Tomorrow

It’s Friday. As the cool mornings arrive again, and the dew is on the spider webs in my gardens, the fog is hanging tightly to the alfalfa until the sun warms up the day. Hot days with high humidity have me melting with sweat. The cows know where to go when it is hot. Many are crowded by the misters or laying in the stalls under the fans cooling off. I actually prefer to be in the barn with the misters too. The air cools down and so do I.
The weeks this summer have been zipping past so fast. I am missing out on some activities that we should be going to. I missed all of the local fairs and even the Wisconsin State Fair. Not because I didn’t want to go, but simply because I didn’t put it on my calendar to schedule that time off.
 As I look around the farm as summer comes to a close, my early apples are all laying on the ground. I did pick a bushel basket and have it waiting on the porch to make applesauce. I will need to put that on my schedule, or it won’t get done.
The three runt piglets we got in April were the size of little banana nut loafs. They are all now well over 150 pounds and growing so fast. Whenever I have tours, the kids pick up the fallen apples and bring them to the pig pen to give them a treat. All three pigs squeal with delight when they enjoy the fallen apples. We are hoping this treat will season their bacon into apple flavored. These piglets were put onto my calendar back in April to be processed in October. That was the earliest date available with our local meat processor. We had home-processed pigs once but never again. Getting a date at the processor is important.  
The ducklings that hatched in early spring have been gone for a while. The fox family knows that ducks are not too attentive to their little ones when they are resting in the shade of the apple trees. They disappeared one by one. Eventually, the ducks are the only ones left, and the fox family with their pups moved on. I didn’t want to have to deal with 40 ducklings, and the ducks didn’t seem to miss their ducklings either.
We had a family of sandhill cranes that nested in our waterway between the soybean fields. I have been able to observe them on wagon rides with the visitors as we check out the crops. After the chick hatched, the adults led the chick away, and it could barely be seen in the tall grass or soybeans. As it gets closer to the time that the family will be flying south, the little chick has been flapping and lifting itself up practicing. The little one is now as big as its parents, and they are no longer worried when I drive by with the tractor and wagon. We see the three at the end of the freestall barn, looking around for something. Perhaps they are curious about us as we are about them. The migratory birds amaze me with their ability to know when to leave. They don’t need a date on the calendar; they get compass information from the position of the setting sun and from landmarks seen during the day.
In the evening, as I walk to the house after chores, I am usually in a quiet, calm mood, winding down from the busy day. As I kick off my boots on the porch and take a seat on the rocking chair, I think about how the day went and what tomorrow will bring. The days on the calendar will keep flipping by, new calves will be born, and old cows will retire. I am getting older, and it will keep me thinking about the years to come. Is there a way to schedule everything in to get the most out of what we need to feel full at the end of the day? That might be what is leading all of us to look forward to the future, looking forward to the excitement of a new day and the possibilities that we have to make it any way we want it to be. I tend to like my days full of busyness, steady with daily structure and routine, and a sense of accomplishment when I turn off the lights when I leave the barn.
I sit in the rocking chair on the porch, rocking and relaxing while I listen to the crickets chirping. It is a sound that fall is coming. The work that will be happening is the same as the year. Tomorrow will be here soon enough.
Tina Hinchley, and her husband,  Duane, daughter Anna, milk 240 registered Holsteins with robots.  They also farm 2300 acres of crops near Cambridge, Wisconsin.  The Hinchley’s have been hosting farm tour for over 25 years.