Growth is a double edged sword. Unchecked, growth can be cancerous and destructive. It is this type of ceaseless expansion that has put our society into the precarious environmental and financial positions in which we currently find ourselves. On the other hand, growth can be regenerative and life-giving. Following a forest fire or a bitter winter, the first green shoots to emerge from the earth bear witness to the earth's ability to restore life in the wake of disaster.

My goal for this blog is pretty simple and open-ended: I want to document and share with family and friends my efforts to incorporate an ever increasing degree of self sufficiency, voluntary simplicity, and environmentally-conscious design into my life as a would be urban homesteader.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Milking Goats



The kids spent the past four days down at my parents house. They had the chance to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Lorenz collecting eggs, shoveling manure out of the mules' stall, and playing with farm cats. One of the highlights was getting to go over to some friends' house to help milk their 3 goats. The boys got to try their hand (literally) at milking and bottle feeding the baby goats. They had so much fun the first time, that they wanted to come back this morning.

Squeeze and Pull, Squeeze and Pull

Alex gets a turn

These kids are hungry!

They got to bring home 3 quarts of fresh goat milk. I thought it would have a tangy flavor, but it didn't. Tater Tot and Alex liked it. Erik thought it tasted like a goat (although he's notoriously finicky about his food). Even though we don't have room for goats at the 'burbstead, it was cool for the boys to get a chance to experience first hand where milk comes from. A big reason I'm interested in the urban homesteading lifestyle is that I want my children to have a direct and honest connection with an authentic food system. I want them to see beyond the grocery store and the over-packaged, over-processed food inside it. Little things like this can go a long way toward that goal.


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