Lonely Goatherd

This blog post title is only too appropriate as this song is a constant refrain in our house.  In between the other Sound of Music songs, that is. We saw the play at Asheville Christian Academy a few weeks ago as the kids' sweet babysitter, Miss Amy, was Maria.  She was amazing and Owen was totally riveted the whole two and a half hours.  Caelum and Esmé took turns napping but enjoyed the play as well.

Two weeks ago, we went to Mountain Top Creamery for a homeschool field trip.  It was tucked up in the mountains near Chimney Rock, quite close to where my parents rented a mountain house for a little reunion last summer. The field trip was awesome.  First the boys bottle-fed kids that were only three days old.

Owen, bestie Grant, and Caelum

Then they had a tasting of goat milk, goat milk cream, and various kinds of goat cheese.  Caelum could not get enough of the goat milk. And Owen's favorite? Aged goat cheese! It had a strong flavor that even some of the moms couldn't handle, but he loved it. Such a refined palate from an otherwise picky kid.

Chugging his second cup of goat's milk

Then we took a tour of where they milk the goats and make the cheese.  My favorite part was when one little girl started gagging because the goat cheese smell was so strong in one building.  The culmination was milking Lady Caroline. Caelum was all business.  The lady who ran the creamery wanted to make a trade for him and have him work there.  Owen also did great and was not at all tentative.  I shouldered my way past the kids for a try and apparently did it wrong. "No, not like milking a cow.  Just gently squeeze." You'd think I'd know enough about milking at this point.

 After the tour portion was done, we had a picnic while surrounded by 300 goats.  We purchased some plain goat cheese (which Zach and I polished off in a few days) and a wedge of aged goat cheese, for Owen. It was a great time and educational!