A Goat/Kitchen-Centered Life

This picture of our kitchen table is very telling of what our lives are like these days. Lu is trying to figure out how to assemble his new cream separator that came with a manual in some Eastern European language. You can see our 30-yr-old Scrabble board. That red tub is goat lice treatment. And the baby bottle you ask?

The baby bottle is for our little Almendra (almond). 

She and her sisters were born on another farm

and separated from their mother,

so she needs to be bottle-fed.

Her sisters have since gone to other homes,

and we officially have six goats now.

 The cream separator is still learning how to be used. lol

But we'll soon be eating goat butter and goat cream!

Lu has been experimenting with different cheese recipes,

and we're having ricottas and mozzarellas daily!

This is a chili and herbs rolled cheese.

Lu is managing an on-going fermentation process 

that makes a hibiscus flower probiotic fizzy drink.

He also has some ginger beer fermenting :)

 It's a pretty goat/kitchen-centric life right now,

but we also do normal school things.

Like guitar-playing:

 Lu is currently reading Don Quixote

Our algebra skills are getting pretty solid

if I do say so myself.

(If you've been here a few times,

you probably know that math is NOT my forté)

This is a year of Revolutions in History class.

We finished our studies on the American Revolution

and now we're learning about the French Revolution.

 

Besides all the exercise Lu gets walking the goats

for two hours every morning,

we also do swimming and dancing for P.E.

Goats and school make for a hectic schedule, no doubt.

Our days start at 5:30am and it's go, go, go until dinner time.

But we're happy and inspired with everything we're doing,

and that's a lot to be grateful for.

2016, Here We Come!

This is the beginning of our sixth year homeschooling. Lu is 13yo and roughly in 7th grade. It's going to be a very different year than we're used to, because now we have a small farm. It all started with Lu wanting a goat, and now we have five! Chickens are soon to come, and we're thinking about pigs and rabbits too.

We recently had our first litter. 

Lu delivered two healthy kids!

They're so frickin' cute, they're like bunny-kitty-ponies. 

Lu gets up every morning at 5:30am to take the goats out to pasture for a couple of hours. Right now he's only milking one goat, but another is shacking up with a neighbor's buck, so we'll have two milking goats by the summer. I get fresh goat's milk in my coffee now!

Once all the goat chores are done and a shower is had, it's around 10am and time for academics. Lu starts with reading, then history or writing, math, and guitar practice. 

Then it's time for lunch with a documentary 

or a game of Scrabble.

We started out this year re-watching Mankind: The Story of All of Us,

which we just might make a yearly tradition of because 

it's such a great summary of our chronological history studies.

On Monday afternoons Lu has a private guitar lesson. 

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons are for the after-school arts 

and recreation activities we run from our home.

Typical activities are team-building games,

dance, singing, arts&crafts, drumming, and circus arts.

On Wednesdays and Fridays, 2-9pm, Lu is doing his second apprenticeship at a local restaurant a couple times a week. He's working with a team of chefs and learning loads, and doing so well that they even let him be head chef sometimes. This means he gets to design the menu and order the other chefs around. 

He loves those nights :)

So, as you can see, we have a very busy year ahead of us!

Getting our Goats, Ginger Bugs and Sourdough

We got our first goat!

 Friday, 20th of November

We named him Jocote (ho-ko-teh) after a fruit that grows here.

You can see why we chose the name :)

He was born to the goat farmer that Lu has been apprenticing with for the past two months, who then sold him to a family as a pet. Jocote was living in very poor conditions with them. He was SO happy to come live with us and the dogs, and lots of space to run and play in. 

Sweetest, most affectionate goat there could ever be.

Goats don't like to be alone, so we needed to hurry

and get a companion for Jocote.

Lu got in touch with another goat farmer, 

and on Sunday, we got Mocha!

They weren't immediate friends, Mocha is a bit of bully, but even so, it was better than being alone. Everything was going perfectly. They both seemed healthy, except for the lice that Jocote came with. We gave him a special bath and got rid of most of them, but they had already affected his health. On Friday, a week after getting him, Lu found poor little Jocote dead in the morning. There were many tears. Lu and Mocha went to spend the rest of the morning at the goat farm where he apprentices. His wonderful teacher said many wise words about life and death, and the nature of goat farming, after which Lu called me to tell me not to bury Jocote. He had decided that he wanted to keep the pelt, so he came home to skin and then bury our first goat himself.

Lu had already slaughtered and butchered a couple of chickens and a sheep, but I have no experience in these things. As a child, I saw a lamb being slaughtered and it was very traumatic, so much so that I have never eaten lamb in my life because of it. But watching my son do this, especially with an animal that he was emotionally attached to, has me very much in awe of him. He did it respectfully, ritualistically, and it was beautiful. 

*     *     *     *     *

With Jocote gone,

we needed to find a new companion for Mocha asap.

On Sunday, Cajeta (caramel) arrived.

Our goat dealer convinced us to go ahead and get another,

older, PREGNANT mama goat,

and brought her to us the next day.

Here's Melanie:

During all this Goating Frenzy Lu took a most awesome fermentation workshop. It was an all day, 9am-5pm, event. He was the only kid in the group, so I was a little worried about him being there all on his own. But of course, as it is with Lu, he made friends with all the adults and impressed the facilitators with "some of the best questions we've had so far" and what an "attentive student and super keen learner" he is. Proud mama moment :)

Here's some sauerkraut he made in class:

And sourdough bread starter

and ginger bugs for (non-alcoholic) ginger beer

that he made at home:

YUM!

As a mama who's never baked a loaf of bread in her life,

having it fresh and at home is truly dreamy. 

Thank you, Lu! <3

Lu now has a very big commitment to these goats. He has to take them up the mountain for at least two hours a day. I'll need to get some good audio-books for him to be able to multi-task. lol

I love how meditative it is out there with the goats. 

It's very slow. Stop. Munch. Walk a bit more. Stop. Munch. 

Look around. Greet the occasional passer-by.

And they follow him.

Somehow, they know to follow him.

They don't follow Cha or me,

but wherever Lu goes, they go. 

So, we are officially, and very unexpectedly, goat farmers!

Allowing my child to pursue his interests (even when they are way outside of my own realm of experience, in unknown territory to me) has brought wonderful, new gifts to our table. It's a whole new world of knowledge and possibilities that our family did not have before. 

My son is his own person, with his own unique perspective of the world, and giving him the freedom to follow his curiosity is one of the greatest things I can do for him, as a homeschooling mama.