All goats are mischievous thieves, gate-crashers, and trespassers. Also they possess individual character, intelligence, and capacity for affection which can only be matched by the dog. –David Mackenzie, Farmer in the Western Isles (1954)
After a busy week, boy we sure did look forward to our Saturday stroll with the goats. Saturday is our “Time Out” day in which, for 24 hours, we take ourselves off the clock and away from computers and the like. Nothing de-stresses and renews the spirit a body like a walk in nature with these creatures.
The weather has been lovely, yes, lovely. The hot muggy weather is gone (for now) and it’s actually quite pleasant and even a bit chilly. Had to put on a sweater last night!
Hot diggity! There’s lots to do today! So much to do, that my brain and body is slightly paralyzed as I wonder “where to start?” How about ya’ll – how’s things going on your homestead?
There’s also lots to blog about here at LHITC. We were thinking it would be a good time to revisit and revive some old challenges that we hosted a few years back — 100 Foot Diet and Harvest Keepers. Not to mention I have a slew of 1/2 finished posts in queue. Posts that include series on kitchen cosmetics, homestead helpers and information on the benefits of comb honey, combating flies and more.
But time’s a wastin’ and the tasks are stacking up so I’ll just leave you with these cute goat pictures from yesterday.
I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me.
PS. Like to extend a little shout out to Zach who, we learned, is a BIG fan of ours. He’s 16 and is raising chickens and gardening at his family’s home in Salt Lake City, Utah. Nice to have met you and your family yesterday. Thanks for stopping by.
Mmmmm wild buckwheat!
Chomping on the flower heads
Fairlight gets a mouth full
Foraging for dinner
Good Job!
We all need to have a “time out” its our design. 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day.
Yea, I’m still learning!
Duane
[Reply]
Anais replies
July 25th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
@DuaneD: Welcome back – in commenting I mean.
Hope all is well out your way. Isn’t this weather just wonderful!!!! See you soon.
[Reply]
The hot weather we have here toasted our peas. We didn’t have much of a spring, it was like winter, then summer came in with a vengeance! However the hot weather plants are just loving it all. I am really excited about the sunflowers, they are my favorite in the garden. My Husband is the most excited about tomatoes. He even has some growing upside down in buckets he made. And they are doing quite well. Next year he wants to expand in that department. My oldest is the most excited about beans, mostly his Dragon Beans. Those are his favorite. He enters his best in our State Fair.
Thank you for sharing pictures! Your goats are happy goats and we giggle over them. Our oldest wants a harness for our goats, though ours are bigger and I don’t know if it would work. They lead well with just their collar.
We’ve also started taking an easy Saturday off from everything that is stressful. Instead we work on projects that we put aside, or other things. Thank you for sharing with all of us.
Happy Gardening.
Audra & Family from Idaho
[Reply]
Debbonnaire Kovacs replies
July 25th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
@Audra, Did you know you can buy draft horse halters, turn them upside down, and use them fairly well as goat harness? I haven’t actually done it, but have heard it works well, even on bigger goats.
Debbonnaire
The Storyweaver’s Cottage on Holly Creek
Berea, KY
[Reply]
Anais replies
July 25th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
@Audra: The hot and muggy temps were pretty bad last week; however, with the cool (down right lovely ) weather we’ve been having now one would think it’s more like Fall. In the backs of our minds we know it could just as well spike up again! Sorry to hear about your weird weather. It’s hard enough growing food but then dealing with crazy weather can really put a damper on growing your own food. Glad the goats make you giggle as they do us. Can’t have a bad or sad day with these gals around. Good for the soul they are. Thanks for sharing about your TIME OUT day. Hmmm, perhaps I should put together a Day Off Challenge. Anybody interested? Happy gardening and many blessings to you and your family.
[Reply]
We’ve had beautiful weather in Oregon as well! Harvested all of our gooseberries and made jelly with (separately) lavender, lemon verbena, mint, fennel, ginger and plain gooseberry. Very tangy and yummy. We also harvested green apples from a branch we needed to prune away and a few windfalls to make apple pectin. And LOTS of marionberries! Wait this post was about a day off. We are enjoying today together as a family, sometimes working outside and sometimes hanging out inside. Lovely. Thanks for all of your inspirations.
[Reply]
Anais replies
July 25th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
@Margy Porter: YUMMY and YUMMY again. Thanks for sharing your DAY OFF experience. Have a good rest of the day.
[Reply]
So glad that the weather there is great. The heat really did a number on our garden this summer, but we’re already getting ready for the fall garden.
[Reply]
Anais replies
July 25th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
@Glenda: Yep, we too are already going into fall mode too! Summer is, sadly, coming to an end and it’s not too early to get those fall crops in. Sorry to hear about your heat. The cooler than normal weather continues and we are enjoying it while it last. Who knows the temps could just as well spike again and we’ll be toasting!
