We are. The kids have stepped up and done amazing things. Alan has covered ALL the feeding for nearly 100 animals every day plus going to school plus getting the bagger set up and a little corn chopped. Liz cleaned the barn alone (which is a HUGE job...her hands were all torn up last night) and filled the waterers and did all the calves and so many other chores I can't remember them. Then the two of them milked while Becky and I got some groceries so we will be amply supplied with appropriate junk food (plus some nutritious materials to fill in around the edges.)
This morning the girls and I milked very early as they had to be in school by 8. They had to leave when we were finishing up so I finished alone. Couldn't find a couple cows so they will just have to wait until tonight. It is so foggy and dark mornings. Neither of them is giving much milk so they will be fine. The boss is going nuts wanting to work and keeps coming out to the barn and we keep chasing him back to the house. His shoulder is so messed up...there is a groove in his arm where the muscle came off the bone.
Went to a very valuable meeting yesterday with our new assemblyman, George Amedore. He seems like he may be someone who will work with farmers. I hope so. Liz went too, as she is trying to get into the swing of farm politics in the area. You can't just sit back and let the outside world rumble along without you these days or you will find yourself regulated right out of business. I hope we have raised a set of good citizen activists. I know some of their teachers already drive them nuts with the nonsense they preach. Alan has a guy "teaching economics" in school right now who says that public schools originated because farmers needed to learn time management or they wouldn't be able to become factory workers, because they would go fishing if they felt like it rather than build fences. Oh, and he also says that farming isn't labor intensive any more because of machinery.
I could tell him a thing or two.
Oh, and a hellish awful thing...Patrick Bourque, who has long been bass player for Becky's favorites, Emerson Drive, (he left them in August) died suddenly at his home in Canada. Today would have been his thirtieth birthday I think. We were simply stunned and Beck felt particularly bad as she really liked and admired him.
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8 comments:
That teacher should come out to your place and see what you do in a day. Amazing, the garbage that gets taught to our kids, isn't it?
Too bad about the guy from Emerson Drive. Was he still with them when you saw them?
I agree with stacy. You should seriously kidnap that economics "teacher" and force him to fill in for you. What pap passes for education today.
Stacy...we have a nightly update on what outrageous thing he has come up with each day in class. The entire first two weeks of school were taken up with his personal life story including running off on a bus, only going to school to avoid the draft and getting drunk and going crazy. A fine and upstanding example for his students. The class of course is required for graduation or I know one kid who would be dropping it...Next comes the mock marriage and trip to the Welfare office to get signatures.
And no, Patrick had left the band about two weeks before we saw them. It is such a shame.
Jan, thanks...the idiot actually did work on a farm for a bit when he was a kid, but I guess he honestly believes that farmers no longer pick stone and store hay.
I was hoping for an update, so thanks for taking the time for so many details.
Tell us more about the Boss's shoulder - it sounds really serious!
how do those on the farm ever get all those duties done each day?
NW, I think it is going to be a case of where he heals up past the pain and lives with the damage. He actually broke a piece of bone out of the top of his humerus (?) with the pull of the muscle. The ER doc said this isn't a thing they fix surgically, just wear a sling for 3-4 weeks and deal. Of course he went out and crawled on a tractor and managed to chop two loads of corn, which is actually great if he doesn't hurt himself any more, since Alan sure as heck can't do it all and go to school too. He can't milk though
mon@rch...just keep plugging along and start early and end late.
I'm with everyone else...econ guy needs to spend a day being an adult on a farm. Growing up on one is one thing...but being responsible for one is a whole 'nuther thing.
Sounds like you may have to hog-tie the Boss up in a calf hutch until he mends to keep him off the tractor.
You guys escaped the hay thing at least. We have farmers trucking in hay. Round bales are going for 60 plus bucks a bale here...up from 13 to 15 last year. The local stock yard stays open until 2 a.m. to deal with the flood of cows being sold off for practically nothing.
Hi Rosie...he really drives us crazy. Alan is the second kid through his class and it is the same drivel every year.
We have been lucky in hay and we are grateful. Sounds like it is awful down there and you don't hear a thing about it up here. Are there any news stories on it that you know of? I would love to write something about the hardship for my newspaper column (which didn't get written at all this week)
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