The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
8-19-2013 Column
The summer vacation season is rushing to a close. Everyone has finished their summer internships and we are trying to cram of summer’s worth of work into the week before they leave for the State Fair and college. I’m still trying to figure out why anyone would put the words summer and vacation together? If anything, a farm kid’s vacation starts when school begins in the fall. Summer is when the days are long and the work list is even longer.
The prodigal son returned home from Wisconsin. Michael finished his summer internship with Accelerated Genetics. This was his first job away from home and he thrived. He discovered he really missed working at home. He missed working on the farm so much that we would volunteer to help on the weekends when they needed an extra hand. They would feed him farm cooking and he could work it off. I think he was “adopted” by many families because of his willingness to work and have fun. I know he enjoyed his time in Wisconsin, but he discovered there is no place like home.
Just like a coffee commercial, he dropped his bags just inside the front door. Gave me the biggest hug and went straight to the refrigerator to see what there was to eat. He grabbed a cold glass of fresh milk and the last piece of blueberry pie. Then it was straight to the barn to see the girl he missed the most..Crystal. Before the evening milking was done, he already had Crystal out of her stall and giving her a bath. Michael has missed most of the show season this year and he just can’t seem to get it out of his system. Somehow he talked his dad into letting him take some cows to the Minnesota State Fair Open Show. He wants to take Crystal and Garnet out on the shavings once again to close out a memorable summer. He has a week to get the animals show ready between all of the other chores and activities.
Jonathon finished his internship with Helena Chemical Company this past week too. Because of his traveling schedule, we could never really count on him being around to help much this summer…until now. After these past 10 days, he might rethink his idea of not wanting a desk job. He has helped with chopping and filling the 80’ silo with haylage. At least the hot weather hadn’t kicked in yet when he had to level off the silo to drop the unloader, but he was still pretty dirty by the time he climbed back down.
We also baled much of the third crop hay, but we needed some extra help. Jonathon put the call out on facebook…”Mom made fresh pies. Anyone want to help unload hay?” The bribe worked. Lucas drove two hours from the cities just the get dirty stacking 8 loads of hay in the barn for a couple of pieces of blueberry pie and a garden supper. I don’t know who came out ahead in this deal, but he is still eager to come back again.
Katie has finished her internship at SDI (Schmitt Dairy Inc). All the kids have had to come home after their freshman year of college and work for us one last time. Her summer was filled with chores and dairy princess activities. It amazes me how she can go from dirty farm clothes to evening gowns in the blink of an eye. She has had fun getting to know the other butterheads from around the state. They have become a dairy family of sisters who each bring their own gifts and talents to the “family” as they share adventures and create lasting memories.
Probably the most memorable moment for Katie so far this summer was when she clipped the back end of a manure spreader with the van. After spending the night at our house, Katie drove the northern butterheads to the cities for a training weekend. Since she goes to school at the U, she knows how to get around the cities. Their weekend together was going well until the Sunday morning farm tour. Katie was third in the procession out to the farm west of the cities. Everyone else had passed the manure spreader successfully. Things changed when it was her turn to pass. A curve in the road and an oncoming car forced her back into her lane, except the spreader hadn’t quite cleared her right bumper yet. No one was hurt and we now have an excuse to visit Sean and Linda since we’ll be in the neighborhood picking up our repaired van. The best part of the story is how small our dairy world is. The kids are friends with the family whose spreader Katie hit!
Our front door has been a revolving door for Austin this summer. It is his turn to travel. When his older brothers and sister were on the road, he was left behind to cover chores. Now he is of the age to travel for FFA camps and workshops, dairy shows and conventions. Thank goodness Katie has been left behind to cover for his chores.
As kids come and go this summer, I just realized the last time we had everyone home at the same time was Easter. The next time will probably be Thanksgiving. My mom says it only gets worse as they grow up but at least they always want to come home for a summer vacation of hard work, good food and memories.
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As their 4 children pursue dairy careers off the farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their Minnesota farm. (Natalie grew up in Stronghurst, the daughter of Becky and the late Larry Dowell.)
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