Raising a Farmer

Since the beginning of the school year Everett has been patiently waiting to be the “Owl Star” for his class.  Each week a student is chosen to be the “Owl Star” where they can share their favorite things and pictures of themselves.  The “Owl Star is also able to do little special things, go to the head of the line, have lunch with the teacher little things like this make little people feel special.  Everett was lucky enough to be the “Owl Star” for two weeks because of the short week of school because of Easter.

At the same time of waiting to be the “Owl Star” Everett has also been waiting for his cow 304 to have her baby.  Her due date was April 2nd.  All winter we have been hoping and talking about how we hope 304 has a girl.  This is her 3rd calf and the first two have been boys.  On a dairy farm girls rule.  Everett and his cousin were already making plans if 304’s new baby was a girl who was going to take the new baby to the fair.

Every morning before milking we “check for babies”.  On Holy Saturday morning as I walked to the calving shed I didn’t see anything.  When checking for babies you need to walk through the pen because sometimes babies like to hide.  To my surprise there was a new baby, who’s the mom I looked and it was 304!  I ran to the house and told Everett he needed to come to the calving shed right away.  He quickly dressed, he showed me a short cut to the calving shed through the back yard.  He saw the new baby and realized it was 304’s baby and it is a GIRL!

Usually our cows are given numbers for names and just a few have real names.  “Well Everett what are you going to name her?”, Nate asked him.  After taking some time to think about it Everett decided on Arendell.  Everett made sure he bonded with Arendell.  Everett then made sure 304 was nice and relaxed when she came into the barn.  He brushed her, talked to her and brushed her again.    

So for being the “Owl Star” this week Everett is able to bring something to school to share that is special to him.  What is more special than his cow’s baby girl, Arendell.  We took 3 day old Arendell to Everett’s school for Everett to share his excitement with his classmates.

There is a baby calf in the sea of little people.

 Vivian was even able to give Arendell some love.

  When we got home from school Everett jumped in the trailer and I could over hear him talking to Arendell about school.  Telling her she did a great job.

Easter is a special time for me.  Celebrating Jesus rising from the dead and spending time with family and loved ones.  Easter brings hope, new beginnings and spring.  This year many dairy farmers are looking for hope.  Small things become big things.  Small moments become big memories.  Planting season is around the corner to bring a new harvest this fall.  The seeds we plant this spring will feed our cows next year.  We are always looking towards our future.  Easter always brings new hope and new beginnings.

This Easter we woke up to a winter wonderland.  By noon time all the snow was melted.  

Easter is always a time for new family pictures.  Everyone is dressed in their Sunday best. 

During times of celebration there is always food.  Family gathering around the table, praying giving thanks for the time we have with each other.  Laughing enjoying each others company and seeing how many deviled eggs one person can eat.  

When we have all eaten our ham and all the good food.  Easter baskets with jelly beans and chocolate eggs and new kites can be given out.  Easter and kites.   The question of “Can we go fly kites?”  Can finally be a yes! Kites have become a tradition.  Some years it has been too windy and the kites would break as soon as we walked outside.  Some years there would be no wind and for the kites to take flight we would have to run the entire time.  Some years they have found new homes in trees.  Some years they would be a tangled mess.  One thing is for sure Easter would not be Easter without a kite.

Nathan retrieving our kites Easter 2011, this year no kites landed in the trees.

Easter 2011

Easter 2011

“Farming is a complete walk of faith.”  I heard these words from a dear friend of mine a couple of weeks ago.  At the time I needed to hear these simple words.  I continue to tell myself these words where fear and hopelessness can overtake our minds.  I needed to hear the words out loud my heart was saying.  Faith.  I needed to hear these words where balance sheets are giving sleepless nights.  Where words can become sharper between Nathan and I than were intended.  Stress levels are high.  The question that is always in the back of our mind, “When are milk prices going to get better?”  Faith.  Cash flows are looked at and then looked at again.  When I look at Nate I see new lines of worry I know were not there a few months ago.  I have faith our cows will provide for us as we continue to provide for them.  A complete walk of faith I am walking with my husband as we dairy farm together.  Faith, mother nature will ensure a good crop for our farm.  Faith God will protect our family and keep us safe.

