Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Now that I'm a "real writer" (as opposed to my former slacker's life as a married mother moonlighting as a writer), I'm amazed at all the similarities - besides sleeping late - between tortured artists and me.

Helping prepare a program for my Monday (reader's) Club prompted me to dig out the correspondence my family has saved over the years.

Feed is the most expensive input on a dairy farm. Dairy operations typically incur annual feed expenses amounting to $1,000 to $1,200 per cow per year.

The finances of Dairy Farmers of America are souring faster than cream in a July sun, according to a May 9 Moody's Investors Service report.

While reading the book written by Bettie Youngs, I couldn't help but notice many similarities to so many farm families I have known over my lifetime.

I am an unfit mother. Oh sure, other mothers might see the merit in hiding it better. But me, I work hard at it.

Although I've noticed the graduation cap and gown hanging in my daughter's closet on those few occasions when I invade her private space, nothing brought her imminent graduation home so vividly as an awards night ceremony where her classmates were honored for their high school achievements.

Standing atop the sweeping farm ridge 70 miles north of Berlin, the stiff wind off the Baltic Sea painted my cheeks apple red in minutes.

There has never been a time in my life without dogs. I can't imagine it any other way. I remember a black and white photograph in an old family album.

Combing through yellowed pages of Farm and Dairy from 1925 yields a unique look at history. As I look for items to include in the "80 years ago" portion of our weekly Read It Again feature, I'm struck by how different life was then, and yet, how little has changed.