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!

Homesteading in Paradise March 2018 Highlights Video

Here is my monthly "Homesteading in Paradise" video series. This shows our homesteading life in March, and yes, it includes footage of my crazy teenagers jumping into one of our ice-cold, wild creeks while it snowed. 

Also: plenty of cuteness involving baby goats and baby chicks. And I planted garlic and peas.  Spring is finally here! 

Watch this short little video here <----



If you would like more content and learn homesteading skills, go here: 

https://www.marblemounthomestead.com

Here at Marblemount Homestead, we teach and inspire people who see things differently. 

You're fed up with the status quo consumerism pop culture. You want to live a more wholesome, sustainable, healthier, happier life and be more connected to nature. 

We're here to help with teaching skills, inspiration, community and holding your hand. You're not alone. 

Come on over to our side of the fence, where the grass is greener!

We offer tons of free content and tutorials on our blog and youtube channel, and also teach several online courses. And of course, you can come participate in one of our retreats here on the homestead!

And now, there's a way to get access to even more inspiring, educational, fun content from us and help support us by joining our exclusive community!  Help us build this movement to teach and model sustainability!

For over 5 years, I've offered you absolutely free content on my blog and my youtube channel: free tutorials teaching anything you can imagine that's related to homesteading, wholesome living, sustainability, homeschooling and health.

Many mornings, I get up at 5 am, before milking the goats and feeding the pigs, ducks, chickens and (human) kids, so I can write a blog post or edit movie footage we filmed.
Many evenings, I research about a topic my readers want to learn about and then write a tutorial for them.

In other words, plenty of blood, sweat and tears have gone into providing the stuff you all find so inspiring and helpful.  And I love doing that for you!

But gosh darn it, wouldn't it be nice to get paid for some of that work so I can do more of it and serve you better!

That's where Patreon comes in, and you, obviously.  Because I get lots of emails from many people thanking me for inspiring, teaching and leading them, I know I offer a huge service to many.

And now, you can actually support me with as much or as little money as you want.  It's kind of like pledging for National Public Radio, except you can give us little as $1 month!

https://www.patreon.com/Marblemounthomestead

We hope your spring is going great!

Birthdays, cheesecakes, and abundance in the garden

We packed so much into this week, I got dizzy preparing the photos for this blog post.  The most important event, of course, was my husband Steve's birthday - the big 50.  He's now half a century old, he has no grey hairs (except three and a half in his beard), and he is not bothered by turning older.  It's not fair.  Maybe I shall have his midlife crisis for him.

My man is incredible.  Not only is he the kindest, least judgemental, supportive guy, but he also can out-work any 20 year old young guy.  Plus, he's incredibly handsome, don't you think?

We had a party at our homestead with a bunch of our close friends and neighbors, talked around a campfire, included another little friend's birthday celebration, and ate tons of good food.

The day after, I made him a cheesecake from my own Chevre, because it's his favorite, and because we didn't feel like sharing it with lots of people since everyone only would have gotten a tiny slice.  Instead, we just shared it with his parents, who had flown in from Minnesota to help us celebrate.

Eva and I decorated the cake with raspberries and flowers from the garden - a rose and edible borage flowers.

Steve and his Mom, and Luke's grubby fingers heading for the cheesecake.

Steve and his Dad, while opening birthday presents.

Talking of raspberries: We picked them at the Cascadian Farm U-Pick field, just a few miles down the road.  There is no more scenic place to pick, and afterwards, you can reward yourself with ice cream.

It's wonderful to have Steve's parents here.  They win the best-grandparents-in-the-world award, since they LIVE for them and love nothing more than spending time with them and giving them their full attention.

Eva, for example, has claimed Grandma for herself.  They bond painting Eva's nails, sorting through jewelry, and playing with Eva's little wobblehead figures.

While we celebrate, play and bond, we also eat like kings and queens.  All our hard work in the spring has payed off, and we now eat whole meals out of the garden.  Last night, we strolled through and picked new potatoes, carrots, beets, kale, collards and lettuce, and made these into a gourmet meal, adding fresh Sockeye salmon for good measure.  Of course, there's also lots of home-made goat cheese as well.

The goats keep us busy.  I taught Luke how to milk, and he milked three quarts of milk all by himself.  We take the goats and babies out to pasture every day, which involves a certain amount of chaos with the puppy trying to chase the baby goats, the mamas butting the puppy, and me trying to contain everyone on a leash.

And we still find time for swimming in the pond and knitting.  I just finished a beret, and don't ask me why I knit with wool in summer, but I did.

One more thing I loved this week: biking with my middle child, Luke.  We are kind of, sort of training for riding our bikes over the pass this year, which would involve an Herculean kind of effort, lots of muscles and tons of chocolate.  So I decided to go on a training ride with Luke, since his older brother Kai already rode over the pass twice.  

We tackled the Cascade River Road, which goes uphill and passes by a waterfall.  Since the day was hot, and we even hotter, Luke and I dunked ourselves in the water to cool off.  What a fun 23 mile ride with my blondie!  He did great, of course, and kicked my ass on the last very steep mile to the lookout.

I will leave you with a picture of two swallow babies who live on the outside wall of our house, and whose parents are hustling all day long to keep them fed.

There's nothing like eating dinner underneath a swallow house.

What's going on in your neck of the woods lately?

In love (and maybe not in the way you might think)

You know the cliche of a man and woman running towards each other in slow motion, through long, waving grass with wild flowers, backlight by a warm glow of slanting sun rays, a romantic sound track playing in the background?

That's how I feel about my ducks, or rather, that's how they feel about me, I think.  Whenever they see me in the yard, they run towards me, quacking excitedly, their whole bodies shaking with their wobbly gait.

It gives my heart a little jump, feeling so openly loved by someone.  Not that my husband doesn't love me - he does, deeply, but he just doesn't show it quite in the same enthusiastic, quacking, completely exuberant way.

Frankly, it would freak me out if he did what my ducks do, and I am perfectly happy with the way he proves his love to me.

Anyway: my ducks.  I love 'em.   They're called Ancona ducks, an endangered breed, and they eat tons of slugs, are always happy and showing it, give me gorgeous eggs, and are beautiful.

I wrote an article on how to raise ducks in this month's issue of Grow Northwest Magazine.  You can read it here.

In the video below I'm, running away from them while trying to film how they chase me so they can hug me and kiss me beg for food.

Some way or other, my days are spent nurturing animals, children, plants, and my friends.  I like nurturing and mothering these beings: feeding, grooming, watering, cuddling, supporting and teaching them.  I feel blessed to lead such a rich life with all these souls in them that love me and let me love them.

Some of them are so darn cute, how could you not be in love with them?

And when I've had enough of nurturing and it feels like too much and I just want to be left alone, I go hide in the garden to water my newly planted seeds, or I sneak some chocolate in the greenhouse.  And then my beloved rubs my feet.  See why I'm in love with him?  He's cute, eh?  (Although I assure you, I don't quack or wobble towards him when I see him).

The goats have been getting lots of attention and visits from enthusiastic little humans.  And since the grass is growing so beautifully, we've been leading them to pasture so they can chomp on the green stuff.  The babies were clueless where to go the first time around, so they had to be carried.

I will leave you with images from a day at the river with our inflatable kayak, my thriving seedlings, and a random photo of dough rising in front of the wood stove, in the midst of our chaotic and messy kitchen.

What or who are you in love with these days?