Above all else, our children will be the best crop we will ever grow.  Faith they will continue to grow and thrive as sixth generation dairy farmers.  Their tiny voices keep us grounded.  When we look at them they keep us focused.  Keep us smiling.  Keep us laughing.  Keep us faithful.  When we see them light up for cows, we know we need to continue to tell our farm story.  Those two little faces keep us farming.    

St. Patrick’s Day is closing in on us.  Some may be venturing out for green beer, some might be making corned beef and cabbage or looking for gold at the end of the rainbow.  For us we are waiting for the leprechauns.

Last Summer, we built a gnome hut/fairy house/elf house/fairy garden.  The tree we cut down in the backyard a couple of years ago we had initially thought of putting a bird feeder on it, so we kept the tree stump.  I came across a picture of a gnome house last summer and thought the new best thing for our stump.  A Fairy garden.  Off to work Everett and I went with the help of Nate’s niece and nepehew.  Of course we had to take breaks to talk to Vivian and catch garden snakes.  

Of course we needed to seal the cracks with mud and Nate had to put the finishing touches on the roof of the house.

Finally we had the garden finished.  Now all we had to do is wait and watch.  Elves and fairies are really fast so you need to be quick to see them.  If they see you they won’t come.

We were hoping they all would like their new home.  Everett would check every morning to see if they moved in yet.  I would see him through out the day knocking on the door hoping we had new guests in our backyard.

Summer 2015

So now, we are waiting again for them to move back in.  The snow is melted and we are thinking at anytime the fairies, gnomes and elves will be making their home again in our back yard.  

But this year Everett is hoping for Leprechauns.  He even made a trap for the leprechauns and Fairies.  Come Thursday we will see if it worked.  

Every morning, Nate makes a fresh pot of coffee in the barn.  This morning, was no different than any other morning.  Starting the coffee pot is always first thing when we go to the barn in the mornings.  Next is go check for new babies in the calving shed.  This morning, there was a healthy new baby calf.  About 15 minutes later moving the cow to the milking barn and taking care of the calf, back to the barn office we went.  Everything went smoothly.  Until we got back to the barn.  No fresh aroma of rich coffee to greet us as we enter the office.  I asked Nate if he turned the pot on?  “The green light is on.”  A couple more tries.  On, off, on off.  It never hurts to try one more time.  Maybe it will turn on.  Still nothing.  The coffee pot refused to turn on.  It had given up.  Lost the will to brew coffee.  Now what!?  No coffee for morning milking!  How is that going to work?  I went into the house brewed a couple cups and took them back out to the barn.  What about tomorrow morning?  Our milk truck driver to the rescue.  Nate had talked to him late morning and mentioned the coffee pot had died on us.  This was the end of the world to Nate.  When Nate went out to the barn after lunch, a coffee pot greeted him in the barn office.  Our milk truck driver hauls delicious milk but also delivers new coffee pots.  Coffee pots to get us through morning milkings.

The excitement in a child’s voice is one of my favorite sounds.  It is even sweeter when I hear them yell, “A cow is having a baby!” These were the words I heard from Everett and my niece Elyn as they came running into the house.  Everett came through the side door and Elyn came in through the front door.  Both were so excited giving a full detail description of why they concluded the cow was having a baby.  Nate asked what cow number.  Everett quickly replied, “345!”  Nate told them to go back to the calving shed and watch 345 and check back in with him in a little bit.

From our living room window I can see the calving shed.  I watched Everett and Elyn find the best spot to watch and wait.  I watched them find a pail to sit on.  To sit and wait.  I would catch a glimpse of them riding bikes the length of the shed, waiting.  Waiting for a miracle.  I would see them sit on the cement curb.  Waiting.  After a few minutes, I went outside to check to see the progress on 345.  She was in fact having her baby and her baby was coming.  The baby was coming now.  We watched 345 find the best spot to have her baby.  Their little voices turned into strong whispers encouraging the new momma cow she could do it.  I never can decide which is the miracle watching two little people see a baby calf be born or the baby calf be born.

