Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

The Gardener LXI: "Peace, My Heart" Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet. Let it not be a death but completeness. Let love melt into memory and pain into songs. Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest. Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night. Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence. I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way. (Rabindranath Tagore) Well, looks like I will be changing my blogs' name back to: Misadventures of the Monster Librarian.  Two and a half weeks ago I slipped away--a quick weekend back to the Midwest; a weekend of spending time with my best friends in Michigan, but also time spent visiting a library in Ohio and interviewing for a Children's Librarian position. And can you believe it?? I got the job...and so I begin to say goodbye to the Farm; begin to watch sunsets and sunrises over mount...

I haven't written substance in some time; the last couple of weeks have been so busy and tiring. My boss FlavaFlav goes to Montauk every year for two weeks, during this time I am quasi-in-charge and that means longer hours, working harder, having kitchen nightmares (this is no lie--silly shit, like people hiding granola). My boss' vacation combined with the fact that, due to various reasons, I had to work more hours at the library in August meant that I worked 17 days straight, starting on the day that I got back from vacation. Suffice to say I was so glad to get away last weekend, joining RugbyGirl for a mini-roadtrip to Burlington, VT. This was my first visit to Burlington and I was blown away by how beautiful the ride along Route 7 is;  how green green green the mountains of Vermont are (I told Angie that the color of the mountains made me think that this is what Ireland must be like!)--good choice on naming the state, by the way! And to see Lake Champlain! SO GORGEOUS. I ...

Had another great dinner last night. I help Jay milk the cows Sunday afternoons. The girls were milked, the milking dishes were all done and things were tidied up, and we'd just gotten into the truck to leave when we heard some horrible screams coming from the Pig Palace. A piglet had gotten his head stuck in the fencing around the pen while he was trying to munch on the weeds just outside the fencing. It seemed like the poor little guy had all but used up his energy by the time we got up there--he was panting and gurgling for breath. Jay wrestled with the fence and tried to push the piglet back through or pull from behind, but to no avail. While I tried the same he ran and got bolt cutters and in no time the piglet was back playing with his siblings and, as Jay put it, probably saying, "man, my head hurts!" I had to laugh when Jay said that we got some good karma for getting the piglet out. After a quick swim in a nearby swimming hole we met up for dinner at my cabi...

Thank you, Ms. Viorst, for creating a children's book which speaks to that shitty-day feeling we can all have sometimes. Yesterday's milking was a  Series of Unfortunate Events : The cows weren't waiting for me right at the gate. I had to walk all the way down to the bee hives and staff gardens to get them, which is fine, since it was a lovely day and I was enjoying the weather and the sun. However, when I got to the cows they all decided to play the we-don't-know-what-we-are-supposed-to-be-doing game. It took lots of prodding to get them moving. While crossing the street with the cows (traffic waiting for us--minimal traffic, yes, but traffic still!) three of the cows decided it was really important to stand in place and act as if we'd never done this before. Beasley (cow) picked a fight with Samantha (cow). I literally had to step between them and do some Jerry Springer relationship-saving work. I put Samantha (cow) in one of the pens to nurse some of the cal...

When I went to milk the cows this afternoon there was nary a cow in sight. Leaving the dairy barn yard, I crossed the Farm's "main drag," intersecting streets to get into the pen which leads out to the fields near the beehives. This is the best time for milk--the cows out to pasture, eating lots of yummy grass and in turn, nourshing us. Great article about this here. Once inside the pen still no sight of the ladies. I called, "HEY BOSS!" cupping my hands to try and and boom my voice through the woods. I clapped. I whistled. Nothing. I walked deeper into the woods. Trudging out further away from the street I followed the fresh cow prints, evidence of the cows' daily path, and found myself slightly out of view of the road. I was for once looking out--the perspective then mine was that of the cows all summer. I saw cars passing by, though I wasn't quite as visible to them; felt the way that the trees running parallel with the road provide a wall; looked ...

