As I look out the window, I see corn fields rolling by as far as I can see. The endless rows are broken up by the occasional silo and farm house. We’ve just left our destination – a dairy goat farm in the middle of Illinois.

We are now several hundred dollars poorer and one male goat kid richer. I actually have several buck kids at home that are for sale, so why travel to the middle of Illinois to buy a buck kid?

Simple. Improvement.

I always seek to improve my goat herd. This last year we participated in linear appraisal of our goats and our appraiser gave us some suggestions on what we could do to improve the herd. I’ve been searching for a good buck kid ever since. And I actually found two of them. Today we traveled to Illinois to pick up Challenge from Kickapoo Valley. Next month we’ll drive to Virginia to pick up Substantial from Iron Rod.

It may seem like a lot of wasted time and money. But I don’t think so. Going to a lot of effort is an intentional decision. I want to teach my children that if they are going to do something, they need to take it seriously.

Our business is a good example. Goat Milk Stuff requires goat milk from our goats. We could use any kind of goat for that. They don’t have to be good goats, with good conformation. They don’t have to be registered or CAE free.  They don’t have to have good udders that are well attached. But the Goat Milk Stuff goats ARE registered, CAE free, with great udders and conformation.

Why do we go to the extra expense and effort?

Because the decisions that I make impact the decisions that my children will someday make. If I constantly take shortcuts and do things half-heartedly, my children will take shortcuts and do things half-heartedly. If I do things without educating myself and becoming an expert in them, my children will do things without educating themselves and becoming experts.

And so I try to excel at all the things that my hands find to do – because I want my children to excel at what they do with their hands. And so here I am passing windmills and chicken houses and lots and lots of corn. With an extra goat and an object lesson richer.