Assignment #1

To start off I'm going to give you a little information on my background. I grew up on a small dairy farm in the northeast corner of Iowa in Allamakee County. My family milks 120 cows and farms about 450 acres of land. My brother and I are twins, I have an older brother and a younger brother. In a total family of 6, everyone does their part so that things get accomplished and we are earning money indtead of losing it.

My story begins a couple years ago on a cold Thanksgiving Day. My brothers and I along with my father were working on a building called a freestall barn where the cattle stay eat and lay during the winter so they're out of the weather. At the edge of the building, my dad was working along a cement ledge that was about 8 feet high. He put his hand on a large post and realized that it wasn't bolted to anything. He fell over the ledge and landed on his arm. I rushed down around the ledge and to his side, looked at his arm and realized that it was slightly twisted to the right. My mother rushed him to the hospital and arrived back a few hours later.

When they arrived home my dad told me he had broken his arm in three places. My brothers and I then realized that we would have to step it up and take care of my fathers responsibilities. My brothers and I had our own chores to do let alone. My fathers jobs were to mainly take care of the animals on the farm, decide what the feeding ration for that was, treating the animals if they were sick, and general maintenance of the farm machinery such as oil changes and what not.

During the first week without my father, I had learned how different it was going to be for the next couple of months before he was back to normal strength. My hours increased incredibly along with my responsibilities. I worked my hardest to keep up with the pace but it was extremely hard without very much guidance. But after a week i adjusted to the new setting and started to do things on my own without consulting anyone because it came to me in an instant.

My family and I worked together to take care of all of my dads responsibilities. It was hard but I tried my best to take his place wherever I could. The only thing my father could do was pretty much just walking around to make sure we hadn't been doing anything that would cause a major problem. I used this expeirience to help me make it through my first few weeks of college so far. I looked back at the past during this time and realized that someone isn't always going to be there to tell me what to do, I would need to learn how to do things on my own without worry that I am by myself in this new enviornment.