Farming Stories

The farm where I am currently working has a milking herd of around 50 milking cows, consisting of British Friesians and Dairy Shorthorns. We also have a few beef animals on the farm, which will eventually get sold at the market when they reach around 20 months old. The beef breeds that we have on the farm are British Blues (or Belgian blues) and Aberdeen Angus. Also the male calves from the dairy breeds will generally go...

Eloise, my mom, milked cows for a round faced dairy farmer named Bob Krump. He was having a bad year. There was a pile of black and white calves freezing near the corner of an unused corral. A few bears had been coming from the gray brush behind the house to eat calves. They had started reaching over the pens and helping themselves to live calves. They had knocked down part of the barbed wire fence in the misty grey brush...

Later, on the way to Shirley’s, I noticed a box of books on the back seat of Jenny’s car. “What are all those books for in the back?”“Oh, that’s my summer reading,” she said. “Before I left for here, I borrowed a bunch of books from some friends. That’s what we do--trade books,” she added. “I love to read.”“I used to love to read when I was younger, but now I hardly read anything except journals and research papers.”“Too...

Rainbow’s End: Pt.1Note: This is a long two part story but an intriguing journey that may be worth taking.I was on my way to a bio-technology conference in Philadelphia but didn’t have to be there until three that afternoon, so I decided to get off the turnpike for awhile and see some of the countryside. I had just reached the top of a hill when I heard a horrible clanking sound from my engine and the car lost speed. No o...