*sigh* So now we have fuel limits! This is so much fun when you live in a remote place and need to visit several gas stations to fuel up enough to make the trip home. I try to avoid politics. I simply don’t play that game anymore, but my heavens, I do sometimes wonder what it will take before enough people decide, “hold on, that’s enough of the nonsense now.”

So busy at the croft these days! Our darling Alpine doe, Birch, had two beautiful twins. The little doeling has her sire’s colour and the buckling looks like his mama! 🩷 🩵

Did you know that calamine lotion contains about 8% zinc oxide to act as an astringent and act as a barrier to protect the wound/ bite? I use non-nano, uncoated zinc oxide power from Sky Organics in my sunscreen/ rash and bite balm. I have a few different sunscreen formulas, but it is the one with French green clay that I also use for bites and stings. The green clay actually draws out any irritants and venom left behind by insects, so I like to apply as soon as I spot the bites. The clay has a similar action to activated charcoal in this regard. I used to use activated charcoal with aloe vera, and this works extremely well also - it was my go-to when we lived in Texas and my son was covered in fire ant bites on the daily. I like this paste better though, as it does not rub off so easily, providing a little more protection. This tallow-based formula I made is also infused with Labrador tea leaves, giving it antibacterial and anti inflammatory properties. My poor daughter, like my husband, is a mosquito magnet. It is a challenge to keep her bite-free. I do have a few different natural repellents. I forgot to spray her before she went outside here. I never know how bad they are as the mosquitos completely avoid me. I guess I don’t have the right stink; maybe my skin is too thick. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Good morning! Look at the sun shining on this tobacco plant! 🪴 🌞 The king of the croft enjoys a nice cigar, but I am not a smoker. I do like to use tobacco medicinally though. This super plant is a powerful anti-parasitic. It repels ticks, and other nasty critters inside and outside of the body. Tobacco leaves can also be used as a poultice to treat wounds as well as used for pain management. To grow it up here, I have to start it indoors in the winter, and finish it in a greenhouse late in the season (so it stays in pots). I do NOT recommend handing much if you are not a smoker. Last year after repotting them, I felt SO sick. My husband laughed and told me I got mix-sick. I now wear gloves when handling and treat this lovely plant with full respect as I highly potent medicine! Leaving the plants on the deck, helps keep bugs away, my children know not to touch it. Yes, that is correct, you CAN just teach your children what is and isn’t safe (or respectful) rather than child-proofing everything. I feel like the over-protective child proofing of an environment does not actually help children learn how to respectfully and safely interact with the world - but that is a whole other topic.

Out for an evening walk with my does, letting them fill their rumens with species appropriate delicacies from nature. This goodness turns into a most delicious and nutritious milk for my kids and their kids.

Does anyone else add grated ginger root to their goat feed? I like to use ginger root for a boost in immunity, for rumen health, and for boosted milk production. Ginger is also anti-parasitic as well as antimicrobial and anti-fungal (it is my preferred antibiotic). This makes it beneficial to both doe and kid (through her milk) after delivery. Side Note: can you spot my beautiful garden mama manicure?💅

Not the milk my family is drinking! My milk starts off as green grasses, dandelions, clover, willow, aspen, wild strawberry, raspberry leaves, spruce tips, and other foraged delights! And we usually enjoy it before it ever sees the inside of a refrigerator.

Soooo, there is a lot to unpack here, and I think the whole story has been far too simplified. 🥖 The word bread, tracing back through old English to proto-Germanic origins, means morsel or small bit. 🥖 The word loaf is more obscure, but generally traces back to proto-Germanic origins with the meaning of a shaped/ formed food (which some argue was a roast). 🍖 Some etymologists would argue that written works referencing “loaves” are referring to roasts of meat; and the word “bread” referring to a morsel of meat (from a loaf/roast). 📜 This begs the question, have all ancient civilizations been eating as much grain-based bread as we are led to believe? 🌾 Now, on a completely different angle, I do know from experience that it is much easier to digest and eat bread in Italy than bread from North America. Some people will attribute this to what the grains here are sprayed with (glyphosate being the poster child/ scapegoat that everyone latches onto - I am no fan of glyphosate, but the obsession with it has made other harmful sprays invisible within the discussion). 🌾 I have found that even organic bread and grains this side of the pond are a no-go for me to eat. Here is my theory - in North America (especially the more northern portion), we grow a very different grain. Our growing season is so very much different (longer and sometimes wetter) than the original breadbasket, that we had to develop very rapidly growing grains. On top of these modified grains, we harvest earlier than they would need to in places like Italy, where the grains can really get ripe. I know that most plants lose natural toxins as they ripen - this seems to be true with grains as well. 🇮🇹 The less modified/older grains grown in Italy (and surrounding area), compiled with a longer growing season and allowing grains to fully ripen may be a significant factor in the bread from this region being easier to digest. 📚 So if we keep all these points in mind, perhaps we can see that it is a far more complex story. My theory, and looking at old tales, is that northern cultures ate more meat, dairy, and berries. The “bread” in these stories was a large hunk of meat roasted over a fire. Ancient grains do not do well in the north. Southern, more agrarian cultures would have eaten more grains and other plants with their extended growing season, and the “bread” in these stories likely was of the grain based form. 🧐 These are just some ideas one can “put in their pipe and smoke for a while” as my father likes to say. I am not a historian or expert at anything, just a meanderer and wonderer - but I do think this debate, and so many others, are filled with much more nuance and complexity than the black and white arguments that are so often presented. I wish a most lovely morning to all, and that you enjoy your daily bread be it from wheat or meat! 💛 ❤️

Dandelions collected, rinsed, and drying in the colander! I need to slip away to milk my goat, but will be back to pull the petals (children will be recruited to help with this task), and mix with raw honey to preserve these amazing sunshine blossoms! Who’s coming for tea? 🌼 🫖 💛

I chose this lifestyle too for many reasons: freedom, being closer to nature, real work outside every day and providing the best food in the world for my family and my community.

