OOPS! I apologize to anyone who tried to make the Corn Pudding Souffle from last week’s column. I left an important ingredient out, and I am sorry about that mistake. The ingredients should read:
3 cans corn, drained
1 CAN SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK
4 eggs
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
Blend it all together in a blender. Pour into a greased 2 qt. pan and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Until golden brown and “set”.
We made it last night for supper when we celebrated our youngest son, Peter’s, birthday a few days early. It was delicious, but it sure wouldn’t have been without all of the ingredients!
A new year has begun, and several of us probably can think of things we want to change as we enter another year of life. We have seen a big change around our farm in the last couple weeks. My husband, Dan, decided to stop milking cows! He says, “It was just time”. He has told me several times that he was getting closer, but I was surprised when it actually became a reality. It is almost like an addiction, that dairy farming blood that runs through their veins. I can honestly say that I never once heard him say that he wished he didn’t have to go out and milk. He enjoyed what he did almost every day. Even when snow, mud, or horribly cold temperatures put up hardship, he quietly went about the work that was in front of him.
When our grandson, Brayton, asked him how long he had been doing that chore, he said he began at age thirteen. After doing the math, we all realized it had been a really long time! He started at “home”, with his parents and siblings near Brewster. First in a big barn with stanchions, then on to a milking parlor where they milked about eighty cows twice a day. It certainly was a full time job for their family, plus all of the hogs and chickens raised in his growing up years.
When we moved to the Fulda area as a young married couple in 1970, the barn here had been used to house hogs. Dan was anxious to move his cattle up here and begin his own job of milking. He began with stanchions also, storing the milk in cans. We cooled the canned milk in a stock tank equipped with an old can cooler unit. I remember taking those cans down the long lane to the road during snowstorms when the milk truck wasn’t able to make it up to the yard.
When we were able to build a milk room, he actually purchased our first bulk tank from Dell Goedtke, who had just quit milking himself. Eventually in 1982, Dan’s brother, Dave, came and stayed with us for three weeks and helped us build a milking parlor. He was a block and brick layer, and with his expertise and all of our sweat, it was accomplished. That building made the task of milking so much easier on knees, legs and backs. All four of our children, (even some foster children) plus myself, helped Dan milk over the years. None of us loved it like he did, but it brought us through tough times in the 1980’s, and gave us much time to talk and laugh together. It was a good way to raise our family and certainly taught them all how to work. With cows come other needed tasks like baling hay, hauling manure, fixing fences, and cleaning stalls and the milk tank. They learned to never say the word “bored”, as they would be rewarded quite quickly with some extra jobs!
Anyone that knows me very well, knows that I would “encourage” Dan often to quit milking. (I’m sorry, some days it probably sounded more like nagging…) It is a job that ties you down all 365 days of the year, no exceptions. It made it hard to “get away”, even for a day or two. To Dan’s credit, he did make time for some short family vacations while the kids were growing up, but he always said it was easier to stay home than to go. And of course, every time you drove out of the lane, it cost money to hire someone to do your job. No paid vacation days or time off when you are self-employed.
As our children grew up, married, and had children, it became harder to see them for any length of time or attend family celebrations or special programs for the kids. Many times I would go myself, but that just isn’t the same. I missed him coming with me, and of course our kids and grandkids did too. He missed out too, more than he probably realizes.
His answer to me when I asked him in earlier years how long he was planning to milk, he would comment that he was going to quit at 55. As I watched those years come and go, it became apparent that he just wasn’t ready. Then about eight years ago we had a tornado that blew the barn away, wrecked the silo and machine shed, but the milking parlor still stood. As we first surveyed the damage, he said we would probably be done with milk cows. About twenty minutes later he came to me and said, “ I changed my mind. We are going to rebuild.” Ugh…here we go again!
After I retired from teaching in 2012, he cautioned me that he was not yet ready to “retire from the daily milking”, and that was O.K. I thought it was probably best for us to make these big changes one at a time. Since then, I really have tried to be more patient and let him choose the right time for him.
Even though he quit the actual job of milking, he still enjoys feeding some bred cows, heifers and calves. But these chores are less than a half hour twice a day, and ones that our son, Peter, is happy to drive out and do for us from his home in Slayton. It has enabled us to already have a couple days away to see family, and it is good to see Dan have some extra time to relax and enjoy life.
Change…sometimes comes hard. Sometimes it is just time for it to happen. I wondered what I would see in the following days when the milk truck no longer needed to come. It has pleasantly surprised both of us, I think. It feels like a joy that comes with accomplishment. Realizing our aims for goals in life and sticking to them. Now that those goals have been reached, it seems natural to celebrate with feelings of peace and contentment as we enter this season of partial retirement together.
lbeerman68@gmail.com
