I had to share these words from my one brother Ken , who lives in Florida. His daughter was up for a visit for a few days to see her Grammy and Papee . ( many of you know my Dad had a stroke this past summer and has had a rough time and it has been very hard on my Mom also ) . Kareen took this picture of them and posted it on facebook. My brother had these words to say about them.
" You are looking at the most honorable man I have ever met in my life , who has never done anything but respect everyone he has ever met and treated them accordingly and the most caring woman I have ever met who would give you the shirt off her back , if it would make you feel better . I have been truly blessed . Love You Mom and Dad , wish I was able to help you out more ." I thought those were the most beautiful words you could say about your parents. And I know all 4 of us kids feel the same way about them.
I recently got an email from some farm friends. They are selling their dairy cows after struggling to recover from the low milk prices of 2009. It is such a sad time for them . My heart just breaks to think of them having to sell their girls. I know exactly how they will feel. We sold our dairy cows on Friday, May 13th , 2011. They will be selling their cows on Friday , January 13, 2012 . She said they could maybe have continued to " rob Peter to pay Paul " . But the stress was getting to them both. I know so well that awful stress you have ,worrying how are you going to buy feed , gas, seed, fertilizer and on and on. It wears on you year after year . It still is a very hard time for many farmers and I see no end to the stress and worry for so many of them . She said she doesn't think she can bear to be there when the cows are loaded. That feeling of seeing your barn family being loaded up on a trailer and being taken away , it is awful and so absolutely heart breaking . There are many , many tears and as hard as it is to see them being loaded....that is nothing to when you go out to the barn the next day and it is empty and quiet. There are no cows in the stalls , the milk pump no longer is running and there are no milkers to carry into the barn . Like us, she knows it probably is the best thing to do for them . But it is still so very hard to see them go. Janice, you will be in my thought and prayers tomorrow . I wish I lived closer so I could come be there for you and give you a hug . And tell you it will be ok , things will work out . Good luck to you and Todd !!!
My husband actually had a PAID ( !!!!! ) vacation since before Christmas . But tomorrow he will be going back to work at the Township . Maybe he will have to plow some snow. They are calling for some snow , but not a lot. The western part of PA is getting a lot more. Up near Erie they could get 12 " !! I am so glad after years and years of milking cows every day, twice a day that he can have days off and is actually getting paid for it !! Never before in our life did that ever happen . When you have cows the work does not stop for the holidays . The animals still needed fed and milked and taken care of. But we did not have the milking this year, but did have to feed the heifers and calves .... oh, and the cats ! LOL ! This was our first Christmas without the dairy cows. It was different and in some ways nice not to have to rush in from the barn like we used to. I can remember when our girls were small and we would be at the barn for hours. I started making a big stocking for them and I would leave it outside their doors. They would get up and open the presents in the stocking til we got in from doing the barn work. They still remember that . We had very nice Christmas and hope you all did too !!
I can't believe it is almost Christmas ! Can you ? Where did the year go ? It has been such an eventful year for us . To start off we made the decision to sell the dairy cows. We sold them on Friday , May 13 , 2011 . It was a sad day for us to see our the cows leave . To be sold to someone else. I still wonder how some of our favorite cows are doing ? Did they have a heifer or a bull ? are they giving lots of milk ? Are they doing well in their new barns ? It was the right decision to sell the cows. It was the right time. Dairy farming is such a hard life in many ways. There are many wonderful things about farming, but it is hard on your body and sometimes your spirits . It can be very stressful . Worrying about paying the bills , the health of your cows , your own health and more. So many people have remarked how much my husband has changed since we sold the cows. He is so much less stressed and seems so much happier. I know he loved farming and being his own boss. He had to adjust to working for someone else . He has adjusted to working for the Township. Except the funny part is that he now gets up earlier for work than he did when we had the dairy cows ! We both seemed to have adjusted to living a different way of life. We still crop farm and still have some heifers and calves. So we haven't left farming completely. Which is good.
