When we first moved to Sheridan Oregon onto an our farm, we had to decide what animals to keep. We tried horses, sheep, chickens, and were adopted by a very noisy Peacock as well as a flock of wild turkeys. The Peacock we gave away and the turkeys moved on, and we finally decided on raising Nubian Goats. Of course we had family dogs and cats, but goats were our livestock of choice. Wetherhaven is a funny name. So where did the name come from? Well, this is not as hard as you might think. Even though I have a degree in Pre-Vet/Animal science, Hazel and I have a real soft spot for animals. As noted above, we raised a variety of livestock. When we had our first lambs and bottle fed them and raised them, we only had to go through the process of having them butchered once before we decided we just weren’t cut out for the business.
Now what we did need to do, was to continue to raise livestock. If for no other reason but to keep our farm deferral. We did not butcher our own however. If we wanted meat, we bought it. A little silly I am sure, but what the heck.
When decided to raise goats, two of our very first goats were wethered, i.e., they could no longer breed. They were indeed pets and I am sure we would have had a hard time letting them go. So in jest we decided we were a haven for wethers. And that is how we named the farm Wetherhaven.
