Once upon a time... we lived in a much bigger house on a much smaller piece of land right near the center of town.  Making the most of what we could on only a few acres you could find a small garden, a mini pond, a little loop of a trail and a flock of chickens.  An old farmhouse lock and key sat on the kitchen shelf representing that it takes two to make something work and that one day we would build the dream farmhouse.

Late one Sunday there was quick text message exchange as we were hundreds of miles apart.  "Hey wanna move to Patterson?"  We had found just the right opportunity.  Four days later the house was on the market and two days after that the house had an offer on it. 

The moving process was grueling as we were significantly downsizing our lives.  After 6 weeks of moving things every night after work we took a deep breath and said, “now that we are at least here we can do everything we want at our leisure.”  

One night shortly after the move we sat around a quickly thrown together fire pit with friends and were randomly having a conversation about goats maybe the following year…

This was the conversation the following day;

Dan:  Can you go to Cortland Manor tomorrow on your way home from work?

Arielle: For what?

Dan:  There is a goat there I need you to pick up?

Arielle:  I thought we said we were going to maybe start looking next year?

One goat quickly turned into a whole herd of goats.  Then real work began, shipping containers for storing all of our stuff, moving giant boulders, digging up plants and trees, creating more usable space, finding places for all of our things, purchasing equipment, creating an LLC and dealing with many unforeseen obstacles.  Well goats were the "gateway drug."  At Ridge Ranch you can now find; Lionhead bunnies, Nigerian Dwarf, Nubian and Mini Nubian goats, mini donkeys, Micro Zebus, Mini and Micro Highlands and crosses and Gry Brahmans.  

When we moved we did not anticipate this is where we would be but we feel blessed that it is where we are.  Here the possibilities are endless. 

While our main focus is livestock production/ sales we have been promoting agritourism.  We feel that the more connected people are with where their food comes from the more apt they are to buy from other local family farms.