Cows

To all of my fellow bloggers:  This month I am participating in the annual A to Z blogger challenge by sharing a few of my childhood memories.  Learn more about the challenge and Sign up right here:
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/a-z-challenge-sign-up-list-2016.html , then go out and visit some of these excellent blogs!  Right now my number on the list  is # 1007 for Creation and Compassion and # 1008 for Random Thoughts and Tender Mercies. (The number may change as people drop out)

I grew up with a herd of Jersey cows.  They were a constant in our lives, needing to be milked morning and evening.   Now somehow I myself usually escaped the chore of milking, but I did have the job of herding or accompanying them up the road the quarter mile or so to the pasture each summer morning and then retreving them again in the late afternoon.   Once a year or so Daddy would leave the cows with Grandpa (who lived next door) or one of the high school kids from town  to be milked while we went out of town for a few days on vacation, usually to visit out of state relatives and see the sights along the way.

Siblings and I leading our calves to show at the Fiesta Days Stock Show in town.

Every summer in July our town hosts the Valley Fiesta Days celebration with several days of parades, rodeo, demolition derby, and other activities at the local rodeo grounds.   This also includes a stock show where we children would have the chance to show off one of the calves as our 4-H project.   We worked with the calves so they learned to follow a lead rope and then cleaned them up and helped to give them a hair cut to show them off at their best.  As the calves matured, had calves of their own, and began producing milk, it would be our responsibility to track their milk production and calculate our earnings.  This became our income that we could use for buying clothes, school supplies, and whatever things our young hearts desired.

Yes, I did help with the milking, a few times.  Mostly I reaped the benefits of the hard work of my family, and a childhood nourished with fresh milk!