What I Say

Sometimes I get so engrossed in the farm that I forget that not everyone speaks "farm".  I got a cute reminder the other day...

So I December 29th, 2012, our calf barn came crashing down in the heavy snowfall.  One of the many times this winter the weatherman predicted 2 inches and we got 12.  Luckily we didn't loose any animals and with the help of the fire department we were able to get everyone out.  Stressed out that morning beyond belief and low and behold if one of our guernsey/red angus mix cows didn't calve.  My father-in-law, who does not do stress, offered to bring her back to the dairy farm to be milked while me and Brian dealt with moving animals.  I called our milker, Adam, on the phone and let him know that Gerry would put her out with the switch cows but it would be no big deal because he could find her so easy because she was all red.  I instructed him to collect her colostrum and I would be by after milking to pick it up for her calf.

Later I picked up the colostrum and went upon my way not thinking twice.  The following day I milked with Adam at night.  He said to me, "You know that was harder than you said finding the red cow."
 "What, she is the only red cow in the barn right now.  You can't miss her." I replied.
He looked at me and said, "I had to look under every cow's tail, but I really didn't think she was that red."
 I smirked, "you did what?"  "Adam, her color is red...her fur."
He looked puzzled, "Um, no she is brown."  So I proceeded to show him that this is the cow world is red, took him to a gray brown swiss to show him that in the cow world, this was brown.

I laughed through the whole milking thinking of poor Adam lifting all 30 switch cows tails to look for one that was red.  It was a good reminder to me that not everyone speaks "farm" and unfortunately the internet is full of groups trying to speak negative about agriculture.  So I will continue on this journey to speak up for agriculture and how I care for my animals everyday.  I want to be able to show people that...farminz FUN!

Winding Road

Some days being a mother is hard enough, doubting your abilities and if your kids are turning out alright.  Throw in a dairy farm to manage with your husband and you really start to doubt if you have enough time for everything.

The other day my oldest daughter and I were dropping her friend off from a playdate.  From the back seat of the van she asked why we couldn't live in city.  I explained that it would be to far to drive to be here to take care of the animals.  In her frustration for life in the big city she says, "I just want a better life."  My eyes welled up with tears.  I think my heart broke right in half.  She could tell I was upset and asked me what was wrong.  I just said, " Hmpf, I thought that was what I was giving you this whole time." 

Before we bought the cows I was working full time off the farm and she was in day care.  After Emma was born we decided that we wanted the girls home with us and I would take a bigger role in the dairy.  I started milking the night milking after work and milked up until the night that I was induced with Emma. (I think my OB thought I was crazy when I asked if we could push it back a couple of hours so I could finish chores.)  After Emma was born I quit my job and started milking twice a day.  Little by little I weaseled more responsibility from my father-in-law and hadn't looked back until that afternoon when Tess uttered that little sentence.

That little sentence that turned me inside out for a week.  Had my love of farming, the animals, the hours and responsibility gotten in the way of me being a mom.  I always tell myself that anything worth doing is worth doing 100%.  Had I been giving 100% of myself to the farm and only 50% to being a mom.  I love seeing the girls with a baby calf or running with the chickens, holding an egg in there hand.

After a lot of thought I have to remember that when I found my way here, I found home.  I wasn't raised on a farm and I got to explore a lots of options and experiences that led me here.  Now I just have to watch Tess explore and let her experiences lead her on her path.  But I would be lying if I didn't hope a little that it would lead her back to where Farminz Fun!

No 'I' in teamwork

As much as my husband Brian and I are the same, we are twice as different.  It definitely keeps the dynamic of living and working together interesting to say the least.  So here is a fun little story about how sometimes it is possible for us to work together.

The other day Brian set off to bed the dry cows and calves.  To his surprise he found a hole in the tire of our skid steer, we had been nursing the tires along so I wasn't surprised to hear that his recommendation was that it was time for new ones.  I reluctantly agreed and he called our tire guy AJ for an appointment to bring in the rims to get the new tires on.  His appointment was at 1:00 pm, so he blocked up the back of the skid steer and used the loader to keep the front end up.  He left to get the tires and returned a couple hours later to find the skid steer had settled and the boom was blocking the door.  The problem is that you have to be in the skid steer to start it, to then put the boom down to get the tires on.  You can't get in the door with the boom in the way.  It looked like the only way to get in was to break the glass in the door.  I shook my head, now we were in for the cost of the new tires and what looked to be a new door.  (Insert every cuss word known to man here). 

Disgusted Brian came to the house and decided to sleep on it.  Early the next morning I got up to feed calves and as I was mixing my milk, Brian entered the shop.  I could see this wheels turning.  "Just help me a minute here." he said.  "Yeah right", I thought. This was going to take way more time than we had before milking.  Skid steers aren't meant to start without you in them, we had to break every safety feature New Holland had come up with. 

First, open the window.  We were lucky that one wasn't latched and we could slide it open through the metal grid that protects them.  Second, buckle the seat belt and if we had to do this again we never could.  This we managed to do with some "tools" laying around the shop.  Me with my pipe though one window and Brian with a broken handle of a shovel through the other.  We worked methodically pulling the belt out, lining it up and clicking it in.  I almost couldn't believe that we did it.  I just looked and Brian and said "Did we really just do that."  The skid steer won't start without pressure on the seat so I had to push down on the seat with my handle while Brian grabbed the keys with his finger tips and got it started.  He quickly grabbed a screwdriver, pushed off the button for the parking break, grabbed his broken handle and pushed down on the lever pushing the boom out of the way. 

I couldn't believe that we worked together that well and what seemed like the only time in the history of farming everything lined up and worked for us.  When things get tough and it seems like nothing can go right I will keep this little story in my back pocket to pull out and remind myself that some days... farminz fun!

Forever Optimistic

"He bought the farm!" Why does this expression mean the same thing as 'take a dirt nap' or 'swim with the fishes'?  How does farming equal death?  I understand maybe the sense of being tied down, the farm is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, 365 day a year job.  It is more than a job, it is a lifestyle, one that has the power to consume you.  The cow carrying twins will always calve when it is -10 degrees and the waterer will always flood the barn when you have some where else to be, the hay will always be ready on Sunday.

So you laugh at me and say "You chose to do this?" You want to know why...because I am forever optimistic.  I believe everyday that I get up things will be better.  Milk price will be a little higher, my favorite cow will have a heifer instead of a bull, nothing will break today.  I wouldn't change what I do for a minute. I take pleasure in all the small things.  Teaching my girls the value of hard work, watching calves being born, raising those babies into mature cows, getting kisses from my cows, working alongside my husband.  Believing that what I do makes a difference and that farming is a privilege.

Everyday I have to believe that farminz' fun despite the obstacles, or why would we do it!



Emma, Tess and Leah: my 3 little farm girls!



Must start somewhere

With Tess at school, Emma and Leah napping,  the house in moderate disarray, I am going to steal a moment to do something that I have been putting off for far to long now...start a blog.  I have gone back and forth about doing a blog on agriculture as I am what you would call a 'transplant'.  I was not raised on a farm.  We didn't move to a farm until I was a junior in high school and trust me if you would have told me then that I would have married a farming and be farming now I would have laughed in your face.  Not that I didn't have an appreciation for farming and all the hard work, I just knew how much work it was.  Funny how love changes your views, and maybe for the better.  Farming has given me the opportunity to really live my life with my husband and three little girls.  Something that I wouldn't change for all the hard work in the world.

I hope that you enjoy my take on my views of life on Farminz Fun Dairy! 
If farming wasn't fun, why would we do it!