Happy holidays!

It's Christmas eve and I'm on break from school! Life is good. I realize that I haven't posted anything in over a month, and I didn't even tell you guys about our wonderful vegan thanksgiving. It was probably the best thanksgiving meal I'd had. When I tell anyone that I'm vegan around thanksgiving they invariably ask me if I'm making a Tofurky. And no, I'm not. I've never had one, and I don't plan on it. The truth is, they might be delicious but they kind of scare me and there's so much delicious food to be had on thanksgiving that there's really no need for a meat substitute.

Not all of the food was vegan, but I'd say most of it was. We had a delicious spinach salad with pomegranate and persimmon that our friend Meredith makes every year. I managed to figure out the ingredients to her top secret dressing that I figure out every year, but I've forgotten it. Oh well, I'll try again next year. Then there was a delicious coconut-milk curry with three types of winter squash, mushrooms, tofu, and broccoli that our friend Tammy made; she also made some swiss chard leaves stuffed with rice and vegetables and topped with tomato sauce. Yum! Now for the more traditional foods. We always have two kinds of cranberry sauce, a raw relish-like one with nuts and lemon zest and the traditional cooked one. My dad made a yam puree with butter and brandy, and he made a little one for me minus the animal products. I made the vegan kabocha squash cornbread stuffing from ExtraVeganZa, one of our favorite vegan cookbooks (Try their lavender chocolate-chunk cookies. Oh My God!). The Kabocha squash was sweet and cooked to perfection. I could eat like that every day.

On to dessert! We had about six desserts but I'll only mention the vegan ones. I make SusanV's persimmon break from fatfreevegan.com every year and it's always a big hit with everyone, including my father and sister, who are pretty skeptical of vegan desserts (a tip: if you use white flower instead of whole wheat and use more persimmon puree than she says to use it'll be more moist and less "vegan" tasting). I also tried a new recipe. Double layer pumpkin cheesecake, also by SusanV. You have to try this. It's light (though definitely not fat free) and creamy with a lemon-flavored layer and a pumpkin layer. Thanksgiving was more than a month ago and writing this blog is making me want to get back in the kitchen and make some more desserts! Fatfreevegan.com is a kickass blog with some really good recipes. A lot of them aren't fat free, so the title is a bit misleading, but I don't think I've had a bad experience with one of her recipes yet (Except maybe the brownies. They ended up tasting like Cliff Bars).

The goats are getting bigger. My father made them a stanchion (milking stand) and he's trained them to run there from their enclosure by giving them treats like apple cores and sunflower seeds. Since Eve's a bit of a bully and eats all of her food and Kiah's, we usually feed Kiah at the stanchion and let Eve battle it out with the chickens in the pen for her food. Hoping to be able to say for sure whether they're pregnant, we ordered some pregnancy tests from BioPRYN (Pregnant Ruminant Yes No. LOL!) The problem is that you have to draw blood from their jugular vein; you can't just have them pee on a stick. My parents tried to do it, but just shaving them was hard enough. They tried using my dad's electric razor but goat hair is a lot thicker than human hair and my mom accidentally cut Eve's neck. The goats wouldn't keep still long enough for us to find the jugular vein, and we gave up. One of them is probably pregnant, and we'll find out in March.

On my adventures to find cheese that I will eat (I have to know for sure that they weren't factory farmed and I like to see pictures of the animals, just to be sure) I've been doing some research and we found this farm that only has a few goats and makes cheese that they sell at Whole Foods and Farmer Joe's! I was really excited to learn about them because our friend at the farmer's market who we usually buy cheese from hasn't been there for the past couple of weeks (If you go to the Grand Lake Farmer's Market in Oakland, check out Pug's Leap). Anyway, this cheese is from Redwood Hill Creamery. They make a fresh chevre and one that's more like a camembert. I wasn't too hot about the camembert, but the fresh one was so good that we went back to get more. My favorite is the three pepper, but they also make plain and garlic and chive flavored cheese. We ate it with a roasted butternut squash, lentil, and arugula salad. Major Yum!

Because we try to stay out of the cycle of consumption as much as possible, we've been doing a lot of crafting. We were in Provence, France at my grandmother's house this summer and that's the lavender capital of the world. We brought some back with us and we've been mixing it with rice to make eye pillows with silk from the Depot for Creative Reuse. My sister made some soap with food coloring and a tub of glycerin that we bought last year, and later on today I'm going to make some body scrub with cheap sugar, olive oil, and essential oils. We've been wrapping all of our solstice gifts in silk so that we can reuse them. Wrapping paper is pretty but it just gets thrown away. Santa's gone sustainable this year.

