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Comment by frob | Hacker News Reader

Almost 2 years ago, I quit my job as a SWE at a FAANG and started raising a small herd of dairy goats. We use the milk for personal consumption and to make soap to sell.

They give a nice rhythm to the day: I greet them shortly after rising and lock them up as the sun sets. We have daily conversations while I milk them and we gossip about the chickens.

The switch has forced me to hone my construction and machinery skills, but I still enjoy finding ways to slip tech solutions into my setup.

I recently started working again in tech remotely, but I'm doing non-profit work which is in much greater alignment with my personal values. I'm a lot happier and a good part of it is due to the goats.

It's not for everyone, but I've enjoyed the change in pace and outlook. And the fresh milk.

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From Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a Machine". A note left by a resigning engineer:

"I am going to a commune in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season."

Do you earn enough to live, or did you save enough by working at FAANG to live a few years (decades) like this ?

My wife and I have found Nubian goats, said to have the best tasting and creamiest milk of all goats in the land. We haven't had milk from every kind of goat, but this saying is possibly true. It's also easy on her lactose sensitive stomach.

We raise Mini Nubians and I agree that their milk is wonderful!

May I visit and try the milk? Do you make cheese from it?

They are also hilarious. One of the funniest animals on the planet. A day spent with a goat is well spent.

I'm still doing sysadmin work remotely while I slowly grow our own herd of dairy goats (12 now as of last week) for our soap business. Still a very low-tech setup but I may finally splurge on an electric milk pump this year after 5 years of hand milking.. I've had enough!

We both hand-milk and use a pump. We've had a Simple Pulse for a while. It has been reliable and easy to clean. I'd say using a pump adds 5 minutes of overhead for setting up and cleaning, but it's not that much more given that I'm cleaning a bucket and strainers anyways.

Goat's dairy can be a bit of an acquired taste :). I drank goat's milk when I was young due to an allergy and I remember switching to cow's milk and it being yuck for a while. Love goats though, my grandma kept them, they are smart and feisty.

How big is the herd? How far away did you end up having to go--are you near a big city still, or far out in the boonies?

I think a lot of people in tech have pastoral dreams that may not be solidly based in reality, but as someone who grew up with a herd of sheep, it's still pretty attractive even when you know what's involved :)

Sorry for the delay! I only just saw this question.

We have 6 goats and 13 chickens. We live in a town of 3.5k. It is large enough to have the necessities like grocery and hardware stores. At the same time, there are less than 2 dozen people living within half of a mile of me.

We can get to a town of 11k in 20 minutes and a city of a quarter million in 35, so most everything we would want is accessible, but we need to plan out trips a bit. The only thing I'm really missing is access to a variety of cuisines. There is but one Ethiopian restaurant within a hour, 3 Indian places, and no Burmese. The one Chaat place we knew of closed during the pandemic. But we do have 7 bars serving the same Americana within 10 minutes of us!

I'm almost on this same path. I've got a hobby farm with chickens, meat cattle and pigs. Haven't quit tech yet and don't see my self doing so.

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