Passing the Torch....

When I was a young girl one of the most exciting thing for me was going to the farm. At the age of nine I joined the local 4-H group and began spending all of my free time at a dairy farm in my hometown. It was, and still is, a family run operation of a milking herd made up of Holstein and Brown Swiss cows. I immediately fell in love with Holstein cows. For those of you reading this that have no idea what the differences in breeds of cows are or even that there were different breeds, Holsteins are what you imagine when you here cows. The big, black and white, spotted animals in the California "Happy Cows" commercials. 

I showed dairy cows for almost ten years before I became to old to participate in 4-H. At this same time in my life I kind of lost my way and got away from farming all together. Never did I imagine that I would raise a little girl who would later join 4-H and grow to love it, and the animals, as much as I did. As I sit here writing that I can not help but smile, because in her I see the same amount of joy and passion that I had at that age. 

This will be Aeryn's third year in 4-H. She joined as a Cloverbud in second grade. Now she is a member of an amazing beef club and eligible to show at the local fairs and shows. I LOVE this 4-H group. It is comprised of leaders that were 4-Hers in my group when I was younger, and their families. I could not imagine a better bunch of people to be around and to teach my daughter the things that she needs to know. 

Last year she got to show for the first time. Our friends the Plantes' were generous enough to lease us one of their beef calves for Aeryn to train and work with and take to the shows. Aeryn got this beautiful black Simmental steer named Big Mack. I will not go into the details of how that went because this blog is for her to post as well and I will let her share the details. But needless to say, she became addicted. 

This year, since she liked it so much, I decided that I wanted to buy her her own animals. We are lucky enough to have an amazing friend who is willing to let us put beef animals on his property. So I started to look around for people who had beef animals for sale that would be willing to part with them at low prices. I could not believe when I got a message from one of my friends, and Aeryn's 4-H leader, Kim saying that she had a friend who was selling an animal who would be a great project animal for Aeryn. 

In actuality this friend, Leasa, was selling two to three animals. All registered Simmental heifers. Leasa and I exchanged messages and it was determined that I was pretty sure that I wanted all three animals. (Nothing like jumping in with both feet huh?) We are in the process of hammering out the final details. 

Now for the purpose of this blog. Aeryn is in charge of the new farming operation. She gets to do most of the work, and the research involved and I thought that a blog would be a good way to share our adventures that we are having. It will be great for her to have something to look back on and say "oh I remember that". It will also be a great way for us to share both perspectives on what we have going on. Along with embarking in starting our own beef herd, we will be having pigs, turkeys and chickens. What better plan than  to give Aeryn the ability to journal everything. So, from now on, you will be reading post from her, OR posts from me. I hope you enjoy sharing this experience with us.

It is all about passing the torch, now it is time for Aeryn to feel the same joy and excitement that I felt at her age. Only I can already see her taking it farther, and more seriously than I ever did. What an amazing little girl she is.