I wish all of you a restful new year!

The goats are certainly getting popular. Every time I look outside there are little kids and their parents looking at them, talking to them, and hanging out in our yard. I really feel like we're doing a good thing - little kids who live in the city should have the opportunity to play with goats and chickens and get to know farm animals. Today while I was at school a whole kindergarten class from Glenview Elementary came up to visit our goats on a field trip. My mom said they were really excited and they kept raising their hands to ask questions. I really wish I could have seen it.

There's a mystery cat that seems to have adopted us. We've been having a real cold snap in Oakland and for the past few mornings she's been meowing at our door. I keep thinking it's TJ and so I open it and he comes running in to eat the other cats' food and warm up. Today he was wandering around my room when I went in there. She's really friendly, but she hissed at TJ and he chased her out.

I'm doing a Door-to-Door canvassing training for the first time. That should be super fun because a lot of kids from my school signed up to come. Tomorrow is Transgender Day of Remembrance!!! Our GSA is going to do light candles on the front lawn and read the names of the people who have been killed based on their real or perceived sexual identity.

Hmmm... what else. Thanksgiving is coming up and I have to think of what delicious vegan food I am going to make to impress people this year. I'll figure that out this weekend.... I am so ready for Thanksgiving Break!

Peace.

More goat news

We've had the goats for two weeks now and we're so happy! They've gotten used to their new home and they love being fed apples and hay and being stroked by the neighborhood kids. We took Kiah and Eve on a walk yesterday morning and people couldn't believe what they were seeing. One of our neighbors said sarcastically, "Just another typical day in Oakland, people walking their goats around the block!" Another guy rolled down the window of his car and asked if he could take a picture of us with his cell phone. Kiah is used to being walked and acts almost like a smart dog. Eve is not so docile and needs a little more persuasion. We have to take them out together because Eve likes to be first and so she'll keep walking to try to get in front of Kiah. It's still too early to tell if they're pregnant. Eve has been acting a little like she's in heat - irritable, butting, knocking Kiah out of the way - but we won't be able to know for sure for a couple more weeks.

On a different note, I was on Huffington Post and there was this very well-written article about how meat industries have a huge stake (oh wow. no pun intended) in schools feeding kids unhealthy, hormone and toxin-laced meat. Enjoy!

GOATS!!!

So, the goats have arrived! They arrived exactly a week ago from Bonnie Doone and I think they're getting used to life in the city. At first it was a little hard for them to get used to the light pollution at night and they didn't know when to go to sleep, but they're doing fine now. Their names are Kiah and Eve, and they're Oberhaslis. They spend their time hanging out with the chickens, whose coop has an opens onto the goat enclosure. The neighborhood kids are really excited. They keep asking what kind of animal we're going to get next. They suggested elephants but that sounds like a lot of work. I don't think we're going to get any animals that don't have some sort of use. We're trying to work towards semi-self-sufficiency. The goats are pregnant now, knocked up by Colleen's bucks Joseph and Vassen, so we should start getting milk in March. The baby goats are going to be SOOOOOO cute!

Check this out!

A post on the Equality California blog about our call center in Oakland. I'm mentioned somewhere at the bottom. : )

http://ca-ripple-effect.blogspot.com/2009/10/from-field-having-conversations-in.html

Since the chicken drama there hasn't been much going on around here. I found some new pictures of my dad with the goats up in Bonnie Doone and also of Meredith and Enzo (remember them?) Enzo is gigantic!






Here are some videos that I just found of us launching chickens out of the treehouse.
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS THE FIRST BATCH OF CHICKENS! THE PARALYZED CHICKEN WAS NOT A PART OF THIS AND NO CHICKENS WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED IN THE MAKING OF THIS VIDEO. It is hella funny, though.

Pay no attention to the last post

We've decided to postpone Mocha's death sentence!!! We're all really happy about that. My mom put her in the coop the other day and she's able to scoot around using her wings and fend for herself. Apparently she's been getting enough food and water. Who are we to discriminate against paraplegic chickens? We can't find any chicken wheelchairs, but hopefully she'll live for a long time. The only problem might be that she can't fly up to perch with her sisters at night when it's cold, and it's been really cold. In the spring she might even lay some eggs. We're still not too hopeful about Banana, though. I have to go to school now but I thought I'd share the good news!

