Monday, April 28, 2014

Lately




Watched a good movie last night, Promised Land.  Far too much bad language but we managed to watch without the little ones.  It was about big business and fracking, but really it was about living an authentic life - with your actions and livelihood in line with your principles.  

Getting some short lessons in each day with Sarah, keeping it as interesting as possible with the goal of producing something to show the state for the end of the year portfolio (I hate this!)  

To this end I am reacquainting myself with the Charlotte Mason methods as her goals included short lessons in the younger years, forming good habits, and making life-long learners.

Making sourdough bread and pizza crust.  So glad to finally have starter again.  This is also part of the recommendation for remineralizing teeth and preventing decay.  The soaking and natural culturing process helps to break down the phytic acids in the grains.

I have been cleaning the goat barn of its winter build-up (a very sore shoulder to show for it).  It was a good chore to do this past rainy raw weekend.  Emmy is my consistent helper.  She uses her own shovel and rake and doesn't tire of helping.  She does get a ride in the wheelbarrow to the compost pile with each load.  I just throw an empty feed bag over the manure, put her on top and we are off.

Getting the milking stand area ready.  Put a wooden platform down on the barn dirt floor and cleaning it out to white wash the walls and finally put the milk stand together.

Despite the fact that neither of our does our bred. (Dante, the Nigerian Dwarf Buck, has yet to go into rut despite being about 1 year old but we still love him.)

I figure if I keep imagining myself milking and continue to get everything ready, it will happen.

We are thinking, then, to see if we can find a lactating doe to buy.

Planting - kale, lettuce, and snap peas with turnips and beets to plant today.

Love seeing the garlic and chives coming up!

Heard the frogs in and around our pond for the first time the other night and was filled with chills as I thought about the amazing cycle of seasons we get to witness each year.




5 comments:

  1. I loved the whole Charlotte Mason philosophy when homeschooling my children. My only regret was that I had not discovered her sooner!

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  2. I like the way you are going about that Tonya, you will surely be milking someday…

    Your sweet little helper is getting bigger!

    I like the gentleness of Charlotte Mason.
    I do not like having to prove our home learning to anyone. (And I'm lucky, I don't have to!)

    Have you tried Melanie's soaked bread recipe? I made it for our last batch of bread and it is so so good! (I need to let her know and thank her.) It will probably become our new everyday bread…

    Oh,and our chives and tree onions are so tall already! I can't believe we actually got an early spring! Even if it has been snowing a bit lately…

    Love to you, Renee

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  3. I love that you're imagining the milking...I dream of doing the same one day, but that is not happening this year. Strange that I'm also getting back into sourdough baking now that it's spring. Usually, I do that during the dark, cold winter months! Blessings. :)

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  4. Sweet! Sourdough is all kinds of awesome. I'm going to post about our pretzels soon. I can't seem to tolerate most wheat-free grains but can manage sourdough-baked things in small quantities, which is great.

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