Jane had experienced more than her share of heartache and loss, which included repeatedly losing the very way of life she loved. Learn how she unexpectedly found herself in the right place at the right moment to discover a brand new calling and deeply satisfying way of life. We think you’ll be charmed by her story. If you’re considering what’s next in your own life, let Jane help light your way through her unique journey.
(Goat photography in this article by Stephanie Pilgrim – [email protected])
There was once a little girl who lived on a farm
Jane grew up on a working farm in rural Claremore, Oklahoma, but she never felt like a farm girl. Jane says she was always more of a “girly-girl”, and had never been the least bit interested in anything to do with country life.
At age 19, she left the family farm to live in Claremore with her first husband. When he passed away early in their marriage, Jane reluctantly returned to the farm with her young daughter for familial support. Her heart still was not in country life, and she felt certain it never would be.
Finding love again
Before long, Jane met and married Rick Sallee, and they have been happily married for 40 years now. The Sallee’s were a blended family of three children. They bought a house in Claremore and Jane considered it the perfect home with a backyard pool. “I had waited my entire life to move out of the country, into town, and into my dream home.”
Jane felt deeply happy with her way of life. “I think we were a typical, busy family. Cheerleading, football, jobs for the older kids. They would say Rick and I behaved more like newlyweds rather than the parents of three kids.” Still, the demands of a blended family prevented the couple from having much one-on-one time with each other.
Rick worked for American Airlines in nearby Tulsa, and Jane was a contented stay-at-home mom who was active in her community. One of her involvements was especially significant. “As lead volunteer, I spearheaded the complete restoration of Claremore’s historic Will Rogers Hotel, which was built in Claremore in the 1930’s and named for the famous humorist.” After the extensive project was completed on the six-story building, Jane was offered the hotel’s management position. The children were not too far off from finishing high school, so Jane accepted the offer. She loved the job and remained in it for a number of years.
More loss, and a much-too-empty nest
The Sallee’s faced their first difficult challenge together when their children were in high school. Jane’s father had a cancer diagnosis, and the next several months were traumatic for the family. Jane dropped everything to be there for her father during his decline. He passed away a few months shy of two of their kids’ graduations. Jane would later realize she’d missed out on the excitement and major milestones of senior year for two of the children (the third had joined the air force around then). “Thinking back, I was mostly consumed with the passing of my father. During my kids’ last year at home, I spent most of that time in the hospital. with my dad, waiting on the inevitable to happen.” Jane says that while she still misses her dad every day, not being able to be there for the kids left her feeling cheated out of making special memories of their senior year.
With the death of her father and the exodus of all three children around the same time, Jane felt like her nest got “really empty, really fast.”
One step forward…two steps backward
At this point, Jane and Rick were In their late 30’s, so they were early empty nesters. After such a difficult year they were more than ready to begin a new and different life together. They wanted to do something that would let them explore and do more as a couple, which hadn’t been possible on the front end of their marriage. They were excited to be moving forward in life.
But there was a problem, and it was a big one. Jane’s father had made her promise that upon his death, Jane would allow her mother to remain on the family farm for the rest of her life. And someone had to help her mother run the farm. Jane would have to move back to the country.
Once again, Jane packed up and returned, this time with Rick. “Did I ever imagine my life taking a turn and putting me back on that farm? Never!” She felt like a fish out of water but kept her promise to her father. “I tried to settle into farm life, but it was obvious I was a white-collar woman at heart”.
A silver lining
The good news was that Jane found her mother was still young enough to be able to hold things down at the farm for periods of time so that Jane and Rick could do some empty nest traveling together. And it was through those travels that the couple discovered their mutual passion.
“It was time for Rick and me to be a couple for the very first time”, says Jane. “Marrying with children did not give us that. We both love to travel – so off we went! We fell in love with the Caribbean where we spent several weeks a year on the island of Saint Martin. This is when we also fell in love with sailing. One year, coming home from the islands, we made the decision to retire among the islands on a sailboat. Looking for an ocean-going sailboat came next.” For the next few years, when not back in Oklahoma at their jobs and doing their part to hold things down at the farm, the Sallee’s traveled mostly coastal, looking for the right boat to live on for stretches of time. “Once the perfect boat was found”, Jane says, “our life together became the boating life”.
And they loved every moment.
“Rick went back to school to become a boat captain with a six-pack license (a license to operate passenger vessels) and became an accomplished sailor”. They sailed on weekends, heading straight to the Caribbean.
And then, a major mishap
“As we prepared to retire early and move onto our boat, both Rick and I were working endless hours getting ready for our big adventure”, Jane says. And that is exactly when her misstep on a staircase one day at work changed the couple’s entire life in an instant. “My heel caught in a floor grate and rolled me sixteen stairs to the bottom. After years of surgery on my shoulder, Rick and I were told that I would always be limited on what I could do with my left arm and shoulder, and sailing on the ocean was not one of them”. Despite disappointment and heartache, Jane says she has taken immense comfort from seeing how wonderful her husband was to her throughout her surgeries and recovery. “He showed me that he is always there for me”.
