 On this particular day, the tail-end of the milking cycle is interrupted and breakfast is delayed. The power company’s scheduled power outage has taken place sooner than expected. A generator must be hooked behind a tractor and towed to the electrical hookup outside the barn so the milking cycle can be finished. It throws off the day’s schedule and means that this working day will last at least a little longer. On top of that a neighboring farmer has mired his tractor in the Spring mud of a nearby field and needs a tow from Hinton’s tractor to break free. Farmers help each other. It could be Hinton’s tractor next time, so it’s one more thing to add to the day’s agenda.
Finally the milking is finished. Hinton feeds the dry cows (those not producing milk) and heifers and completes a few other odd jobs around the farm before heading out to free his neighbor’s tractor from the mud. When Hinton returns the veterinarian is there to determine which cows are in heat or pregnant and to look after any animals that have been having problems. Once this is done he prepares his tractors to haul tanks of liquid manure to fertilize fields where they grow hay for the herd. He and his father, Ellie, each take a tractor hauling a manure tank and spreader behind, fill the tanks with manure from the holding lagoon behind barn, and then drive a mile or two to the field that they are working that day. The procedure is time consuming, the tanks take time to fill, and the tractors don’t set any world speed records while traveling to their destination. After arriving at the hay field the contents of the tank are quickly spread in rows and it’s time to return to the farm and repeat the process. This will take up the bulk of the day until it’s time for the evening milking. Afterward, the feeding of animals and cleaning up must be done again. Anything else that needs attention, like a broken tractor or failing piece of equipment must also be addressed. There is also the considerable amount of work generated from the business end of running a farm that has to be dealt with. Bedtime, or maybe catching the end of a Red Sox game on TV, comes when everything else is done.
In spite of the hard work and the long hours Burton Hinton thrives on his way of living and being his own boss. "There’s a lot of pride and independence involved. You’ll find that more with dairy farmers than with anything else I believe. With most of them the reason they want to be dairy farmers is because they are independent. They don’t want to work for someone else, they want to take their ideas and go with them." Independence is only one reason for his love of farming. Hinton, who grew up on a farm, also feels there is no better place for children to grow up than on a farm. "This is the best, there’s no comparison. It keeps you out of trouble that’s for darn sure…you see a lot of people work, work, work, work, work but they’re not around for the kids. They miss the kids grow up. My dad worked all the time but he was there to kick our ass for us when we needed it…It’s definitely a good way to grow up and I want my kids (he has none yet) in this environment." A couple hundred miles south in New Hampshire a farm family that Burton Hinton has never met fully agrees.
 On the outskirts of Concord, New Hampshire Alan and Dencie Bartlett, along with their adult son Scott, run a dairy farm with 80 milkers and 60 other cows that has been operating since 1922. Dencie Bartlett thinks farming gives children a more realistic perspective on life. "I think that from a parents point of view kids that grow up on farms have a greater sense of self and an understanding of the life process. They understand the concept of the life process. They understand the concept of birth and death and that it’s part of the process, not that it makes it any easier if they lose a favorite calf or cow. They know that this is life and it sucks but that’s the way it is." Bartlett does disagree with Hinton on one matter, the belief that dairy farmers are their own bosses. "Your not your own boss, she says laughing while pointing toward a couple of bellowing cows, those are the bosses and they’re very demanding."
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