Amador’s very own Antonio Yovino, an Ethnic Studies and World History teacher, lives on a farm with his family in Livermore, California. He raises and cares for many animals, like goats and chickens.
Five years ago, Yovino and his family moved to their ranch and started adding animals to their family.
“It’s been since 2020. We got it because of COVID, and we needed something to do,” said Yovino.
Owning a farm takes a lot of work, time, and dedication to run. At first, the Yovino family thought it would be easier, but it came with some funny surprises and changes from their goats.
“It’s more work than you anticipate. Usually, goats are self-sufficient; they can just frolic in our back acres, but you know they are very picky. They don’t like grass, they like bushes. We used to have a lot of grape vines, grape trees, and grape bushes, but they’re gone. They ate them,” said Yovino.
With different animals come different responsibilities. There are many little things people can forget about that are important to make a farm run smoothly.
“[Goats] clear out the brush really well. They’re like dogs, which is funny. They eat a lot of hay. They love hay. We’ve got to make sure the water is good. And then for the chickens, sometimes we have roosters, and sometimes we forget to pull the eggs. We have chicks, and they are not resilient animals. We have a lot of dead chickens. We just throw them over the fence, so it’s fine. You know, the circle of life,” said Yovino.
On the Yovino farm, Yovino and his wife are not the only ones working to sustain it. His kids also play a role in maintaining the farm.
“They have to, that’s mandatory. If they want to live in our house, they have to pull their weight,” said Yovino.
