In Despair There Is HOPE

Hello dear followers,

yes, I haven' t written in a while and it Is because of "farm Life". We have had death here and a miraculous
 happening.  Due to the drought we are in, we have not only Lost a lease place to house our animals, but we have lost our dear precious water sources- our 'tanks", some call ponds. Our water sources. They are, and have dried, to a non-existence. And the one left is only a quicksand sorta of existence. I rescued a goat, that I hold most dearest to my heart, from there only a week before; then our worst fears, a first calf heifer of ours found the same spot. She was a half jersy half holstien, BEAUTIFUL cow, just over 2 years of age. We found her. After pulling her out, haning her, feeding her- well, it was just too much for her to over come. We lost her. In the grief of it all, was her 6 month old heifer. My "K K", a 1400+ pound Reg. Jersey, had  lost her only heifer calf (400lb heifer) a couple of weeks before to a group of malicious coyotes we have been battling, so she took up with the recent orphan heifer and accepted her as her own. So good came of bad. A cow in neeed of a calf and a calf in need of a momma. I now have no milk here for myself as I have dried off my last goat thinking I had "KK" milk. Well, it was a good trade off  knowing she took in the newly orphan in need. I will have fresh milk again within a month. All is good. This drought has been hard on So many a farmer, so many an Animal; If only you could Really Understand the implications. Of course, I am , can we say- emotionally connected, right now- but all the same, everyone is So Devestated from this- Human, Animal........ Like I said before, the resounding ablity to survive- the farmer/dairyman.

That does bring me to a topic new- I have been approached by the local "government" to list myself under tax exempt status because of farm use, now I have to fill a form and disclose "WHAT" I am, do business as- The choices are ONE only, like- grow veggies, you dairy, you sell beef cattle and so on. Well, I do ALL. We are "THE ORIGINAL FAMILY FARM", so we Do It ALL. NOPE, no such category. Sad, when we HAVE To DEFINE ourselfs under a governmental "status of".Can't we just "be ourselfs" in this day and age???????? And in this case, well, we ARE,"Just, A Family Farm". Thank You, Rafannette Dooley