09/05/2026
What a joy to be a part of one of His Stories!
Oh, the story He has written…
People often ask us how we don’t get attached.
I’ve talked about that many times over the years, so I won’t take up this space explaining it all again. But I will say this: there is a line—and there are some animals we very much allow ourselves to love.
The dairy side of the farm is one of those places where we usually allow it…except for the bull calves, of course. Although, there was one time we crossed even that line—and we are so thankful we did. See what I mean about lines? 😉
About 9 years ago, After drinking raw milk from My Dad & Me Family Farm :: Alabama for a bit, we made the huge decision to get a milk cow of our own. We decided to begin with a calf, and it was one of the best decisions we ever made.
We brought her home and named her Clora June after my grandmother. She lived in our backyard and grew up running around with our boys, our dog, and a ram named Enoch who hardly ever let her out of his sight.
Clora wasn’t simply livestock. She was a big part of our lives.
If you’ve followed our story for a while, you know we lost our dear Clora June in February. It was a sucker punch, and because she was one of the animals we had allowed ourselves to love, we were devastated.
Honestly, there are still days when I miss her terribly. After more than nine years of experiences with dairy cows, not one has held a candle to her. We knew she was special then, but now we truly understand what a gem she was.
In the days after losing Clora, Josh reached out to our good friends at My Dad and Me—the farm where Clora’s story began. We hoped there might still be a relative of hers somewhere so that, when the time was right, we could bring a small piece of her back to our farm.
After all that time, finding Clora’s direct bloodline wasn’t possible. But our friend told us he would let us know when a heifer calf became available, and we could go from there.
In the meantime, our community rallied around us, and we were able to bring home Georgia. She arrived bred and, a few months ago, gave us our sweet Peaches.
Then spring came, summer arrived in full force, and we put our heads down and went to work.
Until one day, a text came in: “We’ve got a heifer.”
And now…well, the rest will one day be history—just like Clora’s story.
No, the calf in this picture isn’t Clora.
Meet Tina.
Tina isn’t Clora, and she was never meant to be. But she comes from the same farm with amazing people where our dairy journey began, and there is something incredibly special about watching this new chapter come full circle.
Welcome home, Tina (and will eventually get a second name because I thrive on two part names… Tina Mae, Tina Belle…)
We can’t wait to see the story God writes for you in our lives here ♥️
