Things...

Farmers have one very important thing in common.
Faith.

I'm not necessarily talking about faith that you would find in Church because I respect the fact that not everyone has the same views as I.
There, now that's out of the way.
Whew!

So, faith.
We are currently chopping corn and you have to understand how important corn and other crops are to a farm.
Especially a dairy farm.

Everything I do up here, with these lovely, leggy gals, relies on the crops.
If my ladies aren't making milk, then I'm not making a living..and neither are the other people who work here.
If my girls aren't being fed right they won't make milk, or carry a baby, heck even their feet suffer!
It all depends on that one thing..that teeeny tiiiiiny little seed that is planted.

We have faith that those seeds are going to germinate and grow to the best of their ability.
Then we have to do our part to keep them healthy and harvest them on time.

That's all we can control.
The rest is out of our hands.

But what if we have a flood? Drought? Fire?
Then we have to make do with what we have until next year.
(We also have crop insurance for this purpose...I digress.)

Last year the corn that we chopped was...terrible.
Dry dry dry.
Plus when it was in the fermentation stage in the pit it developed mycotoxins!
Geeeez!  I couldn't catch a break. 
Sick cows, non-pregnant cows, late term abortions...yeah that's how bad it was.

But you know what?
We planted corn again..because we have faith that it's going to be better.
And because if it's not we can handle it.
It's the tough times that you learn the most from.

Those times when you are forced to change your routine are when you find out how strong you are.
How much you believe in yourself...and how much others believe in you.

You grow.
And you get better.

You know very well that I believe EVERYthing happens for a reason.
I don't look for the reason, I just have faith that it's there.

I woke up this morning with a famous quote in my head..
(I was lucky because yesterday I woke up with "Born This Way" by lady Gaga on repeat in my mind.)

It helped me find my focus today.

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go. Things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right. You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together."

-Marilyn Monroe

I live on that last line.