I went up into the pasture this morning to get my last set of cows to milk. I hate this walk. It’s muddy and with each step I’m worried if my boot will get stuck. I got up to where the girls were and started whistling them in towards the parlor, and then I saw June. She wasn’t wanting to come in this morning. She was hiding above the creek line that has a shade every day from the trees that cover it and I was wondering why she wasn’t falling in line with the last group. June only moaned a little when I started walking her way. I got closer to her and I saw the baby she had just had. He was beautiful. She kinda walked away from her gift she gave us, but also let me know she didn’t want me to get too close to him. I started taking pictures and kept my distance.
June reminded me this morning that life goes on and that she is such a part of our team at our little dairy we try to keep going. As much as Ray is, and Paula. As much as I am and our kids, and Jamie. And all our friends and family that come over to help out when help is needed or not even wanted. Support from one another is needed and somehow it’s been forgotten very easily from how we live and love some times in this “crazy” world. But June reminded me today when I saw the new baby that we all are important. I stopped and stared at the baby and June, and it hit me… “hey farm boy, look what I have for you. I got your back.”
I smiled and told myself that I was a lucky guy and that she reminded me that I love what I do for a living. And more important that I was lucky to have support from my family, my wife, my brother and his family, and support from our town of Oxford and the local towns around Oxford, and for sure June and the rest of the herd.
If you don’t understand what I’m saying, is that June had a calf to help us have more milk. More milk for you. She had this beautiful baby and she will love it and it will grow up to be tall and lean like all the others. And that’s when it hit me that we gotta do that for each other here in our town. We gotta do that for our neighbor. Go support local. Please. And be calm, y’all.
I hope y’all are shopping local this week. Wal-Mart doesn’t care about you. And all your other chains… MY local folks do. Please think about us and shop local.
Go get you a burger at Handy Andy instead of Burger King. Go get a meal at St Leo’s instead of Chilli’s. Do that! Spend an extra dollar or two. Don’t let them go away from us. We need them. Most of these places I talk about help out our dairy. They make our world go around that doesn’t stop when our schools and “world” do. Our girls work every day out of the year and so do we. So does your local business owner.
Ya’ll shop local this week. Again, Wal-Mart doesn’t care about you or all your other chains… the Larsons do and all these local folks do. Please think about us and shop local. Shop local, y’all! Don’t let them be a stranger…
June, your baby is beautiful. And so are you.