The view from my living room.

Encouraging 345

345 cleaning her new baby, none of the other soon-to-be mommas moved when Everett and Elyn went into the calving shed.

Needing to get a better view to see if new baby is boy or girl.  It’s a girl!!  Everett and Elyn were in deep discussion on  a name.

Farm meetings are a very important part of farming.  For us it is a way to give our farm a voice and a vote.  You have heard the saying, “there is the meeting but things are decided at the parking lot meeting.”  Through out the year Nathan and I have lots of”parking lot” meetings.  These are usually held in the barn, in the kitchen,  in the truck or in the yard.  Lots of things are decided during milking.  After going through a not so great farm transition Nathan and I decided giving the farm a vote was at the top of our list for our future.  We recognized with poor communication the farm is the first to suffer.

How do we give the farm a vote?  We try to have quarterly farm meetings.  In attendance, Nathan and I.  One of us will send an email to the other requesting a meeting and what will be discussed.  By doing this, it sets the tone of the meeting.  We typically meet at the kitchen table but we have squeezed in a meeting during a long drive in the truck.  It gives each of us time to process and think of new goals or where we need to do better.  We each come with our own notes.  By doing this, we are not influencing each other and we are validating each others opinions with out needing to say anything.  We each have own ideas and we each have our own opinions.  We don’t talk just farm talk.  Our farm and our family overlapped, intertwined and move as one, so we put everything on the goal sheet.  Adding a sandbox, planting a tree, what things are important to each other is added to the goal sheet.  We have immediate goals, short term and long term.  We bring out the sheet from the previous meeting, cross off what we accomplished and revisit where we need work and where we can do better.  During the meeting we take notes.  The question we always ask ourselves and each other when adding a new goal/change, “How is this going to affect the farm, good or bad?”   For us our small farm meetings help keep us on track and focused on what is important for our farm and for our young family.  It helps prevent “disagreements” because I know what is important to Nate and he knows what is important to me.

It helps our marriage too.  We are able to distinguish better where life’s frustrations are coming from, the farm or the house.  There are days that I wish Nate was just my husband and there are days I wish he was just my business partner.  More days than not I am so thankful I am able to problem solve, love on and rejoice in our small accomplishments with my husband and business partner everyday.

Farm Meeting 2015, you can see Nate used a box tab for his notes.

Start of our Farm Meeting 2016, still smiling 

Farm Meeting 2016

Every mom has some form of mom guilt.  We constantly tell ourselves how we are being bad at mothering.  How we can’t keep up with laundry, I think Everett had to much screen time today, why can’t I cook like the Pioneer Woman.  We then compare ourselves to other moms.  That mom has got it together.  Her kids are always clean.  Do they get to play in the dirt at all?  How can she arrive early for everything?  Her hair is always perfect?  Her house is so organized?  Her house is so cute and decorated?  This is why I refuse to go on Pinterest.  I get grand ideas on my own that usually never turn out the way I think they are going to turn out.  I don’t need to add to my already crazy ideas or give myself false hope of being extra crafty.  I am fully capable of failing in that avenue on my own.  The mom guilt I have is only what other fellow dairymoms can relate to.

I remember when Everett was a toddler and I was really struggling with mom guilt.  No matter what I did I felt like I was failing him and my husband.  My mom group had no idea what I was going through,  “Just go in the house, Nate can finish.”  “Just don’t milk the cows tonight.” (Yes, I have been told this.)  My mom guilt isn’t a worry about did Everett wash is hands before supper but some days supper consists of snacks in the barn.  Dairymom guilt is when you are washing up milkers and your toddler is having a tantrum.  Dairymom guilt is when your husband calls he just ran out of seed, it is midnight and all he has left is a about an hour left of planting and you know rain is in the forecast the next couple of days, you just got your tikes bathed, put to bed and you yourself just got out of the shower after finishing milking.  What do you do?  Dairymoms load up their littles and go to the field with out a second guess.  I have gotten better at trying not to let dairy mom guilt take over my thoughts.  There are times when they pop into my mind but then I remind myself not to feel guilt.  I am sure there would be a tantrum over color crayons in the house instead of playing in the manure in the barn.  A dear wise friend of mine who raised 4 boys, told me  “You and only you God chose to be Everett’s mom.”  These simple words get me through the Dairymom guilt.

