Forty two?

Often, after milking Lucy, I will stand outside the barn door with a jug of milk in my hand and stare up at the night sky.

It's during these moments that I feel the most connected with my 100 meter diet. I'm sure that we've all looked into the night sky and contemplated our place in the universe ... trying to make sense of the world around us.

I get pleasure out of trying to 'explain the moment' to myself. What I mean is that I try to answer the question "Why am I standing here with a jug of milk in my hand?"

It's a simple answer I know. I just milked Lucy. But I try to break the answer down even further .... to it's simplest level.

I'm on a planet hurtling through space. Good start.

A planet bombarded with a nearly endless supply of solar energy. Ok, keep going.

Around 3.5 billion years ago life began and embarked on the evolutionary process which resulted in plants having the ability to covert solar energy into 'food' and ruminants being able to convert plants into milk and meat. Wow. That's incredible.

And then there's me. A human being capable of understanding, appreciating and managing this energy conversion process from sun to food. And that is why I am standing here with a jug of milk in my hand. Well done.

At no point during this thought process do I think of preservatives, industrial food processing factories, marketing techniques or grocery store shelves. As far as my answer is concerned they don't exist. It's all about this small pasture, a garden, some chickens, a goat named Lucy, and me. That's as simple as it gets.

It's at this exact moment that I feel 100% connected to the land, the plants and the animals and I understand my role on the 100 meter diet. It all makes perfect sense as I head back into the house for the night.