The caravan set out today to tour a dairy farm. But not just any dairy farm! We visited the Chaney’s Dairy Barn just south of Bowling Green. It was not like any dairy I had ever seen before, and I have seen one or two…
The Chaney family has owned this land since 1886, and they started a dairy here in 1940. They have exclusively Jersey cows – the light brown ones…
We started the tour at the gift shop – cafe – ice cream parlor; we boarded the farm wagon for the trip to the barn…
I was shocked to learn that they are currently milking 60 cows (out of a total herd of about 120 or so…). They have about 55 acres of land. Wow! I thought all dairies milked hundreds if not thousands of cows! The next thing we learned is that they have no milkers – no people wrangling the cows into the barn, no one attaching the milking machines, no one. They have one herdsman, who is in charge of all the cows, and one robotic milking machine, made by Lely in the Netherlands… The herdsman is the niece of the farm’s owners…
The cows spend all their time hanging out in a comfortable barn…
When they feel the “urge” to get milked they wander over to the robotic milking machine and get milked!
The next cow in line is waiting patiently…
When the milking is complete she moves on…
During the five-six minutes it takes to complete the cleaning and milking process the cow is weighed, the milk production is analyzed, and the herdsman gets lots of data to ensure the cows are healthy and happy…
They even have automated back-scratching machines and a “Rumba”-like robot which sweeps the feed lane and pushes the feed up closer to where the cows are eating… Amazing!
Then the real story comes out. The cows and the milk don’t pay the bills here. Like many dairies, they barely break even on the milk and often lose money. That is why many small family dairies are closing down and selling out. The Chaney family figured out a way to keep the family farm, and its inherent lifestyle: Us!
Yes, Agri-tourism is a big thing here. By offering tours, plus the cafe, playground, gift shop, ice cream, and other related things the family can make a living and keep the farm. The next generation is starting to establish the ability to process their milk themselves, so that they can sell their own cheese, ice cream, and, yes, milk.
The Chaney family were delightful people and they really have a passion for these cows. It was a fun tour!
Rather than ride the wagon back to the cafe, we walked…
We did, of course, have lunch and some ice cream…
And then we moved on. The only distillery in Bowling Green closed up shop and moved to Nashville a few months ago, so a few of us drove about 10 miles south to Franklin, KY, to the Dueling Grounds Distillery. So named because several famous duels took place near here on the Linkumpinch Dueling Field in 1826.
Tennessee Representative Sam Houston gravely wounded General William A. White, a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans, in a pistol duel. In a convoluted turn of events, White was the stand-in for Nashville Postmaster John P. Erwin. Patronage politics were at the root of this affair of honor. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee had promoted another candidate for Nashville postmaster against Erwin. Jackson encouraged Houston to thwart Erwin’s appointment. Houston wrote to President John Quincy Adams, that Erwin “is not a man of fair and upright moral character.” He also attacked Erwin in a speech on the House Floor. When Houston returned to Tennessee after the 19th Congress (1825–1827), Erwin dispatched Colonel John Smith T., a professional duelist, to deliver a challenge to Houston for besmirching Erwin’s character. That challenge was rejected, but General White then proceeded to challenge Houston directly, who reluctantly accepted. Houston was tried for attempted murder, but was acquitted on the grounds of self-defense…
Anyway, this is as good a reason as any to name your distillery “Dueling Grounds” and to name your Bourbon, “Linkumpinch”.
We had a great tour! Unlike Jack Daniel’s, where the process is controlled by computers and two guys sitting in a control booth, these guys at Dueling Grounds really make the Bourbon! We saw them adding corn, then wheat, then malted barley to the mash cooker, we saw them punch down the fermenting mash, we saw them transferring the fermented liquid to the still, and we saw their manual bottling line. (Their barrels are stored off-site in a borrowed facility…)
Adding wheat to the mash cooker…
The fermenting mash…
The three fermenters…
The still. Clear ethyl alcohol drips out of the still like a weak stream of water from a small faucet. (At Jack Daniel’s, it pours from their 90′ tall stills like water shooting out of a fire hose!) They distill the whiskey here twice, to clarify and purify it, and to increase the alcohol content.
They have a very small production – three 250 gallon fermenters each produce about 50 gallons of clear whiskey.
The clear whiskey is placed in new charred oak barrels and aged a minimum of two years. Since this distillery is quite young, their current Bourbon has been aged just two years. They have plans to age some barrels 5, 7, and 12 years…
Most of the flavor in Bourbon is imparted by the barrel. The clear whiskey (“White Lightning”) is not very pleasant to drink.
Tour over, we returned to the tasting room…
We tasted their whiskeys and some of their fruit liqueurs. Purchases in hand, we headed back to the Villa…
We were able to relax a bit in the afternoon, then we had another GAM. Afterwards, we walked about the park. We found baby Canada Geese…
And we found a puppy raiser for CCI – Canine Companions for Independence…
Our son has a Service Dog, professionally trained and certified by CCI, a great organization that provides service dogs to those who need them for free… This couple has raised 12 puppies, each for about 18 months, then has turned them over for professional training…
This evening we had another Drivers Meeting; we travel tomorrow to Bardstown, near Louisville, for various activities at Churchill Downs before the Kentucky Derby on Saturday…
And an enjoyable time was had by all…
Adventures in the Villa 