[Reply]
Warning: That website is YEARS out of date, so if anybody visits, be warned. I just wanted to pop in and say I came home from our annual 100-mile potluck here in Berea, and they showed a movie about you guys that we all loved. I only had two questions, and you don’t really have to answer them; I’m sure I can find the answers somewhere in the–what was it? 25,000 posts? I wanted to sit right down and read them all, but the Great Danes were insisting it was milking time RIGHT NOW!! They can read the clock as well as anybody, and are a lot more pushy. My two questions are: Do you actually have day jobs, too? And how much flack did you get from neighbors at first, when you–gasp–let your lawn grow up in that awful jungle!! And–horrors!–have smelly GOATS and noisy CHICKENS!! And so on. You know. By now, it sounds like they’re all fascinated, as well they should be, but at first, I wondered if it was hard, and if officials gave you trouble, too. Even here, we’re having a re-look at our ordinances for chickens. Would you believe we are allowed to have two horses per acre (yeah, I know, but it is the Kentucky Bluegrass region, after all) but need a whole acre to have 25 chickens?! Well, I do have to get busy, but I will be back!
Debbonnaire
[Reply]
Anais replies
July 25th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
@Debbonnaire Kovacs: Welcome to our site! Thanks for your comments and question. I think the website that you are referring to is the 100 MILE DIET (we not affliated with that site). I was writing about our 100 FOOT DIET Challenge and that’s NOT out of date at all!
Actually, going to be relauching our challenge to eat closert to home this week! Thankfully we don’t have any neighbor troubles (more curious) and every critter but pigs are allow in the city of Pasadena. In fact the City of Pasadena has give us TWO awards for our sustainable efforts. We do have day jobs – we are urban farmers and we grow food for not only our family but making a living by selling the surplus (http://www.DervaesGardens.com) We have female goats so they don’t have that bad odor (male goats are smelly) Actually our animal compound is SO CLEAN and has NO SMELL, we can in fact have a TEA PARTY less than 3 feet away from the animals and nobody even knows they are there!! I’m not kidding. 
[Reply]
Thanks so much for letting me stop by! It was a pleasure meeting you guys!
[Reply]
Anais replies
July 25th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
@Zach Alba: Glad to have met you too, always are encourage to see young folks like yourself get into growing their own food! Sorry we couldn’t give you a tour of the grounds, just have to keep a fair policy because being in LA there’s so many folks dropping by we can’t accomodate each and every one of them. Wish we could! Love to see pics of your garden and chickens. Sends us some pictures sometime.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
[Reply]
Zach Alba replies
July 25th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
No worries I completly understand! I will send you pictures! And thanks to you guys, my mom is letting me rip out a large chunk of lawn in the backyard all for organic gardening! She saw how nice you’re yard looked without a lawn and is letting me rip that part out! Anyways, thanks again. you guys are great.
[Reply]
Zach Alba replies
July 25th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
P.S. sorry for the awful grammar. it’s late, and im tired.
Anais replies
July 26th, 2010 at 5:33 am
@Zach Alba: Hmmm, our front yard does have that sort of effect on people.
Glad to hear that. Next thing you know you’ll be growing so many veggies you’ll be selling them to your neighbors 
Thanks for all the information and encouragement. Please advise us–we are retired and live in a condominium complex where gardening is forbidden and acres of grass and ornamental bushes are maintained with fossil-fueled machines and toxic chemicals that we residents have to pay for. We tried to sell and move out, listed our condo for sale for 32 months without success. we live across the street from the county’s huge mall and several strip malls, with acres and acres of barren concrete parking lots, ninety-five percent empty all day, all night, all year–except at Christmas. Many of the stores and Boutiques are empty, some never-ever even occupied.
Our daughter and son-in law own a house and expansive yard in a rural area thirteen miles away. They have a small garden I would like to help them with, but is the gasoline I would have to burn for a few vegetables a good investment? We have discussed and arranged to move in with them when civil order breaks down. I have taken certain precautions and am accumulating supplies.
Both my wife and I were raised on farms, and know how to produce food and have a profound understanding of how much back-bending work it takes.
Thank you for reading my post.
[Reply]
Your goats are so adorable. It makes me want two, but can’t have any now or maybe ever. There are a bunch of ordinances where I live, and if I ever get chickens, they will have to be kept secretly. My neighbor has two chickens and so far no trouble (and I can can their manure if I want to go collect it!). I will probably eventually get a couple of rabbits from the SPCA, but have to wait until I can build a proper home for them. As always, I love your site and go to it every day. Nancy
[Reply]
Anais replies
July 26th, 2010 at 5:35 am
@Nancy: Sorry to hear about the ordinances in your city. We are lucky to live in a city that allows (with certain restrictions of course) keeping a barnyard in our backyards. We had rabbits awhile back and loved them. They are so fun to have. Not to mention their manure is great for the garden. Good luck and keep us posted.
[Reply]