Silver State 50 Miler Race Report

My first 50-miler, my first "traditional" race report. Check out my Garmin data here.

It was nice to be nervous about a race again. I wasn't super nervous, but I certainly wasn't over confident. Up to this race, the furthest I had ran was 31 miles. So, this was going to be 20 miles further than that. I knew it was going to be a challenge and didn't really know what was in store.

Beat the Blerch!

I'm going to break the race down by the drop-bag locations simply because that's how I had mentally broken up the course for planning purposes.

Pre-Race

The race started at 6:00am and our hotel was less than 10 minutes from the race start. So, I got to sleep in and got up at about 4:45. The joys of a running race vs. a triathlon, no need to be there super early! Pre-race was pretty uneventful. Angie put on some sunscreen and I talked with some other folks about the course. The most important thing I learned was that going to the bathroom on a tree was acceptable and expected. Before I knew it, it was time to line up.

Peavine Summit 1 (mile 12.5)

The beginning of an ultra feels so much different than anything shorter than a marathon. You can just feel everyone holding back. I don't really know how to describe it, it's just a different energy of the group. The first 8 miles were really just getting a feel for the trail and filing in line with similar pace folks. People started walking the hills immediately; I was glad they did this because it really highlighted how this race was going to go. I mimicked them and started walking even though I didn't feel the need to. The downhills at this point were tiny, but I started to hate them because I knew I was going to have to go right back up that same distance.

Good view of the type of terrain for the course

I actually started getting pretty worried during this part of the race. I was getting a headache, wasn't really feeling my stride, and started having difficulty breathing. I was a worried that the altitude (only about 5,000 feet at this point) might be affecting me more than I thought it would. But, the only thing to do was to keep on going.

At about mile 8, I started to learn the difference between the hills on this course and the hills I run in Omaha. At this point there is about 3-4 miles of uphill. Thankfully, I was able to run with a couple of guys that made the time go by faster. At this point, I also started to find my stride and my earlier worries about elevation were gone.

There was a lot of walking but I made it to Peavine Summit feeling really strong. I was about 30 minutes ahead of where I had planned to be and didn't feel like I had pushed it too hard.

Ranch Creek (mile 27)

This section of the course is where things started to get hard. This was especially bad because it was downhill so I thought I was going to gain a bunch of time.

I had planned on the uphills being pretty hard and attacking them accordingly. However, I hadn't really given much thought to the downhills. Going downhill is easy, right? Just don't fall. Well, after Peavine summit, you come to essentially 7 miles of downhill, the first 2 being especially steep and rocky. I still don't know how I could have descended this section better. If you go slower, then you use more muscles to slow down. If you go faster, you pound the ground harder and risk tripping and killing yourself. Those first 2 miles I went at about an 8:30 min/mile pace, nothing crazy, using gravity to help. I could feel at about mile 17 that the downhill took a decent toll on my body.

From about mile 8 to 20, I was running with a couple people off and on. At 20 I decided that I was getting too tired to keep up with them and had to back off. This essentially was the last time I ran with anyone the whole race and just pounded the trails on my own for 30 more miles. This section also had the most confusing aid station. I walked in and there's a guy in overalls with no shirt on underneath, a woman with curlers in her hair, booze, and some other weird hillbilly stuff. As someone who isn't familiar with Reno, I wasn't sure if these were real hillbillies or if it was an act, so I just kind of ignored it. After I left the aid station, they had a couple signs that solidified that it was an act, thankfully.

Mile 20ish was probably the prettiest part of the race. It was running through forest, which was unexpected because I thought the whole thing was uncovered desert. It was also the time where the race started to get "real". The hurting started to mount and I began to understand the magnitude of 50 miles. On one hand, I was happy because in my previous longest runs, this same feeling came at about mile 15, so I was 5 miles further this time. On the other, I had another 30 miles to go. It was going to be a long day.

