A farmer's day starts before the sun rises in the morning, anyway the farmer at this home does. Maybe I should mention here about the different farmers. There are chicken farmers, hog farmers, crop farmers, beef farmers, vegetable farmers and all these raise what their name describes (and I don't know what time their day gets started)
. Then we have dairy farmers. These farmers milk cows and provide the dairy products your purchase at the store. In the category of dairy farmers, we have some that milk 2 times a day, 3 times a day, some every 16 hours or less, and some once a day. You have small family farms, like us, who milk anywhere from 30 - 100 cows. Then you have what we call the cow factories, where they milk hundreds of cows. Only on family farms, the cows will be milked in tie stalls. There are stalls that the cows will go into and be tied and either remain there all the time or be left out to pasture between milkings. In the "factories" the cows are milked in a parlor. They are milked and immediately released back into a holding area. Usually these cows never go out to pasture, they remain in this holding area where there are stalls that they can lay in. Things certainly have progressed in the dairy industry, for now there are robot milkers, but to me that is not true farming, so I will not go into that. I am only going to focus on what it is like here on our farm. We milk 2 times a day, morning and evening. Dave is usually the first one out of bed about 4 - 4:30. Either Georgie or Ben will go to the barn with him at 5 - 5:30 to milk. Everyone else goes out around 6:00ish to feed the cows, heifers and calves. It takes approx. 1 1/2 - 2 hrs. to milk. Each person has their responsibilties. Dave, Ben & Georgie are the milkers,
Solomon feeds and does manure management.
Uriah & Oliver (with my help) feed calves.
We usually are all back in the house around 8:00 for breakfast. Needless to say, everyone is hungry by then, so we try to have a nuturious breakfast of greek eggs and/or potatoes. We also enjoy leftovers for breakfast or I will fry up vegetables with scrambled eggs. Dave lays down for a nap, and we try to start school around 9:00. Dave is then off to do his masonry jobs till late afternoon and then it is chore time again. We try to have everything wrapped up by 6:00 -6:30, eat supper, and since it gets dark early, the children go to bed 8:00 - 8:30 and us soon thereafter. This is a typical week day here at our home. Weekends, chores are the same, but we are able to get projects done on Sat. and on Sunday, we go to church and either have a day of fellowship or have family time at home. We have had people tell us that farmers are a special breed of people and after thinking about that, I think they are right. Nobody understands a farmers life, unless you are or were a farmer. It looks like a life of ease, just working at home with the family milking cows, but there is so much more that goes into it then what people realize. Don't get me wrong, it is a good life and it brings alot of positives with it. It also can be never-ending. The cows don't stop producing milk on weekends or holidays. For vacation, we try to do things very close to home or we do staycations, where we stay at home but plan a weekend camping out in the yard with a campfire only doing necessary chores. This past weekend, we went to Camp Swatara for the day, hiking, playing on playgrounds and sitting by pond. It was fun and refreshing! If you happen to have farmer for a neighbor or friend, tell him how much you appreciate his hard work and sacrifice to provide a product that is wholesome. Nowadays, it is not a paying proposition, but that is for another blog.
Until next time..............
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