3-11-10

THE TEMPLE

MAGNOLIA IN BLOOM

CAITANYA HAD A GREAT IDEA

PLEASE DON'T EAT MY HAND

JEN + APPLE = HAPPY COW

We woke up early this morning, but not at 4:30am...we thought just before 7 was a more reasonable hour. We met Jayanti Saki, who is one of the cow caretakers, and learned to milk a cow. Cows typically lactate for a year and a half after giving birth, but the amount of milk they give slowly reduces from 10 gallons to none. There is only one cow currently giving milk here and she is producing about one gallon daily. This summer, New Talavan will be getting much more milk as two of their cows are pregnant and ready to give birth soon. Fresh un-pasturized, un-homogenized milk is a delicacy here and is enjoyed with every meal. When more milk is flowing this summer, not only will it be drank, it will be churned into butter, ghee, and yogurt. We both took turns at her udders and Jen was able to get milk on her first squeeze while Aaron had a bit more trouble. Men often have a harder time because usually their hands are bigger, or so we were told. We are both eager to try "our hand" at it again tomorrow morning. Lookout for a milking movie coming soon.

Breakfast, and all meals, were unusual today. Apparently there are two days per month when some devotees fast while others refrain from eating any grains. This is a big deal as rice is served at every meal. After a breakfast of mostly fruit, we headed straight for the garden. Today the sun came out for the first time since we've been here. It was great for the first fifteen minutes and then it was blazing hot. We can't imagine what it would be like here in the middle of the summer. Blake has mentioned during the warmest months he is forced to work early in the morning and in the evening because it is too hot to be in the garden during the middle of the day. It was another productive day filled with weeding, mulching, planting, and of course composting.

Because we took milk from the cow this morning, we thought feeding them some apples would be a fair exchange this afternoon. Caitanya (pronounced shea tanya) got a bunch of apples and we followed her to one of the cow fields after lunch to share our bounty. The cows here are incredibly friendly and seem very relaxed around humans. When we venture up to the gate they waltz right up and smell us. We guess it seems logical that they are not afraid of us since they're treated like royalty. We imagine cows at a cattle ranch or some feedlot operation would be much more skittish and fearful for their hides. Feeding them apples was really funny and enjoyable...we were all laughing the whole time. The oxen came up to us and snatched the apples out of our hands and devoured them in one quick chomp. They made really funny sounds and licked our hands with prickly, slimy tongues. We all moved our hands away quickly after they took the apple, even though they were not going to harm us since we were separated by a small fence. It only makes sense to respect a very large animal with large horns. Fun fact about cows: their tongues are blackish and long enough to reach up inside to clean their nostrils. Without fingers, you would have to be resourceful too!