About Cosmos, Cows & Chocolate
About Cosmos
About Cows
I have lived on Greener Acres Farms since April and have learned a great deal about cows, farming and where our food comes from. This blog will give you an inside view of a REAL family owned farm. Small farms like Peter’s are a dying breed. The wholesale milk checks often do not even cover the farmers monthly expenses. And as feed and grain prices go up the little guys are getting swallowed up by the big business farms. The buy local movement will hopefully provide enough retail business to save the ones that are left. Small farms are invaluable to us…..not only are they run by honest caring people who work really hard to bring you wholesome nutritious food but they are a happier environment for the animals to be raised in.
I now know why cows are sacred in India; they are Love. They make your heart chakra open really wide! My typical day starts with waking up around six o’clock and making it to the barn by seven at the latest. Peter is usually still milking (he starts between four and four thirty everyday) so I help him finish. We milk one hundred and fifteen Jerseys and one Ashire right now. They come into the milk parlor in groups of seven. Peter and I stand between two groups in a lowered section of the parlor so we can reach their udders without bending over. I basket full of clean cloths rests on a bucket in the middle of our space with another bucket for the used cloths.
The process of milking starts with our wiping each teat off with a clean cloth (watch out for the swishing tail). Then each gets dipped in a bottle of iodine (watch for falling stuff) and wiped again with another cloth (watch for flying hooves). Then the machines go on….four suction nozzles are placed on each nipple and the milk flows from the cow into a 1250 gallon tank in the next room. (Each cow gets milked twice and produces an average of 6 gallons of yummy white nutrition daily.) Once the machines are going with one group we switch to the other side where the machines have come off and we dip each teat with iodine one more time before the cows go out.
The tricky part of all of this is getting them to go out smoothly. Cows are very curious and the slightest distraction will stop them cold. (I so relate to this well). A new window or door open or closed, a new colored bottle or fan used, a tool out of place….anything out of the ordinary and “Whoa, what is THAT!” Then there is the occasional rebel who will come in the out door and really clog things up. Once the group is out the floor gets hosed down and a new group comes in. Each cow is completely different and Pete knows them all. He knows when they have calved, how old they are and what their whole history is….this is amazing to me. Farmers love their animals.
After milking I clean all the floors while Pete cleans the machines. Then I move on to bottle feeding the calves in the hutches out front who range in age from one day to two and a half months. They have been humanely taken from their mothers immediately after birth to reduce the amount of emotional turmoil caused by bonding before separating and are bottle fed the colostrum that their mother produces for the first two days. Then they stay on two full bottles a day until they are weaned. They start on grain and water within a couple of weeks and these are both refreshed morning and afternoon. After I finish with them I move on to the greenhouse in the back of the farm where the next oldest groups are…..they need to be fed grain, hay and water and usually need to be cleaned….shovel and wheelbarrow and fresh sawdust. This all takes about two to three hours, then I break (shower and go to work work) until late afternoon and start all over again. Peter and I only milk twice on Sunday and Monday afternoons while Phil milks the other days so that part is left out most days. We love the Phil!!
About Chocolate
Eating chocolate is a necessary part of loving myself. Learning to truly love ourselves is why we have come. Ultimately I believe this journey, called life, is a path of realization of our true nature which is “love”.
This blog is definitely about love….unconditional oneness and love which is full of freedom, choices, faith and hope. This blog is about distinguishing love from expectation, ownership and commitment.
Thank you for being here on this journey with me!!
With Love and Light,
Nicki
JoAnn Abair
September 6, 2011 at 5:00 am
Good Morning Nicki. I have never read or been involved with a blog before, but reading what you write has SO interested me I have decided to “venture out” and add some of my “cents”. Remembering when……….
I grew up in a small town in Western Mass. We had several horses and our big thing was to saddle up (I actually COULD saddle a horse back then lol) and take off for the foothills for a few hours. We explored the woods, jumped over small streams and rode one time all the way up Mt. Greylock and back. Part of life then was also to shovel out the stalls, and there was NO excuse for not being there to do the job.
There was 4-H for us, but since Mom didn’t have a car at the time, we WALKED a few miles just to get to whatever was going on. We played “kick the can” most nights, and it was a thrill to be allowed to stay out past dark and we were just across the street, not at a mall. I use to sit high on a hill behind our house and listen to one of the kids play his guitar, my music without electronics.
I am still that person!! Yes!! I sit on the porch with my husband and we laugh and talk and listen to the wind. We chat about “when” and not “what if” and we love.
Thanks for having this blog Nicki and giving folks an opportunity to join you!!
With lots of heart,
JoAnn
Nicki LeMarbre
September 6, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Hi Joann!!
So great to hear from you! What wonderful memories and how great that you still enjoy the simple things. I loved climbing Greylock…been a long time. Shovelling is great therapy for getting “real”.
Thank you for being here with me!
Love to you and Tim!!
Nicki