Farming

“The reality, of course, was something else altogether. Squatting beside a manure-covered cow and squeezing her teats as she tries to kick you in the head is about as glamorous as it sounds. Getting slapped in the face with the same cow’s urine-soaked tail is also high on my list of experiences never to repeat. Dairy cows are extremely stubborn, but also bony in the hips, so hitting them is a bad idea, and the reason why so many dairy farmers break their hands. But the most valuable lesson I learned was: never stand directly behind a cow when she coughs. Their bowels are looser than creamed corn.”

“We spent our days taking care of the chickens and gathering eggs, helping with the cows, mowing, and making and packaging butter. Not only did we learn a lot of specific farming knowledge, we learned about the lifestyle of farming; what it would be like to farm for a living. I’ll give you some examples of our newfound knowledge: the natural color of butter is bright yellow. I kid you not. When you beat cream, you know it’s ready when you see the sunflower colored specks of butter form. Now grocery store sticks of butter look pale and unhealthy to me, but it was a bit of a shock to make that switch in my mind.”