Faith & Family on the Farm: Babies in the Barn

One of the perks of owning your own dairy is being able to be at home, raising your children, and also have a career at the same time. I knew in high school that I wanted to farm. I also knew I would want a family. I grew up on a farm and all I knew was that Mom was there went you got on the bus. Dad did the morning milking. Mom or Dad was somewhere when you got off the bus (house OR barn). When we milked 3 times a day, Mom did the late night milking. When Mom had an appointment in town, you rode with Dad in the truck to the stockyard. When there was a snow-day, you helped Dad milk in barn. Later, you did the milking by yourself while Dad did something else. Snow days were no fun when I was in school! Anyway, both my mom and dad worked on the farm while we were growing up. So I knew it could be done.

Sounds easy, right? Turns out it's more like having two full time jobs. But I am a master multi-tasker, and the pay-off at the end will be worth it. We will not see the end (grown up children) for awhile, but we have already seen the benefit of being able to teach biblical moral principals and work ethics. Our kids have also been able to learn from real-life scenarios that play out day by day on the farm. For instance, one of our bulls that we used for breeding had to be shipped to the stockyard. One of the kids asked why, and although it was hard for us,we stated that "his penis broke, so he is not able to breed cows anymore". That kid promptly went to his Wednesday night church program and shared that during Praise & Prayer time. Priceless!! LOL

Often, people say to us "I don't know how you do it!" This is hard to reply to, since most of the time people don't have a couple of hours for me to explain our schedule and organization techniques, along with how we keep the kids busy during certain times of the day. However, I thought I'd share some of the highlights.

While we're in the barn for milking, feeding calves, or herd health checks, the kids each have different areas where they play or stay occupied depending on their age. When we built the parlor, we were expecting our first child. Our building designer included an area in the parlor that is surrounded by plexi-glass where we can fit a play pen, and swing or johnny jump-up when necessary. The progression is this:

1. Infant swing, until they are too big for the swing.
2. Johnny Jump-Up, until they can sit up on their own.
3. Play pen-with toys or books, until age 4
4. Swing set (which is positioned in front of the milking parlor so we can see them play)
5. Toy box- if they are past the play pen stage, and the weather is bad we have a toy box we keep in the barn with toys that they can play with in the milk house.
6. As the kids get older, they get a little more freedom. If they abuse the freedom, we draw them back to a more structured environment/area until they choose to respect the rules we give them.

Our first child slept in a laundry basket while we milked when he was an infant. One day, while the vet was here, I very excitedly asked, "Do you want to see what's in my basket???" He said "Sure" and I took off the small blanket I draped over the top. I will never forget his surprised look, when he saw a baby in there! He said " Oh my!! (big laugh) I was sure there was kittens or puppies in there. Every farm has kittens or puppies! I didn't know you were pregnant!" In which I replied "Well I'm not, now." He still recalls that day often when he comes out to the farm. Here are some pictures of our kid "areas"