How do I know summer is over? By 8:30 am I had the washer and dishwasher running, breakfast and lunch made and cleaned up (I kind of freaked out and made everything), and dinner started. After an entire summer together, the girls and I don’t separate well, so Daddy always makes the school commute the first day; as I stripped the sheets off their beds (now covered in “jitter glitter” which is placed under pillows the night before school starts), I laid my head on Kelly’s bed and had myself a good cry. The house is so quiet. The kitten is dashing about, trying to find the girls. I found him in their bathroom sink a few minutes ago. Nope, not there either. And as much as I stomped around these past 2 weeks, declaring this day couldn’t come soon enough, when they’re gone…I’m stunned by the surreal feeling that the summer was only a dream.
Of course, it wasn’t, because you witnessed it, in all its unplanned madness. While the Summer of Science wasn’t quite what I had envisioned, it was a worthwhile endeavor. Science in a house with scientist parents is less of a curriculum, and more of a day-to-day reality. I will not stop sharing the stories of our messes, explosions, and unscripted mayhem, just because the school bell rang at 8:15 this morning.
SO, onward: our last lesson was created by Daddy, who thought Sara might enjoy a trip to Fair Oaks Farms for her birthday. According to her, she is “really into this whole pregnancy thing, what with Princess Kate having a baby.” So where can we see babies being born? At a farm. Good one Daddy. Fair Oaks tag line is, “Responsible and Sustainable Dairy Farming Is What We Do”, and that’s no lie. I’ve seen A LOT of cows guys. No…seriously…I cannot begin to imagine how much livestock I’ve seen in my 41 years, and I’ve never seen barns like these. 32,000 cows, in the most organized and sterile feeding, raising, and milking production I’ve ever witnessed. What you see above is a milking carousel, which runs 7 hours on, 1 off, milking cows in 8 minute rides, 3x per day. As it turns, the cows step onto the carousel, and back themselves off. Cows are notorious creatures of habit. Underneath the platform are people methodically cleaning teats and attaching milking apparatus. Computers track how much milk each cow is generating…it’s wild how much data they collect on each cow.
The cows spend their lives in the same herds and rest and eat on sand beds which are softer, cleaner, and works well as a conduit for sifting out manure, which they use to power the entire farm. These cows don’t receive growth hormones, nor do they receive unneeded antibiotics. And how much milk do they produce? 4 million glasses of milk per day.
My favorite part was tasting the cheese. So, so much cheese. It was just yum. I loved the Hickory Smoked Sweet Swiss. The girls have already devoured nearly a pound of Provolone (it tastes nothing like what I buy at the store…far more creamy and rich). The spicy bacon smoked Havarti I brought home? Gone. I can confirm their grilled cheese and french onion soup are indeed, award-winning. We didn’t leave without ice cream either, because that would just be wrong. I can’t share it because we ate it all.
It was a day filled with cow adventure tours (we didn’t have time for the pig adventure…next time), this gigantic jumping pillow-thing, train rides, a milk-jug climbing wall, and a Cow-A-Bunga (bungee jumping). So you see, we needed to eat all that food for fuel.
But the reason we made the trek was for one thing: to watch calves being born. They deliver 80 per day, so it’s a guaranteed feature of the farm. By watching the stop light outside of the birthing barn, you know when to walk into the dark and hushed theater to watch a live birth. This cow needed assistance from a woman I assume is named a Bovine Midwife, but less than 5% of their births require any human intervention whatsoever. It’s not the most appetizing thing to witness (Kelly will tell you it’s disgusting and boring), but Sara thought it was the coolest thing on earth. She announced she’ll be growing up to become a Cow Midwife. Too awesome, greatest birthday ever. Auntie Amanda was with us, and as a Labor & Delivery & Postpartum RN? She was about as moved as Kelly. I, much like Sara, thought it was super cool to witness.
We stayed to watch the calves take their first steps, and we visited the nursery, filled with 75 lb-ish newborns. I guess I can stop complaining about putting on 75 lbs with my pregnancies, because I didn’t give birth to a 75 lb COW.
