(gentle upbeat music) (goats bleating) So we are here at Dream Goats here in Belding at the farm here with lots of friends, and Leah Sienkowski is here.

Leah, I know you from Ada when you were farming goats then to graze the grass at, what was it, Ada Elementary or what were you doing there?

- Yeah, Ada Christian.

Yeah, so we were part of the outdoor education team there, basically.

So the goats did some land clearing, and taught the kids about chores, and that sort of thing.

So yeah, we had kind of a fun five plus years of school era with a bunch of elementary school students.

So the goats came very well socialized before we moved here to Belding.

- Okay, and so how long have you been here in Belding?

Because this is really a part of your dream per se, as to what you're doing because you have a lot more land actually.

You have a lot more goats as well, correct?

- A few, yeah, a few more.

We're slowly, slowly growing, but yeah, there's a lot more space here.

We have like 40 acres to graze at Idlewild, and yeah, we were able to build this beautiful barn a couple winters ago.

So we've been here I think about not quite two years, year and a half, something like that.

- So you raised money through a Kickstarter campaign a while back to pursue your dream.

Tell me about that dream and what it encompasses, and also, why goats?

- Yeah, good question.

A lot of people ask that when I started, but yeah, I just, for some reason I got interested in farming, and agriculture, and food, and I worked on vegetable farms first and then made a kind of crazy leap to get goats and be interested in dairy, and I like the way that goats interacted the land and bring attention to land.

I like how goats can sort of thrive in a lot of areas where a lot of other livestock can't, and goats are just a lot more capricious and a lot more charming than a radish per se.

So I think they are a really good entry point into talking about food and farming.

Yeah, and connecting with people.

I do really like being part of the food system, and so the backbone of the farm is that we are a dairy farm, we're a dairy herd, and so all the decisions that we make and all the things that we offer are all tying into that.

And so we milk the mama goats every morning.

We raise the kids to be really social so that they're easy to handle for volunteers to milk them, and then we sort of plan events and things around the fact that we want the goats to graze on the wild forage all the time, and so we sort of plan our day based on when the goats need to go out to graze, we take them on goat hikes so they can access more of the property that way as well.

- And what's with the goat cuddles?

Because is that kind of therapeutic in nature, as well as just a cute thing to do?

- Yeah, people always ask like, is it natural?

Like, do the goats like cuddling?

But when you experience it, you'll see that they genuinely are pro cuddlers.

Like, they cuddle each other, they cuddle themselves.

They can like wrap their little heads around and like sleep on their own backs.

They just really like to nuzzle and snuggle in, and it's kind of seems to be part of their nature, and then when you introduce them to people and you put people into that equation early on, they tend to really cuddle up with people too, and people seem to really enjoy it.

So to me, like, the farm is all about like, sharing the magic, I guess of like, goat world and whatever that is.

And so yeah, goat hikes, we do a lot of the year spring through winter or summer through winter, I guess.

And then the goat cuddles really were born out of the fact that there's about four to six weeks where the baby goats don't know how to hike yet and don't understand the point, and so we just invited people in to kind of experience the joys of baby goat season before the goat hiking began.

So hikes and cuddles are a big part of what we do, and then we have a little bit of a community milk program or herd share.

So folks pick up the actual dairy product, and then, yeah, I make soap.

So that's another thing that keeps me busy in the off season - I was gonna ask, do you do goat milk soap?

- Yes, yeah, just on a small scale.

Yeah, so a lot of people who come do a goat hike and a cuddle will take some, yeah, buy some soap as kind of like a souvenir or something to remember the experience.

- So you keep busy, and now how many people do you have helping you with this?

Because as we came in and all the goats were surrounding us and whatnot, it's busy and they garner a lot of attention as well they should.

- Yes, yeah, so we also have like a volunteer program.

So I have I think between like 20 and 30 folks that either herd goats or milk goats.

So I kind of have people who do two or three shifts a month that'll come out and get their goat fix and spend some time with the herd, but genuinely like, work and participate in like, the needs of the goats and the needs of the herd.

So yeah, quite a few people have their hands as part of this.

- So let me ask you this personal question.

At this stage, moving from the various points that you've gone through, how happy are you doing this?

- I honestly, I'm always excited to get up and figure out what's happening, and yeah, people say, is it boring?

You have to milk every single morning at 7:00 AM, which I do have some help with, but yeah, I don't know.

To me that's like the only thing that stays the same.

Like, everything is different.

There's always a problem to solve, there's always something new to learn, there's always something that goes wrong, which keeps things interesting, and I like that I can sort of unfold the business as the economy changes, as people's interests are changing, as the herd is growing as well.

So yeah, we're at 23 goats I think now.

- Do you stay busy?

I mean, because I look at the schedule and it's like, you've got the graze, you've got the hikes, you've got the cuddling.

I mean there's so- - Yeah, we've been doing like, 14 hours of cuddles a week for the last six weeks.

I'm kind of like ready to put cuddle season to rest and start on the hikes.

Can't do as many hikes, which is nice, so it slows down a bit.

But yeah, things always keep moving, so there's always something to do.

- And finally, what do you do in the off season?

So winter hits, what happens here?

- I sleep in, I drink my coffee slower, I do a lot of planning.

So it's kind of the time to like, reconsider everything that's happened throughout the year and figure out how to do it better.

A lot of like, onboarding new volunteers, onboarding new herd share owners, things like that.

So sort of administrative stuff, and some rest, which is good.

- Well, thank you very much.

Let's get some goat action.

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