Spring’s here
Latter March 2022. View to the North.
It’s easy for me to simplify spring into a grand explosion of chaos and changes that happen all at once. The season is a return of new flowers and colors, green young leaves and sprouts. Bugs, rodents and reptiles repopulating throughout; birds migrating back who love to sing to the rising sun. AND Of course, baby cows and the return to milking and cheesemaking.
This year has felt different though. For some reason or another, it’s been a drawn-out showing of spring’s story. Potentially a few cold spells have slowed things down? Or do I always forget the tempo is just like this, every year? Memory feels more like an unreliable reflection of dreams anyway, and more and more I feel I need to write down what I observe, so I can remember all these things of importance correctly. Brains are unreliable.
I did not get an exact date, but the red maples below our house, flowered their red display well over a month ago. I felt like ‘oh boy,’ here it comes. I’m not ready for this! But instead, the season and what is entails has been coming at a creeping pace. I have watched as there has been a staggered emergence of the spring ephemerals and supple and young grasses. The fruit trees have blossomed over a course of weeks now. Outside the creamery’s window, a little peek of a fuzzy fig leaf is visible through a crack on a mostly still closed bud . I pass by the chestnut trees in the pasture and their swollen buds are just about to unfurl. Many deciduous trees around our land our now birthing their little baby leaves, very slowing waking up. The oaks have their cute mini version of their leaves on their branches with a rusty coloration in the rising morning sun. While the red maple by our front door appears to have burgundy so rich and deep, I almost have an embarrassment to stare at it with such intent. It’s almost showing us something so sensual it maybe should be private. It’s been a steady show of flowers and beautiful new growth, but I wouldn’t classify this spring as an overnight phenomenon.
Nature can be overwhelming. There is no doubt about it, but there is the human reaction side that is the real source of the fizzing energy that gives me an underlying discontentment each spring. Probably the biggest reason for my lack of an overwhelmed state this last month, has been my commitment to not get caught up into it this year. It’s way too easy to get into too many projects, start too many plants, put out too many trees and say ‘yes’ to too many obligations. This year I have been the most conservative I’ve ever been. Kate has downsized the garden dramatically. We don’t have a houseful of sprouting plants for the summer graden. I’m not doing projects that are unrelated to the dairy. I am being very careful what side jobs I take on outside of the farm and cheesemaking. It’s amazing feeling to strip life down to it’s bare necessities.
I much prefer a slow, but steady and less distracted work flow.
With that being said, my days have drastically changed since winter. Once March rolled in, it was time to finish up projects that could not be put off any longer. Lace up the boots and start to get everything up and running again. Procrastinate no more! It helped that we had some really spectacular March days to ease into the work.
My Dad and I finished up the barn, which was the first project off the list. Done and Done. Feels good.
March 2022. Barn complete.
Few things in life give me more satisfaction than putting up and improving fencing. Bad fencing is a nightmare. Good fencing gives a sense of security like no other. We’ve gotten some fencing improved, with some more to be done. Turning nightmares into Teddy bears day in and day out.
Two strands of a strong highly visible electric fencing is greatly respected by our cows. Most of the battle with the fence is creating and maintaining a briar free zone. It’s a brutal and bloody fight to contain the roses and other briars.
We are clearing off about an acre of land behind the creamery building to make milking easier. How I want this to work: when the cows leave the milking parlor(upper left hand side of the photo,) they will enter this acre area before either sleeping here for the night, with some hay, depending on how early I need to milk them the next day, or just a very temporary holding area until I finish milking and they can return to the pasture. Our area where the cows wait before milking is tight, and currently when Mei Mei is finished milking she turns around and wants right back in the entrance. So in the future, she won’t be able to complicated the situation as easily. She will instead enter this paddock. It’ll make everyone’s life easier. BUT clearing land is tough! This is a very scrubby area to clear. It reminds me to respect the pasture I already have and the many people who are long gone who created and maintained the pasture before me. Someday in the future, there is a chance that someone else will use what I have cleared.
The goal this time of year for me is to make small improvements that will ultimately help in the overall work flow this year- saving valuable time and energy. Little repetitive annoyances(a hard to latch gate, a drying rack just out of reach from the sink,) over time can be slightly ignored. Spring is really a time to notice these nuances and improve upon it now, before it slips into the mundane and provides agitation just below the surface of the day to day dealings.
There are small improvements that at first can be hard to notice, but then there are big improvements to be had. A big improvement and a goal of mine has been to get the creamery floor epoxied. I knew this was going to make a huge difference in the sanitation and ease of cleaning of the kitchen floor. And we are so happy to get this done this winter just in time. Thank you Luis! It is a blue quartz epoxied concrete finish with a 5” cove top up the base of the wall- a seamless joint in a hard to clean area. Just as beautiful as it is functional!
Final thoughts…
My mind comes back a lot of the simple act of milking cows and making cheese and the human relationship to the bovine creature. Milking cows has a long history intertwined with human civilization. But for me, I have really fallen into this. I didn’t grow up doing this and had no plan to before I started. But what has really drawn me in, besides the challenges that leads me along this path and of course the desire to make something delicious and nutritious from our very landscape, lies beneath is a reason I think most people don’t realize. The human/cow relationship, if done properly with respect and care at the heart, is one of great mutualism.
If you take care of your cow, she will take care of you. No matter what happens in the world, it’s good to focus on these basics. I feel this everyday. It’s a beautiful thing.
