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.