Not that there's anything wrong with goats and chickens. Nor pot belly stoves.
But add it all up, plus the fact that this is CALIFORNIA, and you get a picture of brain-dead aging hippie parents, ex parents, ex step parents, single moms, all eking out a hippy-dippy communal existence in fastasy-land.
It's this anomie that drives a kid into sick fads, like Goth-ism; or worse, into violent ideologies like neo-naziism or Islamofascism.
If he hadn't committed this murder, this kid might've turned into another John Walker Lindh or Adam Pearlman ("Adam Gadahn") -- another kid who grew up on a "goat farm."
Your forgot "Mom's boyfiend". There's gotta be a Mom's boyfriend angle in this story.