As we speed toward our closing date (early December), I can’t help but mentally walk through our house every night as I fall asleep. At this point I’ve seen it only 3 times (4, if you count the FaceTime walk through), but I could picture it in my sleep. And trust me, I do! Last night, I had a very vivid dream of our yard and a massive and elaborate fencing system we had installed for Sadie. In the dream, she was thrilled and safe and I could turn to the next thing on my list: livestock.

In reality, we don’t have a fence yet. Sorry, Sadie. We’re in that strange limbo of knowing we’ll soon own the house but not having the freedom to make changes to it yet. And the further into the winter we get, the harder it will be to bury fence posts in the frozen ground. Our badass realtor has given us the numbers for some fencing companies and we’re hoping we can do an assessment with them in person in the next few weeks. (Although I’ll feel like a creeper showing up to the house and tiptoeing around and peeking in the windows since we’re only there on an unofficial visit.)

I’m sure it sounds pretty simple, right? Fence in your yard so the dog doesn’t chase after a squirrel across the road (and she absolutely would). The trouble is two-part:

1. Our driveway cuts across the property in a way that a typical fence to the street would block the car access.
2. I’m hoping that the backyard area where we’ll put the fencing will someday soon be the goat pen.

So the questions are:

1. What specific area would work best for Sadie now and goats later?
2. What kind of fencing do goats need?
3. What will Sadie do once we get goats? (This is another thing that keeps me awake at night- will they get along? Will I need to make sure they stay separate at all times?)

Hopefully the fencing experts will have dealt with these kinds of questions before and help me check this off my list in reality, not just in my dreams.

Now on to the rest of the property. I’m tempted to call it “the farm,” but I think there’s part of me that feels presumptuous or ridiculous saying that. Though the truth is, if you have a barn on your property and are planning to get goats and grow vegetables and herbs, what about that doesn’t scream FARM? We have hit the jackpot and have yardage and outbuildings to keep me in projects for years to come. Problem is, I don’t really know where to start. I have so many ideas and I think I can make them come true, but it requires a lot of research and actually making decisions about what to focus on.

I’ve already mentioned the goats numerous times. Ideally we’d start with two babies. Kids, I mean. I imagine I’ll name them Ivy and Clover after what they’d eat, but Alan wants to name them Bonnie and Clyde… As I recently learned during my first ever goat yoga class on LI, goats of about 2-3 months are still lightweight and even tempered. But full grown they can be territorial and, therefore, aggressive. Is that something I’m prepared to handle? To be clear, I don’t want goats just to keep as cuddly pets (that’s where the bunnies come in, keep reading). Sure, I’d love to enjoy their adorable adolescence and maybe do some goat yoga of my own, but ultimately I’m interested in their milk. On a household level I know we would love the fresh goat milk and cheese, but I’m interested in eventually selling it at the farmers’ market and experimenting with using it in skincare. Part of me is relieved that the winter is just starting and I can wait until the spring to make the call. Or even wait another year or two…

Maybe a simpler place to start is with beehives. There is already a small penned in area where the previous owners had chickens. Though it’s really overgrown now, I figure this would be a great spot to plant a bunch of lavender and other fragrant plants and plop a hive or two in the middle. The pen would ensure that Sadie wouldn’t accidentally knock anything over in her curiosity and keep her safer from stings. I’ve been doing some preliminary reading and other research and even discovered some beekeeping clubs up north! So I have a feeling with all the resources available to me that bees will be the first “livestock” we acquire. (Side note: The Idle Beekeeper by Bill Anderson is a really fascinating and informative book on bees. It’s a great read even if you’re not planning on getting hives of your own.) I’m going to wait and see how the first couple of harvests go; either we’ll enjoy fresh, organic honey for just us, or I’ll have another item to sell at the local market.

And lastly…do bunnies serve a purpose other than being cute and cuddly? Don’t get me wrong, I think there is great value in that! But I guess I’m trying to justify or at least understand why I have a needling thought that they should round out our farm family. I can’t remember what put it first in my head- maybe I was reminded of the bunnies we had as kids. My parents took us to a country fair and just before we piled into the van to go back home, they unveiled 2 sweet little furballs in a crate. We named them Peaches and Shadow and I still can picture them hopping around our bedroom when they weren’t living outside in their pen. We didn’t have them for very long (I won’t go into details but suffice it to say I will make sure they’re never within Sadie’s reach), but they clearly made an impression. From what I know, they’re social creatures and I’d need to get a few (no complaints there!); the question is just where to put them. There is a pretty large garden shed and I’m not the world’s best gardener… Apparently they can thrive in cold temperatures so I wouldn’t need more than minimal insulation and could give them access to the bee pen for exercise. Then it occurred to me that this could also serve as a basic music recording studio… As long as there are no leaks, we could put in foam insulation for sound-proofing (will bunnies chew on that?). And I could run a power cord from the garage next door to hook up my equipment. Obviously I couldn’t store the electronics in there year round with the bunny colony, but I could definitely go in there with my gear as needed. Not only would the bunnies provide extra “insulation” (lol), they’d also be emotional support during long recording sessions!

Until it’s “Coming at you live from the Bunny Barn,” I’m typing away in my bedroom in Brooklyn. Alan uses the guest bedroom for his office and I’ve spent the days since March 10th perching in different spots, trying to find my ideal office. It looks like we just scheduled our movers for December 29th, which is almost exactly 2 months away. It will be odd to have my own office, not to mention the view of the Goat Pen, The Bee Garden, and the Bunny Barn. But I think I’ll get used to it fast enough 😉