WALLER COUNTY, Texas — At Swede Farms, goats run around the property like dogs might anywhere else. It’s springtime in rural Waller County and that means new babies.
The baby goats are fed three times a day and they are always hungry!
The Carlson family moved to Waller County from Bellaire in 2004. The farm has been a family operation, emphasis on family, ever since.
Lee Ann and Tim Carlson have 12 kids.
Here are their names and ages at the time we visited the farm:
- 9-year-old Dixie
- 11-year-old Seth
- 13-year-old Judah
- 15-year-old Noah
- 17-year-old Liberty
- 19-year-old Timothy
- 21-year-old Emma
- 23-year-old Linnea
- 26-year-old Sarah
- 27-year-old Grace
- 30-year-old Christin
- 31-year-old Katarina
The older kids have married and moved out.
All the children were not planned, mom Lee Ann said.
“Once you have four children - if you go larger than that, it’s all the same," she said. "Bigger. You no longer fit in normal cars and you need a bigger dining room table. And other than that, you just get a system.”
That system includes homeschooling and a serious division of labor. Noah is in charge of the pigs and explains the chores. “Watering ‘em, making sure they have mud," he said.
Liberty whips up dinner for 10 or so each night. “Throwing stuff in the crockpot in the morning and having it done for dinner,” she said.
Swede Farms produces goat milk and cheese. The family started the popular Saturday Memorial Villages Farmers Market in Houston.
“We didn’t have them to work a farm. We actually moved to the farms so we could work with our kids,” said Lee Ann.
On May 13, 2022, the parents of 12 added one more accomplishment to their list. They graduated from the University of Houston. Tim got a bachelor’s of liberal arts and Lee Ann, a master's of fine arts.