April 26, 2009 – The dairy farm has one more week to go, and while there is a sense of sadness in the family, there is also some relief. This is grueling work, starting at 4:30 a.m. and never really ending.
  The process of keeping the farm going, when milk prices are so low and the cost of everything is so high, simply became oppressive. There is the sense of an era ending, for sure. Family farms have been struggling for generations, and we seem to live in a corporate culture where individuality usually gives way to bottom lines. A country whose sense of well-being centers around banks and markets cannot support the notion either of individuality or of the small family farm. Really the same thing, perhaps. Watching this well-run, much loved farm, I don’t find myself asking how to keep it going, but rather, how did it last this long? Last cows leave next Friday.