Posted by Dea (from Frederick, MD) on August 25, 2007 at 5:24 AM:Thanks for giving us a look through your eyes of life up there. I've always loved how you and Stan painted the barn; it's so beautiful. Please keep these journal entries coming; they're sure to be one of my favorites.
What....you didn't include the photo of "spa day" for the cows? :)
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Posted by Mahnot (from DFW area, TX) on August 25, 2007 at 5:59 AM:
I'm there on your farm, and I feel very much like a welcomed
guest being given the guided tour, along with the history of
the place. How wonderfully you write - I, for one, will be
looking forward to learning more about life on your dairy
farm, and I certainly hope that there is a character or two
in that herd.
My grandmother had a cow that was very ill tempered and
would kick anyone who tried to milk her, except for grandma.
Grandma had a small farm in the old country and owned only
about a half dozen cows, but this one gave excellent milk.
On the days that my grandma had to go to market, whoever
had the unfortunate luck to milk this cow, man or woman, had
to put on grandma's long skirt, her long-sleeved blouse and
apron, and cover their head with her shawl. They had to
smell like grandma and look like grandma or else they got
a swift kick and no milk.
I agree with Dea - the barn looks beautiful and the whole
scene idyllic. I'll be waiting for more !
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Posted by BDale60 (from Warren, PA) on August 25, 2007 at 6:10 AM:
Very nice. Brings back a lot of memories of being a kid on our family farm in the 1970s. We used a forage harvester to chop alfalfa ("green chop" it was called) and fed the herd from a specially designed wagon for that purpose. For us, "silage" was corn cut still green in early September and put in the silo for the cold winter months. Kind of like sauerkraut in January for the cows.
I look forward to more installments of this journal :)
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Posted by Mahnot (from DFW area, TX) on August 25, 2007 at 6:20 AM:
OK - I give up. For the life of me, I can't think of the name
of that center square on the barn. All I can think of is
Storm at Sea, but that's not even close. Is there a story
behind why the Flying Geese are fleeing the center square?
You've gotta be a quilter, I think......
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Posted by Kathleen (from Panama, NY) on August 25, 2007 at 6:38 AM:
Boy, you guys were all up early! Thanks for the kind words.
Mahnot, I love the story about your grandmother's cow. They can be characters all right. The center square is Yankee Puzzle. There's another longer side that has Dutchman's Puzzle on it in a similar manner. Stan says that we started out in the red and what green we get keeps flying away, but basically the paint job just proves that the Tenpases are crazy. We did it on a whim. Oh, and I am a quilter and there's a quilt in progress that echoes the shed.
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Posted by BDale60 (from Warren, PA) on August 25, 2007 at 6:46 AM:
Kathleen,
You are dealing with a bunch of former dairy farmers here (thus the early hour of our responses)! :)
Brian (BDale)
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Posted by Horseshoe (from Efland, NC) on August 25, 2007 at 6:57 AM:
Yay! Down home on Kathleen/Stan's farm! The perfect piece of writing to start the day with!
Looking forward to more! Love it!
Best of All to ya!
Shoe
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Posted by Mahnot (from DFW area, TX) on August 25, 2007 at 7:31 AM:
Kathleen, you forgot to say that Stan is a philosopher :o)
I can appreciate his reasoning all too well, LOL.
Thanks for naming the quilt block. You're not crazy - just
very creative. Have you ever seen the barn here:
[HYPERLINK@www.buggybarnquilts.com]
Glad you like grandma's story, but I'm surprised to hear
that she didn't have the only mean cow in existance.
I always thought the cow was a freak. Live and learn.
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Posted by paulgrow (from Allen Park, MI) on August 25, 2007 at 9:06 AM:
Great article, gives us city folks some insight on how a farm operates.
Paul
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Posted by JaxFlaGardener (from Jacksonville, FL) on August 25, 2007 at 10:22 AM:
Wonderful article, Kathleen! I, too, will be looking forward to more journal installments.
Mahnot, I very rarely actually LOL (laugh out loud), but your tale of everyone having to dress up as grandma to avoid a cow kick really tickled me to the point of audible guffawing! Hilarious!
Jeremy
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Posted by LAKelley2 (from Titusville, FL) on August 25, 2007 at 10:57 AM:
Kathleen - Thank you for bringing some "home" back into my day! I'm originally from upstate western NY (Wyoming, Warsaw, Perry areas). I miss it SO much... at least I think I do! LOL I have now lived in FL for 26 years. I met my new husband down here... and yes, he grew up 20 mins from me up in western NY!! We are looking forward to the day we can retire from our current jobs and move back home!
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Posted by frostweed (from Arlington, TX) on August 25, 2007 at 11:09 AM:
Wonderful article Kathleen, it sounds like you guys have a lot of fun on the farm.
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Posted by Indy (from Alexandria, IN) on August 25, 2007 at 12:57 PM:
Wonderful article . Yes, the scene is changing. I grew up on a real general farm with about everything. I don't miss early morning milkings...nor evening milkings,....nor weekend milkings!
Around here dairy farming is making a comeback with mega dairies started by Dutch emigrants....2,000 t0 5,000 cow herds.