Some sightseeing around the park Angie did while I was out

The rest of this section was essentially me just trying to convince myself that even if it's a slow run, it's a run and would keep me moving forward. I also made a point to pee, more as a "dip stick" test to see if I'm hydrated enough. Thankfully I was doing well on that front.

River Bend (mile 33)

This 6 mile section of the course was simply cruel. It was all downhill and much of it technical single-track. I was already pretty fatigued by this point and the downhills were hurting a lot. This is where I regretted my effort on the downhill at mile 12. The cruelest part is that at the bottom of the hill you keep going down, you know that you had to turn around and head back up.

Cold sponges, yeahhhh buddy

The thing that made this part bearable was knowing that the only spectator access was at River Bend and Angie was waiting for me there with some cold Blue Monkey coconut water. Dag nabbit I love that stuff (and my wife too). I took a little longer at this aid station than most, just to get some rest before the next terrible section of the course. I sat down, ate a bit, and dumped a bunch of cold water on myself. I was getting a little worried because I had completely lost my appetite. Oranges and Oreos were about the only things that were palatable.

On to phase "Ain't nothin to it but to do it".

Headed out of the aid station

Peavine Summit 2 - The Revenge (mile 39)

Put simply, this was the slowest 7.8 miles I've ever done. 7.8 miles with 3,000+ feet of elevation gain.  It took my about 2:45 to cover the distance. That's slower than 20 min/mile. Just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

Before the race started, someone told me his nickname for this part of the course was "pigfucker hill". Boy howdy he was right. I swore numerous times simply because it seemed like it would never end. I kept looking to the top and when I finally saw the top, I was in a little disbelief that I had to keep climbing that far. I kept looking around for a different hill that might be more palatable. But alas, it was the hill right in front of me. Eventually I got towards the top. I was so so happy when I got close enough and realized I didn't have to go up another 200ish feet that I thought I did.

Angie was unexpectedly waiting for me at the aid station which was a welcome surprise. I got some water, drank a smoothie (got a brain freeze), and took a seat again. The next 11 miles were essentially all downhill, but I had done enough downhill to know that I was not looking forward to the next section.

Headed out from the top

Finish (mile 50)

Mentally, it was all about time at this point. I just kept calculating over and over how much longer until I was done. Thankfully, even the conservative estimates put me in before the 14 hour cutoff so I was fairly certain I was going to finish. This was all downhill and once again a lot of single-track. All I really wanted at this point was to not get last. I had been passed by a lot of people and could rarely see people behind me, so I kept thinking I was the last place person.

I got to mile 50 (according to my watch) and I wasn't at the finish. I knew this was going to happen given the nature of these types of races, but I was still pissed. Nothing to do at this point but to slug through it.

As I got to the park, I could hear people cheering for the person who finished a little ahead of me. When I heard that sound, I almost broke down crying because that sound meant I was essentially done. These sorts of races just rub your nerves raw, and any sort of emotion can almost push you over the edge.

I crossed the finish line and was never happier to be done with a race. Angie was there to take care of me. I took a seat and just kind of zoned out for awhile. At the end of it, it took 12 hours 24 minutes to finish. I came in 56th place (out of 66 people), not a stellar finish, but a finish.

Just crossed the finish

Summary (Tl;DR Version)

Overall, I'm glad I did this race, but wouldn't recommend the course for anyone's first 50 or if you're not used to mountains. The aid stations were amazing with both the food and the volunteers, the course was well marked, and the course itself was beautiful and challenging. Will I do another 50 miler again? Probably. Will I do a 100 miler? Never say never.

I guess the toe box doesn't block much dirt...

KC Culinary Indulgences

Cooking Class

A growing passion of mine over the past couple of years has been cooking. In reality,  the passion is around eating; cooking just allows me to make delicious foods to shove in my face. I simply love the act of eating. This is actually one of the unforeseen benefits of rocking a plant powered diet; I can simply eat more volume because I don't have to worry about the calories associated with the food.

