Here is a story that is happy and sad at the same time. A new baby in the family. Lost barn and dead cattle. An addition to the family. A loss of hopes and dreams on the barn. Read this excerpt from the Daily Globe and check out the rest of the story… It’s amazing what good neighbors are willing to do to help others!

When he drove his wife to the hospital July 13, the last thing on James Maus’ mind was his cows. Yet while the young Osakis dairy farmer and his wife brought their son into the world, a community of neighbors worked to save his farm.

Maus’ barn burned to the ground that night, killing 74 dairy cows.

They knew the baby was coming, so James worked until 10 p.m. baling and putting 2,000 bales of hay in the haymow above his dairy barn. Within an hour, his wife, Jennifer, said it was time to go and they were off to the hospital, leaving their 5-year-old daughter, Lynnea home with her aunt Monica.

While Monica slept on the living room couch, a fire swept through the newly piled bales. Meanwhile, some young neighbors, on their way home from Alexandria, noticed a strange glow coming from the farm…