Milk Maid

“Everyday is an adventure.” Those are the words I try to live by every single day, because I never live the same day twice.

On Tuesday morning, my dad called me and said he was being followed.

Curious, I asked, “By what?” He said, “By Jerry. Jerry is basically my shadow.”

Then, I was really confused. My nickname for my brother Gared is “Gerry” so I thought he meant for whatever reason that Gared was home from college. “Why is Gared home?” I asked him.

“No, not Gared. Jerry. Jerry Nelson, you know, from the Dairy Star.”

Oh, that Jerry. That still didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

The Dairy Star is a free publication that dairy farmers from across the Dakotas, parts of Iowa and Wisconsin and all of Minnesota receive. It’s based out of Sauk Centre and covers all things dairy in the region twice a month.

Jerry is from South Dakota and used to farm.

Now, he writes for the Dairy Star and other publications. He’s even written a book called, “Dear County Agent Guy.” It’s a neat read.

There is a section in each edition covering a, “Day in the Life of a Dairy Farmer”. Guess which lucky family was chosen for the next edition?

That would be us. People have mentioned to me that it would be neat if our family had our own reality television show, so I guess this is a taste of that.

I asked my dad, “Does Jerry know how things have been going around here lately?”

“Well, he’s going to find out!” It’s no secret that life has been a little crazy with a calving boom, fairs and now chopping silage.

There’s been many late nights and it’ll only continue as we keep harvesting. Anyway, Jerry basically shadowed us from Noon-6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

He watched and documented us doing all the things that we do in a normal day. Feeding all the animals, milking cows and goats, picking eggs and he was even lucky enough to ride in the chopper with my day on Tuesday afternoon.

I will admit, it was really weird having someone watch literally everything that you are doing and following you around.

It was strange to have everything I do normally documented and having to explain everything I was doing.

Even my animals thought it was weird to have a stranger watching them eat.

My dog Pixie didn’t let him out of her sight. “Oh that is a good idea, how did you come up with that?” or “What have you found has been especially challenging with the extremely wet summer?” or my favorite, “Do you think the chickens are beneficial to the calves?” were just some of the questions I was asked.

Just a heads up, don’t ask me what I think of all the rain we’ve received this summer. It’s made so many things challenging that if I told Jerry exactly what I thought, he’d still be here.

Before he left, he wanted to get a family photo with as many of us as possible. Well, it was a quick deal as we were in the middle of chores, we all stopped for about 5 seconds turned around and said, “Go Jerry!” and I hope the photo editor at the Dairy Star can work their magic.

My uncle was not a fan of being shadowed all day, not at all. He felt a total invasion of privacy and that being followed really slowed him down.

I think it was safe to say that all the family members were in agreement that there would be no way we could ever have our own realty T.V. show.

Before Jerry left, he asked if I had any additional comments. I said, “Everyday is an adventure around here, and today was no exception.”

I’m hoping that it will be a fun read and I can guarantee he received enough information to write a story like no other.