Opinion

A family that grows and picks sweet corn together is a family that grows much more than corn. For me, growing up was caring for and maintaining the family farm with my family. A family farm, much like sweet corn or even a garden, took time together, making precious memories, but that time together cultivated so many values. You learned that everything built or planted needed to be cared for, and that took working hard by everyone. Caring for what you have makes you responsible while also making you truly appreciate it all. Growing gratitude makes you appreciate having something to care for and for being able to care for it yourself. Being able to care for something yourself, you grow into a capable and dependable person. Working as a family made everything more achievable. There are always age-appropriate jobs. If you’re little, you’re still going to be sent to retrieve a water jug, if you’re older, you can handle a bucket of corn or sometimes in my case, rocks. Working side by side and, more often than not, sweating together, that builds deep family bonds, bonds that create roots. Those roots, they are a source of tradition. I love carrying on what my parents taught me with my own children.

I am happy to report that our Pepper gal pulled through her bout of milk fever and ketosis just fine. After seeing her so close to her end, I’m ever thankful to see her morning and evening, waiting at the gate to be milked.

I pulled the kids into the cattle pen last Wednesday morning, where our Jersey, Pepper, was hanging out. She looked pretty darn close to calving, so I figured we could do a quick lesson on “calving signs.” Little did I know that she’d go into active labor just hours later—so what we were actually looking at was a cow very, very ready to calve.