Why yoga with goats is a really bad idea. And: a great spring resource for ya!

Have you seen the viral videos on Facebook of people doing yoga with goats?  Yes, they're cute, but do people realize that if they did yoga with goats, their yoga mats would get peed, pooped, stepped, and chewed on?

Also, have you ever had a baby goat jump on your back?  It hurts.  And not only do they step on your sensitive vertebrae, but they also chew on your hair without you realizing it, and then you have strands of spit hair sticking from your head like a crazed Medusa.

Still.  We sometimes do yoga with goats.  Here are Luke and Eva while visiting our friend with mini Nubians.

Please note the muddy hoof prints on Luke's shirt (another side effect of doing goat yoga: lots of laundry).

This photo op happened when we shopped for goats.  I considered mini Nubians.  They are incredibly gorgeous.

Then, I fell in love with actually owning goats with ears, as opposed to the ear-less La Manchas I've been raising for over a decade.

The white goat below is Fiona, a Saanen I bought from a friend.  I adored Fiona, and she stayed at our homestead for three weeks, until I had to return her because I was ready to slit her throat.

Every single day, she would scream and yell and maaaaahhhhhh very loudly all day long as soon as she lost sight of me.  I spent hours in the barn and pasture to comfort her, although she also had another goat companion, but in the end, I had to return her.  I cried when I dropped her off.

We sure loved the taste of her milk.

Alas. 

I've been making Chevre cheese, yogurt and Feta cheese with her milk.  Oh so good.  And my morning coffee with creamy, raw goat milk?  Ohhhh!!!

You do know I teach a self-paced online course on how to make cheese at home, right? It includes how to make Greek Yogurt, Chevre (or Farmer's cheese if you make it with cow milk), Gouda and Cabra Al Vino.  

And a recipe for the best cheese cake you'll ever make (made with the Farmer's cheese I teach).  My son makes cheesecake all by himself, and he's only 13.

You can check it out by clicking here <----

Spring time is in full swing, despite the record rainfalls we've been plagued with here in the Pacific Northwest.

Despite the rain, I got my potatoes planted!

And my daughter helped me start all kinds of seeds in the greenhouse, and they are all sprouted and growing happily by now.

Best of all, flowers are already popping up everywhere, and the wild natives are blooming, too.

Our six little chickies are growing very rapidly.  They are looking less and less like little fluffballs and more like... you know... dinosaurs.

And of course, you also know I teach a self paced online chicken raising course, right?  In it, you'll learn everything you need to know to raise chickens in your backyard, even if you live in the city.  It also includes a video and step-by-step instructions on how to build the kind of chicken tractor we've used for over a decade to keep our birds safe and happy.

You can check it out by clicking here <----

We spent an hour to clean up our neighbors' chicken coop the other day, so we could move our two big laying hens up there while the little ones occupy the chicken tractor.

The kids had to help and weren't happy about it, but oh well: if you wanna eat eggs, you gotta help clean up chicken poop.

In closing, I'll prove to you that we don't just work all the time.  We take time to play, we really do, and we think it's important.

One day, when it wasn't raining (surprise, surprise), we took our canoe out to Puget Sound and found some magical spots.  

And then we warmed up at home in front of the wood stove.

By the way?  I put together a resource of spring-related tutorials I made, mostly videos.  One series of tutorials is about growing your best onions ever organically, the other is how and why to use a broadfork instead of a rototiller to prepare your garden, and the other is my little movie tutorial on how to make nettle pesto.

You can get the list right here on our Patreon membership site.  By paying as little as $1 a month (and as much as $20, and with that you'll get a traditional long bow Steve made), you get access to membership-only stuff I produce.

Plus, it supports us, so that's nice, isn't it?
Head on over to our membership site to do just that and grab your list for spring!