I'm blessed to live in a free country. I'm blessed with a wonderful family. I'm blessed with a warm, dry house. I'm blessed with bountiful food. 

Take a minute right now to count your blessings...

...and now take a minute to think about the fact that nearly half of the world's population (more than 3 billion people) live on less than $2.50 a day, and half of them are living on less than $1.25 a day.

One sunny afternoon in early June 2015, I was on Facebook and endlessly scrolling in one of the groups for female entrepreneurs that I'm a member of when I came across a post about Episode 177 of the Biz Chix Podcast by Natalie Eckdahl. This was one of the first times I'd ever heard of a podcast, but I was curious about podcasting and the title of the episode--How to Pitch a Podcaster with Kira Hug--caught my eye. 

Today there are 15 Jerseys registered with the 'Birdsong' herd prefix, but it all started with a cow named Blossom...

I've known for many years that I was born to be a farmer. Every day is hard work, and there are countless highs and lows, but it's a lifestyle that I wouldn't trade in for all the money in the world. 

Last year I came across a cute barn board plaque on Pinterest entitled "I was born to be a Farmer", and it became the inspiration for this post. These are the musings of a Modern Milkmaid™.

The inspiration for this blog post came to me in the spring of 2015, when Birdsong Princess Diana broke out of the fence and treated herself to a bucket of grain that I'd left out. Ooops! 

​She was a very sick girl for couple of days. I called my veterinarian out to treat her and spent a sleepless night checking on her. The next day I spoiled her as I tried to tempt her to start eating again, and when she finally did I allowed her to eat whatever her bovine heart desired...other than grain, which was off-limits for a whole week.

​I drafted the outline for this post as I relaxed in the pasture and watched Diana graze. I'm not a mother myself, but as the oldest of nine children I'd like to think that I know a thing or two about the parallels between kids and cows!