I remember that rusty car, like it was yesterday

There was a moment, years ago, when upon receiving the details of a new website project, I was told by the client at the time “yea, I could probably figure this out for myself, but I’m too creative for this.”

It was neither the first nor last time I would seethe at a client for this very indiscretion, but it was one of the most brazen instances of it. For anyone with eyes cracked even the slightest might realize that the potential for creativity, and elegance, and substance, is all over the damned place. (But seriously, if you don’t understand what’s creative about writing code, you have absolutely no business doing so.)

But this summer, when untangling wayward goats from impossibly tangled net fencing threatening to electrocute all of us, or when herding escaping pigs in the middle of the night while our daughter cried in the car, or when fighting the mama goat for milk, only to have her kick the bucket over after she has finally given out enough quarts to get the carpal tunnel fired up, or when breaking up fights between the awful (non-debudded) goats and the even more awful (uselessly neutered) dog, when setting fences and troubleshooting electrical issues and finding myself knee-deep in shit for hours at a time, in my most pitiful moments, all I could think was some variant of “I’m too creative for this,” but usually delivered in my inner monologue a little less haughtily, something like “this just isn’t the life for me.”

And it isn’t. I derive no pleasure from the act of farming, don’t consider it a noble cause, and I don’t revel in any notion of a “simpler life” that seems to fill back-to-the-land types with peace. And while I’m glad my daughter is eating food removed from the food supply, I think she’d be just as happy with vegetables.

Vegetables don’t knock you down into their own shit when you try and save them from themselves.

This was all true until two weeks ago, when I became the recipient of an ice cream making attachment for my KitchenAid. Because it effectively means I can make this every day.

Do you know how impossible it is to hate farming when it turns into ice cream? If you look closely at this recipe, I have everything i need right here on the farm. Except chickens. Goddammit. I’m too creative for this.