You'll never understand a horse

Some of you know that I long to farm. I really, really do. Right now I live in the city without even so much as a garden. And I do love some aspects of city life. But one day, I need to farm. And I know I will farm--I can feel it in my bones. I have inside me what Courtney, a 25-year-old farmer near Louisville, recently brought to my attention is an undiscovered farmer, walking around, waiting to blossom.

So there we have it, and now you know: I want to farm. But if I didn't already, reading about Mark Gunther in Bill McKibben's A Grand Experiment (a great article on eating local through the winter, in Vermont!), reeeeaally makes me want to farm.

...because he says things like this:

"I'm trying to find out ways to increase the quality of my life—it just so happens that working with horses is—not better than working with tractors, but more fun. It's a more challenging, more dynamic relationship. You can understand an engine. You'll never understand a horse."

and this (about churning butter):

"Every Tuesday night I turn on some loud 70s rock and roll or some Latino rhythms and I get up on that [fold-up sofa] bed and do a modified jumping dance with my fifty pounds of stainless steel and cream. After six or seven hundred vigorous bounces I find ten to twelve pounds of butter ready to be rinsed."

and this:

"Occasionally I feel like I'm doing some work. But usually it feels more like entertainment for myself."