Bad news

I haven't posted for a while because not much has been going on. We haven't heard much from Colleen regarding Kiah and her future soul mate. She may have found another doe that gets along well with her, named Eve. We're waiting for the news that they're in heat. The enclosure in the back yard is all ready for them. The skyway isn't finished yet, but my dad says that it shouldn't take long. The big problem now is that since it seems like the rain is going to start we need to build them a little indoor space and to find somewhere to put the hay so it doesn't rot. The chickens have been enjoying the extra space outside and TJ has been enjoying sleeping on the hay. He's a real farm cat. 

Unfortunately, we seem to be losing chickens. Our leghorn, Mocha, had a stroke or something and can't move. Her legs are paralyzed and all she can do is squawk and fall over. Right now she's lying upside down in the bathtub in a pile of her own feces. It's awful. We want to put her out of her misery, but we don't know how. None of us is willing to break her neck. Yesterday we tried to give her some alcohol and an insulin injection but the insulin didn't even get into her body. It's not easy to get through the feathers. We know we have to kill her eventually but when she isn't falling over she looks so perky and happy... It's really hard for all of us, especially Sophie, but that's a part of having so many animals. Some of them have to die. We're probably going to end up with eight chickens instead of ten because Banana is thrice the size of her/his sisters and is strutting around perching on things. S/he hasn't started crowing yet but it's only a matter of time. 

I'll post some memorial photos of Mocha later on and I'll let everyone know if we hear anything more about the goat situation.

It is officially official! Indigoat farms has a goat. Her name is Kiah and she is three years old. She's never been kidded but we hope to get her knocked up before she comes down to us on Saturday. She comes from the herd of the goat lady, Colleen, and Colleen is also going to give us another doe. The family that is selling us Kiah has another goat that they decided not to sell to us because they were too attached to her. 

We are all epically excited and I have been thinking of nothing but goats all week. Here are two pictures of Kiah. The third picture is of several of Colleen's other goats (she has fifty of them) and among them is Kiah's mother. The last one... look at the bottom of the fence. 

I was unable to go up to the farm to buy Kiah because I have too much homework. Yes, it's sad. Yes, it's unbelievable. Yes, this farm is EXTREMELY important to me and I wanted to go but the transition into being a junior is hitting me very hard. These past few weekends I have had about fourteen hours of homework. No Joke. 

The chickens are growing, as always. The second batch is now living in the coop 24/7 with the other ones. They seem to be getting along tolerable well, although the big ones don't seem very accepting of the little ones. We'll have to do some chicken peer mediation if this keeps up. They are all going to very happy when the goat enclosure is finally finished because they will be allowed to wander around that whole area freely eating whatever the goats don't demolish. The coop was built for five chickens, not ten, and they seem a little crowded. 

We are dramatically increasing our food production as well. The self-watering containers are working so well and the veggies are growing so fast that we've just been making more and more containers. We're even growing quinoa, for protein. We'd like to be self-sufficient, but it doesn't seem like it would be possible. There are four of us and we eat a lot of vegetables. We'd need to have 10 times the amount of space we have to grow enough to feed us all for a month. I'm thrilled about our purple carrots, and I've been going out to the garden every morning and picking lettuce to make myself a big salad to take to school. I've also been sweetening my tea with the leaves from our stevia plant.

I am in my element right now. I love farming, I love my Dance and Theater classes at school; I can almost do the splits and going back to drama was an exhilarating homecoming. My internship is awesome, and on Monday we're piloting our first phone bank in Oakland, at the First Congregational Church on Harrison St. I'm so excited to be training in Oakland because it means I have two extra hours that I'm not spending on a BART train. I'm also organizing Oakland Tech's Gay-Straight Alliance. We signed up about fifty people today, which means that more than 20 of them will probably come regularly. I've found my calling! Community organizing is definitely my thing and I feel very strongly about the gay rights issue. Yay! As always, if anyone reading this is interested in putting their money where their mouth is and actually fighting for marriage equality, get in touch with Equality CA. There's even stuff you can do that doesn't involve talking to people. 

