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Our journey to homesteading began about five years ago. My husband and I were searching for self-sustainability, a quieter life, and a deeper connection to the land. Raised in the suburbs with every modern convenience, we only knew which grocery store had the freshest beef. That was the extent of our food sourcing knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once we acquired our acreage, we started, as many do, with chickens. At the time, I hadn\u2019t even considered milking animals myself, so I went looking for farm-fresh milk. I found a local source, and with it, a whole new world. We began picking up a couple of gallons each week, but it didn\u2019t take long before we wanted to produce our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s how we ended up with Nubian goats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was intimidated by the idea of milking and caring for them, but goats felt less daunting than a full-sized milk cow. Still, I had always loved and admired the Dexters at pickup. Just being around them brought a peace I couldn\u2019t explain. They were a dream, something for \u201csomeday.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fast forward a few years, and someday finally came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About a month ago, we brought home our first Dexters: a heifer and a steer. And how\u2019s it going? In a word? beautifully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first thing I noticed was their peaceful nature. Just being near them calms my nervous system in a way I can\u2019t begin to describe. I\u2019m absolutely head over heels in love. I\u2019ve started thinning down my goat herd to make room for more Dexters in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m learning to be a pasture and grass farmer (also moving fencing, adding pastures) all to better serve my Dexters. I\u2019m excited to contribute to the breed by selecting strong lines and continuing the work that\u2019s already been poured into my girl, Fiona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Am I still intimidated by the idea of milking them? Absolutely.
Will I do it anyway and love it once the time comes? Without a doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s still so much to learn\u2014about pasture management, breeding, and eventually milking\u2014but I\u2019m ready. With the right mentors and a heart full of determination, we\u2019ll thrive. Fiona and Chuck are home now, and so are we. This is just the beginning of a lifelong journey with Dexters, and I couldn\u2019t be more excited to walk it one peaceful step at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m looking forward to many years alongside this incredible breed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our journey to homesteading began about five years ago. My husband and I were searching for self-sustainability, a quieter life, and a deeper connection to the land. Raised in the suburbs with every modern convenience, we only knew which grocery store had the freshest beef. That was the extent of our food sourcing knowledge. Once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3858,"featured_media":8685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[21,301,137,22],"class_list":["post-8684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homesteading","tag-beef","tag-homesteading","tag-irishdexters","tag-milk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3858"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishdextercattlemen.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}