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We Are Still Here… (Yma O Hyd!)
Woke up yesterday morning to see this:
Rich had to jump in the Land Rover to go and pick up Donna to work in the kefir room, as only three people could actually make it through the snow in their cars. Josh was busy organising a skeleton crew to stir, strain, bottle the kefir and pack up the boxes, so we can still ship out as usual. The team will have to haul the boxes up to the top with the help of a tractor, as the DPD van might make it down our steep farm track, but would definitely never make it out again!
We’re back to work after the holidays, and I saw the lovely faces of our team for the first time in a good while. Made me happy. And it struck me how deeply, profoundly grateful I am – just for the normality of things, for things resuming. I’m over all the holidays. Ready for things to even out and get back to business as usual.
It felt like being deeply appreciative of NOT having a toothache. You know, when you have a toothache, there’s nothing worse, and all you can long for is the sensation of not having one. But when you wake up every morning without one – how often are you grateful for that?
This morning, I was.
I was grateful NOT to have the Monday-morning-dreads. (I’ve worked in places like that, and it’s awful.)
I had an absolute surge of happiness to be working with people who are both brilliant AND pleasant. How rare is that! So lucky. We have all these clever people who choose to be here with us, and dedicate their valuable time to putting their shoulders to the CG wheel – doing great science, designing ways to make the website easier to navigate, spreading the word about kefir, trying to get the good news out to as many people as possible.
Then there are all the lovely folks who work hard here on the farm, doing everything to the very highest standard, hand-making our soaps and lotions, mixing up our prebiotic powder, bagging up collagen, making teas, bottling tinctures, carefully packing boxes and shipping out all the natural things that help people get healthier.
We’ve got lots of remote workers – 12 of them now – who live all over the UK but are tightly connected to us via computer and messaging and email, an entire lit-up network of smart people, talking to our customers and answering questions.
And we’re doing something good here, of course. That helps. We’re not working in a cigarette factory or something. (Back when I was working as a communication coach, my boss tried to send me to work with the Japanese Tobacco Company. I refused… Didn’t want to spend my time making them better at their job, it just felt wrong. You know?)
Maybe it’s the beginning of a new year – giving me the urge to pause and review. Or maybe I’m just getting old. (60 this year, mercy me!) So many changes over the 12 years that Chuckling Goat has been in business…
But really, at the end of the day, it all comes back to this – the kefir. Which we started making in that same little stone barn with the red door, back when it was just me and Rich and a handful of goats.
Our theme for this month is “Kefir – Not Just Milk.” Because it feels like time to get back to basics. We’ve gotten fancy and scientific, and I love that. I love the microbiome test, and the results that we can see, and the ecstatic reviews from people who FEEL BETTER. (If you haven’t done so recently, do have a look at our home page, where you will find all of our unfiltered reviews, more than 8,000 of them – with a search bar to look up any health issue or product that you’re curious about.)
But it all started with kefir. So simple, and yet so mysterious. You mix goats milk with these living squishy things called kefir grains, and let it ferment for 36 hours, and strain the grains out. Drink the kefir. And it is such a powerful dietary intervention. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what it does for human health, and the mechanism of how it works. The benefits are so many and so complex that it actually confused the headline writers, when Amrita published our first really big trial paper “The anti-inflammatory effects of three different dietary supplement interventions” in the Journal of Translational Medicine.
Powerful. Natural. Basic. Mysterious in the way that very ancient, very simple things can be.
Whenever Rich and I get down, we listen to a song called “Yma O Hyd” by Dafydd Iwan, with the volume turned waaaay up:
Chwythed y gwynt o'r Dwyrain
Rhued y storm o'r môr
Hollted y mellt yr wybren
A gwaedded y daran encôr
Llifed dagrau'r gwangalon
A llyfed y taeog y llawr
Er dued yw'r fagddu o'n cwmpas
Ry'n ni'n barod am doriad y wawr!
Ry'n ni yma o hyd
Er gwaetha pawb a phopeth
Ry'n ni yma o hyd
Let the wind blow from the East,
let the storm roar from the sea,
let the lightning split the heavens,
and the thunder shout "encore!"
Let the tears of the faint-hearted flow,
and the servile lick the floor.
Despite the blackness around us,
we are ready for the breaking of the dawn!
We are still here,
in spite of everyone and everything,
We are still here.Love that – (especially the servile floor licking! ; )
It’s a tough old world out there. I’m grateful, 12 years after we started our little business on the farmhouse kitchen table, that we are still here. I’m grateful that you are still here with us. And I wish for you and yours that 2026 will be the year that you get out there, put your boots on the road and start making your dreams happen.
We’re here as living proof that it can be done. And we’re with you, all the way.
Yma O Hyd!
Hugs,
Shann.x
Founder/Director Chuckling Goat
The Innovative Entrepreneur Redefining Success in 2025, Enterprise World Magazine
ps And don’t forget that those 12 lovely Nutritional Therapists are standing by, all refreshed after their long winter holidays, to get you back in order for the new year. Their advice is fast, free and personal – no AI or bots here – so hop on live chat and keep them busy!
