Yes, you read the title right!  Several months ago, during fall, we took a family trip, taking our goat with us.  We took her because she was in milk and we couldn’t get someone to milk her.  I wanted to share this story since I know there are other people in the same boat as us in not having someone to milk the goat.  Plus you might find this to be entertaining!  We had already made reservations for a trip and had to go.  Long story short, we were going to pick up a car in another state that was 8 hours away.  As you know (or might not know) our goat, Hazelnut, gave birth in September.  Unfortunately both babies died.  We had planned to let the babies stay on Hazelnut until they were weaned at 8 weeks.  Since the babies died, we started to milk her twice a day and have kept at it (we are still milking her twice a day 🙂 ).

With Hazelnut in milk, getting someone to come over to tend to the animals has become more complexed.  I didn’t feel comfortable in having someone milk the goat that wasn’t used to it.  I was afraid Hazel might not be milked all the way which could result in mastitis and/or a drop in milk production.  She also has the tendency to kick and get antsy towards the end of milking.  We don’t have any family or close friends that own goats.  We decided to ask the people we bought our buck, BB8, from since they lived close by.  Sadly, they were going to be out of town the same week.  We didn’t feel comfortable in posting an ad, allowing people to know we were out of town and have strangers come over to our house.  Since time was short we decided to leave the dogs and take Hazelnut instead.  Thankfully, we had a family member (if you are reading this, thank you!) that could feed the other goats, chickens, ducks, and dogs.

I put together a vlog that is posted at the bottom of the post.  Then you can see the madness that we were dealing with at the time.  Overall, the trip was successful.  We even learned a lot about taking a goat on a trip.  Was it fun?  No.  Was it doable?  Yes.  Would I do it again?  Not if we have to!

First of all, when you take your goat make sure you have plenty of tarps or other material to drape on the floor and seats.  When we bought Hazelnut we had to drive two hours to bring her home.  We draped our van’s floor with a tarp.  At that time, Hazelnut was content with staying on the floor.  We thought maybe it would be the same way this time.  Wrong.  I guess since she was used to us, the van, etc. she was comfortable!  She found a fondness of sitting on the van’s back seats (later it would be the front passenger seat).  If you own goats then you know they pee and poo pretty much everywhere and anywhere.  Any time you leave the van unattended with the goat, drape the seats so she doesn’t leave surprises when you come back.

Secondly, make sure you bring all of her essentials:  hay, grain, bowls for food and water, straw or shavings for bedding (even though she will sleep on the back seat).  While we were on the trip I did not bring a filter or jars for the milk.  I decided to just dump the milk each time.  We didn’t have the room for the cooler and since Hazelnut’s milk taste goaty no one likes to drink it straight from the jar.

Since we were on a time crunch for the trip, we didn’t let Hazel walk around outside when we stopped for gas or at a rest area.  When we reached our destination we put her on a long lead, walking her around the property.  This way we were sure she wouldn’t run off or eat something she wasn’t supposed to.

Once we got the car onto a trailer that we had rented, there was no longer anyone in the front passenger seat of the van, allowing Hazelnut to jump into the front seat.  I didn’t want her peeing and pooping in the front as I didn’t have a tarp draped over the seat or the floor.  Thankfully, she never did but it was distracting when she jumped from the front to the back and from the back to the front.  It was also annoying when she had water in her bowl but she decided to drink the water out of my Burger King cup.  Yes, she drank it all!    With that being said, be sure to block the front off to keep the goat in the back or keep her leash on her to keep her in the back.

I’m sure you are wondering what did we do when we stayed the night at the hotel?  No, we didn’t bring the goat inside.  It ended up being in the low 40s the two nights that we stayed at a hotel.  This was also a factor in us deciding to just take the goat with us.  With it being cool at night, she would be perfectly fine in the back of the van.  We parked the van in view from our hotel room so we could peek out and check up on her.  However, did she stay in the back of the van the whole time?  No.  She ended up sitting in the front passenger seat a while.  Later though she retired to sleep on the back seat.  The first night we stayed at a hotel, Hazelnut stayed in the back for a good while.  Later we noticed that the she was in the front passenger seat.  Another car pulled up, parking by our van.  The woman got out and got something from her car, turned towards our van, froze, and stared at our goat for several seconds.  I’m sure anyone would be stunned at seeing a goat in a car!  She walked towards the hotel, stopped again, and turned to the to stare again for several seconds.  I was a little afraid she would cause trouble so I didn’t sleep well that night but nothing happened.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get it on video.  I wish I had it was kind of funny to see her staring, trying to understand why a goat was in a van!

Below is our vlog of the trip!  I didn’t get as much video as I would have liked but at least you can see what we were doing.  Enjoy!