By TOM HOEPF
Indiana Correspondent

TIFFIN, Ohio — The sight of Julie Williams walking from the farmhouse on a sunny July morning sends a herd of several dozen goats hightailing toward the barn. Above the barn door, a sign says “Spicer Creek Goats” with silhouettes of a Nubian and a Boer goat.

What follows is a well-rehearsed choreography of feeding and milking that takes 2-3 hours every night and morning - work that Williams has been doing since she took early retirement from Columbia Gas of Ohio in 2002.

Like so many baby boomers seeking a second career, Williams found hers on the family farm on Ohio Route 101 northeast of Tiffin. The 139-acre farm has passed down on her mother’s side of the family since 1849. Spicer Creek runs through the farm on its way to the Sandusky River.

Williams discovered her calling after her then-8-year-old grandson, Brett Steinhauer, asked his mother if he could get a goat for a 4-H project.

“My daughter lived at a place where they couldn’t have goats so, of course, they came to Grandma and Grandpa. So we made a place in the bottom of the red barn for his goats,” said Julie. “And I fell in love with them.”

Brett liked them, too - enough to show them as 4-H projects at the Seneca County Fair. “He doesn’t like them as much now; he has other things going on. He’s not a kid anymore,” Julie said.
Now 18, Brett is missing his final county fair of an illustrious 10-year, 4-H career this summer.

“He enlisted in the Marines, and was just called to report to basic training tomorrow,” Julie explained. “It’s going to be very different around here. … He’s helped me out a lot.”

Julie, and her husband of nearly 25 years, Steve Williams, started out with registered Boer goats, but added registered Nubians several years later when Brett wanted to show dairy goats.
With a handful of Nubian does, Julie has found a use for their milk by making goat-milk soap, which she sells to a growing list of loyal customers.

Julie’s formula mixes lye with milk, lard, sunflower oil and coconut oil before adding scents and coloring. Stirring occasionally with a stick blender as the ingredients saponify, she pours the thickened mixture into a mold that produces 30 four-ounce bars.
“It’s pure soap – mild – not like the lye-heavy soap grandma used to make,” said Julie.

She also makes liquid hand soap and shower gel, which require cooking in a Crock-Pot.

Her grandson’s continued success at the fairs and the growing popularity of goats has led to demand for her kids that are raised as 4-H projects.

“A lot of it’s word of mouth. When I started selling kids for 4-H, I was inundated, and every year now I’m getting calls before they’re even born,” said Julie, who raised 38 kids this year. “In February I was already sold out of the Boers.”

One that she’s keeping, however, is Madie, a triplet that was rejected by its mother. To save the little one, Julie raised her in the house, feeding her by bottle and outfitting her in disposable diapers until spring arrived.

Kidding season, which runs from winter into early spring, is a busy time for Julie and Steve. To ensure she is present for every birth - night or day - they have installed video cameras to closely monitor the birthing pens.

“I’m just a firm believer in that if you’re going to have animals, you have to take care of them. You can’t just put them in the barn and forget about them,” Julie added.

“Unless they’re first-timers they usually don’t have much trouble kidding. Sometimes they come breach or their legs are tangled and you have to help them,” said Julie. Occasionally she’ll have to call the veterinary to help with a difficult delivery.

While Julie and Steve don’t send meat goats to market, they have goat meat in the freezer for their own use. And Julie will attest to why goat is the most frequently consumed meat in the world. “The meat is excellent. The chops are almost like steaks. They’re small because it’s a smaller animal.

The roasts are to die for,” she said. “You would probably think it was beef.”

Julie and Steve are intent on improving the bloodlines of the herd. Last year they bought a Boer doe bred to TC1 Rawhide, a San Antonio and San Angelo grand champion owned by Shana May Proctor and Aryn Proctor of A Bar Boer Goats in Snyder, Texas.
“The genetics definitely shows in his kids,” reported Julie, watching 6-month-old Rawhide Mac and Jesse James, his progenies, frolic in the barnyard.

In August 2009 they bought a 4-year-old Australian-born Boer buck named Terraweena Rex from Tom and Carrie Boyer of Chalk Creek Boers in Coalville, Utah. Julie calls Rex, a former Australian junior national champion, her “gentle giant.”

Julie acknowledges goats are easier to handle than larger farm animals.

“If those goats out there got out they wouldn’t go anywhere. They know where home is and won’t leave the property. When steers get out, they’re gone,” she said, speaking from experience. “The goats are just seeing what they can get into.”

Like the day earlier this summer when three goats got out and stripped her raspberry bushes of every leaf.

“There are days they really tick me off. On the whole, though, I don’t know what I’d do without them. But they can be like kids, you know?” Julie said with a hearty laugh.

For more details, email Julie at julie2260@thewavz.com or call 419-448-1668.