Looking Between the Milking Parlors

De·funct Dair.y Farm : dəˈfəNGkt derē färm : [phrase] : a no longer functioning area of land with buildings used for the long-term production of milk for eventual sale to the public.

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Yesterday,

I took a drive to the Kent Valley

between what once were the small towns of Kent and Auburn.

They were surrounded by fertile land,

filled with productive truck farms and dairies.

When I went to grade school in the 1950s, three of my classmates families ran dairies,

the Smiths, the Portmans and the Juergens.

This farm, the Nash Dairy, was run by the grandfather of another classmate.

Her brother ran the operation for many years, until perhaps the last decade.

Another classmate’s family ran a ‘truck’ farm,

producing vegetables.

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While we didn’t run a commercial operation, our family had small acreage,

we did raise and eat almost 100% of our own food, ie: meat, milk and vegetables.

It was a different era in the Seattle region.

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Now you can hardly find any fertile Green River Valley land

that is still in commercial farm production of any kind,

it is a sea of warehouses, and the roads are filled with semis

covered with 12 or 15 feet of fill dirt to provide

a stable footing for them.

There is still some land around where those four dairies I mentioned

are still in use for vegetable production.

I am uncertain if Carpinito Brothers Farms have leased those properties

or if they have been purchased.

The land that the old Nash Dairy sits on

is producing pumpkins nowadays.

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All that to say, yesterday, I stopped into

what was the old farm yard as the Nash Dairy

and walked around with my camera and got a few good images

of the old dairy and a couple of the kitchen in the old,

very small farm house.

Here, you are looking between the three milking parlors,

where I guesstimate 120 head of cows were milked at one time.

Even though I’ve been by that dairy countless times,

I can’t recall how large the herd was.

I do remember the friendly faced Holsteins following me along the fence line

as I rode my quarter horse on the shoulder

of West Valley Highway.

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~Blessings Always~