So, when the help cant get to the farm due to icy conditions, you gotta call in the reinforcements. In this case the reinforcements are my 7 year old daughter Jersey, and my 4 year old son Atticus. They helped gather eggs and feed baby calves in frigid weather. Ok, their help only lasted 30-45 minutes before they were ready to walk back to the house, but I enjoyed every second of it. I remember begging my dad to get me up on winter mornings to go milk the cows. Sometimes he would get me up, sometimes he said "You were just sleeping to good for me to wake you". I was always mad at him when he didn't get me up, even though I would often get to the dairy barn and fall back to sleep on a storage shelf while he milked the cows. I still remember how quiet it was at 4am to a small boy who though he and his dad were the only ones awake at that hour. I remember the sting of the cold, the smell of the cold air, the way you could hear everything, and the way our seemingly always questionable flashlight barely shined across the pasture as we rounded up the cows. I've always cherished those memories, but now that I think about it, the fact that my dad was willing to do the extra work of bringing me along is what means the most. I can only hope to be able to help create those strong emotional memories in the minds of my children. Honestly, it's why I do what I do.