Despite enjoying cooking and the food that comes as a result, I had never really tried to learn how to do it. Enter my list item of taking a cooking class. Once again, this was one of those things that proved harder to do than I initially thought due to living in Omaha. Thankfully, I have friends that live in larger metro areas that have these sorts of services. So, off we went to the Kansas City Culinary Center with our friends Meghan and Joji.

The class we took was basic knife skills. I thought this would be great because knife skills are the building blocks of any type of cooking. Additionally, I thought that if I got better with a knife, cooking might take less time.

We walked into the class and I immediately noticed that it looked like I knew more than I did simply because I brought my own knife block. If I was going to learn how to use knives, I was going to learn how to use my own. The room had a nice setup of mirrors and a camera that gave you good visibility to what the chef was doing regardless of your position in the room.

The first part of the class was him showing us how to sharpen and then demonstrating the techniques for various vegetables (onions, carrots, etc). The next part of class was where we got to use the techniques ourselves. We were making a big ol' vegetable soup to eat at the end of class. Angie and Meghan both stated that this wasn't a competition; Joji and I informed them that they were wrong. I feel that I beat Joji in the speed department, but he beat me in quality (this is par for the course for me). The good quality elevated Joji to chef's favorite. The chef would come over and demonstrate advanced techniques to Joji while we just looked on. I guess I lost the competition. I've got to say, I was a bit jealous.

Joji demolishing the celery

All in all, it was a fun experience and I did learn how to use my knives better. Unfortunately, it's one of those things you need to practice regularly, so I had already forgotten some of the stuff a day later.

Fancy Pants Dinner

Later in the evening, we went to try to cross off the most difficult item on my list, spend $150 on a meal for Angie and myself. I had no idea that this would be so difficult to do. Not eating meat and not drinking alcohol keeps the price down. I still don't know if it's possible and not feel like you want to vomit everywhere.

Our fancy pants dinner was at Cafe Provence, a French restaurant that seems to actually be ran by French folk. I thought our waitress was just throwing out a couple of random words in French to complete the atmosphere, but then I later heard her conversing with another employee in French.

Fancy pants bathroom decor

Angie and I each ordered an appetizer, main course, and dessert plus I gave a larger tip than I normally do and we only got up to $120. Of course it was a very good meal, but I can't really stomach spending that much money on a meal any time soon. So, overall, kind of "meh" would likely not go again.

Meghan more terrifying than usual

Top 10 Things to Do in Nebraska

After completing my top 10 things to do in Nebraska and living here for the past 8 years, I feel qualified to make my own top 10 list.

Senator Mitch McConnell is coming right for us!

Here it is, Matthew's Top 10 places in Nebraska (a bit Omaha centric, but whatever):

1. Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo - The zoo here is simply fantastic. I don't really remember the San Diego Zoo from when I was a kid, but I've heard that Omaha's zoo is at least on par if not better. As they expand, it's only going to get better. My favorite part is the aquarium.
2. Memorial Stadium - As a non-Nebraska fan, it's a little odd to put the Huskers stadium on my list. But, it's a pretty great experience to be in the 3rd largest city (on game day, the stadium is the 3rd largest city) in Nebraska and hear the crowd chanting Husker Power.
3. Holland Center - I've only been to the Holland Center once, but it's a beautiful facility. It's a nice modern facility. The theater itself is actually built for sound quality so anything you see here is going to sound amazing.
4. Lincoln Haymarket - The Haymarket has a soft spot in my heart because it has some of my favorite eateries, and I love eating.
• Best restaurant - The Oven
• Best ice cream - Ivanna Cone
• Best candy store - Licorice international - If you like black licorice, this place is a MUST.
5. Orpheum theater - The Orpheum is where the Broadway shows play when they're in town. It's an older theater than the Holland and has that type of feel. It feels like I imagine an 18th/19th century theater would feel.
6. ConAgra Foods Campus - The campus of ConAgra foods is one of the most beautiful business complexes I've seen. The Omaha marathon used to go through it which made that little half mile in the middle a nice little mental detour. I get quite jealous of my wife because I would love to be able to run here over lunch.
7. Hot Shops - Hot shops is one of those places that I keep meaning to go back to but have only made it once. It's a collection of different types of art studios that includes glass blowing, metalworking, carpentry, painting, etc.
8. Branched Oak Farm - While you wouldn't really consider a dairy an "attraction", but I really enjoyed it and think more people should go. You can read more about this in my earlier blog posts.
9. Sandhills cranes - The Sandhills cranes were a pretty cool site. I would like to go back and see them at dawn sometime.
10. Barn Anew - Again, a B&B isn't what you would typically call an "attraction", but it's a pretty relaxing place. You definitely need to go on a Friday so you can listen to the bluegrass jam session.

