Harry Gulliver will tell you that he retired seven years ago when he was seventy but don’t tell that to Rosie or Buddy or any of the other cows he cares for everyday. It took Harry a while to answer the question of when he last went on vacation. He thinks it was in 1960 when he went to a wedding in Corner Brook for a couple of days when his nephew got married. For Harry, looking after the cows, and the hay fields and everything that goes with farming isn’t just a job. It’s a life.

But times are changing. When Harry first bought his farm on Black Marsh Road it was a good distance from Newfoundland’s capital city of St. John’s. But that was back before Confederation and today the city has grown up around his farm. When his cows look across the road they no longer gaze upon fields but a suburb of bungalows and split-levels. After raising ten children now all gone and married, he and his wife Margie are getting ready for a big change.

They’re think with the city on their doorstep it’s time to move to the Goulds on the Avalon Peninsula where there’s still farming going on. Twelve years ago, Harry leased a hundred acres of land there and built a brand new dairy barn for two of his sons. By the time it was equipped it cost Harry a quarter of a million dollars. He managed to secure a loan for seventy-five thousand dollars, the first mortgage he ever had in his life. Now his sons want him to build a house on the property and retire.

Harry will move but there’s little hope he’ll retire. He already works everyday on his sons’ farm, cleaning the cows, talking to them, and caring for them. He feels these cows are his and his sons’ livelihood and if he looks after the cows they’ll look after them. Harry also feels it is time to look after another family; his grandchildren who want their grandparents to be close by. As Harry says, the time to retire is when they put the lid on.