New Focus

I will keep this short and sweet. Mostly because today has been one of those long days.
I feel that every Mom needs an outlet. Something to do that is only for her, for me I hope this blog can be that! Originally I had planned to focus mostly on dairy farming, but now that I am a Mommy there are so many areas of my life I am passionate about. I have always loved to write, sometimes it's the only way I can clear my head. Hopefully here I can reawaken that love and maybe interest a few other people at the same time.
So here goes..........Hope you join me!

Ahh Perfect!

Ok in all reality no day, especially in a mother's life, is perfect. But today for me was pretty darn close. My little man is almost 6 months old and I am at that stage of parenthood in enjoying all the firsts with my firstborn. Today was the pumkin patch! While he's not big enough to pick out his own pumkin, I certainly was thrilled with introducing him to the concept. It brings a new awareness of life to think of things through our childs eyes, espeically at the first time for something. Add on top of that experience the fact that today was a gorgous fall day in Oregon. I don't mind fall, a few days of rain and then a break to recharge. Sometimes Oregon forgets to give us that break. But today more then made up for that sometimes forgetfulness, sunny and 78 is pretty much perfect weather in my book! My son also had his 6 month well baby check up today. (Yes as a dairy farmer you often group your outings all into one day! Getting away one day can be hard enough!) We have a completely healthy son, and I definitely don't take that for granted.
Such a great day makes me feel so blessed!

 

The First One...Why?

I live what some people consider a controversial lifestyle. Am I a drug or arms dealer? Smuggling people across borders? Engaging in other illegal activites? No, none of the above, I am a dairy farmer. Just doing what my family has been doing for three generations now. But due to the "wealth" of information available to the average person these days my kind has become a target for a very negative spotlight. Dairy farming in general has been targeted by animal rights groups that would love to see the world go vegan. I am not saying these groups don't have their place in some areas, I am a firm believer in animal welfare. But an incident that occured a few months ago made me want to take action. I am not even going to mention the groups name, or post a link, but I will give you the just of it. A video was posted on an animal rights group's website of dairy cow abuse. This video was shot over the course of a month with undercover recording. The abuse was horrific, I couldn't even get through the first five seconds of the video. All of it was inflicted by one employee, on one farm. This group proceeded to claim  "that violence and abuse to farmed animals – whether malicious or institutionalized – run rampant nationwide." Here's what irritates and really touched my nerve about this particular incident.
1. The horrible footage was captured over a timeline of over a month.
If you are truly an animal welfare group and there for the protection of these animals, why didn't you report this problem immediately and spare these animals from the abuse? It's just sickening to me to think that these groups are there for the animals, but are standing by and watching as these horrible things are happening just to get some good footage for a film they want to use to prove a point.
2. This was one employee on one farm.
Ok, so there was probably some employee management issues going on at this farm, but I bet every one of you can think of a bad employee out there. The truth is that not all people are good people. And not all people are cut out for the line of work they are in.I can garuntee you that any dairy farmer who caught an employee inflicting this kind of abuse on his animals would immediately fire the person, report them to authorites for animal abuse and make sure that they never worked in job where they would have contact with dairy cattle again. 
The fact that this group used this footage to protray a typical type of treatment of dairy animals frusterates me even more. So I am here on this blog to share my story of dairy farming. To connect people to a world that they have become so disconnected from . To share another side of the story, because not everything you find on the internet is true. On an end note the above is kind of dark and honestly horrific. To have my lifestyle put in the same catagory as illegal activities breaks my heart. Dairy farming is something I have chosen and Love and look forward to sharing it all with you. I am sure other topics will be thrown in along the way, and you can learn more about me and my life. But this incident was the fuel for my starting a blog and reaching out to the world through our cyber connectivity. (yes I am pretty sure that's a word) So enjoy, and hopefully at some point in time, someone will read this!
All the Best