Our calf has died and has been buried deep in the compost pile...his body too will give back to this land...when we found him we called the dairy up the road...and they came over and checked him...not a thing wrong with him from the outside...amy said he looked like a healthy calf...but he was dead...and so we all knew something was wrong...maybe a poisonous weed...Saturday...he was healthy..bouncing around...it is strange to see life born and die so rapidly...he would have been slaughtered in the fall...but the suddenness of this was shocking...and Chloe let out such distressed moos...I don't know what she comprehends...but this week there is a sadness about her...she seems calmer...weathered by life a bit...I suppose death does that...
Without a calf, Chloe now needs to be milked twice a day...we are averaging 2.5 gallons of milk a day...and right now there are 4 of us here...cheese, ice cream, and butter are being made constantly...at the end of the work day...the goal is to empty some of those milk jars...and it is happening...but I think they are filling faster then we can empty them...
So the farm feels alittle darker now...I will look forward to when our other calves come home...they are off with their mothers, who are with a bull for the next two months...new life is needed as the nights get colder and the smell of rotting melons begins to fill the air...but there are raspberries...and ice cream...and visits from good friends and with 2 whole days of sun we are hoping the tomatoes will turn red...
A visit from my dear friend Lesle...sporting her farmer gear:)
Thank you all for your kind words...I read this the other day and thought it appropriate...Enriching the Earth
To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass
to grow and die. I have plowed seed
of winter grains and of various legumes,
their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth.
I have stirred into the ground the offal
and the decay of the growth of past seasons
and so mended the eath and made its yield increase.
All this serves the dark. I am slowly falling
into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth,
not knowing what i serve, gives a wideness
and a delight to the air, and my days
do not wholly pass. It is the mind's service,
for when the will fails so do the hands
and one lives at the expense of life.
After death, willing or not, the body serves,
entering the earth. And so what was heaviest
and most mute is at last raised up into song.
~Wendell Berry~
To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass
to grow and die. I have plowed seed
of winter grains and of various legumes,
their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth.
I have stirred into the ground the offal
and the decay of the growth of past seasons
and so mended the eath and made its yield increase.
All this serves the dark. I am slowly falling
into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth,
not knowing what i serve, gives a wideness
and a delight to the air, and my days
do not wholly pass. It is the mind's service,
for when the will fails so do the hands
and one lives at the expense of life.
After death, willing or not, the body serves,
entering the earth. And so what was heaviest
and most mute is at last raised up into song.
~Wendell Berry~
4 comments:
It sounds like you've had a bad week. But the ice cream with raspberries looks so good...you are living in the balance of the highs and lows of natures. xoxo
Life on the farm is really teaching you alot. I love how you take every day as it comes - the good with the bad. The ice cream looks delicious and you know it is fresh.:>)
Love you
iocm
Katie, I'm so glad you've got some fresh fruit--I know how you love it. Sorry about young Charlie. love,
et
that is sad about charlie.
and my heart aches for his mama.
she knows.
but as emily said, you are living in the balance. what an experience all of this has been so far for you.
we miss you here in charm city, my friend. xo
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