August 12, 2010 - Monica Thomasson was a self-proclaimed city girl, but she always knew she wanted to be a part of the farm life. Three years ago, Thomasson, her husband and their three children moved to the town of Rusk in Cherokee County from Houston to do just that. They decided they would like to be a self-sustained operation -- raising their own eggs, dairy and meat.
"I had no background in agriculture, never been around agriculture," she explained. "Typical city person and I just knew that I wanted to be a farmer. I had never been exposed to it, but I knew that it was what I wanted to do."
They started out with chickens the first year, and after going through a lot of trials, finally found a method that worked well for them and have been successful ever since.
"When I finally got them to where I was doing my chickens successfully, I decided I wanted to move up to something bigger," Thomasson said. "My husband wanted to do meat goats because our main goal is to be a self-sufficient farm. I on the other hand could not see me raising goats to eat, so we compromised on a dairy goat."
Thomasson attributes a large part of their farm's success to their local agriculture Extension agents, including Rene McCraken who has been there to help them along the way.
"I contacted my Extension office and they helped me with how to select the right goat and care for them and do all of that," she explained. "(We) started out with three and bottle-raised a couple babies. Kiddie, my first goat was a very interesting situation since I had never been around that before. Now, it has been two years that I have been doing it and I am up to 14 does and a billy now.
"I have been very successful thus far with it," she continued. "I have never lost a goat, which is an amazing thing I'm told being a beginner, not knowing anything, having done this for two years and not lost a goat. Now we are into breeding and selling and dairying for our own use, making cheeses and just loving goats."
They primarily raise LaManchas, though they started with a couple of Nubians.
"We are really moving toward LaManchas or LaMancha crosses," she said. "My first three that I bought, two of them were Nubians and one was a LaMancha. I bottled the Nubians and my LaMancha, I bought her bred and she was the one that kidded for me. Just the difference in personalities in the two breeds... After I had her, I was drawn to the LaMancha breed. So, everything that I bought after her was a LaMancha or a LaMancha cross. I still have one Nubian on the farm now and I just love my LaManchas."
Though their dairy goat numbers have grown and she has learned how to make goat cheeses, they prefer to keep their dairy operation on a self-sustained level, rather than pursuing it as a business.
"We are a small operation and I don't ever plan on being a Grade A dairy, which you have to be to sell cheese," Thomasson said. "I have sold milk to people before for things like soap making and for farm use and that is legally all I can do. But as far as us at home, we drink the milk every day and make the cheese at home for us.
"The reason for us not wanting to pursue to be a Grade A dairy is my goats are not the only thing that we do," she continued. "Because we are striving to be a self-sustained farm we have the chickens, I have a large garden, we are raising rabbits and we have a lot of things that we are doing. We are kind of keeping everything on a small scale."
Though they plan to keep their dairy products to themselves, with the exception of selling dairy goats, they do want to give back to their community.
"Because of everything that I have learned through the help of our local Extension agents, I would love to be able to give back to the community and have our farm be a demonstration farm to where people can come out and we could teach them how to be self-sustained," she said. "We are to the point now where we are raising our own milk, our own meat, our own vegetables and our own eggs. So our long term goal is that we will become less and less dependent on others and just do everything for ourselves."
Even the Thomasson's children, two of which were very accustomed to the city life, have become familiar to the benefits of being on a self-sustained farm.
"My children were teenagers when we moved, my oldest son is going to be a senior this year," she explained. "I think I kept them away from the country too long. They enjoy all the benefits of the farm -- you know the fresh vegetables, eggs and everything. They won't even eat store-bought eggs anymore."
Though her two oldest enjoy the benefits, they do not necessarily enjoy the work involved, but Thomasson is not left alone in her daily chores.
"My biggest help comes from my 5-year-old daughter," Thomasson said. "She has been on the farm since she was 2, so she sees it as everyday part of life. Where as when we first started with butchering our own meat, I had a problem with it ,and she did not. For her, this is normalcy, for me it took some getting used to. She helps with my goats -- she can not wait to milk her own goat. She loves it, she loves to go out there and work in the garden and I foresee her being much more involved than my older children are."
Thus far the Thomasson's move to the country has been successful and beneficial for them and they hope to be an example for others who wish to pursue the same lifestyle on a self-sustained farm. To find out more about the Thomassons and their operation visit them at www.acresofhopefarm.webs.com.