I won't go into a long extensive blog about the hows of milking, since I think I covered some of it here , but rather just share some of the stats. If you look at the blog (from link above), you will notice some names have dissapeared from the list, this means that the cows have either been moved to other barns or fields or they have errmmm..."joined the kitchen team," meaning food. The newer additions are calves which grew up to become milkers! Josephine: 25 lbs (a.m.) 20 lbs (p.m.) Total: 45lbs Joann: (this is Josephine's daughter) 14 lbs (a.m.) 14 lbs (p.m.) Total: 28 lbs Tara: 14 lbs (a.m.) 9 lbs. (p.m.)  Total: 23 lbs. Curly Horns: 20 lbs (a.m.) 26 lbs (p.m.) Total: 46 lbs Jasmine: 15 lbs (a.m.) 16 lbs (p.m.) Total: 31 lbs Sylvia: 13 lbs (a.m.) 12 lbs (p.m.) Total: 25 lbs Emily: 26 lbs (a.m.) 26 lbs (p.m.) Total: 52 lbs Stella: 30 lbs (a.m.) 20 lbs (p.m.) Total: 50 lbs   Also in the dairy line up for milking soon are: Sushi (who'll you'd...

As I hear about the snow that is being dumped all over parts of the East and the Midwest and well, everywhere it seems, I look at our blank canvas wondering if we really will get the forecasted snow. I like winter, but I am ready for spring at this point. Reading this article by Friend of the Farmer  made me long for summer, when the Farm's gardens are in full bloom and the Kitchen is reaping the enormous bountiful benefits by way of vegetables and fruits up the wazoo. Winter at the Farm is a time when I am reminded of how much I miss fresh Farm grown produce; forced to remember as I lean into the freezer and paw with cold fingers, pulling out bags of processed and frozen Farm veggies. Thinking of supporting local got me to thinking about our cows, (this is beginning to sound like If you give a mouse a cookie ), actually one in particular, Sasha--who was one of the cows I learned to milk on about 6 years ago!--who was just taken to the slaughterhouse. It seemed str...

I think that as Farmers, in this very distinct community, that we all have our moments where we stop and think, "what the hell am I doing?" It is very difficult to do work in the field that we work in under "normal" circumstances, but then add the fact that we live in the midst of where we work, well, that definitely throws a HUGE wrench into things. Lately I have been having a lot of those aforementioned wonderings. And yet, there are days that start winding down like today; days which catch me, shake me hard, rattle around the marbles upstairs, and almost shout, "SEE!" I was very tired this afternoon, recovering from a visit with my old college roomie College Kim--her and her boyfriend were here for just hours yesterday en route to visiting his family, who happen to live in western MA--and two trips to the airport in two days (one to pick up College Kim and one to pick up returning Farmer S today). And of course today also happened to be my milking da...

I will forgo writing down the statistics of my Monday night milking shift—my first I’ve had in a month, due to work coverage and vacation—and instead tell of the comical end to my day. But before I do that I will just mention that since last I wrote, a couple changes have happened. The meanie queenie of cows, Stella, is pregnant and is being dried out, therefore is only being milked in the mornings right now. Praise be to God! Stella has this amazing double kick which once made me do a Neo-esque back bend to avoid catching a hoof to the face. We are now also milking two cows new to the Dairy Barn: Joanna (daughter of Josephine) and Tara. Anyway, during the warmer weather the cows go out into the pastures to enjoy things like alfalfa, which they L-O-V-E! I normally walk them to the pasture kitty corner to the Dairy Barn yard, however, they are now going to the pasture right across from the Dairy Barn, which apparently is a HUGE, CONFUSING change because first the cows decided to just st...

The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk. "The Cow," Ogden Nash I picked up some of my old habits when I returned to the Farm, one of them being my Monday afternoon milking shift down in the Dairy Barn. After several weeks working alongside Farmer MacDonald I am back to milking by myself (for the most part--with an occasional helping hand with a particularly sassy cow). So, in the spirit of cataloging all things Farm, I thought I would share some information on milking and also one days milking stats. We are currently only milking 9 of our dairy cows, and yet that produces enough milk to provide our Farm community (of about 100 people) with milk (skim and whole), cream, cheddar cheese (mmm...so good!) and cheese curd. (We also sell our cheese to the public). Most people have that very Hollywood-city slickers-meets-Laura Ingalls Wilder mental picture of milking cows. No, dear readers, we don't sit on stools, rhythmically squeezing m...