A heat wave is looming. Drought on the prairies is keeping people awake at night. Farmers are trying to cope with their brains on overload. Where is it written in the farming book of rules that you always figure things out on your own and never ask for help? Where is that written in your family rule book? “Where is it written” is a phrase that pays to get clarity and challenge the status quo.

When our kids were little, we carted them around as much as possible when moving cows. We had lease ground we ran cattle on, and we were spread out across a couple of counties. In Montana, that means a lot of traveling.

Fluctuating milk prices. Wildfires and evacuations. Drought. High feed prices. Domestic and international current events headlining mainstream media. Pandemic-related mandates and restrictions.

May 3-9 is the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) 70th annual Mental Health Week. This year’s theme is a continuation of last year’s #GetReal campaign, which encourages Canadians to understand their feelings and to name it, not numb it.

Burnout was never a word that crossed my mind. Sure, I’ve felt tired, worn down, unmotivated and sometimes a little sad, especially this last year. However, when a friend and co-worker of mine recommended I read Can’t even: How millennials became the burnout generation by Anne Helen Petersen, something inside me just clicked. I knew I needed that book.

Anyone else watch the show Happy Days? It was a depiction of life and family in the Midwest. It wasn’t mysterious. Life wasn’t “on the edge” in each episode. Yet at the end of the episode, there was resolution and something to smile about.