Good Neighbors

I'm sure everyone is sick and tired of snow photos, and frankly, so am I, but here are a couple more. To the right is our mailbox and newspaper tube, all but buried, as you can see.

This morning is excruciatingly cold, around 20 below zero, making it almost torture to walk to and fro between house and barn.

Below, you can see my neighbor showing off in his fancy John Deere tractor. He's blowing snow away from the road so the milk truck can get through. These neighbors milk Brown Swiss cows (don't tell them but I think its the most boring breed of cattle......they all look alike!), and they use the same milk hauler we do. Until last year, they were orange tractor people like us (although we do still have an old JD 630), but someone-----the friendly neighborhood JD salesman----- convinced them to defect to the green side. Oh my, we were in total shock and speechless for days after we found out!



Seriously, we have a special bond of friendship with these neighbors, who we've known forever. We feel fortunate to have a close neighbor who is still in the dairy business. There aren't many dairy farms left in our area. It used to be that every farm place down every country road had milk cows, a few beef cattle, a few pigs, chickens, ducks......you get the idea.....each farmstead used to be home to a family-run diversified operation. Nothing big, just enough to keep the family busy and provide a living. There's not much of that going on around these parts anymore, that's for sure. Mostly, there are big grain operations......one "farmer" with huge equipment works hundreds of acres, some of which he may own, but most of those acres are rented. Oh, and don't get me started on the stinky hog confinements that these big farmers build (far away from their own residences, of course)......that will be for another post......

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY, wherever you may be!!!

(BTW......we have NO SCHOOL again today.)