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Old Buttercup

I want to tell you about Old Buttercup. When I was a very small boy, we had just moved to the ranch on Hayden Creek in Idaho. Not long after we got there, Dad bought a milk cow. She was an experienced old Guernsey milker named Buttercup. 

I remember going with him down to the old log milking barn there on the Place. Where he put Buttercup in the stanchion, gave her some feed, and then sat down to milk on an old one-legged milking stool. 

It fascinated me how he could get that milk to come out and even more how he was able to aim and squirt it at me standing several feet away. I watched as the cats came around and he would share a little of the warm treasure with them. Buttercup was a good milker and it astonished me just how much milk dad would get from her. 

Of course, I grew up on raw whole milk and enjoyed the butter and such that came of the cream. Buttercup and the cows that succeeded her were an investment for Dad. He fed the family and, as the years advanced, he built a small herd. But, perhaps the greatest investment my dad made through Buttercup was in me. 

One day while watching Dad milk, I asked if I could try it. He said, “Sure.” I sat down and he showed me how to do it. It was great fun. The next milking I asked and he let me again. Then came the day, not long after, when I didn’t want to go to the barn for the evening milking and dad said, “Go! That’s your job now.” 

And it was. Night and morning every day: rain or shine, warm or freezing, balmy or blizzard, I was out there. I milked the cow and fed the stock before school and did it again after school. 

At the time I hated milking with a passion. And when I went off to college—no more milking! I was free. I swore I would never do that to my children.

But now…

I wish I had. Buttercup changed me. She taught me many things–to show up on time, all the time, and do my duty. She taught me to care more about someone or something else than myself. She taught me there is no turning back, that I couldn’t quit just because it was inconvenient or hard. Show up and get the job done! Buttercup made me a better boy and, hopefully, a better man. Blessed is every boy or girl that has a Buttercup.

Oh, and one more thing, many years later I stopped on a tour and traveled over the Isle of Guernsey. I fell in love with it, in part because as we drove over the verdant hills, the pastures were full of—yes—Buttercups! If there is a heaven for cows, I hope Buttercup is exalted.