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Don’t kid yourself, this is the goat of nature walks 🐐

Don’t kid yourself, this is the goat of nature walks 🐐

August 11, 2025

Happy Monday, Capital Region! Today, we’re taking you on a nature hike at Into the Woods Farm with more than a dozen sure-footed goats as our (hungry) guides! We’re so tempted to make a baaaad joke here, but we’ll refrain.

A couple of corrections: We goofed and included a wrong link to the PDF image of the printable Erie Canal Bicentennial poster. The correct link is here! You can also pick up a poster at your main library branches (while supplies last).

We also had a broken link for last weekend’s Markets at Round Lake. Apologies, we’re gonna fire our intern now. Oh wait, we don’t have one. It’s just the two of us 🤦

—Phat X. Chiem & Karley Sullivan

Today in The 518:

Take a mental health walk with goats!
Rocking out at miSci’s planetarium
The Fireside in Schenectady is coming back
Our Home of the Week is a prime Pine Hills property
NYS Food Festival and Palace Theatre’s Block Party on deck for the weekend

Mental health break: Try walking with 19 goats through the woods 📷️ Natalie Moore / Saratoga Living After Hours

Don’t kid yourself, this is the goat of nature walks

This story comes courtesy of Natalie Moore, the editor of Saratoga Living and scribe behind Saratoga Living After Hours.

About 10 years ago, when Phaedra Zoe Stasyshyn’s daughter was 8, she started asking for a pet. But unlike most kids, she didn’t want a dog, a cat, or a bunny. She wanted goats. Plural.

Luckily for her, her parents were also unlike most other parents. In 2016, Phaedra, an outdoor educator living on a rural property in Middle Grove, became a goat farmer. Her herd started out with a doe (a female goat) and four of her kids (baby goats, not little humans). Into the Woods Farm was born.

“Everything we did was to keep the goats interesting for the kids (the people kind),” Phaedra says.

When the herd outgrew its small shed, Phaedra grabbed a hammer and built a new barn herself. And then when “goat yoga” became popular in the late 2010s, a local woman approached Phaedra about bringing her goats to a yoga class at Shmaltz Brewing in Clifton Park (now closed).

“I was like, “I don’t do yoga,” she says. “‘I don’t even do goats.’”

But she agreed, and when the first goat yoga event brought in something like 70 people, Phaedra knew she was on to something. Except it wasn’t so much the yoga that people were showing up for—it was the goats.

So Into the Woods Farm began literally taking people into the woods. In addition to goat yoga, hosted both at the farm and elsewhere, Phaedra now leads 90-minute, goat-accompanied Snowshoe Adventures and Wild Walks.

Wondering what exactly a “goat walk” entails? I was too. Here’s what happened when I went “into the woods” with 19 goats.

The farm is 25 minutes away from downtown Saratoga, but it might as well be two hours away—that’s how deep into the boondocks it feels.

The first thing I noticed when I got out of the car was the bugs. Phaedra had warned me. If you’re planning a goat walk and hate bugs, consider scheduling it for the fall or, better yet, winter, when snowshoes are provided and bugs are nonexistent.

After a short chat with Phaedra, she went over to the pen and released the goats. All 19 of them. I knew this was coming, but nothing can prepare you for the joy of a baby goat running up to you for a head scratch.

After a mid-afternoon snack, the herd followed as we headed out on the nature trail located right on Phaedra’s property.

On the trail, the goats did a mix of snacking on whatever they could find on the forest floor, head-butting one another, and lying down in the middle of the trail. They didn’t bother us, but were happy to eat green leaves out of our hands and smile for photos.

“Goats like to be with people,” Phaedra says. “They’ve become selfie goats.”

When our walk was complete, we said our goodbyes, purchased a jar of local honey in the gift shop, and headed back to civilization.

The visit left an impression on my friend Molly, who is 27. Her first words on the drive home back to Saratoga: “Should I have my birthday party there?”

To see more photos from Natalie’s goat walk, go to Saratoga Living After Hours.

The deets: Into the Woods Farm, 7222 Kilmer Rd, Middle Grove, NY. Private, 90-min goat walks are $150 for up to 4 guests. The farm also offers goat yoga ($35/ person) and Snowshoe Adventures.

Other goat experiences to know:

Goat yoga at June Farms ($28/p)
Mariaville Goat Farm, near Schenectady, also offers goat yoga ($20/p) and what they call “goat cuddles” ($10/p).
Beekman Farm Tours in Sharon Springs, includes time with goats ($30/p).
Goat yoga at the Greater Glenville Family YMCA in Scotia ($50 for non-members)
If you’re willing to make the drive, Celtic Valley Carriage & Farm in Middletown, NY, offers goat hikes and coffee for just $10 a person.
The Frederick Farm Goat Rescue & Sanctuary in the Catskills offers “Adventure Hikes with the Herd” for $50/p.

