Eight Thousand Gallons of Milk and a Small Blue Ledger

was small and faint, nearly worn away by the years.

The numbers were there, simple and neat: 10-14-81.

It was not the date of our wedding, but the day John and I had completed our first independent bottling run, thirty-eight cases of milk processed on our own equipment without the help of the co-op. We had stayed up until dawn, our hands cold and our continue reading …