Good morning from the croft in the north! The rain has let up! We can see the sun! 🌞

Homemade cheese and butter! My husband picked up beef (two whole cows), butter, and cheese from a farmer we know, value, and trust. This is how we do it. We don’t buy from the grocery store. If we don’t produce it ourselves, or harvest through responsible hunting or foraging, we buy directly from someone who has the same values we do. This way we know how the animals were raised and what they consumed. Above all, we are in control of what our money is supporting. With every crazy thing we see in this world, some people feel powerless and even in despair, but there is so much we can do, as consumers, to make a difference. The truth is that it is the consumer who holds all the power. Consume with intention. Consider who/what you are supporting with each purchase. Doing so has profound impact. Rather than getting lost in the darkness of any evils in the world, just stop feeding the beast - quietly, methodically, let it starve. When you do this, you are also lifting up those who have the same vision, morals, and ethics you wish to elevate. Love you all.

I wonder though, if the foreground is yelling while the background is barely a whisper in this photo.

At least I managed to get the greenhouse secure enough this time! There isn’t enough room in the goat barn for a separate milking parlour - so we set one up in this greenhouse from Vevor. It worked! Mama and baby were dry while I milked. I did have to walk them through the rain to get to this makeshift milking parlour, but they were happy when in it. I need to get the king of the Croft to make a solid frame on the bottom too. At one point, I was milking with one hand and holding down the greenhouse from blowing away with the other. My son was an amazing helper and played with the little buckling in front of mama, so she stayed calm and happy to have her baby with her. We are definitely learning as we go, and this fun weather just keeps us on our toes and helps teach us what doesn’t work, and what we need to change. Could you imagine just curling up with a book and hot drink on a day like today without doing all the chores in the pouring rain!

I’m starting to think it’s time to build a boat. This endless rain has really made us scramble to modify housing for our animals as everything fills up with water. Always an adventure!

The beauty with living this far north is that I only need a flashlight for one of the goat checks at night! I’m definitely looking forward to all the kids on the ground and being able to sleep through the night. I wouldn’t mind if they wait for this torrential rain to stop first though.

Does anyone else have (mostly) grain-free dairy goats? This is the salad I give my goats while in the milking stand. I change it up every time, adding different seasonal delights. I will be sprinkling some more flowers, in the salad when we have some, then berries and rose hips later in the summer, and more seeds (yes seeds and grains are basically the same) in the autumn. Goats in nature DO eat grains - they enjoy grasses that have gone to seed. I am not anti-grain. They simply would not eat buckets of grain in the wild. The other reason I keep the grains low is because that increases the sugar content of the milk. Leaves and twigs and seeds in the shell will increase the fat content of the milk. I want my milk very creamy and not so sweet. My goats are easing into eating fresh greens (they had dry hay all winter) with daily walks through the pasture area. Once they have adjusted and are turned out to pasture each day, then their milking-stand salad ingredients will change. They will mostly get leaves, some flowers, dill seed . . . sometimes a bit of grated ginger root, sometimes coriander seeds, a touch of cinnamon (goats love cinnamon). Blackstrap molasses makes a great drizzle. I will sometimes add MCT oil as well to the drizzle. Does anyone else do mostly grain-free dairy goats? I am curious if this is a thing, or just my thing.

One of the beauties and blessings of being busy with raising livestock, is that you don’t have time to curate a highly structured schedule for your children. I do think this is a gift for their development. We have friends who rush from one club, sport, activity to the next in between very formal homeschool curriculum. I truly believe children need freedom to explore the world without strict guidelines. They need to find random things laying around and let their imaginations flow while they create and build. They need fewer instruction manuals and more freedom. When I was a public school teacher, we (the staff) would meet up and discuss results from provincial achievement exams. No one could figure out why students lost creativity each year. How is it that these students actually became LESS innovative as they got older?! I remember telling the other teachers it is very simple - we push it out of them. We over structure their lives, focus on textbook regurgitation, and above all reinforce that we, the teachers, are the experts and the authority. Every concept it first explained, then we encourage the students to copy our model - oh no, do not attempt to solve these problems any other way, just copy the model like a good student. There is no really constructivism. Of course, the other staff did not agree that was the problem. No, we just need to better model how to be creative. We don’t. Children are born with an abundance of creativity. We simply need to provide the space and freedom for them to test out their vast ideas (within safe boundaries, and distant supervision, of course). My son ⬇️ is the master of creating with loose parts - sometimes to the point of frustration when I’m looking for things, but it is an aptitude I want to encourage, while also stressing respect for other’s property.

Can you spot the wild strawberry blossom? 🍓