Submitted

After two or three years of research, the submission has been sent on to the City Council. They are looking at it and will hopefully decide to add this topic to the agenda.

Fingers crossed.

There are three magic moments I remember often.

• When we saw dolphins at a Monterey Bay beach and followed them up the shore. 
• Seeing fireflies for the first time in Kansas City.
• Walking into my backyard early one morning to check on Ms. Billy and finding these two precious babies with her.

The goat magic lasted for 21 days. Then they had to leave.

Homestead Highlight: Goat Justice League

Jennie Grant founded the Goat Justice League to help legalize goats in Seattle, Washington. This is a fun look at what it's like to have a backyard goat in a big city.

She makes some interesting points about understanding where our food comes from.

Do you think we, as a society, are disconnected from our food sources?

Livestock Concerns of Tooele

As I've spoken with representatives of Tooele City one of the concerns they've voiced is that legalizing goats may open the door for people wanting to legalize other "farm animals".

It's a pretty resonable issue to stare down. What is the difference between goats and sheep? If we were to legalize goats, then would somebody want to legalize sheep next? Or pigs? I've never figured out how to define the difference between goats and sheep effectively. But the fact remains that there is one. If you Google "urban goats" the search returns story after story about people who decided they wanted a goat in their city back yard. However, if you Google "urban sheep" a yarn store tops out the search with a few stories and videos about sheep grazing at a city park, etc. In three pages of Google I could not see one story about somebody trying to keep a sheep in their city back yard.

Of course its pretty commonly known that there are severall small breeds of goats, whereas I had to do some research to know that there are also small breeds of sheep.

My personal experience has been that goats are more friendly. The year after I had to get rid of Ms. Billy I attended the County Fair where there were both goats and sheep. The goats came right over to me and were very friendly. The sheep shied away from me. But its possible that the goats had been around people more since they had been brought specifically for the petting area. Whereas the sheep were in completition.

I'd love feedback on this. It would help me define more clearly the difference between goats and sheep. Any thoughts on on why goats are more popular as a backyard than sheep? Or pig? You hear about people keeping pot belly pigs as pets. Where do you think that fits?

Goats in San Francisco

I always love finding stories like this one.

Many large cities allow goats for family purposes. Evidently, San Francisco is one of those cities. Heidi Kooy says that she is allowed to "have two female goats for family purposes". She raises chickens and goats. From this she is able to produce eggs and milk in her own back yard. She makes her own cheese from the goat milk. Additionally she grows a vegetable garden. Heidi talks about the fact that a generation ago "there was a knowledge about how food was produced, where it comes from, and there was a strong connection to it."

I think Heidi is right about the idea that many people have a desire to hold onto something that seems to be disappearing in our society. We become so fast paced that we can lose something. When we find ways to slow down and become more self-reliant, we find part of ourselves again.

How about you? Do you think we've lost something by becoming so distant from our food? What are the benefits in raising your own food?