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When Kim Davis named her household’s farm, she selected the identify Ataraxy. It means “a state of serene calmness,” and that’s what the farm represents for her veteran husband, and now many others.
Davis and her husband, Blair, began their farm in Lawrencetown, N.S., about 40 minutes east of Halifax, in 2013. It was initially a household enterprise to assist deal with Blair Davis’s service-related PTSD, however the farm — and its remedy goats — have grown to imply way more.
“This farm was began for me, but it surely’s greater than that now,” Blair Davis mentioned. “It is to the purpose the place it is serving to others … And it simply fills my coronary heart with goodness.”
This summer time, they opened up Ataraxy Farm to anybody who wants it.
Their goats obtain frequent visits from injured veterans, shoppers of the Dartmouth Grownup Providers Centre, and members of the Jap Shore Psychological Well being Affiliation, who’re welcome to pet and cuddle the pleasant, people-loving goats.
Additionally they do free weekend excursions for anybody who indicators up on their web site.
“To me, that is regular — it is only a farm. However different folks, it is particular,” Davis mentioned. “We began to get extra [visitors] right here with various kinds of problems, PTSD, anxiousness, melancholy, and so they say it is so calming.”
Davis mentioned after serving in Bosnia with the Canadian Armed Forces, he was struggling and in search of an outlet for his feelings. Whereas going by rehab with Veterans Affairs, he realized animals might be his function.
“They’re very delicate to our feelings and physique language,” he mentioned. “It helped me heal from the trauma that I had.”
What began with one goat named Fred has grow to be 48 goats spanning 4 generations. The farm additionally now has donkeys, horses, a mule, chickens and guinea fowl.
With the intention to handle the animals, they took on eight volunteers who profit from the goats themselves. Davis mentioned he sees the identical optimistic adjustments within the volunteers that he noticed in himself.
“It is the entire expertise, it is highly effective,” he mentioned. “I did not understand … how a lot of an affect it was having on the volunteers and the folks coming right here till I heard their tales.”
Abby Burke, 15, involves the farm weekly. She is certainly one of 5 volunteers who’re age 16 and below. Earlier than beginning volunteering, she suffered from anxiousness and missed six months of highschool.
Burke’s mom, Betty Boudreau, mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic made it exhausting for her daughter.
“She actually withdrew into herself and she or he was spending most of her time in her room, did not wish to do something, did not go anyplace. She simply went to sleep on a regular basis,” Boudreau mentioned.
Then they discovered Ataraxy Farm was in search of volunteers.
“She’s at all times had an actual reference to animals … so she got here. She cherished it,” mentioned Boudreau. “What a distinction in her —it is the smile when she comes right here.”
Strolling by the yard, Burke snuggles with the goats and calls most of them by identify.
“I really feel extra in my aspect once I’m with the goats, to be sincere,” Burke mentioned. “They’re simply extra understanding. They can not actually choose you want different folks can.”
Kim Davis mentioned for this reason she and her husband do it.
“That is what this expertise is about, is permitting folks to seek out these feelings that they’ve misplaced,” she mentioned.
“And the goats do this.”
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