Who We Are

We are a family with a passion for animals. Mine began as a small child in Ohio. Growing up, my big sister and I had pets that ranged from domestic to wild. We had the typical dogs, cats, birds, mice, and hamsters. Our personal petting zoo expanded to include a squirrel, a raccoon, a garter snake I found in a field, fishes, bunnies, and chicks. Some of our pets were injured wild animals we wrangled away from our cats and nursed back to health. That’s an endeavor better left to nature or professionals for lots of reasons. I even tried my hand at rescuing and hiding tent worms in the garage, while my dad was burning their tents out of our apples trees. Our Mom and Dad were quite the animal lovers and passed that down to my sister and me; however my dad drew the line when he found the tent worms! When my family moved to NJ, my dad promised me a horse. I got a cat. That’s OK—I loved my cat, “Tonka.” What’s in a name anyway?

Growing up in Essex County, Paul had cats—not quite the pet assortment I had, but he has come around to accepting and even loving most critters. He has become a reluctant farmer, but I don’t think he’d trade that role for a million bucks. Well…. Our three kids are now grown and share our love of animals. At various times they have resided with horses, cats, dogs, goats, sheep, birds, fishes, and an assortment of rodents and reptiles. One of my nieces has a farm in upstate New York with quite a repertoire of animals, including a 'house pig', lovebirds she raises and one of our donkeys. Her daughters show their horses and are quite successful. My other two nieces aren’t far behind their big sister in the animal department. Those apples didn’t fall far from the trees!

Today, Paul and I share our lives with our cats, Collies, our Goldendoodle, and a host of donkeys, goats and guinea hens.

People ask Paul and me how we got started raising donkeys. Our love of these wonderful animals began when we bought a young small-standard, brownish donkey named Squirt. She was kind of dopey-looking with her shaggy, wooly coat. We needed a companion for our lone quarter horse. When we acquired another horse, of course we needed another companion donkey to even out the herd. Iris, a lovely brown and white spotted small-standard jennet, joined our farm. Squirt grew into a beautiful steel gray and white roan jennet and a terrific guardian. She and Iris have given us several very nice foals.

Soon after adding Iris to our herd, we bought three miniature donkey foals. Since then we’ve been culling and adding to our herd, improving the quality of our jennets and jacks. It’s been a slow process, but we’re seeing better and better foals each spring.

Our goats are a labor of love. We bought our first baby Boer goat as a companion for a donkey foal that was orphaned at birth. We hand raised Boris and Snow Pea together in the dead of winter, in a make-shift stall in our basement. (Someday I’d like to write a children’s book about that adventure!) We couldn’t have done the round-the-clock bottle feedings without the help of our kids and a dear friend who sacrificed her lunch hour for months. Goats are like potato chips. You can’t have just one! They are smart, funny, affectionate, and when teamed with donkeys, they put on a circus show! We’ve added to our herd and begun to breed Boer and Boer- percentage goats. Why Boer goats? We have almost zero experience with other goat breeds so I can’t speak for their personalities. I can say our Boer goats have dog-like personalities (Boris has been mistaken for a dog!) and that’s good enough for us. Boer goats are mostly raised for food, but our baby goats will be sold for pets/companions only. We’ll leave the meat goat business to others.

In closing, the Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with this farm and with each creature He has entrusted to our care. It’s our desire to share these wonderful animals with people. So whether or not you’re looking for your own donkey or goat, you’re welcome to visit our farm and enjoy ours. Thanks for your time and for reading about us!

—Becky Fara