Construction Zone

Happy Labor Day! I think that everyone agrees with me that three-day weekends are the BEST! Two days just isn't long enough. I'm tired out already and it was just the first week of school. 

There's been a lot of stuff going on at Indigoat this weekend. My dad talked to a woman who breeds Oberhaslis and she's promised us a pregnant goat. Because she might call us up any day now, my dad has been working really hard outside to get the goat pen-and-skyway set up. They're going to have a large open area to hang out in and the a set of stairs up to a walkway over the chicken coop into the treehouse. According to Novella Carpenter, goats like to be up high because they're mountain animals and it makes them feel protected. The neighborhood kids are excited about the skyway too. 

The chickens are still growing at an incredible pace. It's hard to tell them apart any more. The babies have been at Kenda's destroying her yard, so I don't have any pictures of them but here are the big ones demolishing a Kabocha squash. 

My father's also been making self-watering containers to plant vegetables in. So far they're working really well. The soil always looks moist and the seeds are already germinating after two days. Our other beds are full of greens and TJ loves hiding in between the plants. 

It may be a little pretentious calling ourselves a farm at this point, but we're definitely getting there. I can't wait to be able to look outside and see goats and chickens frolicking around together in the enclosure that my dad's working on. I'm also really excited to be able to eat cheese! I eat cheese that I buy every week from this guy at the farmer's market, but only because I've seen pictures of his goats and seen a list of their names. According to my dad, Oberhaslis make really good milk! 

Wow. There's been a lot going on since my last entry. The first batch of chicks is starting to look almost full-grown. The second batch is still adorable and fuzzy but they're starting to grow their wing-feathers. The two groups met for the first time the other day in the portable coop. We were grateful that they didn't attack each other but they weren't all over each other either. They stayed in their separate groups and every once in a while the small ones would run over and rush the big ones. Just like middle school.

This picture isn't great but you can kind of see them hanging out together. A huge heat wave is hitting the Bay Area right now and it is HOT. In this weather, there's no risk of the chicks freezing so we put them outside in the real coop this morning. They seemed happy to have some vertical clearance and the be able to stretch their wings. 

Meredith, our friend and fellow chicken farmer who lives in Santa Cruz, had her baby at our house last week! It was really exciting. Well, actually, I was scared out of my mind at first because when she was driving down to Oakland, she thought that she was really in labor and I was the only one at home. My mom called me and told me that I was going to have to deliver the baby by myself. I've seen births before, but I've never actually helped, so I was a little nervous. Luckily, by the time she arrived her contractions had stopped and my mom and her midwife had time to arrive. It was a very loud birth, but it was over quickly. Our next-door neighbor was too stoned to complain. Meredith's labor started at 8:30 p.m. and by 10:15 the baby was out and the cord was cut. Welcome to our hippie commune, Enzo! 

That's the type of thing that goes down at the Levy-Sheon house. We have long, anthropological discussions with chickens, our fridge is full of home-made kimchee, sauerkraut, and fermenting milk products, my father and the mail man call each other up on the phone to talk about the right way to make injera, our friends give birth at our house, and, to top it all off, we have Meredith's placenta in our freezer, right under the Trader Joe's samosa burgers. 

I don't know if you remember when I talked about Novella Carpenter and GhostTown Farms. Well, I finally read her book and I HIGHLY recommend it. It's perfect for anyone who has ever wanted to grow their own food in their backyard and doesn't know how, or doesn't think they have enough space, or just needs that extra push to get their butt up off the couch and down to the feed store to buy some chicks. Plus, it's absolutely hilarious and a quick read. I guarantee you will not be able to put it down. 

We went to her open house today to see how her farm was set up. The vacant lot that she's turned into a garden is dense and lush and wild and amazing. It gets full sun so her vegetables are ENORMOUS! We especially wanted to check out her goat enclosure. We learned that they like little, cave-like spaces and they also like to climb stairs and be high up. Their natural habitat is the mountains, after all. My dad has plans for a drawbridge from our tree house over the chicken coop and down into their pasture area - a "Goat Skyway." We'll see how that goes... If you want to read more about GhostTown Farms, visit Novella's blog.

Well, school is starting on Monday. I'll try to post as often as possible but I don't know how much time I'm going to have. 

Here's a video of the babies that my father made. Enjoy!

Chicks from MyPetChicken.com from Nicolas Sheon on Vimeo.

