A few of Bivalve's "Happy Cows".
The Taylor family – From left: John, Karen, Billie Joe and Sharon
Bianchini-Doughty in back with Camilla and Eva in front.
cars. Even lifting one of its tails to make way for his car didn't
cows grazing on hillsides and the length of the long driveway
bother them. As soon as John walked up, they disappeared
are a comforting sight to Sharon as she battles her illness.
back into the culvert.
Billy Joe is highly functioning, but struggles verbally and
"To this day, the cows walk around her bedroom window
and that's what keeps her going," Karen said.
socially. It's on the farm that he learns by touching, feeling,
Whatever path Billy Joe might take, John says, "there will
smelling. "This is an environment where he can really flour-
always be a place for him here if the real world doesn't agree
ish," John said.
The rest of the family is thriving too. Karen and John have
become active in the Point Reyes community. They open the
farm to field trips for school children. John is active in the local farm bureau and both are 4-H leaders; Karen in charge of
the sewing group and John the swine. Camilla, now 11, participates in both. The family joined the Portuguese Hall of Sausalito, the same hall her great-grandparents, immigrants from
the Azores, helped establish. The cousins from nearby ranches
frequently visit Bivalve Ranch for barbecues and fiestas, especially at the holidays. The ranch has become, John said, "the
heartbeat of this family."
At Home on the Ranch
The family's time on the ranch confirms they made the right
"There was something calm
about the situation…[but]
at the same time, here was
this tiny kid with 1,200 pound
animals"
with him or he doesn't agree with the rest of the world."
Last month, as John headed outside to watch the cows leave
decision to come home, for the environment, the organic in-
the barn, he saw Billy Joe crouching on the grass just outside
dustry and most of all, for their family. The black-and-white
the mudroom door. "A gopher had its head out of its hole
34
FLOURISH • SUMMER 2013
