For 7 years I've milked goats and cows. . .

For 7 years I've milked goats and cows.

I know many out there have done so for more years than I've lived.

I love dairy animals for no particular reason and without rhyme.

This is nearly a fourth of my life.

John asks me if we will find a day in the future where dairy isn't a part of it, and I say honestly, such a day seems impossible to me now.

Primarily by hand.
In sub-zero temps.
When it is over 100 degrees.
Twice a day.

I cannot communicate to you unless you've been there and loved it in the same way what it all means.

Without reason. Without rhyme.

I carry the milk down a fairly precarious hillside in the mud, snow and other various slops. Therein, I have found such worth, validation and value. . .I could not give it up now.

I'll be doing the same thing if this state tried to make it illegal to use your own raw milk. Mark my word.

For nearly 1/4 of my life, as I've mentioned, I've tried to be a voice for the farmer who is hoping to see real, local milk - unpasteurized - come out of prohibition.

This year may be the one where something is passed. Who knows.

I hope we end up with a workable bill for farmers and consumers.

As the Weston A. Price Chapter contact for all these years, the number of inquiries I receive are truly innumerable. I've spent years embarrassed to tell people I have to refer them to farmers out of this state for milk.

MILK!

I hope the bureaucratic red tape involved this year does not prevent a bill from being worth anything more than the paper it is written on.

I do not care for my own sake. I am not home enough to operate much of a herd share program with raw milk, and I've never cared what laws said in this way, yet it means a great deal to the economic viability of some small farmers across this state, and it means a lot in the way of "Freedom."

It is Right. That is all.

Before people cared, before it was cool or easy. . .

I expected the legislature in my state to abide by the Motto:

"Mountaineers are Always Free," or I expected they should change it. . .

Watered down bills full of red tape do not make us free.

Maybe I'm fighting for something too many people do not understand, and as long as the people do not understand. . .

Free. . we will never be.