There you have it, my favorite things in Nebraska.

Western Nebraska Tour (Part 2)

The second day of our western Nebraska trip (see part 1) was filled with snow. I had a grand ol' plan of running 10 miles or so. I was pretty excited about the run because it was going to be on back country roads with views of the bluffs. I managed to make it 2 miles in the blowing snow and called it quits.

Once back in the warmth of the B&B we had a delicious breakfast served in their sun room.

It was then time to get underway for our day of sightseeing. First up was Scotts Bluff (after grabbing more coffee in town). The bluffs had high potential for good hiking, but the snow ruined that for us. Additionally, the road to the top was closed, so we couldn't even drive to the top. So, we poked around in the museum a bit and learned about the settlers and the trails that ran through here.

Next up was Chimney Rock. Thankfully, we drove by this the day before because it was essentially completely obscured by the snow. If you stared long enough, you could barely make out the outline.

Treat it like a magic-eye, just stare long enough and you'll see it.

Chimney Rock is such a great symbol for Nebraska (it's even on the state quarter). Honestly, it is a super boring and unimpressive site. The only reason it has significance is because everything east of there is utterly desolate. So, as settlers were headed west, anything beyond flat plains was exciting as the Blue Angels dive bombing some Apache helicopters (I couldn't think of a better analogy). Once again, we checked out the museum and learned even more about the trails and settlers that came through these parts.

Our final site of the trip was Carhenge. For those of you who don't know what Carhenge is, it's exactly what it sounds like. A replica of Stonehenge made out of cars. As I parked I started giggling at the absurdity of the site. One, how laughable Carhenge itself is. Two, we drove about 1.5 hours through a snowstorm to see it. We didn't spend much time here due to the snow and wind and there's not much else to say about it.

Who knew they had a problem with the world's fastest hedgehog around here...

We then drove to the Roadside Inn in Thedford, NE. When we originally planned this trip, we thought we were going to get to the hotel at around 8:00pm since we thought we were going to be hiking and whatnot at the various sites. But, because of the snow, we ended up getting to the hotel at 4:30. Instead of recognizing our sunk costs and just heading home that night, we stayed in Thedford and increased the town's population by over 1% (Thedford's population as of 2010 was 188). The restaurant next door to the hotel was closed, so we asked the woman at the front if there was any other place to eat dinner in town and she suggested the two gas stations or the bar. We decided to just eat the food we brought with us.

Cool pattern of ice that developed on the wheels while we were driving.

I was then planning on running 20 miles in the forest nearby in the morning, but wussed out due to the cold and wind. And we just drove back a bit earlier than we planned.

Overall, it was a fun trip. It was good to see some of the better parts of Nebraska since I pretty much had only seen the I-80 corridor. We will definitely be doing this type of trip again in the future as it was fairly low key and relaxing.

Cold sunrise in Thedford

Western Nebraska Tour (Part 1)

In order to finish off my list item of visiting the top 10 things in Nebraska, my wife and I took a 3-day weekend trip out to western NE. Despite driving a lot on I-80 to Colorado, I had never really seen the western part of the state. We thought it would be a good couple's weekend and see some nice sights. It was a simple weekend getaway sort of trip. I'm breaking this into 2 posts so I can show some pics and talk more about each topic instead of a simple list.