It was a beautiful and sunny 75 degree day, and Sara yelled into the sky, “Thank you God for this beautiful day on my birthday!” I think it was a great way to end the Summer of Science, while also paying homage to last year’s Culinary Summer. So what’s in store for next year? Of course they’ve picked their theme already. They have my DNA.
Rest up and prepare yourself for 2014’s SUMMER OF GAMES!!!!
19 responses to “The Summer of Science: Volume 7 (The Final Chapter)”
Ok – I’m coming for a week of games next year!! I can teach all sorts of house rules for card games which will totally confuse them later in life!
Adult humans do not need cow’s milk any more than they need goat’s milk, wolf’s milk, camel’s milk, giraffe’s milk. Unweaned infants do remarkably better on their own mother’s breast milk which is what our species was intended to consume. There’s absolutely nothing beneficial to the human diet in cow’s milk that can’t be gotten through plant based sources.
Female cows are forcibly artificially inseminated to become pregnant and continue lactating. After 9 months, the dairy industry steals these baby calves shortly after they are born. The “worthless” males who can’t make milk are either killed immediately or kept in isolation for a few months to become veal. The unfortunate females calves follow their mother’s sad lot all the way to the last moments on the kill floor when they are no longer “productive”.
Thankfully there’s abundant plant based alternatives that are just as nutritional, just as satisfying and just as versatile in cooking. Some even have twice the amount of calcium and vitamin D as cow’s milk does.
Dairy is also destructive to the environment and a tragic waste of resources. Perhaps it is time for “unweaned” adults to look beyond what deceptiveness and hype the dairy industry is pitching at you in order to keep their profits and their cruel practices in check.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GrbYVsK7vs
I’m so sorry you didn’t get to witness that same calf being forcibly separated from his or her mother a day or maybe two later. The pain she feels at losing her calf so that she is able to provide humans with something they don’t need is no less than the pain you feel when your children return to school. The difference is that you are not forced into a life of slavery and your children get to come home at the end of the day. It never fails to astonish me when mothers can’t sympathize with cows. I’m glad your children are interested in animals (and hopefully not just for the flesh and secretions we steal from them). I wish for you and them that you will eventually find it in your hearts to empathize with their suffering and stop supporting the cruelty that humans impose on them.
Giraffe’s milk sounds delicious.
Someday the cows will take over and we’ll be the ones giving up our young and being milked daily. Let’s just hope we’re on some far off island, 2 hours from the mainland by boat, when that happens.
My Dad grew up on a small farm and I was a frequent visitor to the farm when I was a kid. I applaud you for taking your girls to a farm to show them that food does not just come from a box at the grocery store. Where would we be without farmers to provide every item that we put on our tables?
We are not the only members of the animal kingdom that are carnivores. I am a proud meat eater and I support vegetarians by not judging them. I would appreciate the same in return.
I for one think this sounds like a great experience! Hayden would love this as well.
Hi Mia Snetsinger – Are we carnivores? Do we hunt down our prey with our claws? Do we tear open their flesh and eat the warm viscera fur, feathers and all? Honestly biologically speaking we’re much closer to herbivores than carnivores: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFROlwe-m3Y
And I don’t mean to judge anyone on their choice of what clothing to wear or what life-partners they select… But when choice involves unwilling third-parties and victims – Well, someone needs to speak in their behalf, don’t you agree?
Wait, I’m confused. So, if I rip open the cow’s throat with my fingernails and eat it raw, it’s cool if I’m a carnivore, but if I slit its throat with a knife and make a nice pot roast for Sunday dinner, I’m an animal-torturing barbarian?
Mia, Just to be safe, let’s go to that island NOW. Meet me there. Let me be more specific. Meet me at the Chicken Box. Miss you.
I should have more specific about my specificity. The “Chicken Box” is not actually a box of chickens. In fact, they don’t serve meat at this establishment at all. They don’t even serve solids. ONLY LIQUIDS. They are alcohol-ivores at The Chicken Box. Wait. Maybe they’re just alcoholics. Oh well. It’s all love at The Box.
