Travel vs. Goats

My friend Laura posted some thoughts on her blog that sort of tapped into a latent dilemma that lately has been pressing on me: the traveling urge. Ever since Elizabeth and I got back eight years ago from spending three months in Europe (we were mostly in Germany, but we also spent time in the Czech Republic, Austria, and France), I have wanted to go back. Two and a half years ago, we geared up to go on a really cool trip; it still pains me to think about it.

Here were the plans: Our group would consist of Elizabeth, Sonora (then 1.5 years old and thus costless on an airlplane), me, and Elizabeth's sister Carrie and her new husband Carson.
We would fly with our bikes, panniers, a child bike trailer, and our camping gear to Munich Germany, where we would set out to the south-east. We would take 4 leisurely weeks biking through southern Germany and most of Austria, finally ending up in Budapest, Hungary. We would either take a train back to Munich, or fly out from Budapest.

We had the whole trek planned out. There are campgrounds, most of which are right on the water at one picturesque mountain lake or another, every ten miles or so along the route. I looked up rules on taking bikes as luggage. We purchased all the gear we needed.

And then we did our budget.

The year before, we had lived on my $22,000 salary, and while my salary had increased since then, we weren't going to be able to muster up, without going into debt, the $3,500 we figured we'd need for the trip. So for the next few months I cringed when a now-irrelevant deadline passed: the date we would need to buy our plane tickets; the date we would board the airplane; the date we would set out peddling at the feet of the Alps.

Since then we've taken one trip--to Alaska for a week--which was a pretty cool trip; it felt as if we had gone somewhere. Besides that, we've just driven to Utah or Colorado or to the other side of Washington. Or we've had stay-cations, which are a poor substitute. Our journeys have been kept short partially because, having purchased a house, we haven't had much extra money, and because we had Rowyn.

But as Rowyn gets old enough to make travel a little easier, and we begin to entertain thoughts of travel again, we've also started making plans that will anchor us to where we are. These plans consist of goats and chickens.

Elizabeth and I are as drawn to the idea of procuring our own food as we are to traveling and, I'm realizing, these are mutually exclusive pursuits. Milk goats have to be milked multiple times a day, every day of every week of the year, or else the milk will dry up. Eggs have to be gathered every day or else eventually the chickens will peck into them and develop a taste for eggs that would ruin the flock for egg-bearing.

We could ask our neighbors to milk our goats and gather the eggs, but to ask someone to do this for a month while we romp about Europe (or South America, or Africa, or Asia, or Australia) would be irresponsible. Besides, few people would have time to do this. Fewer people still would like us enough to do it.

We don't have any animals yet, nor do we have any plans for travel. Over the coming winter, we will make a decision that will of necessity exclude from our lives something we are excited about.