The things we ended up going to see were:

1. Sandhills cranes
2. Lake McConaughy
3. Scottsbluff
4. Chimney Rock
5. Carhenge
6. Sandhills of Nebraska

Below is the route we took:

Western NE Tourism on Tripline

Day 1

Sandhills Cranes

The Sandhills Cranes stop in Nebraska every year on their migration back north. About 75% of their population stops along the Platte River to plump up before they head further north. Essentially, this means birds everywhere.

We stopped at the Rowe Sanctuary at about 10:00am in the morning. I guess I don't give small towns much credit because I didn't expect much because we were in the middle of nowhere. 10:00am is not the ideal time to see the cranes, because they're out of the river and into the corn fields after the sun rises. Still, it was pretty nice and the sound of the thousands of cranes (whose calls can be heard from miles away) was quite impressive.

Lake McConaughy

The end of March isn't really peak season for Lake McConaughy, but it was interesting nonetheless. Essentially, the only thing to do was to drive around it and hit up the visitors center. During the season, there's, you know, lake stuff to do. Still, it was interesting to learn about the construction of the lake's history and the Ogallala Aquifer. I had no idea how huge the aquifer was until this. Basically all of Nebraska and much of the great plains are on top of this massive underground supply of water.

Driving around the lake was actually a fairly scenic thing to do. I didn't realize that this lake was gigantic, with  about 74 miles of shoreline. I can see why a lot of people head out here during the summer for water sports. One thing I couldn't figure out was why the entire area was full of trailer parks. So, feel free to leave a comment if you have any ideas as to why that might be.

Scottsbluff

For Friday night, we stayed in Scottsbluff, out in the panhandle of Nebraska. We spent the night in a B&B named Barn Anew. We've never stayed in a B&B before, but based on this place, we will definitely be doing it again. This place is called "Barn Anew" because it used to was a former stable for Percheron horses. The upstairs where the rooms were, was the old hay loft.

The large beams are the original wood from the stables

You get a pretty solid "middle of Nebraska" feeling since it's right in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.

Look closely and you can tell that calf was born just a few minutes ago

The place is right next to Mitchell Pass which is where the Oregon, California, Pony Express, and Fur Trapper trails passed through the bluffs. This is also how they named the 4 rooms. We got to stay in the Pony Express Room.

I stupidly didn't take many pictures of the view Friday thinking I could get more the next day. That was the wrong thing to do.

The couple that runs the place was super nice. The first thing we did was go on a tour and learn all about the artwork they have displayed. They have a lot of native american artwork, both "ancient" and modern designs.

For dinner, we went to the Emporium. Quite frankly, I'm shocked that a place as nice as this was in such a small town (Scottsbluff has about 15,000 people in it). I had a delicious watermelon and beet salad and tomato soup with fancy grilled cheese.

The best part of Barn Anew (and unfortunately the part I didn't take pictures of), was on Friday nights they have jam sessions. A bunch of musicians from around the area get together and play some bluegrass. There were about a dozen people there that night and they would just go around in a circle choosing what song to play. It was just great to sit and listen to these people just have fun with their instruments. Unfortunately, we only stayed for an hour because I kept falling asleep in my chair. I really think Barn Anew should advertise this more. It's something I doubt you can find many other places in the country.

All-in-all, a nice little jaunt out into the country. Fairly laid back and entertaining. I will definitely hit up a couple of these sights again during their "proper" times later in life.

Trying to prove that Nebraska isn't a humdrum state

I've been living in Nebraska for the past 12 years and I've always thought Nebraska is at least a little bit terrible. I think this is understandable since I came from the fantastic state of Colorado. I thought it was about time I gave Nebraska a chance and see what it has to offer.

It's okay  that you didn't make the list Lauritzen Gardens, I've already seen you

This meant I was off to Google to figure out what the best things in Nebraska are. I quickly found this link to help me out. However, it seems that I'm not the only one with a low impression of Nebraska because that "article" only had 8 items on their top 10 list. So, I had to make my own list of sites:

1. Chimney Rock
2. Lake McConaughy
3. Carhenge
4. Sandhill cranes
5. Pioneer Village
6. The Arch
7. State capital
8. Memorial Stadium
9. Joslyn art museum
10. Omaha Henry Doorly zoo

Thankfully, I had already done items 7-10 in those 12 years. So for the purposes of The List, I only had to do items 1-6.

