Spilled Milk
I am a naive person. I love believing everything will turn out beautifully. Most of the time this works for me. Actually all of the time. I was fortunate to marry a worrier and a hypochondriac, which allows me the freedom of blissful optimism. He has been worried about the economy for a couple of years now. He updates me every morning on the DOW and the price of oil, which I cheerfully ignore. He would like me to stock up on seeds today so we are fully prepared for total collapse. Great, I get to go shopping.
However the state of the union is seeping in to my brain. It started with my dad. He had a horrible supervisor, so when another company made noises about a job he quit, prematurely. The new job dissipated. It took him 6 months to find another one. Within a week of starting the new job, my mom was laid off. She has decided remain unemployed. Then last week my husband came home with the news about the Creamery. My uncle has worked there for twenty years. Our family has always thought he had perfect job security. It is not the highest paying job, but it is reliable and steady, just like my uncle.
I heard a rumor the Creamery was not going to be able to make its next payroll. My uncle says he isn’t really sure whats going on but it doesn’t look good. All the news I was hearing seemed incomplete so I decided to read the Journal’s article. Thats when I realized nobody knows whats going on. There isn’t even any evidence of foul play yet. All this hullabaloo is based on the word of a CEO that ran away. Humboldt Creamery was looking to expand its stock before this bombshell dropped. Now I read in the Times Standard this morning that they are considering defering payments to dairies. Why? They don’t even have any evidence of missing money yet. It seems to me that in these uncertain times we have to be very careful about the tone of the rumours we decide to spread. Aren’t rumours how runs on banks happen? Gossiping always seems harmless while your doing it but it can have dire consequences.
I am liking my husbands idea of purchasing a dairy cow more and more.
In Retaliation 
March 2, 2009 at 1:15 pm
If you do get a cow, can I buy some fresh milk?
Seriously, it is hard to tell from the news reports on the creamery what is happening but it does appear that some money is missing. So far it seems the Creamery has been open about the problems and that may help with any fallout from a financial mess.
March 2, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Do you know how to milk a cow? If you teach me you can have some milk.
It does seem that even as messy as this is, Humboldt Creamery is trying very hard to do the right thing.
I guess what bothered me was people talking about the end of the creamery before anyone KNEW anything.
March 10, 2009 at 3:02 pm
milking is easy you just put thumb and index finger together to form an o put the open o around teat and push up this will cause the teat to fill with milk then close the o and force the milk out of the engorged teat. With a little practice you can do it with a teat in each hand. If cow begins to pee grab the bucket quickly and turn away so you dont get yellow milk.
March 10, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I used to milk a cow for about a year but that was 10 years ago. I don’t know if I remember how though Songbird sort of jogged my memory.
March 17, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I am so excited to have fresh milk thank you for the info!