And here are some more photos (because I know y'all can handle some more cuteness) of our neighbors, Scott and Kenda, with the chicks.

(This is probably my favorite all-time chicken photo: McNugget: Ninja Master!)

Here are some links to some veg and small farms articles

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-moulden/how-small-farmers-are-sav_b_260242.html

This is an article that I just saw on Huffington Post today about small farms, urban farming, the battle with "The Man", and what you can do.

experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/06/03/meat_the_slavery_of_our_time

This presents the arguments against eating meat, it's good to know these things, even if you don't want to become a vegetarian. At the very, very least you should be conscious of what you are eating and know the health and environmental risks associated with your diet so you can make an educated choice.

www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/shattering-the-meat-myth_b_214390.html

When I was in France, an argument I heard a lot was that humans evolved eating a largely, or even almost exclusively carnivorous diet. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!

www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/future-shock_b_210545.html

I personally find this article hilarious. It's a scene in a future classroom where kids are shocked that their ancestors actually ate other animals. 

Please know that I do not expect everyone to be vegetarian and you can be an amazing, wonderful, beautiful person and eat meat. I don't hate omnivores. However, I believe that everyone should educate themselves about what it is that they're eating. The same goes for not eating harmful pesticides or products that might be contaminated or poisonous. You should know about the potential effects on your body. 

Also, if you want to be vegetarian but it sounds too daunting to wake up one morning and never eat meat again, you don't need to do it that way. Some people can go cold turkey (no pun intended) but many people start slowly. Try eating plant-based meals one day a week, or one meal a day, and see how it goes. After a while you will probably be able to extend it to two days a week and so on. And if there's one food item that you can't give up and that's keeping you from going vegetarian (ex: I can't go vegan because I love ice cream, I can't be vegetarian because I love cheeseburgers too much) then just don't eat any dairy except for ice cream, or try to be vegetarian and then eat a cheeseburger when you feel like it. 

The planet and your body will thank you for it. The meat industry causes MORE THAN HALF of global warming and cutting back a little bit makes a BIG difference. Think about it.

New arrivals!

Guess who's here!!! Our one-day-old chicks arrived in the mail today. They literally arrived in a cardboard box with air holes, cheeping madly. Here's a picture of them in their basket:

There are five (there's one hiding in the corner) and they're all different: Speckled Sussex, Goldenlaced, Leghorn, Silverlaced, and New Hampshire Red. We really can't tell who's who at this point except that the yellow one is the New Hampshire Red.

(above) This one Scott named McNugget

The post lady arrived with the box, looking REALLY confused. It's not every day that a cheeping package arrives at the Dimond Post Office with live chickens inside. The reason they can ship them in the mail is that after they've eaten themselves out of the egg they are very full and they don't need to eat for a day or two. We immediately took them inside and put them in the bathroom, which is always the hottest room in the house (if you've never taken a shower next to baby chicks, it's a great experience), and gave them food and water.

We couldn't tear ourselves away from them! They are SOOO small that all five of them are about the size of one of our other teenage chicks. I even took them in the car to go to my chiropractic appointment and Scott and my mom played with them while Kenda was adjusting me (she felt their spines and made sure that there weren't any problems).

We're not sure how long we need to keep them separated from the others, but we don't want to keep them apart for too long or we're scared that they'll fight with each other. The other babies have graduated and are now in the coop. We turn on a heat lamp at night because their feathers aren't all the way grown in. They seem happy to be out there and to have room to fly around. During the day if we're home we put them in their portable coop so that they can eat bugs and things.

I can feel that we're getting closer to getting goats. My parents have decided where we're putting the pen, and sometimes I go outside to find my father sitting on a bench in the future goat pen making milking motions with his hands. It's a little frightening. They're going to have an open walking area and a sheltered "dormitory" with raised beds with rubber mats to sleep on. My dad's been scoping out other goat situations to get ideas. I'm so excited! Indigoat Farms is really starting up.

Now, the big question: why am I vegan? It's not because I'm lactose-intolerant or because I was raised that way or because I don't like cheese. Cheese is delicious and most of my family eats meat. I'm vegan for a couple of reasons:

1. I know that virtually no human society developed without eating some form of animal protein, but we have a tendency to over-estimate the amount of meat that our hunting and gathering ancestors actually brought home to eat. Hunting was not their main source of calories. It was a political and social-status-assuring venture undertaken by the men in the community that served to bind the tribe together. Any animals that were killed were shared by everyone in the village and some was given to neighboring villages as well. Their main source of protein was ALWAYS roots, nuts, berries, and vegetables.

