After howdies and hugs, we joined them
in the back under their veranda roof for a cold one and some catching
up. Our niece Jessica and her family, husband Heath and their
daughters Mady and Anna came for a lasagna dinner. It has been
awhile since we have seen them all. The last time we saw Jessie's
family was on the street in front of the Town Pump in Cassville one
July day a couple years ago when it was around 90 degrees with about
100 percent humidity - wilting us and nearly doing them in. Anyway,
we made plans with Heath to visit one of his family's huge dairies
the next day. We slept like rocks that night.
On Monday, Jan - who had a kidney
transplant just last May - wasn't feeling well, so Tom entertained us
with fresh grapefruit picked from his trees and donut holes for
breakfast. We went with him to their old house - one we visited when
we came for Jessie's wedding a decade or so ago - to pick up mail,
the paper, and check out his fruit trees. He said he planted them
over twenty years ago and now those trees produce bushels of
grapefruit, lemons, oranges, and tangelos. I ate a tangelo in the
back yard, ending in a super sweet, juicy ambrosial mess. (I made a
mental note to bring a big bag of those home.) Tom treated us to a
wing lunch at a nearby sports bar with the Arizona Girl's State
tournament on the screen. The talked ranged from (imagine this) deer
and elk hunting - he got an elk in the mountains near Flagstaff in
the fall, ice fishing with the nephews, and the family in Colorado
and Wisconsin, and winter back home. We had elk stew for supper
Monday night.
Tuesday after lunch, Heath picked us up
and took us on a tour of his family's newest (and oldest) dairy
operation. While the Accomazzo's have a number of dairies south of
Buckeye, this one was closest. Heath showed us the various pens for
younger stock, birthing, resting, and of course feeding active
milkers. We stopped at a well site where two men were drilling
another water well to be used for irrigation and at least one part of
the dairy. I think he said they would get water around 400 feet
down. Heath told us about the manure ponds where manure was pumped
into lined pools to dry before it is put on farm fields. He said
that a new environmental rule was going to require that farmers there
put domes or caps on these drying pools to capture the escaping
methane gas to be used for energy. We watched the mostly Mexican
help milk cows in one of the milking parlors with about a hundred
cows facing away from a four foot deep cement trench. As the cows
come in to be milked, they pass through a spray wash that cleans
their udders. Heath said each cow has a computer chip implant that
is recorded as they enter, helping managers keep track of each
individual animal's production and status. The workers applied
milking machines which dropped free from the cows when the milking
was complete. As the machines dropped off, workers dipped each cow's
teats by hand after the milking finished. Then there was a buzzer
like noise and all the cows were released to make room for the next
bunch. They were milking around a hundred cows every 8 to 10 minutes
- around the clock, and this is their smallest operation. There
were huge piles of bailed hay and other forage foods surrounding the
maybe 30 acre (my estimate and without crop fields) compound. Heath
said they employ two trained AI technicians that do artificial
insemination full time. Most of their milk is sold to be dried and
sold overseas he said. This is a little different from my grandma
Potter milking her 8 brown Swiss cows by hand in oil lantern light
out on the ridge top farm or my grandpa Koelker milking his 40
holsteins twice-a-day when I was growing up.
This was an eye opening and quite
interesting tour. Oh, we also visited Heath's meat goats, a venture
he hopes will pay off with the demand for goat meat. Anyway, we got
back to Tom and Jan's in time for a cocktail and we sat in the sun
for awhile, cooking pretty fast I might add. Tom fixed elk steak for
dinner and we had Anna there to entertain us.
Until next time, get out - and the
river ice around here ended its run this last weekend I think,
although there were maybe 100 guys on the ice at De Soto Bay and
Greymore Lake near Prairie du Chien on Sunday morning when we drove
south. There were probably 50 boats at Genoa and 30 at Lynxville
dams. After lunch with Barb and Chuck at the Spring Lake Tavern, and
the obligatory visit to my favorite big-boy toy store - Cabela's, we
figured the fishing must have been less than stellar. There were
only four trucks left at Lynxville Landing, and only maybe six boats
we could see at Genoa. I wonder how many near heart attacks here
were in the Badger Nation and then the Michigan State Nation on
Sunday? Go Badgers - whew! Finally, Ellen pointed out our first
robins of the season on Monday morning. More about our trip next
time. Enjoy.
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