People often ask me what a day in the life of the farm looks like. Every day is different so I’m never quite sure what to say. Yesterday, I was experiencing the cutest moment on the farm and thought of sharing it on social media. Then I thought there is also so much challenge happening adjacent that isn’t captured in this moment. And that’s kind of a typical day in life on the farm. A little bit of magic, feeling on top of the world, then something happens with an animal and we’re thrown into chaos of saving the animal and not getting done other things that need to get done, and also is this really going to work?
Yesterday Ben and I got up at about 6am so we could milk the cows, do a few chores, and pack up to head to the farmers market. The day before we had spent much of the afternoon with a vet trying to save one of our ewes (she’s still alive). The vet thinks she ate something that scratched deep down in her throat and caused an absolutely huge infection.
She had swelling from her shoulders up her neck, and into her head. Our vet, Sarah, gave her a bunch of meds, and since her throat was too swollen to eat we tube fed her what Sarah calls an alfalfa smoothie. We also discovered that one of our milk cows Lilah, has some mild mastitis. So that was Saturday afternoon, let’s get back to Sunday morning.
Ben and I are sitting at the kitchen island having a latte and a matcha latte respectively, and I’m completely exhausted thinking about all the work I didn’t get done on Saturday afternoon that I now have to summon the energy to do after the farmers market this afternoon.Farmers markets are fun and totally exhausting and I’m sort of just dreading the entire day. And also we’re having a baby in like six weeks, wtf!?!?
We are way behind on projects that need to get done before baby arrives. The grass has gotten away from us and I’m about 20 acres behind on clipping pastures after the cows graze them.
I say to Ben, “I’m not sure we can do the market today. What do you think?” He says, “Ohmygod, that would be amazing.” We sit there going back and forth because we really want to go and we don’t want to let anyone down, but we don’t have time, and we’re so tired.
We head out to milk Lilah and Karma. Afterwards I’m walking Lilah and Karma back to the pasture with Karma’s calf bopping along beside us and it’s just about the cutest thing in the entire world. I think to myself, oh this needs to go on social media. And then I think that everyone will think our life is so idyllic when they see this video, and it is, and it’s so much more than that too.
And then we need to give our ewe her shots for the day and take her temperature. Her fever is down, good. The swelling is not, bad. I head back to the house with poopy thermometer in hand to make myself a smoothie.
I’ve messaged the farmers market managers to say we are very sorry and we can’t make it. Ben still has to drive some chuck roasts to our friends at the market who do the most incredible wood fired meals with ingredients from vendors, which we are now sadly going to miss out on.
I get into the tractor and the air conditioner isn’t working. Luckily it’s not too hot but it’s still very hot in the glass cabbed tractor. And I spend the next three hours being bounced along as I clip pastures. At this time of year when the grass has gone to seed we have to mow after we graze so the grass can properly grow back for the next grazing. If we don’t, the grass will become more unpalatable and will produce less feed for the animals.
I’m eight months pregnant and I’ve just hit the point where I have to pee quite often. The bumpy tractor ride is not helping matters and about every six or seven times around the field I have to stop, climb down from the tractor, and squat in the field.
Finally I make the last pass, take a quick moment to appreciate the freshly mowed field, and head back to the house. Time for a little nap. Ben has been moving sheep and working on the airstream all this time.
I try unsuccessfully to fall asleep for a while and then it’s time to milk Karma and Lilah again. In about a week we’ll move to once a day milking but since Lilah has mastitis and Karma is freshly freshened, it’s twice a day with two cows for now. It’s a little insane because we bought Lilah to have a lower producing dairy cow. Then Karma and Lilah became best friends so we couldn’t sell Karma to her new home. And even though just Karma gave way more milk than we needed now we have another cow just to keep the first cow company.
After we milk and put the girls and baby back in their pasture we give our ewe her second shot for the day and head inside for dinner. Yesterday we bought broccoli and asparagus at the farmers market and last night we picked garlic scapes and the first snap peas from our garden. We drench everything in Karma butter in our giant cast iron skillet and Ben grills a big fat Porterhouse. And even though we’re completely exhausted in every way we marvel at this simple meal of richness.
It’s almost dark and I say to Ben, “Let’s go look at the garden just for a minute.” We wander out there with dogs in tow and are in awe of the flowers blooming and the vegetable plants that somehow grew a foot in the past week. The cucumber beetles have decimated a couple of the squash plants but the others are doing great, and there’s even baby summer squashes growing!
We need these moments. The little moments of magic. To lead our two dairy cows with baby hopping alongside. To walk through the garden and imagine the meals we’ll eat from it. To see the flowers blooming. And to eat the food that we spend our entire lives and all of our resources growing.
And this is a completely normal day in the life on our farm. It’s ordinary. It’s profound. It’s magical. It’s mind numbingly difficult. And even though I say to Ben at least once a day, and usually in tears during this pregnancy, “Maybe we should sell the farm and do something easier,” there is literally nothing in the world we'd rather be doing.
From The Hills of Vermont, Katie