Authors in our publication write about the difficulty of succession in business. (See this issue’s article about the challenges of succession when siblings are involved, Sibling partners: a special family business stage.) Recently, the Wall Street Journal captured J.W. Marriott’s thoughts on succession.

Sadly, all is not well. Termites are at work. At first, no one noticed them. They were only innocuous holes in the bow of the ship and the mast. They were only dissenting voices in the political process and judges turning a blind eye to unethical behavior in the name of tolerance.

When we first arrived, he took me to the balcony and put his arm around my shoulder. We were seven floors up, and the cars below us looked small. I think he wanted me to notice that. He pointed into the darkness.

“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.

My cousin is a doer. The problem with a doer is: Sometimes they’re doing good – sometimes they’re doing bad. In my cousin’s case, he generally has no idea what he’s doing.

On various social media sites, the discussion of whether or not to compensate kids for farmwork comes up a few times a year. There are different ways to look at this, and I want to share with you how we handle this in our family.

When I was a preteen, my parents’ good friends moved from Wisconsin to Connecticut, and naturally I had an instant pen pal with their oldest daughter. It was fun exchanging letters for a few years, until we eventually drifted apart in our teens. With those fond memories, I wanted a similar experience for my children.

I will be honest: I didn't know anything about veal farming until after I started blogging about our family dairy farm a few years ago. As my content began to be shared within activists groups, the accusations that we “murder our baby cows” started to flood in.

I’ve often wondered over the years if other professions were encouraged to advocate for themselves in the way farmers and ag industry representatives are. I’ve seen my fair share of teacher appreciation posts on social media, and I know there are plenty of blogs from nurses and other health care professionals.

While raising young children in a farm environment is one of the most rewarding things about being a farm family, it also presents some challenges when it comes to staying productive while keeping the little ones safe when they’re in tow. Hopefully, I can share some of the tricks I use when I have Evelyn (3.5 years old) and Edith (16 months old) along for some outside fun and work.