Chris Hardie

The summer season is winding down but August was usually the month for our family vacations – which were difficult to come by when you lived on a dairy farm.

“Do you know where you are going?”

My assignment as an 11-year-old on a hot summer day was to rake hay. The sun was shining, the hay was cut and we were going to bale hay.

I had a dream the other night.
It was a hot summer day and I was in the hay mow stacking bales. I could feel the chaff on my sweaty skin, hear the chatter of the elevator chain bringing up the bales from the wagon and smell the sweet aroma of the freshly dried alfalfa.

Passing the age of 60 gives me the right to slip into what I believe is my curmudgeon persona, which means I can complain about certain things that I dislike or just don’t understand.

One experience that I will never forget was when I flew with the Navy Blue Angels in 2000. The Blue Angels are in La Crosse for this year’s air show, so I am sharing a first-person story I wrote about my 2000 flight.

June is Dairy Month in Wisconsin, a time when we may attend a breakfast on a farm or some other event to celebrate this important industry.

Among the many partners in a successful farm is the veterinarian.

“Time to catch some fish,” Grandpa whispered. I jumped out of bed in my grandparent’s home in downtown Franklin in Jackson County.

The lifeblood of any farmer is the soil that provides their livelihood, so taking care of it has to be a top priority.

One certainty that I have learned over my long years is that nature moves at her own pace.