Guest column: Making memories with Stella

Well, I’m not done with all the projects I envisioned for over the winter, but I’m glad spring isn’t waiting ‘til I’m caught up.

Between taking care of calving cows, teaching and enjoying time with grandchildren, and visiting my aging mother frequently, I’m lowering my expectations for accomplishing much else.

It helps when I keep my larger purposes top of mind. Like this morning, as I head out to do the morning milking accompanied by my chatty 5-year-old granddaughter who’s visiting from the suburbs, and wonder if I can keep on top of my chore routine while answering her steady stream of questions (“How do you know when a cow is about to kick?”), I remind myself that this is why I’m doing this at all, to share the farm and cows with the people in my life.

My purpose this morning isn’t just to get the milking done again like I do every morning, but to revel in Stella’s far-reaching and intelligent questions, to feed her voracious appetite for knowledge, to build this relationship to serve her in good stead all her life. (Perhaps the importance of my own grandmother memories, as shared in my last column, are prompting me to pay attention to what I’m storing in my grandchildren’s hearts and minds.)

“Can I help you milk? So I can learn, because when I grow up I’m going to have even bigger cows than you have. And Daddy and I could rig up something with a button you could push to milk the cows, so you wouldn’t have to hang those things on them. When you were little, did you know what you wanted to do when you grew up? I’m going to do lots of things, like be a singer, a music teacher…, oh, and a farmer.”

She’s an incredibly resourceful child with tremendous creativity and problem-solving skills, which I attribute partly to her attending a Montessori school. Last summer one day I found her at the bathroom sink trying to fill the watering can for the front porch flowerpots, as she decided they were dry. Finding that it didn’t fit into the sink, she set it on the counter beside the sink and was filling a cup at the faucet and then pouring water into the watering can, and on the counter and floor, too, of course. I helped her find a towel to clean up her mess, and thought to myself, “I could call her meddlesome, or I could admire her initiative.” I chose the latter.

This weekend she and her big sister admired, petted, and helped lead my new calves. Then we just took our time watching the herd as they gathered at the water tank. We laughed as one cow was playing in the water with her tongue. Several of them reached up to us, curiously sniffing, to the window where we were standing. Then Stella started blowing raspberries at them, and it was so fun to see them shake their heads and snort, and then stick their heads up for more.

So, it was a rich visit, and the girls went home with lots to tell their parents about their stay on Grammy’s farm. Now I’ll catch my breath for a few hours before the whirlwind of the next week begins.

Winifred Hoffman, of Earlville is a farmer, breeder of dual-purpose cattle and a student of life. She can be reached at newsroom@mywebtimes.com .