I hit items 5&6 on the way out to Colorado last Christmas, but I hadn't started blogging then. But, to be honest, those items weren't really worth blogging about anyway. Pioneer village is kinda boring unless you like old stuff and costs too much money. The Arch is kind of cool, but again, it's a lot more expensive than I would think.

This past weekend, the wife and I took a long weekend and hit up items 1-4. I'll write up another blog post or two on that specific trip.

Sorry, Nebraska is a humdrum state

All in all, I think I've given Nebraska a solid chance. But, it still doesn't hold a candle to most of the rest of the country. 3 of the 10 things on my list essentially boiled down to "we were important once, remember?". But Nebraska doesn't even have fallen glory, Nebraska was important simply because you had to go through it to get to the other parts of the country. So, while Nebraska isn't as terrible as many people think, it's not a diamond in the rough either.

I milked a cow and learned about our food system (Part 1)

Yesterday, my wife and I went to Branched Oak Farm and got to help milk their cows.

Cows finishing up their milking

So far, this has been my favorite experience on my list. There is no way that I ever would have done this sort of thing had I not put together my list. Someone on Facebook suggested doing this and I thought it was something weird and out of place with everything else. In the days leading up to going to the farm, I got to thinking more about why I am doing this and decided that it's a great way to learn about our food system that we've become so disconnected from.

We were at the farm for almost 3 hours and talked a lot with the farmer about the current state of the food industry, so I'm breaking this into two posts (though, they're both still long). This first one will focus on simply the milking process and the second one will focus on the conversations we had about the food system.

Summary (TL;DR version)

Overall, dairy farming is a fairly simple process. That's not to say that it's easy. Doing this every day during the heat of summer and cold of winter would wear on me. I think everyone should see if there's a farm around them that will allow them to learn more about where their food comes from. If you have kids, this would be a great learning opportunity for them.

I don't see how these farmers make a living at it, but I am definitely going to try to purchase what little dairy I do buy from these local little guys to support their environmentally sustainable and compassionate practices, and I would encourage you to do the same (it tastes better too!).

About Branched Oak Farm

Branched Oak Farm is a little organic dairy farm just north of Lincoln, NE. They primarily do dairy and some vegetables. The farm is 240 acres and they have about 25 cows. Only 10 of which were currently being milked when we visited. This is because the cows get milked 305 days a year and 15 were in their "off" rotation. So, during the summer, they go up to around 25 cows being milked per day.

They sell their products (primarily various cheeses) to Whole Foods, fancy restaurants (e.g. The Grey Plume and The Boiler Room), and other small places. You can also go to the farm and buy raw milk (which can only legally be bought at the farm in Nebraska, more on that in part 2).

Their herd is mostly Jersey cows, not the typical Holstein black and white cows you normally think of when you think of milking cows. They select their cows primarily for their longevity and the fat percentage. The fat percentage is mainly because they need that for the types of products they produce.

You would think that most dairy farmers would also select for longevity, but unfortunately they don't. Cows generally start lactating at the age of 2 (after their first calf) and then average 2.5 lactations before they're turned into ground beef. This means most dairy cows are slaughtered around the age of 5, this is a terrible waste to me, but I'll talk more about that in part 2. In general, this farmer lets his cows live out their life. So, his cows live about 15 years or so. As they reach the end of their lifespan, he might send them off to the slaughterhouse or, more frequently, they'll simply die on the farm of old age.

The Setup

My wife is the dairy buyer for ConAgra Foods (think ReddiWip, Swiss Miss Cocoa, Healthy Choice), so she knows a whole heck of a lot more about dairy than I do. She and the farmer got along swimmingly because people love to talk about what they know, and they both know dairy. Anyway, she had been to a dairy farm before through work, but it was a much larger operation that this one. Still, she knew pretty well what they did. Overall, she said the process is pretty much the same at scale as what we did, just bigger.

