Does your mind work like mine?
It’s kind of like Facebook…but I had it going on LONG before Facebook thought of it!!
The “On This Day” memory is one that my mind seems to be able to spring on me quite regularly. Maybe it’s because of the seasonal weather patterns…I don’t know. I’m certainly no psychology major!
I just know that I love it when it DOES happen.
Today, we’re going back to 2006.
Miller’s Bay Farm – and the Miller family – looked quite different then…
We had a barn full of milking cattle, two other barns housing our replacement heifers (milk cows to be…) and a beef herd – who would have been in the midst of calving season. Besides that, it was maple syrup time…just a typical spring.
In terms of family, we were in “that phase” of parenting.
You know the one.
The one that when people who are 10+ years ‘ahead’ of you survey your young brood – with a certain amount of pity (and maybe a hint of smugness??), they smile knowingly and say something like, “Well, well, you’re BUSY, aren’t you?”
I suppose we were…but it was all good!
There was Lauren, in the photo above. She would have been about 3 and a half. Kendall was likely sitting quietly somewhere off to the side in his stroller, taking everything in. He was 19 months at this point.
And Tyler was getting set to make his appearance in less than 2 weeks!
The excitement of the day though, and the reason for the vivid memory, etched in my mind is this photo…..
Now as you might guess, a table full of coffee and snacks is NOT a regular occurrence in a dairy barn.
On this particular day in March of 2006 we were all ready to host the local ‘Holstein Club Car Tour’.
Yes, that IS a thing!
(As you can see, somebody was quite excited about the whole idea!!)
A car tour (in the farming world) is a chance for your farming colleagues and neighbours to hop in their cars (more often trucks though…not sure why it’s labelled a ‘car’ tour…) and visit a handful of pre-arranged stops within a certain county.
It’s a multi-purpose event, really.
It’s a chance to see how others have things set up; how a certain piece of machinery, a style of construction, a different milking or feeding system, works ‘in the real world’ rather than at a trade show or farm show when ‘sales’ are the main objective.
It’s also a chance to check out the herd themselves…which genetics are (or aren’t!) working for whom. Farmers are generally pretty open to share among themselves, actually, about their successes AND failures. (Refreshing, I know!)
There is lots of ‘comparing notes’, ‘question and answer’ and usually plenty of encouragement too. In a business where your ‘day-to-day’ can become fairly ‘routine’, and often quite ‘solitary’, the encouragement piece is pretty significant!
And of course, we can’t forget the food! It’s basically a progressive dinner consisting mainly of cookies, donuts, squares, coffee and the occasional fruit, veggie or sandwich tray.
Because … well…. we all know that food brings people together… EVEN while standing around in a barn!!
So, that was our life ‘on this day’ way back in 2006!
What were you doing?
Funny how life goes…little did we know then, that in less than 6 months time, we would finish our final milking in that old barn!
Wonder what things will look like 14 years from today…
