Our Story (Narrated by Matt and Kim)

My family has been in Middleton, ID for 5 generations and every generation has done something with agriculture. My great-great-grandparents had a poultry farm. My great-grandparents, grandparents and parents both worked growing crops and milking dairy cows and raising some beef cattle. I certainly didn’t love every part of growing up in agriculture (what kid wants to get up early before school and do chores) but I knew I enjoyed the overall lifestyle. Later in life I began to realize just how lucky I was to grow up learning to work hard, have patience (which I’m definitely still working on), and be able to receive immediate feedback. Because, well, with animals they will let you know right away if what you are trying to accomplish is working. Or not.

I was given an ROTC scholarship after high school, so off to the University of Portland I went, with visions of becoming a J.A.G. Lawyer for the Air Force. What did 4 years in Portland and a Political Science degree teach me? That I wanted to get back home and continue the agriculture lifestyle. But before that would happen, I commissioned as an officer in the Air Force. I spent the next 7 years at two different duty stations and one 6-month deployment, before I found myself back in Idaho at Mountain Home Air Force base. This was as close to home as I was ever going to get with the Active Duty military and I was having a hard time preparing to leave for my next assignment. During this time, I was introduced to the woman that would be my wife. So yeah, that played a factor in wanting to stick around as well.

I was raised in Sandpoint, ID where my family owned a local sporting goods store. You can bet I spent a fair share of my time sitting behind the counter with my parents, talking to customers and friends or playing on the typewriter in the office (yes! I know what one of those are!). I grew up hunting, fishing, camping, and loving all that the outdoors had to offer.  Seriously, I am not at all ashamed to admit she came to the relationship with more guns and antlers than me… I WIN!

To the dismay of my parents, I followed a boy to southern Idaho for college. But luckily that boy didn’t work out (sometimes you have to learn life’s lessons the hard way) and I had an amazing job at the local bank that I didn’t want to leave, so south Idaho became my new home. Not long after graduating college, a dear friend of mine wanted to introduce me to “my future husband”. As I reluctantly agreed to this blind date idea of hers, I had no idea how right the future husband part would be! We hit it off right away and 4 years later on November 21, 2015 he proposed to me in front of our small herd of 60 goats.  Hey, I gave her the option to tell me to wait until we were somewhere else.  I didn’t care 😊  I wanted him to PUT A RING ON IT!

What were we supposed to be talking about here? Oh, yeah! The goats and how our story came to be…

August 2014: “We will never own a goat,” Matt said as I was crouched down next to some cute little goats in the petting zoo of the Western Idaho Fair.

I still claim to this day that I never said that… but, you know, I guess I say a lot of things, so maybe I just forgot…

March 2015: Matt “Hey look, there is a small animal sale in Caldwell today. I know I am supposed to be building you a chicken coop, but we should go check it out.”

A few hours later…

Did we seriously just buy 4 goats?? And we are hauling them home in the back of my SUV?!?! (Don’t worry, we had it covered in tarps)

Two weeks later, I was sent to Texas for two months, leaving Kim to take care of our new landscapers. Two of which were baby goats that needed to be bottle fed. Did I mention that she still had her job at the bank? This meant getting up early to feed them, coming home at lunch to feed them, heading straight home from work to feed them, and feeding them one more time before it was time to go to bed and start all over again the next day. They were pretty cute, so it wasn’t so bad. Plus, I didn’t have you to take care of while you were gone, so what else was I going to do? I don’t really sit still….

Upon my return, the 4 goats were doing great and she let me back into the house! Now, something that I haven’t told you yet is that when I do something, I go BIG. So 4 goats was simply not big enough. Back to the sale we went for more. And home we came (in a trailer this time) with our first buck (the goat that only works 45 days a year for us, but is a necessary part of producing cute baby goats) and a beautiful group of 40 does. We started cleaning up some properties belonging to family and friends, and then more and more people started to ask if we could help with ditch banks and hillsides where they couldn’t get the weeds down.

We had seen goats along the interstate from time to time, and one day I saw their big trailer parked and picking up the goats, so I stopped by and introduced myself. These were the owners of We Rent Goats, Tim and Lynda Linquist. They were so much fun! We got to know them from there and really enjoyed learning from all their years of grazing experience.

The next year, I was sent on a six month deployment to Qatar. We kept our best 70 goats and I cared for them while he was gone. For those of you that live in the Boise area, this was also the time of “Snowpocalypse 2016” so it was a fun time to say the least. But I wasn’t about to let the weather from getting in my way!

Matt returned in early 2017 and got to work on his “honey-do” list. We reconnected with Tim and Lynda and started grazing under their guidance. Towards the end of the year, they must have liked us too because talks began about us purchasing the business from them. They were ready for a break and we were ready for a new adventure! The paperwork was signed and the deal was official as of early 2018.

That brings us to where we are now. A couple of crazy goat people who, with the help of their 500 goats and a few dogs, are taking on the weeds of the Treasure Valley, one at a time. We are having a great time seeing new places we never knew existed and meeting the most interesting and wonderful people. We hope to meet you soon too!