The great goat debate

I want a goat. Actually I want like two or three goats. Goats do better if they have friends. We had goats when I was a kid. Toggenburgs. They were big goats. My Aunt raised pygmys when we lived in Arizona. The pros and cons that just keep running through my mind though. I don't mind sending bucklings to freezer camp. I just have to make sure I can cook them so my family will eat them.  I really want dairy goats. The minis need less feed and produce more milk per pound of food. But I want a Big goat. Nubians. But do I want to be tied to the house every day she's being milked? I can separate the kids at night and milk only in the mornings, but it's Every day without fail. I have to be here, have to be awake the same time every morning. Before I go to work, good weather or bad. Can I find a friend that is willing to come over, milk, and turn every one out together, then separate at night?  When we were kids, I'm pretty sure we just threw the goats hay, and whatever grass they ate from the yard. Now I'm looking at grains, and free choice minerals for a milking goat. Pens, and fencing, and shelter, and a milking stand, and ..... But I really like the idea of having goats. I have scenes and scenarios running through my head, and have feelings attached to the pictures, and I don't even have a goat yet. I would put them out under the stand of trees. Add another strand of hot fence to what is already out there along the short pasture. Have to run three strands across the front next to the round pen, reinforce over by Rebecca's property. And Scott want to put the pig pen over there. The goats could browse to their hearts content on the grasses, and trees growing there. Eat down all the new starts of cottonwoods I go out and haul up by the roots every year. Take over a corner of Scots garage for my milking stand. But then I have to be committed to sweeping out the goat berries every day. If they get out they will decimate the garden I have planned for the new year. I don't want to have a buck on my property so I will have to find one that belongs to a disease free herd that I can borrow on a moments notice. Goats are noisy. They like to talk to you, to each other, to the birds flying over heard. They are so entertaining to watch though. Especially the kids, jumping and butting, and bouncing around sideways. I already have horses I'm tied to the property with. I can always have the neighbor zip over, throw some hay in the winter, or just make sure the water tanks are full in the summer. I can still go away over night, or even up to a week I've had Andrea keep an eye on them for me.Goats I think are going to take a little more attention. This isn't even close to the thoughts I chase around inside my head about the chickens though.  :)

Am I stuck up for wanting pretty goats?

I finally got the hubby talked into letting me have a goat. That sounds a little scheming, but it's not like that. He just knows I really really want to get into goats again, and has come around on the the idea of the project. I want big goats. Big dairy goats. Big floppy eared, roman nosed, Nubian goats. They are all beautiful, and I know I should be looking at function over style, but I want a pretty one. Just hitting Google images, I found these.

 From http://www.luckyhit.net/goats.htm

From http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/charlemont_farmers_cheese_gain.html

From http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/178270/view

From http://www.freewebs.com/cartref589/natiroat5months.htm

I don't want just a solid black, or just all brown. I want one with some color. Am I wrong? I won't be getting one anytime soon, so I have some time to look around. I plan on this spring. I need to set up a shelter and an enclosure. I don't want to have to be milking a goat through the winter, getting used to her, her getting used to a new place. I haven't told Hubby yet, I might have to take over a corner of the garage to set up a milking stand. And I'm slowly getting him used to the idea, that goats do better with friends than alone. I was asked the other day, "Realistically, how many goats do you plan on having on the property at any given time?" My answer was three. Of course that doesn't count babies.