If staying outside of the city, viewing the stars at night, doing goat yoga, and seeing various animals right outside the window suit you, then Lucky Star Farm is your perfect vacation, offering the Milk House, an Airbnb mainstay. The farm is situated just outside of Iowa City and is a ten-minute drive from Kalona.

“I feel like it’s special that we can give people sort of a small farm Iowa experience, [when they] wouldn’t necessarily have any other way to get one,” farm owner Susan Young said. “Maybe [our guests] grew up on a farm, but nobody in the family owns it anymore. They want their kids to see what it was like for them growing up on a farm.”   

The Young family moved to Lucky Star Farm in 2011. They opened the 4.97-rated Milk House in 2020. It sleeps four people comfortably with two beds and one bath. People staying in the Milk House have full range of the farm, able to walk around, see the various animals, swim and fish in the lake and of course, just lounge around in the Milk House.

The only two farm workers are Susan and Rich Young. Susan has been a teacher all of her life and loves using the farm as an opportunity to teach. She recounts when a family from Chicago visited, and their young son was mesmerized by a carrot growing in the soil.

“His parents said, I don’t think he’s ever seen a carrot come out of the ground before and it was like, wow,” Susan recalled. “A lot of people are very disconnected from where food comes from and so, I think [we have a] unique opportunity.” 

The Milk House is all electric and mostly powered by solar energy, an “important part of [Lucky Star Farm’s] sustainability mission,” according to Susan.

The Milk House opening came right before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Youngs were initially worried about the pandemic’s impact on the farm. What they didn’t realize is that their farm was the perfect escape. 

“This was a place where people could come and just be themselves with their family,” Rich said. 

“[People] were kind of itching to get out of their own four walls. This [is] a safe place for people to come,” Susan added. 

The Youngs started their journey by raising chickens on the farm. This spiraled into owning goats, ducks, llamas, and turkeys, with intention of raising even more animals.

“I think the animals are a big draw,” Rich said. “People often bring their kids just for that purpose, to see the animals and get to experience something that they don’t normally.”

Each animal on the farm has a dual purpose. The llamas are an added layer of protection against predators. The chickens and ducks provide eggs for restaurants and local customers. The goats are cute and are great at yoga, an idea that has become a staple of the farm for four years now.

“People love baby goats [and my daughters said goat yoga] was all over social media,” Susan recounted, not particularly sold on goat yoga at the time. “I said, okay, we can do one class. So, I hired an instructor, we set up a tent, 20 people snapped up tickets like that, and they loved it. It was insane. Now, we’re kind of known as the goat yoga farm outside of the city.”

Baby goats, called kids, are born on the farm around March every year. They aid in goat yoga from April to May, and then most get sold to eager buyers as well-behaved and socialized goats. 

“After goat yoga, they’re so socialized, they’re so used to people and so, they make really great animals to move,” Susan said. “For me, it’s a win. Handling all of those goats is kind of hard, so when I have 20 people that are paying me to come in, hold a goat, it’s like yeah, you’re in.”

Turkeys on the farm are a seasonal guest, being raised for upcoming Thanksgiving. If you want to see them, book your stay in the Milk House right before the holiday. 

The farm recently added another flock of ducks, specifically to sell their eggs to restaurants. Susan hopes to have even more animals on the farm, like a dairy cow, but this is not happening anytime soon. 

There is always a project to work on at the farm. Fixing up the Milk House was a project at one point and last summer, they painted the barn that the goats relax in. It was a good experience for everyone involved.

“The beginning of the project happened to coincide with the arrival of a Ukrainian family who was in need of work to get [on] their feet,” Susan said. “They helped tremendously for those days, and we learned a lot about their life in Ukraine. The last day of work, we hung the [sunflower] barn quilt. It was a bit emotional for all of us, as the sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. It seemed like such a fitting way to bond.”

This summer, they’d like to work on a small building that is near the Milk House to help aid in egg processing. 

The Milk House Airbnb is open year-round and can be booked using the Airbnb website. For farm tours, the Youngs’ contact information can be found on their website, theluckystarfarm.com.  Goat yoga season is fast approaching; stay tuned on social media to know the precise dates of goat yoga this year, typically held in April and May.