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Milking Goats and Making Cheese

May 5th, 2010 by

 Our neighboring town of Newcastle is home to a lovely little family farm known as Happy Kids Farm.  They offer a few classes that introduce the joys and responsibilities of goat farming.  We attended a class that taught us how to milk goats and then make cheese from the milk!


This dog in the picture LOVES goat milk and tries to get the goats to kick over the milk pail so she can "clean it up".

First step in making cheese:

1) Strain the milk through a cheesecloth to remove any hair or other debris.

2) Add an agent that reacts with the milk.  We used lemon juice.  Stir until the milk separates.

3) Pour through a cheesecloth again.  The whey is the liquid.  The curd is the solid.

4) Let sit in fridge over night.  This is the result the next day…the kids scraped the cheese off of the cloth.  It tasted like lemon.  You can also use vinegar as the agent.

After that, we got to visit the goats in their yard.  They were all very friendly and tame.

A pan of baking soda is set out for the goats to ingest, to soothe tummy troubles…

The farm has a resident tortoise!!

Beautiful property…

After our delightful morning, we had lunch at one of our favorite places,  Newcastle Produce.

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Silly Sumos

May 5th, 2010 by

David and I were in the back room when we hear huge fits of giggles.  I went to explore what the boys were into, and discovered that they had stuffed pillows in their shirt and had created a sumo ring with a blanket…

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San Francisco Birthday Day Trip

Apr 25th, 2010 by

In honor of my birthday, David took us to spend a day in San Francisco! 

We began with an awesome crab feast lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack!  It was our first time there, and we loved it!!  ‘A’ was in absolute crab heaven.  We got him his own steam pot.  ‘R’ was happy with his cheese pizza, and enjoyed playing with the crab claw I gave him. 

The ocean runs in my blood and I love all things seafood.  I can pick a crab clean in record time.  It’s not pretty, but it sure is YUMMY!

The wait staff does a dance every 45 minutes.  I caught a little on tape…


After a thoroughly satisfying lunch, we walked along Fisherman’s Wharf, with the intent to suprise the kids with an Alcatraz tour.  Unfortunately, they were sold out, so on to plan B…

This is the Boudin bakery.  They have a glass window where you can see the bakers in action and interact with them through an intercom system…

We drove through the neighborhood, Cow Hollow, then took the top off our Jeep to drive through the Presidio.

We stopped and walked the grounds of the Legion of Honor.

The courtyard contained a single sculpture, ‘The Thinker’ by Rodin.  The boys were excited to see it and said they knew this piece.  I was all proud of my homeschool mom self, and assuming it was from one of our art lessons that they learned about it, I asked them where they learned of it.  Both replied enthusiastically, “The Night at the Museum”!    (I’m thinkin’….I’m thinkin’…)

We continued on the Ocean Beach, and managed to stay on the beach for maybe 20 minutes.  It was so windy, the sand kept blowing up in our faces.  This was the kids highlight of the day, so we had to make due for a while.

On the way back, we drove through another beautiful neighborhood, Monterey Heights.  They were filming a movie there.  We did not stop to find out what it was.

It was a FUN FAMILY DAY!

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Country Drive Homeschool

Apr 25th, 2010 by

On this day, the weather was gorgeous!  A perfect day!  I knew that the rest of the week was going to be rainy, so I decided that we’d spend the majority of our  day outside. 

I packed up our homeschool books and we headed out to find a new place to spend our day.  We started driving, and I had boys take turns telling me which direction I should turn at each intersection.  We ended up going out into the country, behind Lincoln to Sutter county.  We saw wild peacocks, and a bunch of wild pheasant.  Gorgeous!  I could not take pictures of them, though, because I did not have my camera, only my phone (no zoom feature).

It was nearing lunch, so we drove back into Roseville and picked up lunch.  We did a little bit of school at the restaurant, then  drove around some neighborhoods.  Found a park, and completed our lessons there.  It was getting windy, so, darnit…the boys had to run around the park a few times to keep warm…

On the way back, we meandered through another neighborhood and found a neat green space that had a walking trail.  I let the boys ride their scooters on the trail as I enjoyed the flowers and other wildlife that was all around.

‘A’ fell and got a scraped knee and ankle, so we had to cut it a little short.

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Science: Magnets

Apr 25th, 2010 by

We are having fun continuing our lessons on magnets.  Here are three experiments we performed…
We had three different shapes of magnets: bar, square, round.  We measured the pull of each magnet by placing a paper clip at the end of a ruler and slowly moving each magnet along the ruler, measuring the length at which the magnet engaged with the paper clip.

The second experiement was the same thing, but with the magnet descending vertically.  We learned that it takes longer for the engagement with the vertical position, because of the added element of gravity.




