The Dairy Farm

I was fortunate to spend four months with Mom (January - April, 2007) before she passed in May 2007. We enjoyed sharing many common memories, but Mom also told me stories I had never heard before. It was a special time.

Mom told me that the year they were married (1948)growing conditions were poor and thus grain yields were poor. The following year they had excellent crops but the markets were poor. As many farmers know, this is a common story. Mom desired to have a more steady income for her family, and hence the decision to dairy was made. Mom's parents (Esther and Gustav Hanson) had a small dairy. They gave Mom and Dad a heifer as a wedding gift. Dad had a Ford truck that he wasn't very fond of that he traded with Oscar Broen for six heifers. Thus began the dairy on the Bjorgum farm. In those early years we had a separator to separate the cream from the milk. North of the barn was a well where the cream cans were stored to keep cool until the weekly trip to Tofield to deliver cream. Milk was fed to the calves and hogs, as well as used for family consumption. Later the switch was made from selling cream to selling milk. The milk from the milking machines was emptied into a strainer sitting on top of milk cans which were taller than the cream cans. The cans of milk were stored in a tank of cold water in the milk room. A milk truck came once a week to pick up the cans of milk and deliver them to the local creamery in Camrose, the Northern Alberta Dairy Pool (NADP). A few years later the switch was made to a bulk tank. Milk from the milking machines was emptied into a step saver located in the barn. The step saver was connected to the bulk tank by hoses. The truck that picked up the milk weekly was a tanker that was connected to the bulk tank. The milk from our tank was tested before being added to the milk in the tanker. When Mom picked up the milk cheque from the creamery she would buy ten pounds of butter at a time, wrapped in brown paper. (We did a lot of home baking in those days.) She would also buy cheese from the creamery.


Most of the milking was done by Mom. Later on, Keith was a major help. Later still, Laurel helped out. She was not very old when she was able to do all the milking by herself!! Alice remembers stripping the cows by hand after the milking machines were taken off. She also remembers a favorite cow Holly which she liked to pet. Rueben, in fact, bought Alice a beautiful painting of a young girl with a dairy cow, paying tribute to Alice's memory of Holly. Occasionally I helped Mom empty the milking machines as they were so heavy. I also helped wash up the milking machines after the milking was done. It was more usual for me to help indoors with meal preparation, etc. Dad ground grain into chaffe and fed the cows and hogs. I also rememember helping Dad clean manure from the barn. In those early days it was done by hand and hauled out by wheelbarrow.

The cows loved our Mom. When she bent down to wash their udders prior to milking, her shirt would rise giving them the opportunity to lick her bare back with their rough tongues. Before we started school Mom's cousin Ethel Winder looked after us in the house while Mom was milking cows. I have fond memories of Ethel playing the guitar and singing to us. I also have never liked geraniums. During one of those times that Ethel stayed with us I pulled all the flowers off Mom's geranium plants. I can still smell that horrible smell of broken geranium stems!! Once we were school age Mom would get up about 5 in the morning, put on the porridge pot, and go out to milk. She would come back to the house later to make sure we were ready for school, and that we left for the bus on time. I was about six years of age when the transition was made from stockings and garter belt to pantyhose. I had a dickens of a time getting those pantyhose on straight and could not have survived without Mom's help!!

Milking cows was a daily commitment of several hours. In addition to milking, Mom kept a fine household. We always had great homecooked meals and baking, as well as beautiful homemade clothing. Mom always had a big garden and preserved fruit, veges and chicken. She crocheted, knitted, and quilted, and participated in community events and organizations. How she managed it all, I'll never know. She seldom sat down. She was my heroine!! (I never wanted to marry a farmer, though, because I never wanted to work as hard as my Mom had.)

Note: These musings will be posted in a random rather than a chronological order.