A New Page in My Life

I have always been a stay at home home. I helped on our dairy farm and also did my crafts. I am a 57 year old woman who is starting a new page in my life!  My daughter has been working at the Mingoville Post Office for awhile now . She told me they were looking for some one to work part time , when she needed a day off or was sick. So I thought about it and decided to apply for the job. In May I went for the very FIRST interview in my life! I had a couple of small part time jobs before I got married and and one a few years after we were married. But I never, ever had gone on an interview. So I guess I should have been nervous and  worried , but I wasn't  . I guess it went pretty well. I told my girls afterwards what I was asked and my answers. They said I gave very good answers. I got the job!! I go for Orientation on Monday . It will be all day . Then  later in the week my daughter will be the one training me. Hmmmm....wonder how that will  go ?? Will she think of all the times I yelled at her in her teens ?  And think ..Oh boy, here is my chance to get my Mom ??? LOL !!  I don't think she will. But I did tell her , just train me as a nervous new employee and not as your Mother . There is a lot of paperwork and computer work. But I am used to lots of paper work from working on our local Election Board . I kept thinking will I be able do this ? My 57 year old brain does not work as well as a younger one ! So , in the next couple of weeks I will become a Part Time Postal Employee. Will keep you updated on my progress (  or lack of progress! ) !!

A Year Since We Sold The Cows

Well , it has been a year since we sold the dairy cows. Our life has changed a lot. My husband is a Township Supervisor and now works full time for them. He has adjusted to his job, I think. He says he doesn't miss the cows anymore. We both did at first. But we do not miss all the headaches , heartaches and stress of dairy farming. Being a dairy farmer is also very  hard on your body. His knees don't hurt like they used to from bending up and down to milk.His back is better also. The other week he has a really bad cough and I ended up taking him to the ER  at 3 in the afternoon. A lady we know (  who are dairy farmers ) works at the ER . She saw us and came into my husband 's room and talked to us. My husband told her if we still had the dairy cows he would not be up here , we would have to be at the barn milking and feeding. He would just have had to suffer through the cough and illness. We don't have to worry about what we will do , if the bottom falls out of the milk price that farmers receive.I really hoped by now milk prices would be better for a dairy farmer. But that isn't the case. I think our one friend told us he is getting $ 16.??  a hundredweight. I sure hope the price does not keep falling for all the farmers! We still crop farm and my husband has been busy planting corn. We have been selling hay and corn to neighbors. We just sent out 4 bred heifers on Friday. They were hauled over to the same sale barn where we sold our cows last year , in Centre Hall. We decided to go over and see how much they brought. And as I sat there I thought , how funny  , here we are right where we were a year ago.But a year ago our feelings were much different sitting there  . Feeling a sadness watching our cows all being loaded on the trailer to be taken to the sale barn .  Feelings of sadness seeing our cows brought in and sold. Knowing when we went home the barn would be empty . That the next morning there would be no cows to milk. But this year it was different. We had started a different life. One that has made my husband less stressed. One that if we want to go away for a day , we can. One that if we need to go the ER at 3 in the afternoon , we can. We have adjusted to our new life, I think !

back to work

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 !!

Things are meant to be

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 .