’t know either, we just do it. When someone gets sick, we Google it, figure it out and take care of them. When we don’t know how to do something, we go on YouTube and there are sure to be a step-by-step process well outlined. We live in an age that can be empowering if we allow it to be.

As hard as it sometimes can be, the virtues are priceless. And, ultimately, satisfying. I wouldn’t say there is much for adrenaline rush, excitement or any other strong feelings of euphoria. Quiet contentment is about the most we get. But in the grand scheme of things, that’s far more grounding and lasts  longer than a few minutes of joy.

And thank God for it all.