"There was this billy goat at a movie studio who found and ate a can of film. When a nanny asked him how he liked it, he said, ‘It was all right but I liked the book better.'"

—Johnny Carson

🎯 Ultimate Frisbee is a serious sport. And some of the best competitors in the country will gather this weekend for the 40th annual Ow, My Knee! tournament, held at Maalwyck Park in Glenville. “At the top end of the tournament, the teams are out there to really compete,” says Jeff Maskalunas, a player for Albany Alibi. [Daily Gazette]

🍕 Closed since 2011, The Fireside in Schenectady is being resurrected by a local restaurateur. Tommy Nicchi, owner of The Broken Inn in Niskayuna and The Horses Lounge in Schenectady, recently purchased the property and plans to bring back the once-popular pizza and sandwich pub sometime in 2026. [Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority]

🤘 miSci is putting on its first planetarium music show, featuring stunning visuals along with the music of Led Zeppelin. To commemorate the band's performance at the Aerodome 56 years ago, tickets are just $4.50 for opening night—the same price they were back in 1979! Rockin' the Dome starts Aug. 23.

🎨 Hilltown Commons is opening up its 100-acre campus in charming Rensselaerville for a special overnight art festival Aug. 22-24. Join artists Ali Syverson and Laura Colwell for a weekend of community, campfire chats, and creative exchange in celebration of Shared AIR, its inaugural summer artist-in-residence program. There will be studio visits, film screenings, live music, artist talks, and late-night hangs at the Pub. All of this, plus accommodations in one of the lovely, historic lodges and meals, for just $100 per person (or $50 without accommodations). Sign up here!

657 Morris Street, Albany, NY 12208

This Pine Hills home brims with light, charming corners, and a dash of everyday magic. Hardwood floors, tall ceilings, and classic columns set a graceful tone alongside a cozy wood stove and vintage farmhouse touches. Mornings are made for coffee on the wide front porch; evenings are for gathering friends on the big back deck that overlooks your park-like backyard. Fresh, stylish bathrooms and updated windows keep things comfortable year-round. Upstairs, a finished attic offers two roomy spaces, making this a true three-story home. The exterior got a fresh coat of paint in 2023, and the bright, practical kitchen is ready for cooking up a little joy every day.

The deets: 4 bd, 3 ba, 1652 sf. Asking: $269,900. Days on market: 6. See the full listing here.

Our full weekend roundup publishes every Thursday. Be sure to check your inboxes!

🌠 The Perseid meteor shower is back—and the Adirondacks are one of the best places in the Northeast to watch it. The annual light show will peak tomorrow with a hundred shooting stars per hour potentially! The NYT has tips for the best viewing.

📣 OPEN CALL 📣 Context Collective is seeking submission for Portraits in Context, a salon-style portrait show with juried prizes 🏆️

🖼️ Now on view at the UAlbany Art Museum: Noel Anderson: Black Excellence.

🧜‍♀️ The Playhouse Stage Company presents “The Little Mermaid” at Cohoes Music Hall, through Aug. 17. Critic Bob Goepfert called the production “breathtaking” and “a very special experience” in his review.

🎬️ Flying Sword Heroes: Gravity-Defying Tales from Taiwan presents 10 films from Taiwan, curated by NYC’s esteemed Subway Cinema. Founders of the annual New York Asian Film Festival at New York’s Lincoln Center, Subway Cinema has been thrilling New York audiences with Asian film premieres and retrospectives since 1999.

🦁 On Tuesday, get to Albany’s Palace Theatre for a free screening of Disney’s “Mufasa.”

🌮 On Wednesday, the New York State Food Festival takes over the Empire State Plaza. Classic rock legends Blue Öyster Cult will headline, with Aquanett and Super 400 joining the bill.

🐇 Also on Wednesday, the Arkell Museum and Canajoharie Library puts on a free magic show with magician Ron Cain.

🎸 Local faves SIRSY play the Freedom Park concert series in Scotia on Wednesday.

🎥 On Thursday, Picture Lock One screens “La Cienaga,” a visceral tale of a dissolute bourgeois family. PL1 is located in a former bank vault in the basement of Collar Works in Troy. A must-see experience!

🎸 Also Thursday, the Tang Museum invites you to a free concert on its lawn. Come for Upbeat on the Roof with Girl Blue, and stay for the kids’ craft activities!

🤠 Schenectady’s Central Park puts on a free play, “Rodeo! A Play with Dance.” Come to the park on Thursday for a new kind of rodeo combining hip-hop with Afro-Caribbean dance!

🎡 The Altamont Fair kicks off on Tuesday and goes through the weekend.

🍄 On Friday, Collard City Growers is hosting a Community Work & Play Day in partnership with the Sanctuary for Independent Media.

🥳 On Saturday, the Palace Theatre puts on its annual Community Block Party. Clinton Avenue will be closed down and filled with music, family-friendly activities, vendors, community organizations, and more!