Jane’s accident was life-altering, of course. “Now my nest was truly empty,” she laments. “No kids, no job, and what seemed like no future.”
But life can have a way of sending good things to us if we pay close enough attention.
Was it serendipity, or something else?
“We never know where our life is headed,” Jane says, “but I can assure you I would have never imagined what happened next: On the way to town one afternoon, Rick asked to stop and look at a prefabricated building to use as a shop. While Rick and a nice gentleman visited about the buildings, I was attracted to these beautiful white goats, all standing in a row at the fence looking straight at me. The girly-girl, in my dress and heels, got out of my car and tramped through the weeds to go see these wonderful animals. This was the very moment my life turned upside down. Standing at the fence staring back at the goats, I heard a voice whispering in my ear, ‘Get a goat’. Now, was that my voice I heard? Maybe it was my guardian angel, maybe God. I have no idea, but I bought myself not one goat, but two.”
And so it was that eleven years ago, on April Fools Day, Jane became a “mother” to a pair of twin Saanen dairy goats. Did she know anything about goats? “Oh no, I knew nothing about how to raise a goat. The two goats, named June and Jolene, were just one day old when the man I would call my goat guru, Lewis Armbrister, called me to congratulate us on our new babies. I was handed the two newborn goats, a gallon of milk, and a list of instructions. I had no idea what I was in for!”
“I spent the next year loving, raising, and learning to be a goat farmer.” The girls, as Jane refers to them, were growing and she enjoyed them so much that she and Rick started to think they needed more goats for her to have around. “I spent many hours with Lewis, now considered our ‘life coach’. Lewis gave us lessons on goats, gardening and ‘life back in the day lessons.” The old-school, right way to handle things on a farm. And in life. Lewis remained close to the Sallee’s and the goats until his death a few years ago.
Over time, there were baby goats that Jane delivered (all by herself). She had learned to milk the goats by hand. “I had an actual goat farm. Now, no one could ever have told me that four goats could give that much milk every day. And I mean, every day. 365 days a year!”
The most unlikely thing of all
What happened next was the most unlikely thing she could ever have anticipated: Jane, the girl who had never liked being in the country, would come full circle to find her place on the farm.
Jane marvels that it would take a goat to change her so profoundly, and in this way.
Of course with a busy, working goat farm, there went any chance of world traveling for the Sallee’s. “These little goats need to be milked, and where does one find a fellow milker? Nowhere. So here I am, a goat farmer stuck at home with a barn full of goats, sometimes regretting ever getting out of the car to look at some old goats at a fence. What was I thinking….”
When life gives you lady goats…..
Then one day, out of the blue, Rick walked over to Jane and handed her a recipe. Jane thought it odd, since he knew she can’t cook. She took a look. “It was a recipe to make goat’s milk soap. An old recipe from the 1800’s had been reformulated using high – quality ingredients. And that is where my business started: Beauty by June and Jolene all-natural goat’s milk soap and lotion. For the past ten years, I have gone from milking by hand in the shed, to milking the girls by machine in their custom-built barn. And yes, I said custom barn. Nothing but the best for my girls.”
Jane’s business blossomed.
Jane says she absolutely loves what she does.
“You never know where you will find your niche in life.” Jane found hers at the local farmer’s market in the warm and close-knit community of Claremore, Oklahoma. She feels that her gift for gab and enjoyment of her customers makes working at the market a great fit. “As I prepare for my ninth season setting up at the farmer’s market, the question always comes back: Who knew that two little goats could change my life in such a big way? Rick and I spend most days making soap, lotion, and now shampoo. We’re preparing for six months of hard work at the market that starts again in a few weeks.”
And Jane hasn’t stopped there. She says she’s shipped her products all over the lower 48 and Alaska.
What’s next for Jane?
The Sallee’s don’t milk anymore. Most of the goats have passed away from old age. But they still have Jolene. “We keep her and a few goat friends on the farm”. So how is it that the Sallee’s continue to make and sell their goat’s milk products?
“As the goats began to age, we started putting milk up for soap. So, I still have plenty of milk to keep me in business for a few more years. Maybe I’ll retire when I run out of milk.”
Does Jane ever look back and miss her glorious boating days? Of course she does. But two lady goats captured a girly-girl’s heart, and changed her life for the better.
Jane’s once-overly-empty nest is quite full again, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. “I still have my goat kids, a farm dog, chickens, and Mom (now 95 years old). And I’m not sure I’m ready to be an empty nester again”. The cherry on top is that Jane and Rick’s children and grandchildren all live nearby and they see each other often.
So remember…..When life gives you lady goats, make soap!
If you’re in Claremore, Oklahoma between May 4 and October 26th of this year (2024), stop by the Farmer’s Market at the Rogers County Courthouse parking lot from 7-11 a.m. on Saturdays and look for Beauty by June and Jolene. Jane would enjoy visiting with you.
(Photos in this article provided by Jane Sallee and approved by Stephanie Pilgrim)
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