Evening milking May 1st 2015

This is the game Jenga.  A popular game which involves skill and precision.  A game of stacking and hoping they will not fall down.  This is how I find the game bucket, empty.  I try and keep the game together but I always find it empty.  I have given up on Jenga.  I am throwing in the towel.  I am officially quitting.  I will no longer think I can have the game intact.  I will no longer try and make sure all the blocks are neatly stacked in the game bucket patiently waiting to be played.  We have never played the game per game instructions.  When it is time to pick up toys, (about once a month it feels like)  I feel so frustrated to find the empty bucket, again.  There are Jenga blocks everywhere.  “Everett can you pickup all the Jenga pieces and put them away.”  “Everett the blocks need to stay in the bucket.”  “Everett, pickup the Jenga blocks.”  I honestly don’t know if he has ever answered back when I repeatedly make these statements to him.  I do know he has told me as follows:

“I’m feeding my cows hay.”

“I’m stacking them.”

“I’m hauling them.”

So from now on I am going to let Jenga blocks be hay bales, feed for cows and what they are meant to be.  Blocks.  Blocks for Everett’s imagination.  I will no longer feel frustrated when I find the empty bucket.  I will no longer have the thought, “Why? Why can’t they just stay in the bucket?  Why?”  I will try really really hard when I find a Jenga block I will try and see it as a hay bale, not a game scattered about.  I will try.  I will remind myself one day Jenga block hay bales will turn back into simple Jenga blocks.          

Last week I had mistakenly purchased leeks instead of fennel.  Lets just say leeks just might be my new favorite food.  I had to look up what a leek was to figure out what I could do with them.  They are in the onion/garlic family.  Perfect.  I love onions I will just use leeks instead of onions.  Today, I made scalloped potatoes.  It has been a challenge to find a recipe to make scalloped potatoes from scratch which doesn’t involve a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of cream of celery or a box.  In walks rue.  Rue is like a hidden secret that only a lady with grey hair knows about.  I remember the first time I realized what rue was, my aunt made it and added to bean soup.  You fry butter and flour?  Here is my version of scalloped potatoes.

A lady with the title of great-grandma told me I was to rinse and soak sliced potatoes for scallop potatoes, gets the starch out of them.  That’s what I do now.  Here they are soaking while I prepare the other good stuff.  I use red potatoes if you are wondering.  

Next I chopped up 1 Leek.  About 3 slices of ham cubed I had made yesterday and some fresh parsley.  

Next I rinsed the potatoes, drained and put them in a bowl.  I seasoned them with salt and pepper.  Added the leeks and ham (use the same bowl the potatoes were soaking in, minus the water).  Sprinkled some flour about a 1/4 of a cup and stirred together.  Put in baking dish.  

Now for the rue.  Add about 3 table spoons of butter into a frying pan between low and med temp.  Melt add some flour around 1/4 cup.  Whisk together till it looks like this.  

Then slowly add WHOLE milk.  How much I do not know I pour right from the jug.  Slow is the key and whisk at the same time.  You want it to look like runny pudding.  If you think it is to runny add a little bit more flour,if its to thick add a little bit more milk. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Oh, Hi Viv, just making some rue here.

Pour mixture over the top of potatoes waiting in the baking dish.  

Don’t stir,

it will meld together in the oven.  Sprinkle with parsley.  Cover. Bake at 350 for about an hour till potatoes are tender.  I take the cover off the last 5-10 min.  

Enjoy!  

Last put away all the treasures Vivian found and just had to have out.  Maybe I should make some banana bread.