Well, here we are almost 3/4 of the way through 2025! Where has the year gone?

As I sit here Tuesday morning (9/9), I find myself inspired to start the blog back up. Things have slowed here in The Milk House, as we are down on milk supply. Currently milking eight cows (twice a day) that are all late into their lactations, waiting on Theo to calve at the beginning of October to help out our supply! There isn't enough supply to make much at the beginning of the week, so here I am... tapping back into my blog!

We have had an eventful year so far! This spring, around the beginning of March, I parted ways with a person I thought was in this adventure for the long haul. I can't say that I never saw it coming but it was apparent that the end goal was not the same and the drive wasn't there to make The Milk House bigger and better... in her eyes it just looked like more work. I can't blame her, it is a lot.

That one single change launched us into something I never expected... GROWTH! I put my nose to the grind and worked mostly every milking and the store hours most days for about a month and a half. This, in short, led to what I would call (and the people around me) a mental breakdown. I didn't want to run into hiring someone else right away because I wanted to make sure I was hiring the right person. This had become an overwhelming thought when I was deep into the grind and keeping this monster of a business functioning.  I can't complain that I have built a business from scratch that is thriving... I've had dark days as a business owner before, but never a dark day about a growing "Thriving" business!

With a husband that is very mindful of my emotions, kids concerned about their Mom and a best friend that came to my rescue (even showed up for the 5:00am milking the next morning after my breakdown), I made it through! We all worked together to come up with a plan to start getting some help around here!

Since then we have hired a few people and also fired a few people. This business has pushed me into being a Boss, and that is a new concept to me! Each instance it challenges me with I always learn a few things in the end! We are currently functioning with one part time milker and three part time people in The Milk House making product throughout the week and Dallee and I filling in all the cracks. Oh wait, we can't forget about Ty who keeps my girls happy, healthy and fed everyday!

With the tourism end of our operation growing, we had a special opportunity to actually buy the Gillespie home place that we live on! We closed on the property on July 30th, 2025! We are now homeowners and SO looking forward to what is ahead! New Milk House facility as well as updating the house at some point is all in the near future, hopefully! It seems a little overwhelming, but with a dash of tourism thrown into it, I know the people will flock in to get a taste of what we have to offer as a family willing to let people join in on our adventures!

Anywho, coming into fall the kids have gone back to school and are all now attending Brady Public School! Woodrow is in Pre-K, Gus is in 7th and Dallee is a Freshman! Our fall daywork is gearing up which is my favorite time of the year! We have some sports going on and draft horse shows that we are trying to fit into all "the things" as I say!

I am looking forward to getting this blog up and going again, as I feel its a great outlet to keep people updated and gets some stuff off my chest. In this case, my mental breakdown earlier this year... It's not that I want to broadcast it, I just want people to know that in the right circumstances, even the strongest people can break, and that's OK!