“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”—Nelson Mandela We have one of the coolest dairy stories out there. When my husband, Bruce, and I met in 1996, neither one of us had anything except a couple of car payments.

When caregiving is a woman’s farm life experience “She was a Dust Bowl girl, about 9 or 10. You’d have to sweep the South Dakota dust out of the house three or four times a day. Towels were at the doors and windows, with a wet one over the crock so the drinking water wouldn’t get dirty.

Editor’s note: This article is the final in a series covering the topic of QuickBooks and farm financials.

“Not only do I know how to milk a cow, but I know how to herd a bunch of cows, too, which is a life skill that I think may come in handy someday.” —Martina McBride

A really smart anonymous person once said, “Most of the problems in life are because of two reasons: We act without thinking – or we keep thinking without acting.”

With Halloween around the corner and all things spooky on the mind, there isn’t anything much scarier for the bookkeeper of the farm than having the farm computer crash. Just ask my husband and me; ours crashed a couple of years ago.

“When it comes to money, ignorance is not bliss. What you don’t know can hurt you.” —Sandra S. Simmons, from the book Unleash Your Cash Flow Mojo: The Business Owner’s Guide to Predicting, Planning and Controlling Your Company’s Cash Flow

Twenty years ago, I didn’t know the first thing about dairies, much less what dehorning entailed. Then one rainy December day, my roommate got word that his dairy farmer brother was coming to pay a visit.