Seasons of Refreshing

Hm...how do I start explaining all this? You know how sometimes you are having a very good day and then it gets even better?
Well....on Saturday, October 3 I got up early and headed out in rain showers for the Wingham/Teeswater, Ontario farm of Ed and Bonnie Franken and family. Now, yes, the Frankens do have some Jerseys on their farm-only natural since Ed is brother to Paul of Paullor and Mike, formerly of Ken-Fran Jerseys and John who has been involved in the breed. There are a few special brown 4-H heifers penned in their barn. The real mission, however; was the classification of 60 some head of female dairy goats and colourful-smelling bucks.
I was in a great mood heading to Frankens as we had done some goat classification training work at their farm at Easter time this past April. I had been deeply impressed by the enthusiasm, energy, work ethic and smarts of a sampling of Ed and Bonnie's seven offspring who are currently more or less between 20 and 8! And then there was Bonnie's incredible (and HIGHLY edible!!! home-cooking-so much like the food my Mother had prepared during growing up days in Nova Scotia!) They have some nifty goats too!
So my expectations of a good day were high-gloriously they were surpassed by a wide margin!
We got right down to work. Over the course of the day, six of the seven young Frankens were in the barn-working but having fun too! I must say that the younger Frankens would rival anybody in their level of organization and helpfulness. We whipped through 32 head before lunch (have I mentioned the excellence of Bonnie's home-cooking??) took a break and then went back at it. As we finished up later in the afternoon-Ed suggested that we must have done 60 or more head. I figured he was high by 10 to 15 head as it all seemed to have moved along very quickly. Once we counted-sure enough 61 head!
What refreshed me was the work ethic of these young people! Ed explained that many of the family were involved with the concrete forming/foundation business that he and Bonnie own but also pour themselves into farm work as well. I opined that no matter where the young Frankens ended up in careers they would be stand-out workers as they'd not only know how to work but also do their work with enthusiastic attitudes and a mind-set of working efficiently!
Pictures of some of the more special goats were taken, some animals were milked out, ideas for future steps in the breeding program were put out there, text messages to significant others about scores of certain goats were sent, all the while getting the task at hand done with ease!
It is always good to reminded by the example of the younger Frankens that there are many great young people coming on in the Jersey breed and other parts of agriculture. I thought about the challenges any of these young people who decide to work in animal agriculture will face. They'll be radically different challenges than those faced by their parents in their growing up days or even now.

(And did I mention how good Bonnie's home-cooking is? :-)

I suspect that, even if we are unaware of the need, we all need days like our time with the Frankens to elevate our thinking to higher levels! I left with a lot of hope, thankfulness, a nicely filled tummy and a load of new energy even in the latter parts of a full and long day!

Stay ope n to the good moments that will come your way "out of the blue"!