We made chèvre with our goat milk for the first time and it was so incredibly easy, I cannot believe I have been buying soft goat cheese for so long. You may remember that our mini Nubian, Sundae, had kids who would not drink off her left teat, so we had to milk it out ourselves. She produced way more milk than they needed even with bottle feeding one of them. We had a surplus of milk that just did not taste right because the first couple weeks, there is still colostrum in it, and it is somewhat bitter. We tried making pancakes with it and pudding, but really needed to use up quite a bit. Our friend suggested making cheese. We went to her house to learn how. We got so much cheese from what was probably a couple gallons of milk, it likely would have cost us over $100 at least to buy it. And it is delicious!
One of the reasons we love fresh goat milk from our goats who are out on pasture all day is the amount of vitamin K2 in it. It is such an important nutrient to help calcium into your bones and teeth. It’s one reason I also take the fermented cod liver oil/concentrated butter oil from Green Pasture. The cod liver oil is fermented, unlike many fish oils that are high heat processed. This preserves the nutrition. And the concentrated butter oil is from cows on nutrient dense spring grasses. It saved my teeth from chronic cavities 15 years ago. You get 10% off at checkout if you use promo code “Alison”. https://greenpasture.org/
Remember when herding animals required manual labor? Actually we were shooting video but the animals thought it was the end of the world and ran straight for the barn. It was the fastest feeding time on record, maybe we use the drone more often?!
Don’t forget to keep your shepherd energy supply high with good nutrition. We take the fermented cod liver/concentrated butter oil from @greenpastureproducts everyday because it is packed with vitamins A, D & K along with anti-inflammatory omega 3s. It’s fermented instead of high heat processed like most fish oils. Grab some with promo code “ALISON” and you get 10% off. https://greenpasture.org/
I wasn’t a committed homeschool mom from the second my first child was born. I did quite a bit of research because I wanted to learn more about how kids learn - and truly what kind of environments are not just best for learning ABCs but for overall health and development. I wasn’t even sure I would be a good teacher. After reading many books written by education “experts”, we landed on homeschool.
I really had to unravel quite a bit of what I thought was “school” before I could even begin. I went to the same private school K-12 and equated learning with perfect exam scores. As a student, I forgot a lot of what I crammed into my head because I wasn’t learning for the joy of it - I was learning to survive.
I have come to see how much a child learns through simply living - and being bored! They are innately attuned to art, nature, science, nutrition, play, language - if only we give them a chance. I have truly loved homeschooling my kids, especially all the time we get to spend...
I lived for many years with the idea that I would be a career woman first and someday get to kids.
Biologically, this makes little sense as it gets harder to have kids as a woman ages. But even more mind boggling, I didn’t really even think much of it, like the way one considers what he or she is having for dinner. Actually I probably put more thought into dinner. Being a mom was a complete afterthought. One day a friend and I were eating lunch in downtown Seattle and she smacked some truth into my noggin. I decided, ok what the heck. What do I have to lose? We had our first when I was 38 - I found out I was pregnant the week I resigned from my TV news job. Our second came when I was 41.
If I could talk to younger me, I’d tell her that no career is worth delaying or sacrificing motherhood. It has been the most incredibly humbling, soul-stretching, heart-throbbing, belly laughing adventure I’ve ever had.
And don’t forget to grab the fermented cod liver/concentrated butter oil from...
