[Calvincrowe]

I just saw that my hay guy's dairy (his "day job") had a terrible fire last night. His milk parlor/historic barn burned to the ground! Lost at least 2 cows.

The other dairymen in the county have arrived to pick up his milking herd since he can't milk them out.

The hay barns were about a 1/2 mile down the road (his dairy spreads out for 2 miles on either side of a rural road), and are fine.

I love going up to get hay and shooting the breeze with his elderly father who still works the dairy each day (he's 83!) and loads out hay customers. I just feel like I should offer help or something. I know their phone is probably lit up and the voicemail is undoubtedly full. They have been in the community for 75 years and are one of 4 working dairies left.

What should I do?

[Tamara in TN]

Call and say that you were sad to hear what happened and that if you could be of help please call.


that is more comforting than anything else you could do

Tamara

[Calvincrowe]

Thanks Tamara--Facebook is lit up with all the hay clients expressing their sorrow and offers of help. One neighbor (a school mate of mine) is heading over to be our "spokesperson" and finding out what they need. I hope that will be better than everyone driving by, gawking and bugging them when I'm sure they are in shock and needing to get things moving without us in the way.

I doubt they really need anything from the public right now, but what a hit to their bottom line! Dairying is such an iffy proposition right now. I wonder if a fundraiser down the road would be appropriate??

[cutter99]

Any type of help would probably be greatly appreciated! Even showing up with cold drinks on a hot day or a meal, because I'm sure no one is thinking of cooking while they recover from their loss and try to regroup. It doesn't have to be a "grand" gesture- even little things make a huge difference!

[trubandloki]

I have to agree with cutter. Even a platter of cookies will be appreciated (even if they already have 10 platters of cookies).

[crosscreeksh]

So sad...I'd go with a big pot of pasta salad, rolls and some cold drinks. I'm sure they have a lot of cleaning up to do.

[Calvincrowe]

I'm sure the insurance adjuster has been out already, but the darn thing is still on fire! The young stock was literally right next to the fire, along with the milking herd--so scary to see the TV video of the fire, trucks and big, black and white Holsteins and wee Jerseys side by side!

Our mayor is on the case, too, so hopefully we can get these families some community support. A new milk parlor is going to take some doing and time to put in place. I just hope they don't decide to throw in the towel