Yesterday was field trip day (probably my favorite of the homeschooling days). Our new place to explore: A dairy farm that produces raw milk.
As we got our tour of the farm, I couldn’t help but dream of life in the country running a dairy farm (and, yes, absolutely looked at farm land on Zillow while my husband drove us the hour and a half home). It all seemed so simple yet beautifully hard.
It was work the family LOVED doing. You could hear it as they smiled and shared their life.
It was work the family loved benefiting from. You could hear it as they talked about how healthy their kids were and how much they were able to create from their dairy cows.
It was work that brought all generations together. You could see it in their organizational structure, built almost solely of their kids and grandkids.
As the five homeschooling families finished the tour, stocked our coolers with raw milk, and drove home, we were all smiles. This life felt idyllic. Hard? Yes. But also, idyllic.
It was filled with purposeful work.
It was filled with a clear focus on what needed to be done.
It was filled with things that offered instant gratification, insulation from any recessions or wars, and interest from everyone on the farm and community.
Isn’t that what we want as moms and entrepreneurs? We want our own raw milk style business doing the work that lights us up and that we can do alongside our kids — not away from them.
We want to be challenged.
We want to wake up each morning with a clear idea of what has to get done.
We want to expand in ways that’ll make a difference.
The first part of the tour, we got to meet the cows out in the field. They came right up to you, knowing they were about to get loved on. They showed off their crazy tongue trick that apparently Jersey cows do for funsies. And we got to learn how the farmer tracks each cow’s cycles and needs with an app (and a fun ‘lil circle chart in the production house that I’m now thinking about how I can use in my home for my business too - maybe a future product? Who knows).
The second part of the tour, we got to see how the milk was sanitized and bottled. Next to their bottling system was a new bottling system that their kids were working to engineer since it was built to jug gallons of milk only. This farm intentionally chose to stick to half gallons for two reasons:
Kids can lift it easier
Elderly can lift it easier
Ever wanted a masterclass in breaking traditional norms and giving your audience what they need instead? THIS IS IT.
The third part of the tour, we got to see how they built a whole hydrogreens system to create their own feed. This system grew barley from the bush to food for the cows in less than a week. Better yet, it used 25% less water to do than traditional methods. All the run off water from the system is also saved and gathered into rainwater barrels to give to the cows so nothing is wasted.
Finally, it was milking time. Growing up, my grandpa told me about the days he worked on a dairy farm and how he used to drink milk straight from the cow. I used to think it was disgusting until yesterday. We milked the cow, and then we drank what we milked right then and there. It was warm, but actually incredibly good (and sweet thanks to those hydrogreens). I still prefer my milk cold, but it was a pretty cool thing to check off my list (and I can’t help but think my grandpa was smiling down as he watched me take that sip).
Back to motherhood, entrepreneurship, and raw milk…
Your business can feel like this simplified and more nutritious raw milk approach.
I drove away wishing I had my own dairy cow, yes. But also that my business felt this straightforward.
That’s why I’ve moved all my clients to asynchronous contracts (and will teach you how to do the same soon).
It’s why I’m creating a more personalized approach to helping you develop your business (private 1:1 mentorship that’s all asynchronous is coming soon, too).
It’s why I’ve put together this free community for other wild & free entrepreneurs to come together and share how we’re all bringing our journey home in a way that can feel beautifully hard, yet also beautifully simple.
Here's the link if you haven’t jumped into that free space yet. Invite a fellow mom who might want this added layer of support, too.
Because we get to choose how we show up for the people we serve with half gallons or full gallon jugs. We get to choose how we design our family’s daily rhythm to get our work done together. We get to choose our hard.
~ Kimberly