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Posted by KyWoods (from Melbourne, KY) on August 25, 2007 at 1:41 PM:
I've never been around dairy farming, but I did enjoy reading about how one works. I gained a new appreciation for dairy farmers--thanks for sharing your story! Love the pics, too. Pretty barn. And is that you as a baby, Kathleen? Cute!
ROFL at the grandma disguise, Mahnot!
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Posted by Wvdaisy (from Buffalo, WV) on August 25, 2007 at 2:26 PM:
Hi, Kathleen! Great writing, thanks for the story. Still loving that barn, I remember when you painted it. Thanks for sharing, look forward to more installments. We've been in moderate to severe drought this summer ourselves. I don't think anybody got a second cutting and the first cutting was nothing to brag about. Have a feeling it's going to be a good winter for buying critters but not for the sellers :~( This is one time I'm glad not to have any livestock to buy hay for...well except for my bunnies and they won't take much.
Mahnot, I had a goat something like your grannies cow. She didn't want anybody milking her but me LOL She would turn to smell me, give me a lick on the face then just stand and chew her cud. I could milk her in the middle of the field no problem but let anyone else try to get milk and she would have to be tied and then usually ended up with a foot in the bucket or the bucket turned over and the milk spilled :~) Of course a goat can't kick like a cow so milking that crazy cow would have been worse!
Lana
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Posted by KatyMac (from So. Puget Sound, WA) on August 25, 2007 at 2:59 PM:
Thank you for sharing your life. I look forward to the next installment.
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Posted by jadajoy (from Newport News, VA) on August 25, 2007 at 5:58 PM:
Great story! I miss the dairy farms in upstate New York and the rolling hills. Looking forward to more journal articles.
Joyce
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Posted by roybird (from Santa Fe, NM) on August 25, 2007 at 6:24 PM:
Good writing and an interesting subject. My husband is from upstate N.Y., Hamilton. He was up there for his 40th high school reunion this summer. He just loves it. I'm a westerner from Tempe, Arizona. SantaFe is our compromise. I intend to let him read your articles as I'm sure he will enjoy them.
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Posted by bivbiv (from Central FL, FL) on August 25, 2007 at 6:39 PM:
I'm looking forward to a year's worth of your journal. You're documenting what seems to be a vanishing way of life...unfortunately.
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Posted by Islandshari (from Kwajalein
(Marshall Islands)) on August 25, 2007 at 7:10 PM:
Kathleen, what a wonderful look at your farm...like a pleasant tour though a life that is hard, but rewarding and fulfilling. I look forward to more. We share many of the "small town" elements - but from totally opposite directions. This is fun!
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Posted by nap (from Depew, NY) on August 25, 2007 at 10:24 PM:
Hi, Kathleen. I'm a WNYer too, as you can see, and this very evening just about an hour ago my husband and I had a conversation about how there is nowhere else we would rather live than in Western New York State. Your article was one of the nicest pieces I've read in awhile. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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Posted by GREENOGRE (from Bremerton, WA) on August 27, 2007 at 11:35 AM:
HARRUMPH!
Just when it got interesting, it ends. And, not very cleanly, I must say:
***But that is jumping ahead. Let’s stay in summer for a bit longer and enjoy the endless days and the fresh peach pie in the kitchen. ***
I expected more SUMMER topics before the end. Maybe leading up to nightfall or something relating to the END OF THE DAY.
You still have some summer left. Write about it!
/Sir Ogre of the House of Orange
"Brave Helios, wake up your steed. Bring the warmth the countryside needs."
(Moody Blues ;-)))
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Posted by Kathleen (from Panama, NY) on August 27, 2007 at 1:37 PM:
Ha! It's good to know you were enjoying it.
The day the article ran ended with me yelling myself hoarse at the dumber half of the herd that would rather congregate in a corner in the pouring rain than take the 40 steps (20 for the two legged) (no, I didn't mean that we have any two legged cows) to the open barn door. I do still help get the girls in the barn for evening chores. Unfortunately, there seems to be a strange mechanism in their brains that soaks up rain water and makes them much more difficult than on dry sunny days.
A couple of notes: we used to raise corn for silage, but Stan is incredibly allergic to corn. When we went all grass, we lost some of the cows that had been good producers - they didn't like the change in the menu. The up side was that we no longer use any herbicides other than the occasional spray of Round-Up and that's mostly around the buildings.
I get up late now - between 5:30 and 6. Stan is milking shortly after 5.
Thanks for coming along - I'll try to give you a whole day next time.
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Posted by MaryE (from Baker City, OR) on August 28, 2007 at 2:49 PM:
A very enjoyable start and I'm looking forward to more installments. Life on a farm is never dull. Frustrating, funny, bone aching hard, heartbreaking, wouldn't trade it for anything enjoyable, but certainly not dull. It's a way to make a living while making a life.
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The farm that we call ours, although it would be closer to the mark to call us the farm’s, sits on the rising top of a hill that starts up out of the valley that holds Clymer Center and North Clymer. We are just past Wickwire Corners, but don’t look for it on a map, because it vanished years ago when they moved the church down to North Clymer - a town still on the map but now without a zip code.