The first step is preparing the parlor for the milking and the food for after the milking. The parlor is a much more ergonomic setup than the stereotypical sitting on a bench next to the cow and reaching down to milk. In the picture below, you can see you're able stand and work with the udders.

The steps to prep are fairly simple:

1. Set out some alfalfa in the outside pen for the cows to eat after they're done milking. Alfalfa makes for good milk, evidently.
2. Scatter some lime on the floor. The lime give the cows a bit more footing on the cement and also will help balance out the pH of the soil as the cows track it back out into the fields.
3. Put some grain in the trough so that the cows have something to eat while milking.
4. Prep a bunch of rags for cleaning the udders.

Milking Process

Once prepped, we grabbed the dogs to help herd the cows in. The milking process was surprisingly simple. It's almost like this is something that's been done for hundreds of years and people have gotten a lot of experience with it...

Once the cows are brought into the parlor, it's pretty much the following steps repeated for each cow.

1. Touch the cow on the tail/leg to let her know that you're there (you wouldn't want your doctor to just surprise you with a prodding hand, would you?).
2. Wipe off the udders with a wet cleaning rag.
3. Squirt each udder 3 times to get rid of the milk with the heaviest amount of bacteria. This also stimulates the cow to drop her milk. I really thought getting the milk to come out was going to be harder, but it came out surprisingly easy. Though, if you were to milk cows by hand for hours, I would imagine your hands would get very fatigued and cramp up.
4. Wipe the udders down again with a wet cleaning rag.
5. Dry the udders.
6. Hook up the suction device. Again, this went on very easily. Once you arrange the suction cups vertically, they latch on to the teats very easily.
7. Let the suction run until the cow is done (about 10 minutes each cow).
8. Disconnect the suction cups. Once you turn off the suction, these essentially just fall off.
9. Dip each udder in iodine so that the now somewhat more exposed udder doesn't get infected once the cow goes back outside.
10. Dry off the udders so they don't get frostbitten in the cold.
11. Apply Bag Balm to the udders so they don't get too dry. I've seen this product used by people for a long time, but this is the first time I've seen it used for its original purpose.

That's pretty much it. After all 5 cows are done, you simply let them back out into the pen that you set up with the alfalfa so they can eat to make some more good dairy.

After all the cows are done, you clean up the mess the cows made, and by mess I mean the urine and feces that they tracked in and created before milking. Thankfully the cows didn't poo or pee on us, but the farmer said you sometimes do become a shithead while milking...

I think Angie is prepping the last cow here

Economics of Dairy

After we were done milking and talking, we wanted to buy some of his products. One, to simply repay him for spending 3 hours with us. Two, to just eat some delicious dairy products. We picked out a couple cheeses and some yogurt but he wouldn't take our money. So, we took 3 hours of his time and about $15-$20 worth of product. We felt kind of like cheapskates.

On the drive home, we started talking about how profitable his operation is. The short answer is, I don't really see how he does it. He's an organic farm, so he can charge quite a premium on his products so I don't see how non-organic farms are profitable. Here's how I see the economics break down:

• Each cow produces about 30 lbs of milk per day.
• As a rule of thumb, it takes about 10 lbs of milk to make 1 lb of cheese (the primary product of this farm).
• Let's assume that he can sell his cheese for $20/lb (which is probably on the high side). That means he's getting $2/lb of raw milk.
• This means each cow is producing $60 worth of milk per day.
• Assume he milks on average 17 cows per day for 305 days. That means he takes in $311,100.

I don't really know the cost side of things, but I really can't imagine that his costs are much lower (if at all) than $311k. The milking parlor alone had to have cost over $100k to put the machinery and whatnot in.

Comparing this to a conventional farmer who has a significantly lower price per pound of milk shows why farms are becoming more and more industrialized and a little less like the idyllic image of farming in America.

Don't forget to check out part 2 where I get all preachy.