Hi Lydia – No need for confusion here. If you are a carnivore you’re also a nonhuman – That means you are not a moral agent. You don’t have the capacity to understand the value of another’s life the way a human can.
It also means that you MUST eat a zebra, cow or rat to survive. Your physical requirements mandate meat for you to live. The same is definitely not true concerning man.
See— Easy confusion to de-mystify! 😉
Bea,
I’d never thought of eating zebra, but your post got me interested. I found this great recipe for Zebra Stew on J. M. Danslow’s blog. Jay, I bet this stew would be great with a cold, tall glass of giraffe milk! 😉 Recipe below:
Zebra Stew
1 ½ lbs. zebra meat, using topside
1 tablespoon flour
Good pinch of mixed herbs
1 lb. tomatoes, peeled
Salt and pepper
Pinch of celery salt
3 tablespoons oil
1 large onion
Pinch of paprika
1 cup stock or Knorr-Swiss onion soup
½ cup cream
Cut meat into stewing pieces, dip in seasoned flour and brown in oil. Add tomatoes, quartered and seeds removed, then the stock or soup and seasoning. Simmer until tender, depending on age of zebra. Just before serving add cream and a little red wine, if available.
I’m calling a beer break. I think we can all agree on beer. Or wine. Or, after the wild day, hard liquor. Dealer’s choice you’all. Bea…I have to ask, are you really just my Dad in disguise? He’s protested the Dairy Industry since the 80’s. No, probably not. He’s suspected Lyd is a non-human since the 80’s as well, so writing it here would be redundant. This discussion is seriously making the Xmas cards fun to address this year.
Hahahaha! Ok, I will never argue with a glass of wine. I happily and respectfully agree to disagree, if it will get me some vino. To each his own, and pass the Merlot! 😀
And when adversaries resort to self-mockery rather than intelligent debate… You’ve won the argument.
Thank you. It’s been a blast! Cheers. 😉
I think I’ll just have a glass of milk.
Bea, That wasn’t self-mockery. That was loving people clinking glasses and stating let’s agree to disagree. That was light and love going into the Universe, and I’m sorry you weren’t able to see it.
This debate did not end at self-mockery. It ended with your playground name-calling. All animal cruelty is horrible, but my readers are not immoral non-humans for choosing their place in the circle of life, just because it’s different than yours. I was raised by a vegan, and I know how to effectively entertain alternative viewpoints, but my Father would never resort to calling someone…anyone…a non-human. That’s not light. That’s not love.
I end this discussion here, Bea. I thank you for visiting, but no one gets the last word in my space but me. These are my precious readers, and I respect their differences. I learn from them. I open myself to the possibility that this world has something to teach me, which is why I watched this discussion unfold. But, in the end, you are too angry for this space, and we ain’t yo’ Huckleberry.
Godspeed my friends. Thank you for an extremely colorful day.
I am surprised nobody quoted the bible!! Oh should bible be capitalized? Oh and in order for the non-humans to have an endless supply of milk, cows need to have babies. So they can grow up and have babies and the cycle starts all over again. Prime rib, medium rare please 🙂 lovely blog, I only just came across it because of my big sister, but I was hooked!! Blog on friend!!
I was raised to hunt and gather. In my freezer right now I have moose, bear, deer, rabbit, caribou, and a generous supply of fish (since it’s in season). I also have a supply of fresh vegetables from my garden and dried mushrooms that I picked last year. I learned to hunt and garden from my Dad and I learned to mushroom from my Great Grandfather. This is my heritage. I was raised differently than Bea, not to say that one way is better than the other. We do prefer our meat cooked and warm, but we use every part of the animal possible and we do not harvest more than we need. I do take a little pride every time I see a food related health warning because I know exactly where my food comes from.
This is the first time I have felt compelled to respond to a blog. It’s been wonderful! Thank you all!
Lori, I can’t wait to see you next summer. In honor of this blog I would like to suggest we visit at least three restaurants that specialize in vegan, vegetarian, and carnivore centered meals. And you know I will drive through the night to be back on that island with the Chicken Box gang so just tell me when, I know where.