2. The way we raise animals today is DISGUSTING! Most people choose not to read about factory farms or look at pictures of them and they like to imagine that the meat that they by in the supermarket, even the organic, "free-range", expensive, Whole Foods meat comes from happy cows and chickens running around on pastured hills before being caught by the farmer's wife, killed humanely, and brought to the supermarket on a covered wagon. But we all know that that is not what goes down. I refuse to support the huge corporations that run those factory farms and the meat and dairy products from those places are nasty, anabolized, antibiotized, pus-filled, and generally unfit for human consumption, much less for our fragile environment. 

The catch? I'm vegan because I know enough about its positive effects on the environment to know that it makes a difference. So... I eat the products of chickens and cows and goats that I know for SURE are not being exploited. It's really not that hard to find. There's a guy in Berkeley who has a farm in his back yard and my dad went there to milk his goat and brought back THIS cheese. 

THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is the ORIGINAL  chevre. And you can taste the difference. The goats that made this ate what goats are supposed to eat, and their milk is very, very different. It doesn't even taste like goat! We brought it to an East Bay Fermenter's Club meeting and everyone was raving about it. I can't wait until we're making our own. Take a look at the other things that we ate:

     in the foreground: seaweed sauerkraut.

In the back right, home-made kombucha.

   vegan walnut noodles with steamed veggies
 (sadly) non-vegan peach tart that looked DELICIOUS!!
 kimchee and pickles (both home-made)

And a lot of other stuff besides. The East Bay Fermenter's Club was started by my father and a few other people. They meet periodically when one of them needs more sauerkraut and they make things that they eat at the next meeting. I'm not as obsessed as they are but I LOVE sauerkraut. If you want to learn about making Kim Chee in your closet and making the best damn pickles you've ever tasted in one week, they're the people to talk to. 

Word from the Homestead

  (Fluffy)

Indigoat is in the Dimond District in Oakland, in our back yard. As of now we have two cats, Fluffy and TJ, and five chicks. Before this batch of chicks we had 5 others. They had names when we first got them but they were all Barred Plymouth Rocks and it was too hard to tell them apart.  

Our new chicks are probably about a month and a half old now, and they're starting to grow some real feathers. The Americanas are Banana, Britney, and Chickosaurus and and Black Austrolorps are Dusk and Luna.  When we first got them they looked like 3-inch-long puff-balls with a couple wing-tip feathers. Now they are starting to fly around and look more like teenage chickens. In the day time we keep them in a triangular enclosure in our yard which we move throughout the day so that they can find new bugs and weeds to eat. We also like giving them treats like worms from the compost buckets or bags of old lettuce that we find in the street. (photo: C. holding Chickosaurus)

Chickens are great pets and their capacity for personality is often underestimated. All of the chicks are already very different. Banana is the dumb one. We let her out next to our neighbor and co-chick-caretaker's dog and she tried to run right into its mouth. Luckily we caught her in time. She only has two speeds: pecking at bugs in place and 100-miles-an-hour. Britney is the nasty one. When her sisters poop she'll peck at it and then rub her beak in it. This is especially bothersome when the poop in question is on your shirt. Chickosaurus is the bully and she likes to climb over the other ones and push them

 out of the way. Dusk and Luna are a little hard to tell apart. They're both very sweet and affectionate. Dusk doesn't run away if you put your hand out to pick her up - she'll actually stretch her neck out like a cat that wants to be petted. (photo: from right to left, Banana, Luna, and Britney; Chickosaurus in front)

Our homestead is far from completed. We are an urban farm in progress. Five more chicks are arriving in a week and we're planning on buying a couple of goats in the spring. We've been reading a lot of books about city-farms and we've been very inspired, especially by Novella Carpenter's book Farm City. I haven't actually read it yet but it was her book that inspired my mom to want to get goats. We're going to visit her farm, Ghost Town Farm, in a couple weeks when she has a barbeque/tour/book signing. 

