One more blog to write and I'm done for the week! Oh, no, wait. Must write one for Wickedly Romantic on Sunday. Maybe I'll do that one later.
After my sisters and I visited the Mary Todd Lincoln House in Lexington, we went to the Fayette Mall and my sister, Bonnie, wanted to see if they had any of my books in Waldenbooks, and they did. They had Outcast. Bonnie didn't know I'd used her name for the heroine, but she found out as soon as she flipped through it. I think she was pleased.
Naming heroines is as much of a challenge as naming the heroes. Guys have to have cool, macho, and in the case of my heroes, usually feline sounding names. But for Outcast, I needed a woman who was a tough farmer, and Bonnie is all of that. She runs her own dairy farm, and she will tell you that it's a very hard life--made even more difficult by the powers that be. Small dairy farms are steadily being pushed out of existence and pretty soon there won't be any of them left if things keep on the way they are. Farm expenses outstrip profits and not much is being done to rectify that situation. Even some of the big farms are going bankrupt. Something is definitely souring the dairy business.
Trust me, if you think milk is expensive, the farmers aren't the ones profiting. Just wait until all of our milk has to be imported, and then we'll see how much we have to pay for ice cream.
I hate to get all political, but it's not right. . . it's just not right. . . .
8 comments:
I understand that. We used to live next to farmer's and wow they worked so hard.
I always have a hard time naming characters myself XD
If Leslie lived closer I'd say we should all go to her wedding lol.
I remember my father saying how much he enjoyed being in the military. Said it was a helluva lot easier than farming!
Yeah, I don't get to Miami very often...It would be fun, though!
I think it's great you named your outcast character after your sister. My grandparents were dairy farmers and my folks took it over after them. My kids were raised with the cows. My daughter was 7 when she went to the pasture and brought her first herd to the barn. It's a tough life, very restricting, but rewarding. But my Mom to this day. Misses her cows and her chickens and pigs and her farm.
That would be awesome for us all to go to Leslie's wedding. We might get too rowdy though. LOL
Together, I think we'd be dangerous!
I love that you named your heroine after your sister! She's very pretty, too:-) I totally agree about what's happening to farmers in this country, for what it's worth. It is NOT right, and very sad that it's come to what it has. Imported milk is ridiculous, but we import freaking EGGS, and that is utterly beyond me.
We should at least all come up with a fun gift for Leslie on her wedding. Can we wrap Derrick? Hmm, but the groom might not like that. He could be a gift for the bachelorette party!
Wow! How fun for your sister to be surprised like that! How did you ever keep it a secret. My sister and I "spill" everything to each other. I'd have a difficult time keeping something important like that out of any conversation!
I've heard a little bit about how the smaller farms struggle. A couple of summers ago, my sister-in-law arranged a summer field trip to an organic dairy farm near the coast. We had a great day there learning about the process of milking, etc. and what made the cows "organic". This dairy was very impressive in that they were also able to make their own electricity by collecting the manure and creating methane. The kids grumbled about the smell, but were thrilled to death when they made butter in a matter of minutes by shaking fresh cream until it solidified. I'd never seen my kids eat Triscuits until that day because it was the only cracker we had and they were gonna eat the butter they made no matter what.
I hadn't thought of that day in a long time. It was a really good day! Thanks for your post and jogging my memory a bit!
I worked on a dairy farm in upper Idaho, near the Canadian border, when I was pregnant with my third child. I had to quit when I got too pregnant to throw a bale of hay around, and it is HARD WORK, for sure. No matter what else is happening, those cows GOTTA get milked twice a day---I'd had a herd of goats before that, but goats are smart, and they pretty much took care of themselves---cows are NOT SMART and need to have everything done for them! Farmers are the Salt of the Earth people, and I HATE what's being done to them. Can we do anything to help??
It was pretty easy to keep the fact that I'd named a character after her from Bonnie. She doesn't have Internet--or even a computer--and with both of us working odd schedules, we don't even try to get each other on the phone very often. Bonnie talks to Marcy (she calls her at work) and Marcy and I communicate through email or Facebook. Strange times....
I have no idea how to help small farmers other than to buy things from them. I get my hay, eggs, and beef from my neighbor across the road, and I hire her to mow my pasture, too. Other than yelling at our Senators and Congressmen, I don't know what else to do. It's a disgrace that we've gone to importing so much when our own farmers are going broke. Like I said, it's just NOT RIGHT!!!
And you're right about cows, Suzy. Bonnie does a whole lot more to keep those cows healthy than I ever do for my horses!
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