Yee Ha!

So last weekend, my son Zeke and I had such a great weekend together. Thanks for the many suggestions of fun stuff to do. We went rock throwing at Montana De Oro (more than once). We watched the skateboarders at the Los Osos Skate Park. We picked fruit at the Cal Poly U Pick. We went to the Cal Poly Men's Basketball Game. And we went and got a great tour at the Cal Poly Dairy.



Jay and Vivian Wheeler, are fairly new here at Grace and in the community. Jay is the new Cal Poly Dairy Manager. Great people. Huge job.

My Dutch heritage means that some of our extended family have been involved in dairy farming. But it's been awhile. It all came back to me last Saturday. The smell, but especially the work. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year something is happening on the dairy. Here are some fun facts:

• The Cal Poly Dairy is the only remaining milking dairy in the entire county.

• The Cal Poly Dairy is one of the premier university dairies on the West Coast and probably nationwide.

• The Cal Poly Dairy employs 30 part time employee students every quarter.

• On the Cal Poly Dairy, there are 250 cows that have to be milked twice daily. It takes 3 hours to milk all 250 cows. While the cows are not milked by hand, applying the milking machine and the other steps in the complicated process require a personal touch. It's not an automated process.

• Besides the milking cows, there's approximately another 200 to 250 cattle on the dairy, including calves born almost daily. The day before we were there, 3 calves were born.

Zeke loved walking around and touching the baby cows. It's beautiful out there. It's always valuable for me to get out and see the wide variety of callings that the people of Grace are involved in. It's pretty awesome living in a university town.

Meet the Wheelers and tell them you want to bring your family out to see the dairy. I'm sure you'll be welcome!