by David Middleton | Aug 18, 2012 | Farm Journal
“Hi. This is Roger,” a voice squeaks through my phone, “What’cha do’in?” “Ahh, nothing, “ I say suspiciously, knowing that I often am but he seldom is, especially at this time of night when there are still chores to be done. “Why don’t you come on over to the barn?”...
by David Middleton | Aug 18, 2012 | Farm Journal
“Good morning, sir” I say as cheerfully as I can this early in the morning to the old man in front of me. We are standing in the cow barn, in the cross aisle that separates the old part of the barn from the really old part. Fifty Holsteins in two parallel rows stand...
by David Middleton | Aug 18, 2012 | Farm Journal
1 SEPTEMBER 05 “Hugh, I bought a new pair of farm boots today.” “Oh, yeah, Whadcha get?” “Oh, just a pair of rubber boots – barn boots – for mucking and the mud.” “Like these?” he says pulling up his pant leg to show me a pair of old brown rubber boots he has probably...
by David Middleton | Aug 18, 2012 | Farm Journal
“Why don’t you come on over? It is something you have never seen…it’ll be interesting.” This is Roger-code for: a cow has done something really stupid and you’re not going to believe it unless you see it. That is the innocent part of the message-the first part. It is...
by David Middleton | Jun 4, 2012 | Farm Journal
Hugh Bromley died early this morning in his sleep in the same room in his house that his wife, Joan, died 4 years ago. He was in his 96th year, as he would say, the last of the sixth generation of Bromley dairy farmers in Danby. All but four of his years he spent on...
by David Middleton | Nov 17, 2009 | Farm Journal
It’s 9 o’clock at night and the phone rings. It’s Roger. “Hello, it’s Roger” “Hello, Roger. What’s up?” “When are you coming over to the barn in the morning?” “It’s usually after I get up.” “That’s not always the case.” “Why do you ask?” “The barn needs a new hoe.”...
