Baptized

I just realized the last time I posted was on the one-year anniversary of the biggest flood these parts have seen in I don't know how long. On my way home from the Traders Point farmer's market that Friday evening in June there were times when it was hard to see the road through the wall of water falling from the sky. The ensuing 10 inches overnight on already-saturated ground resulted in water where most people had never seen it!
We were some of the more fortunate ones. A couple of flooded basements to clean up and refurbish, and life goes on as usual. Well, maybe "usual" is a thing of the past.
Last fall God brought a family into our lives for mutual ministry. They needed a place to stay while waiting for the Lord to fulfill their calling to ministry on a Reservation in the state of Washington. They opened our eyes to more of what God is doing and helped us grow closer to Him. Their stay here ended up being a year (minus a week or two). Armed with their few possessions and faith in a sovereign God but no contacts for anyone out in Washington, they have called to tell us the amazing ways in which God has led them on their journey to the right people. Though they told no one there they were coming, upon meeting the leaders of the reservation our friends were told, "We've been expecting you."
This summer a family from New Zealand forever left their imprint on the lives of many in Clay City. Andy and Claire and their four children wanted to experience life in a community during their stay in America, and the nearly 3 months they spent in our town gave them the chance to do just that. It was another of those path-crossings that I know wasn't by accident. The relationships begun here will continue, and the full extent of the purpose of our meeting is yet to be discovered.
The other day I was setting up a portable fence for the cows in a pasture near the barn. In this pasture is a tree that has been dead for years. So dead all the little twigs and branches have long fallen off and there is a hole at the base almost big enough to crawl through. So dead I have worried that one day it might fall on a cow grazing innocently nearby. Naturally, I checked on the tree as I set up the fence and stared in disbelief at what I saw...
New life has shattered the reign of death! Unmistakable in parallel, that is the message of the gospel we wrap our lives around. Our God is a God of new life, of resurrection, of hope! He left the perfection of heaven to live as a man named Jesus on this sin-stained earth in order to prove his love for us. He showed us by example the only path to true life. And it involves death. He gave his life because He loves (John 3:16). He sacrificed because he knew what joy awaited (Hebrews 12:2). He asks us to do no less, but the reward is just as great. We can live for ourselves, or we can give ourselves away and really live. So many people have been wounded by the brokenness in this world and just want to know someone cares. And someone does. And He's (at least in part) relying on those who have experienced His healing touch to show them that life can and does come from death.
One thing the family who lived here this past year told us many times is that God does things in the natural realm first to explain the spiritual. Could it be that the floodgates are being opened for the waters of cleansing? The immersion that results may look curiously like death, but resurrection is not far behind. I think we've been baptized.

The time-space continuum

People always say, the older you get the faster time goes. I have a theory that time really is speeding up. I just googled "time-space continuum", and noticed on Wikipedia's link that "the rate at which time passes depends on an object's velocity relative to the speed of light and also on the strength of intense gravitational fields , which can slow the passage of time." Humans go a lot faster than they used to, thanks to planes, trains, and automobiles. We've been pretty intent on besting gravity for the last century, too. With only a little bit of faith, one might even surmise that we as a human race are responsible for how swiftly or slowly time passes based on the pace of our activity. Also, I guess if you don't want your kids to grow up so fast you might consider moving closer to a black hole.

This may have seemingly little to do with cows and cheese, but as I sat down to write this afternoon and realized I have yet to create more than one blog entry in a single month's time I had to marvel once more that we are already a week into June. May was very busy, but that had little to do with calving. Only 7 calves were born the whole month, and two of those were on the last two days. So like it or not, my calving window closed a little earlier this year because of the age gap in the calves. I have some nice calves to sell now, though, sired by our new bull.

The grazing is going pretty well so far. We're trying to manage the pastures in a way that builds up soil fertility through trampled mature forages. This is not only beneficial for the soils, but the cows' digestive systems work more optimally, and the densely covered pastures provide a good deal more drought tolerance by holding in more moisture. On the flip side, there is more erosion protection during heavy rains as well. This year's experimenting will focus on trying to find the best balance in trampling forage and maintaining a little better milk production than last summer. The summer heat waves that usually come may have the final word on milk production though!

And a partridge in a pear tree

This has been one of those weeks you can almost sing about to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Between the regular daily cow chores (and it was only one maid a-milking, not 7), we entertained third graders from 5 schools in Clay County on farm tours (thanks to Farm Bureau's sponsorship of Farming in the Classroom), went to three farmers' markets, made two batches of cheese, separated cream for butter, and took a calf to church (well, that's tomorrow). The children's ministry is featuring some lessons with a cow theme and Deb thought having a real calf there would make for a great prop (I hope the kids can come outside, because this prop will poop). I told Cristina the cow that she was going to have a holy baby because he was going to church this weekend. I don't think she was impressed.
So far this spring 50 cows have had calves. Hopefully a few more will deliver before the end of the month, and then I will have newborn calves to sell beginning in June. The calves have done very well this year. Numbers are down a bit, but perhaps what is lacking in quantity will be made up with quality!

Back in the Saddle Again

The whirlwind of activity has resumed around here. The first calf was born on March 22, two days after I had left for Mississippi with a team of people to do hurricane relief work. We named her Cajun, in honor of my whereabouts! No babies were even due until I returned, but some just couldn't wait, as there were a handful that made their appearance before I arrived back home. As of this morning I think the latest count is 42 calves.

Today the first batch of 2009 cheese--Colby-- is in the works. Everyone was so excited about getting milk and butter again that the cheese just had to wait until now.

I've been learning about web design this month, too. It's amazing how God provides what we need when we need it. We met a new friend through pursuing advertising with the Terre Haute Tribune Star who helped me immensely with updating our website, and I actually understand enough to do it myself now! It's very gratifying to have the capability to make changes whenever the need arises now. Many thanks to Mike!

With a somewhat slow, cool start to spring for most of March and April, I have that much more appreciation for the recent warmth and the resulting growing grass, blooming trees, and smells of spring. It truly is my favorite time of year!

Party Till the Cows Come Home!

Most of our herd spends the winter about 3 miles down the road on another piece of land. To minimize stress on the animals, we walk them there and back instead of loading them into trailers for such a short trip. This process has become known as our semi-annual "cattle drive." In actuality, it is more along the lines of a cow walk, but the former sounds more adventurous! To pull this grand event off, we gather friends and neighbors to act as living fence posts, walking alongside the cows while holding a strand of fence which the cows believe is electric. This forms a moving rectangle, and most of the time everything goes off without any hitches!
It's nearly time for the cows to come back home before they begin calving. Saturday March 14th at the Swiss Connection will bring lots of good old-fashioned fun, food, and fellowship!

21st Century or Bust!

Though we have had a website for The Swiss Connection for several years now, technology is not our strongest suit. Keeping the site updated and fresh is a constant challenge. To attempt a less-complicated way of sharing with you new information about what's going on around here more regularly, I'm embarking on my first-ever blogging experience! Stay tuned for news about cows, cheese, and all kinds of delicious, nutritious products!