It's All About the Goats!

That's right people. We are farm-sitting in Valley Center, California. It is an absolute blast. This is exactly the type of thing I wanted to do while on sabbatical. We are giving a friend a vacation from her farm chores, learning new skills, and generally chilling the eff out - something we haven't been very good at for the last few months (must ski ALL day). 

Here is a typical day at the Z Farm (how far we have come from staring at a computer screen for 10 plus hours each day):

• Feed goats (3 adults and 2 babies)
• Milk goat
• Filter and prep milk for use
• Check for eggs
• Pick veggies from garden for eating that day
• Enjoy the day at the beach, hiking, seeing friends, etc.
• Feed dog, cats, chickens, and goats
• Milk again
• Sleep

Though we had a bit of trouble our first day of milking (involving yelling, panic, goats kicking, and the milk being ruined by a hoof in the bucket), it is pretty awesome now that we have the hang of it. And the goats don't seem to hate us anymore, which is nice.

Gratuitous goat udders

I had never milked an animal until last week, ever. It is definitely a two-person job (for us). We try our best to keep the goat (Shyly) happy while milking. We also have to ensure that we complete all the sterilization steps so that our raw goat milk is tasty and the goat stays healthy. 

So let me tell you that your arms get TIRED. Our division of labor is such that Dave feeds the goat while talking romantically her. I milk as quickly as possible while listening to Dave tell the goat how beautiful she is.......I am serious here. Sort of weird, but whatever - it works and everyone is happy!

Dave - king of all goats

There are also six hens. We feed these animals ALL our leftover food and they inhale it and make tasty eggs. It is really amazing how little waste there is on this farm. Any scraps or peels we don't eat are fed to the animals who in turn make us eggs and milk. Very circle of life-ish.

That is the chicken coop back there.

My friend has a gorgeous garden too. We are sort of at the end of the winter season and the beginning of the summer season. Thus, we are eating loads of lettuce, rocket, chard (my fav), carrots, and cabbage. Can you say glorious salads, Dave has never been so regular.

Sammy watching over the garden

Dave has garden envy.

We made today Farm Day. Instead of driving somewhere and doing an "activity", we just enjoyed the day at the farm doing our little chores, talking to the goats (Dave), and relaxing (me). Oh and there was lunch.......heavenly with a salad, two kinds of homemade goat cheese, and a bottle of Sancerre - because why not.

Sam is especially good at chilling.

Well the goats are calling us. Time for the p.m. milking. I will leave you with some more food porn (sorry, we've not been doing much here) from our pizza dinner last night. Tonight we are making osso buco with some of my friend's beef shanks from her beef share. This is redic. I am pretty sure the secret to happiness can be found in a garden/farm/kitchen like this.

Chevre and chard pizza - yes, please

Coachella - Fringe, Flowers, and Fannies

Music

So we went to the Coachella Music Festival last week. It was warm and beautiful, a far cry from this, our last serious music festival. 

I freaking hate crowds. Why then would you go to a music festival with 85,000 other people, you ask? Well, the line up was rather compelling. You get a lot of British acts there because festival season doesn't start until summer in the UK and Europe, and I am still addicted to listening to BBC 1 after my time in London. Also, what the hell else do we have to do while on sabbatical? 

You can Google the bands that were there so I won't belabor that. Everyone we saw kicked ass, and we were especially (happily) surprised by the performances we accidentally caught or didn't expect much of, such as Bad Religion, Clean Bandit, Royal Blood, Gorgon City with Jess Glynne, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Marina and the Diamonds. 

Then we were audially flogged by Flosstradamus, it was uhm - interesting.

Oh man was there ever some bad fashion. While entertaining, it was a tasteless mismash of Glastonbury from 5 years ago (the one year it was actually sunny), some weird hippie event, and an exhibitionist convention. Here are some of the worst of the worst trends we saw.

Fringe
Even the fringe was fringed. If you are worried about getting tangled up while dancing, you are over-fringed. 

