The day started off with shoveling more shit and cleaning the cows’ home. Today, this task felt much quicker and less laborious than yesterday since I had done it once already and had the process down. In the process of looking for a broom, I discovered that Diego was starting to butcher a cow. I finished up cleaning and came back to mostly observe and help hold things here and there. It was really amazing to watch how careful and considerate he was with the animal. I have this violent connotation of the word “butcher” in my head and the animal was already dead so no need to be so caring and loving anymore right? It’s still an animal though and it deserves respect and it was really amazing being able to observe that during this process. The other thing that really struck me about this experience was how perfectly the animal is built and how everything inside has a distinct purpose, just like us and all living creatures. Our bodies are systems full of intricate cycles and all these tools inside and it all just works together so perfectly and delicately and it’s really quite mind-blowing.
After lunch, I learned how to collect the eggs from the hen coop and clean them off. There’s 100+ eggs produced here on a daily basis. Some of the eggs I was cleaning off and putting into the carton to be used were so fresh that they were still warm.
Then, I went and saw the pigpen and was going to feed the pigs, but was pulled away by Beto to help him herd in the cows and the goats. This was a really neat job because I felt like I was a Shepard or something, leading the animals to food. They’re pretty smart though and they all know the path so it wasn’t quite so Shepardy. As I was observing the goats stop every few feet trying to get another mouthful of grass, I was thinking about how simple life must be as a goat or a cow. All you do is eat all day, go for walks, eat some more, poo, pee and sleep. No worries about money or status or social stigmas, just lots of hanging out and eating mostly.
After this, I went to go gather more pasto (grass) from a different part of the property. Wherever the grass gets big (all the time), they just cut some up, gather it all and then feed it to the animals on the farm. It was a nice way to end the day- at the start of the cirlce- gathering pasto to feed the animals.