The third experiment failed, but it is still worth mentioning.  It failed because either our magnets were too weak or the butterflies were too big.  We did not try it again with different variables.
We made tissue butterflies and attached a paperclip to each.  We then taped the butterflies to a piece of sting and anchored it onto the counter.  The idea is to take a magnet and place it just above the butterfly to make it fly without touching it.

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Art: Pinch Pots

Apr 25th, 2010 by

This art lesson involved making pinch pots.  The boys deviated from the traditional bowl…

‘R’ made a heart and ‘A’ made a horn, or a spoon, or a smoking pipe.  He can’t decide which one it is 🙂

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Baseball!

Apr 25th, 2010 by

One Thursday after Bible study, our group met up at a local park.  Some of the boys brought their baseball equipment and did an incredible teaching A and R the basic elements of the game.  It was precious to watch these boys selflessly and patiently demonstrate and play.  Both boys managed to hit the ball and each got a "home run", due to the graciousness of their teachers!



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Our Silly ‘R’

Apr 23rd, 2010 by

We have a morning routine that the boys follow.  One of the chores on the list is to sweep the kitchen.  ‘R’ decided he wanted to make sure that no one encroach on his cleaning space.  He posted this sign…

The graphic is of someone being electricuted 🙂

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Smith Visit: Days 4 and 5

Apr 13th, 2010 by

We met up for church and attended an excellent service.  The pastor addressed , "Hope amidst Crisis",  so appropriate and needed in our current climate.  We split for the afternoon and just rested.  We rejoined for dinner at our place, along with Eric and Crystal, and their friend, Brittany.  It was raining, so I made up a yummy beef barley soup with salad and bread.

Our last day together, we went to a local diner for breakfast, then a run to the airport to say goodbye to our dear friends.

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Smith Visit: Day Three

Apr 10th, 2010 by

Is it possible to have too much fun?  I wonder….

Today, we left the kids to be spoiled by Crystal and Eric, and headed for a Napa Valley day trip.  The weather was a little overcast, and it sprinkled a few minutes here and there, but it did not detract from a marvelous day.

We started at Domaine Chandon.  I read an article that said you should always start off a wine trail with sparkling wine.  This was good advice.  It really set the tone for fun and festive. We also got to take home a commemorative glass as a souvenir.   We met up with Scott and Liann’s daughter, Sarai, who was celebrating her 25th birthday with a friend in San Jose.

Liann and Me


This was the lower part of the tasting bar, illuminated from behind.  It was gorgeous!

Sarai and Rosie

Next stop was Chimney Rock.  We had not really planned on going here, but we passed the place we planned on going, by mistake, and needed to turn around.  We ended up here, and are so glad we did.  This place was a major highlight for all of us, with the best reds of the trip.





Next stop, LUNCH!  We had tried to go to the Oakville Market, but they had a line out the door.  instead, we went to Soda Canyon Store for some sandwiches and chips.  It was not as gourmet as the Oakville Market, but the sandwiches were made to order, and were perfect for hungry bellies.

Next stop, Robert Sinsky Vineyards.  This was a beautiful winery.  I can only imagine what it will look like at harvest time.  The wife of the owner is an accomplished chef and cookbook author.  As a part of the tasting, they paired the wines with some small bites.  Very nice, although I did not appreciate it as much on a full stomach.

The tasting room.  This picture does not do it justice.


Looking into one of their caves…

Next stop, Stag’s Leap Winery.  Lovely property, but I think we all agreed that it did not live up to it’s hype.

We were deciding where our final destination should be, and chose to end with sparkling wine again, and go to Domaine Carneros.  Liann and I went there the last time she visited with Lacey, and we wanted to return.

The property was pretty full, and they had no tables that would accomodate six people.  So what did they do?  They opened up a tasting room for us!  We enjoyed some sparkling wine and said goodbye to Sarai and Rosie.

Happy birthday, Princess!

Soooooo Audrey!


Lovely Father-Daughter

Note to self:  If I ever have to wear contacts, I will not place hard contact disinfectant in my eye…unlike two people who shall remain nameless…(and, no, Napa had nothing to do with it!!)

As we were leaving Domaine Carneros, Scott was excited to see Cuvaison across the road.  We drove up to the tasting room and went in, but they were already closed.  Scott promised he’d buy something if he could have a taste.  We all walked away with a few bottles of the Pinot Noir.

We drove back to Roseville and had a mexican dinner, then Eric and Crystal dropped off the boys.  They had taken them to the Folsom zoo, a sushi lunch, Toys R Us field trip, and church.  We finished the day with the hot tub with Eric and Crystal and the boys.  Scott and Liann had returned to their hotel for the night.  Whew, what a fab day!!

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