Macrame everywhere, make it stop

People were calling themselves gypsters, which was just annoying. No really, folks had t-shirts that said "Gypster". I call that an insult to hipsters and Gypsies. Urban Dictionary defines a gypster as: 

"A hybrid of hipster and gypsy. The gypster dresses like a gypsy and is nomadic, frequently unemployed, may use drugs, but in reality probably has wealthy parents, owns a car, and has everything handed to them in life. This person is a hipster in most senses (crappy music taste, elitism, likes things that are obscure just because they are obscure) but dresses in gypsy fashion. The gypster's gross appearance and nature makes them appear impoverished but they likely visit their loving home and are more than willing to spend their inheritance on the latest Tegan and Sara EP.

Weird Fake Flowered Headbands
I am not sure what it is all about, but it looks weird and you are not unique when everyone else has one. Perhaps I am being too harsh but seriously 80 percent of the women had these.

Reminds me of those giant baby headbands

Butt Cheeks
I am sure I was likely guilty of this sin in high school, oh man - a little underbutt. But now that I am 40, I can judge. I don't care how rocking your bod is, I don't want to see your butt cheeks. And I really don't want to see the awful camel toe you also get from jacking your shorts way up in there so your butt hangs out.

I am in physical pain looking at this.

Is anyone else worried about a possible yeast infection?

Wow, I can't un-see that - guys are guilty too.

Bandanas
This look was big: bandanas and sunglasses - even at night. Maybe it was really dusty last year or something, or people are really high and think they are at Burninng Man. I would say they were being gangsta, but Coachella is an expensive hipster festival. Maybe they are just being sun-savvy (no one wants skin cancer), but then their butt cheeks are hanging out in the back of this picture. No idea.

Wha?

Hey you sexist a-hole (internal voice) why aren't you commenting on the dudes? Well, because 80 percent of guys were shirts and shorts and weren't being douchebags. OK there were a few bad ones.

In short, I am going back next year:).

Coming Soon
In case you are wondering what is next for the Flying Monkeys......

This would make an interesting caption contest.

The End of a Ski Era - Almost

In the past three weeks we have traveled from Colorado to North Carolina, then back to Colorado, then to Utah, and then to British Columbia (not kidding, 16 hours in the car to ski a few inches at Whistler). Now we are back in Tahoe. Woosh!

Our 2008 Subaru Outback has been a trooper, so has the dog - and man that dog hates the car.

Our ski odyssey is almost over for the winter  and I am feeling melancholy about the whole thing - everyone cry me a river. Despite the relatively dry winter throughout the entire western United States, it was a blast!

So what to write about?

I am at a bit of a loss. In this case, I will follow our brilliant friend S.J.'s example and keep it simple with a report card summary of the last few weeks.

• Surprising the J.M. family in Charlotte, North Carolina with a St. Patrick's Day visit. A+

• Our trip to the local Charlotte Walmart for a green shirt for Dave for the J.M. and K.M. St. Patrick's Day party spectacular. He ended up with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle t-shirt with a cape (for $7.95). C
• Dave's weird green-colored party beard, just not OK. D
• Amie drinking Irish whiskey all night at the St. Patrick's Day party. D-
• Amie taking a 10:00 p.m. nap and rallying the rest of the night. A

• The beard, fear the beard. B-

• Having to leave Utah early because there was NO SNOW. C-

• Hiking with Dave's dad instead of skiing. B+

• Uncle S.M. giving us his old ski, which we fashioned into the official house shot-ski. A

• Eat, drink, sleep, ski, repeat......for days. A+++++

• Arriving after a 16 hour drive in Whistler and seeing almost no snow at the base, I almost cried. D-
• Making the best of it with a local Okanagan Valley Gamay (good) and Pinot Gris (a bit sweet for me). B

•  Mountain biking around Lost Lake on the days we didn't ski in Whistler. C+

•  Being back in Tahoe and getting warmly welcomed by 4 new inches of snow at Heavenly - YAY. B+

•  The beard. B-
• The ceremonial shaving of the beard this afternoon. I sort of miss it. B

Next up is Coachella (I have NOTHING cool to wear) then a week in San Diego goat-sitting at J.Z.'s house in Valley Center, California.

I posted our future plans at this site on the right-hand side. Email me if you want to join us anywhere along the way or will be in the area at the same time. We have extra reservations at most of our campsites along the way. Miss you all!