When I tell people that I have chickens, their first reaction is "Don't you live in the city?" and their second is "Do you kill and eat them?" The answer to the first question is yes, we do, but we are blessed to have a large yard with lots of weeds to eat, and they really don't cause any problems. They may sqwauk a little in the mornings when they're laying eggs but other than that hens are quiet, docile animals who like being left alone to peck and take dust baths and fertilize the garden. The answer to the second one is NO!!! Not everyone in my family is vegetarian, and we claim to be hard-core farmers, but our chickens are pets. We eat their eggs but we would never slaughter them. Our first ones died of old age and raccoons. We do know people who would slaughter them for us if we wanted to but we become so bonded with them that they are like a part of our family.

   

City of Ten Thousand Buddhas

             

On the way back from Camp we always stop at a huge Buddhist temple in Ukiah called the City of 10,000 Buddhas. There are houses where the monks live and where people come on meditation r

etreats, an elementary and a secondary school, a temple with (literally) 10,000 buddhas, in niches along the walls, a resident herd of peacocks that just walks around and leaves feathers on the ground, and a delicious and relatively affordable lacto-vegetarian restaurant (there is no red meat, poultry, fish, or eggs). We went there with our meat-loving, definitely non-vegan friends and we ALL ate ourselves sick. I can't even remember all of the things we ordered but I'll try to remember.  Seitan satay (which H. thought 

was chicken until I told him), fried tofu, stir-fried eggplant and basil, napa cabbage with mushrooms, hot and sour soup, fried spring rolls, fried rice, and udon noodles with vegetables. The only bad part was that we ate almost all of it! My god we were full. I recommend it if you're ever up in Ukiah. There are very few vegan restaurants that have H. and C.s' carnivore stamps of approval. 

My sister (who I'm going to call Madeleine until I ask her what she wants to be called) and C. went on an epic search for peacock feathers. There weren't as many as last time but they still found quite a few. Here's a picture of the two of them pretending to be peacocks.

Once we were stuffed to the brim with food and ready to die from heat stroke (it was over 100 degrees) we headed over to Real Goods in Hopland, not far away. Real Goods is a solar living center that does a lot of workshops on sustainable living and has a nice bookshop where my parents wanted to research goats. We didn't find any books with any useful information but the kids were glad to get popsicles and we were happy for the air conditioning. H. and Madeleine bought portable fans because they were off to Camp Winnarainbow for session E and it was promising to be a hot two weeks (at the beginning of session D it got up to 107 on the first day). 

Before dropping the kids off at camp (except for C. who still isn't allowed to go), we hit the used bookstores in Willits. My dad found a book about natural goat care, Madeleine bought about seven vampire books that she hadn't read yet (I don't know how that's possible), and I found another book about the sociology of gender (dad can't understand why I won't read normal books). Now I have two weeks without my little sister! The house is so quiet without her. I'm hoping to be able to get some serious homework done. 

 

               

 (The garden at Real Goods)

Back from Camp

This blog isn't about anything in particular and I think the header explains it all. I'm just going to jump right in. (I'm not g

oing to talk about my recent trip to France on this blog: to read about that go to www.myspace.com/saskiainfrance).

            

I just got back from Camp Winnarainbow and I'm still adjusting to life in the "fake" world (I attest that Camp IS the real world 

and the rest of the planet just hasn't caught on yet). Camp Winnarainbow is a summer performing arts camp where you sleep in tipis (teepees? tipees?) and learn circus skills from hippies. It's run by Wavy Gravy, the ex-MC of Woodstock ("What I have i

n mind is breakfast in bed for 40,000!") 

I was teen staff this year and I had a BLAST!!! It was a lot of work, and I learned just how hormonal 12-year-old girls can be, but I also learned a lot about preteens, working with kids, life, and myself. It was also a wonderful experience

 to bond with the other teen staff - talented, passionate, creative teenagers - who were warm, accepting, and helpful. Many of them had many more years' experience than me and almost all of them had known each other before going. 

I mostly did theater - I was in a project called "A Kiss For Little Bear" which was a hig

hly stylized children's bed-time story white actors interacting with paintings and cool things like that. I also helped with singing class - we sang a song called "Pay Attention" that was written by campers from the previous session. 

If any of you are the least bit interested in Camp Winnarainbow, please check it out. They even have an adult camp! It will change your children's (or your neighbors' or family members' children's) lives. I know that most likely would not be alive if it wasn't for that place. They're suffering from the economic recession and they deserve to stay alive. There's my publicity speech. 

     massage train!!

 Wavy Gravy in costume (left)