Connect Four: A Wisconsin Dairy Farm

We were invited to Carrie's farm in Wisconsin on Saturday. What an eye-opening experience for us city folk. It's crazy the amount of dedication it takes to be a dairy farmer. You have to milk twice a day...and it's not like you can just wake up and say "Eh, I don't feel like working today." Their poor udders would explode from engorgement. Carrie's dad goes to bed every night by 8:30 and he's back up by 3:30am.

Three Thirty AM! That's not early morning, that's middle of the night. To go to bed at 8:30...we don't even begin watching our dvr'd shows until after 9pm.

Dairy farming is a whole different world to me, and I marveled at the dedication, the drive, the hard work...all so we can have milk in our cereal and cream in our coffee.

A two-day-old calf.

The dogs were very interested in it. The smaller Golden Retriever is Carrie's mom's dog, Chaney. He, Tucker, and Booth all came from the same breeder in Wisconsin.

The kids really loved all the calves they had, much less intimidating than the big cows.

The kids couldn't believe that every cow had a name.

The milking parlor was unbelievable. Every day...twice a day...they milk over 65 cows. Crazy!

Every cow has a name...this one was Shakira. You know my hips don't lie and I'm starting to feel it's right. Haha...no, she didn't break down into a beat, but she was swinging those hips waiting for her turn at the gigantic Medela-like pump.

Rowyn found herself another boyfriend. That's Maverick, Carrie's four-year-old nephew. Right now he just hangs out and plays when his dad and mom are helping milk, but I imagine he'll be right in there helping once he's a little older. My kids growl and moan when I ask them to make their bed...they have no idea how easy they have it compared to the hard work farm families do every day.