What We've Learned - A Synopsis of the Summer

Having reached the end of our first season of attempting greater self-sufficiency, we have learned a number of useful things. We are passing them along in the hope that others will be encouraged by the knowledge that there are people out there who are even more inept than they are. We hope you find these observations helpful.

Calves are often born with their eyes open. While you can’t help thinking how creepy this is, it’s also helpful to consider that we must look like aliens to them, too. Also, calves that are bottle fed, like Annie, view humans in a very different way than naturally raised calves. As suckers. But in Annie’s case, we were fortunate. Mom Bessie taught her herd manners, so we ended up with the best of both worlds- a friendly calf with a high level of respect for both people and cows. Important lesson: keep a bottle on hand if your cow is due to freshen.

The Stilton cheese that we have been curing for several months is starting to look a little less objectionable. We went into the home cheese-making business with high hopes and low skill levels. Once we got past the idea that the stinky, moldy object in the downstairs refrigerator was not in any way like the similar-looking stinky, moldy objects that we have been routinely throwing out, we settled down into a comfortable routine of reminding each other to turn the cheese daily, while forgetting to do it, ourselves. We are now preparing to drive holes into the cheese, in order to encourage the blue mold to grow deeper into the interior. This is something we normally try to prevent in our food. We’ve discovered that pretty much everything you do with raw milk is counterintuitive. Once the cheese has reached a stage of ripe perfection, one of the dogs will probably find it.

We can, indeed, live without credit card balances. We undertook this step in order to preempt what we are predicting will happen next in this fascinating economy: credit card companies will lower available credit limits, which will raise the balance-to-credit ratio, which will lower credit scores, which will then increase interest rates. Since we don’t want to provide any more corporate reptiles with golden parachutes, we just won’t provide them the opportunity to finance them. My apologies to all actual reptiles, who fill a useful environmental niche, for the comparison to investment company CEOs.

Aged horses might benefit from increased protein levels. We’re kind of proud of this one. Most senior horse feeds contain lower protein levels in order to be kind to the less robust kidneys of senior horses. But horses are individuals and some will need more to keep fit. We increased the protein fed to two horses using soy meal and while the result was inconclusive with one horse, it was startling in the other. We are constantly looking for ways to better care for rescued horses and this is another good tool in the arsenal. The horses are trying to convince us that lots of apples will work even better.

Your loved ones will eat even really bad cookies if you make them.

England losing a Rugby match might cause transient amnesia. We are not sure, though.

A lot of intelligent people are growing their own food. We are not them, but we have met some wonderful people who have graciously shared their knowledge and talent.

A puppy’s breath still smells really sweet even at about six months old.

You have to consider carefully which you love more in your garden: the sight of black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars, or dill. You won’t have both.

We wished we’d tried some of our cost-saving measures a long time ago.

Peppers are the easiest vegetables to freeze. Really fresh vegetables are beautiful.

Chickens will eat things that no other creature on earth would eat.

Even sore, grouchy cows will ultimately consent to being milked if you are gentle and patient. Corollary: even neophyte milkers will figure it all out with a patient cow and a good coach- and a milker that works when you turn it on.

We are probably never going to learn how to do everything perfectly, or even well. We will never completely understand everything, either.

There will come a time when you will look back at lost loved ones and smile, even if you think that day will never come. We’ve said a lot of “good-byes” this year.

It never has been about getting everything you want. It’s about valuing what you have.

Detecting when cows are in heat is impossible. Bessie and Rosebud are snickering and making fun of us when we aren’t looking. It's gotten completely humiliating. Bovine husbandry is a humbling pursuit.