"We work seven days a week, and we have to do the barn work, no matter what day it is."

Henri and Tarja own a dairy farm in northern Ostrobothnia. Their daughter Krista has recently moved away from home to the town. The 18-year-old Rikhard (Riki), on the other hand, lives upstairs with his girlfriend. The family also has three dogs. Tarja's mother and Henri's both parents live in a semi-detached house in the same yard.

The property was first established by Henri's grandparents who were evacuated from Karelia, so Henri is already the third generation owner of this very farm. Riki, who is studying to become a farm entrepreneur, will one day take on his father's work, but already helps out managing the farm when needed.

Tarja, on the other hand is from a town in southern Finland. Moving up north and becoming a farmer went well. Even Henri's parents finally got used to having "a city girl as a daughter-in-law who messed everything up; put the cows outside and even changed their colours", Tarja smiles as she talks about the change of generation. It remains to be seen what kind of changes the next generation, that is, Riki, will bring about when he takes over. At first, however, father and son will collaborate.

Before Riki gets the sole responsibility of farm management the current owner couple still has many years of work ahead of them. Even though the work is hard and binding, humour makes life seem lighter:

"I at least try to sprinkle the family with positivity and humour and I think I've perhaps done quite well". –Tarja

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Tarja stayed in bed yet for a moment, when Henri, after his morning rituals, stepped out in the snowy morning at 6 a.m and took to the barn where 40 cows were waiting for their morning milking and feeding. Henri began with cleaning up the cow dung, and after a while Tarja arrived to the cowshed too. When the cleaning was done, they began to prepare the milking. The cows had their feed while they were milked, and then it was time for some rest – both for the cows and their tenders.

"So then about that, it will take until a little past nine with the cows. Then I have to take care of that there heating, so that I go, when I come in or when I'm going to the barn and, at least look at it and, during the winter. Then we come in [the main building] after nine, have a cuppa and a bite to eat. Then there's some free time there." –Henri

Today was the day for the annual veterinary inspection. First they looked at all the cows' information on paper, after which the veterinarian moved on to the barn. After the inspection the veterinarian stayed for lunch with the farmer couple. After the meal Tarja and Henri had time to do paper work and have a rest before the evening tasks at the shed.

"We try to shop for groceries just once a week. I don't really like to go to the store. But then we do have the advantage of that milk tanker, we can order a lot of the dairy products we need from the dairy." –Tarja

In the afternoon when Riki returned home from school, he went to work with his father. The morning tasks had to be repeated in the evening, there were many routines. In between they fetched some feed for the animals. After the evening milking Riki left to clear the snow out of the neighbours' and friends' yards with a snow plough attached to the tractor. Henri stayed behind to tidy up; all the milking equipment had to be cleaned thoroughly.

The second work shift at the barn was over at about 7.30 p.m. The animals were well today, so the family could spend their evening in peace and quiet, reading or watching television. They went to bed around ten – they needed the sleep to be able to rise and shine in the morning milking time.

"…then I've gone in to there to see, that, if there is something then we might have to go back in, if there's calving going on or something." –Henri

Thoughts about everyday life

About working:

"Well yes it is, at the very least, so that, perhaps it is the skills that have grown so much then, that it feels that I've had to work but the work feels lighter but, you need to work hard and the hours heap up. But well we have had surprisingly good, that our profitability has maybe just grown, I think." –Henri

"I think at one point there was the talk that people didn't accept agriculture at all, they were like all against it. You never wanted to tell anyone you're a farmer. Today you can, and you may even get some more respect for it. – I don't know, maybe that Farmer Wants a Wife show has had an effect [laughter] I think it has." –Tarja

On free time:

"Well, travelling is actually our hobby, like we have been travelling quite a lot and will still go in the future, abroad. And why not in Finland too. It is a true hobby for us, it is." –Tarja

"I am the car freak in this family and I have two cars. I have this quite new Ford Mondeo and then me and the son are working on well this Pontiac Trans Am, so one day we'd get to drive it." –Tarja