In August , when we were the Centre County Grange Fair we received ( finally !! ) our Century Farm Certificate . Also at the Fair my Dad had a stroke . We spent most of the rest of the Fair at the hospital . Luckily , it was a mild stroke. It seemed to only affect his eyes and his left arm and hand. ( He already had a weak left hand from an accident with a table saw 25 years ago . He almost cut off his whole hand . It was amazing how they fixed his hand up and he was able to use it .) He was in the hospital and then rehab. He came home and was doing very well. But then he had to have an operation on a blocked artery at the end of September and it did not go well. Then he had many complications with the surgery . He was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks. He went to rehab again. Now he has been at home with my Mom . He has done very well physically . But mentally he has some problems. He can't figure out the computer anymore. He has trouble with dressing himself. He still has weakness in his left hand and arm. Hopefully , that will get better. He is a very strong person, super smart and has done so much with his life , that it is hard sometimes to see him all confused and not able to do things himself.
After Dad's stroke a lot of our family came up from Florida to visit. It was WONDERFUL ! It was the first time in years all my three brother's and I were together. I know it was so special for Mom and Dad to have us all there. Of course we had lots of picnics and lots of good times !
It has been a sometimes hectic ... sometimes long ... sometimes sad ... sometimes such special times that you cry year that I won't forget for a long time !
We had such a great time while my 2 brothers and other family were here visiting for a week . We did so many fun things. Had lots of picnics and ate way too much food of course ! Mom and Dad had a picnic at their place the one night. It was nice enough a bunch of us sat out on the deck to eat . We sat there for hours just talking and enjoying our time together. This is the first time in years and years we the bunch of us were together. There was my brother Ken, his daughter Kareen, her girls Michaela and Layla , her friend Jake, Kens daughter Keena , her husband Adam and their son Brock, Kens boys Kyle and Kole and Koles kids Kayden and Khloee, Kens daughter Kalley and her husband Brock. My other brother from Florida , Terry was up too. It was so nice for us to be able to sit and visit and talk about when we growing up and sharing so many memories. It was such a very special time. The one Sunday we went to church and my one niece took our picture.And this isn't even all of us . There are quite a few more !
Things are sometimes meant to happen a certain way sometimes. More and more it was meant to be that we sold our dairy cows when we did in May . This year when we planted our crops it was very dry and they did not produce the best crops. So our hay was below our usual amount . Jim just filled our big silo and it has very little silage in it. Our corn for silage was less than out usual amount too. He said just the other day to me: If we had kept the cows , we would be out of feed by January. I don't know what we would have done. We still miss the cows and our barn work. We probably always will. But it was meant to be this way . I am just thankful we are still able to keep our farm and just crop farm for now. Maybe in the future we will rent out our ground . But for now we still farm it ourselves .
My one brother was up from Florida with his 5 kids and grandkids. We had a big picnic at the farm . There were about 40 of us here with lots of food.We walked up to the mountain and let them see the how pretty it is up there. The view up is gorgeous and you can see the valley .
We had our special night at the Centre County Grange Fair on Aug 29 ,2011. We were presented with our Century Farm Certificate . Most of our family was there to share with us in the pride and joy of making this milestone. When the milk prices were so low the other year we could not even pay our bills , we really thought it would come to the point of having to sell our farm. But with the help of many family and friends we made it through the tough patch and were able to keep our farm. We are so very thankful for all our blessings . We are very proud of our farm being in the family for 100 years. Especially with so many dairy farmers getting out of farming and sometimes selling their farms . Joining us was Rep. GT (Glenn ) Thompson (PA) . GT has been a very good friend and has listened and tried to do all he can to help dairy farmers in PA. We were very honored that he took time out of his busy schedule to be there at the fair on our special night. Also the PA Secretary of Agriculture , George Greig was there to help present our Century Farm Award . We were very thankful to have all these people share in our joy and we will never forget it .
