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Tout le monde aime les bonnes histoires de la Foire Royale agricole
d’hiver de Toronto. Je suis certaine que, tout comme moi, vous en
connaissez plusieurs.
There is seemingly an inordinate number of dairy farm families that have a lot of girls, and we are no exception. My wife and I have been blessed with three beautiful daughters.
Winter around here just about drives me crazy, and by February, I’m long past being 99.99% done. Not to blame anyone, but the problem is the people I live with.
"I habitually store enough butter in my outside fridge to frost Alaska with," admits columnist Michele Coleman. "But what can we expect from someone who grew up in the "dark margarine years"?
"And that is the difference between me and the men in my life. To them, fire is a solution. To me, fire – I should say specifically fire in their hands – is a threat."
Dave keeps a shoebox on his closet shelf. He uses it to put his odds
and ends in, things he empties out of or puts back into his pockets
whenever he changes. Every so once in a while, when I get a
spring-cleaning burr under my saddle, I’ll muck out the closet – and
with it, the shoebox.
I’ve been fortunate to grow up in the cow business. From the time I was
young, I traveled with a professional cattle photographer to all parts
of the country, showed cattle across North America and attended hundreds
of sales, as my father was a sale manager.
Our school had its annual fall fundraiser, an evening of family fun
activities with food and a live auction, put on by a group of volunteer
parents, teachers and staff members.
Some people spend their summers at the beach or on a lake. With
second or third crop in by now, you’re probably thinking you’ve spent
some significant time in a hayfield.
I was raised in the country, in a red brick Victorian on 2 acres. I was not, however, raised on a farm. To now be a third-generation dairy and cash crop farmer is far beyond, as a girl, what I thought my life would be like.
Growing up, I had multiple pen pals. There was my cousin in Quebec, the daughter of family friends, a goat farmer and various exchange partners. Nothing could beat the thrill of a personal letter arriving in the mail.
I am not a farm girl by nature. Although I was raised in the country, I did not live on a farm. I certainly had friends who were farmers, was a member of the local 4-H horse club and even helped our neighbours milk their cows a few times.
‘Tis the harvest season and that means farmers on tractors for hours and hours. If your farmer is like mine, he appreciates food once or twice a day. Yes, some might think bringing my husband food is an act that dates us back to the ’60s or a time when a woman’s time wasn’t valued.
A while back, my wife and I were chatting with a female family member about the relentless passage of time. Nothing super deep or existential; just run-of-the-mill stuff like, “Can you believe how fast time flies?” and, “The kids are getting so grown up.”
Something I love about the nativity is that, despite being strangers from different walks of life, this group of people is united in this moment – gathered together to celebrate a child’s birth.
New Year’s Day is past, and many people made many resolutions about things they were going to change in their lives. And now, just a short time later, almost all those good resolutions that were supposed to make them better have been broken.
Fall is a very busy time of year out here on the farm as we get the crops all harvested and prepare for the long winter ahead up here in northern Wisconsin. Even though there is much work to do, we greatly enjoy it. Being outdoors working this time of year is wonderful.
Christmas is the most wonderful season of the year. After we celebrate Thanksgiving and give the Lord thanks for His many blessings and provisions over the past year, we start to prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birthday.
In life, it seems like there is always something. Maybe you’re in the middle of a drought year and it decides to rain only after you cut your hay. Maybe you left the gate open and now your cows are in the neighbor’s yard.
Snow was falling, and I had planned a day of repairs in the shop. I wandered back to the ditch with the old machinery to look for a piece of metal for a welding project.
My little sister, Sadey, was my go-to. Not sure what to wear? Overthinking a situation? Frustrated over something? Stumped with writer’s block? Stuck in my own stubborn way? Sadey was always there. But, did she just listen? Oh no, she brought what I often needed, what I like to call, “fresh eyes” to each of my scenarios.
For the first blog of the year, I thought I should include a few jokes – you know, for kits and gaggles. It’s been a tough year, and I think we could all use a few “calfs” (I warned you – watch those puns). I’ve been hearing a lot of jokes about sheep I thought I could share. I started telling them to my dog to test them out, but she’s “herd” them all. I tried telling them to the cows next, but they were just “laughing stock.”
My wife, Andrea, and I have been married for 35 years now; we’ve been blessed to have a nice home and family. Like many couples, we have had our ups and downs, but fortunately the ups covered up the few downs nicely. Like many of you, 2020 has been an unusual year to say the least; however, our most challenging year by far was 1998. That was the year we both reinvented ourselves.
Last week, I visited with a farmer, Don Taber, who had recently retired from his local cooperative board. I learned the importance of the clarity one can gain by getting off one’s farm (or out of one’s head) and being involved.
At the beginning of September, I had the opportunity to participate in an agricultural tour in Idaho, my home state. When I’ve done these tours in the past, it’s been when I was visiting a new place. I’ve seen megaranches in Florida, carrot farms in Arizona, dairies in Washington and pistachio orchards in California.
I worked for Don Tobler years ago, and closely with his son Harmon. At first it was an all-Jersey dairy farm. Then the butterfat premium for the milk they sold was changed, and they slowly moved to an all-Holstein herd.
“Why do you drive that old thing? With the money you’re making, you could afford a new one!” said a friend of mine as a teenager. The fellow he was talking to was one of his dad’s employees, a talented older mechanic.
How about we keep our eyes and ears open all day every day. Someone may be in need, and five or 10 minutes of our time may make us a hero by changing another’s day from a disaster into a slight delay.
About a decade ago we had upgraded the car Elli would be driving to work every day. With the odometer on the old rig pushing 300,000 miles, the dealer had declined to take it in trade.
“I wasn’t sure whether Mary had got home yet,” a perplexed Leo said, then went on with, “I was down in my basement tinkering with one of my firearms and experienced the ultimate embarrassment of having an accidental discharge. I sat in silence, and when no sounds came from upstairs, I deduced that Mary wasn’t home yet."
When I was a child, I walked through my mother’s garden with a sense of awe and wonder. The velvet emerald grass spread under the Chinese Elm trees and lilac bushes. The roses in brilliant hues of red and gold climbed the wall of our old ranch house.
The jingle and jangle of Christmas is in the air. Shoppers scan the
internet, duck in and out of shopping centers, rack their brains and
check their wallets looking for the perfect gifts to give on Christmas
morning to make the holiday magical in the economic downturn.
If you’ve ever had the “soup of the day” at a restaurant, chances are
you just ate food that was close to its expiration date. Just like your
granny used to, soup is an easy way to use up leftovers.
According to climate alarmists, the world will end in just a few short years. If what they say is true, then why should I continue to pay my mortgage, eat right and visit the dentist? We should all just go on permanent vacation and let the world fall apart around us.
Recently, my mother offered a new theory on why farmers would take up an occupation that is high risk, offers a low financial reward and requires a lot of work: There’s a parasite in their brain.
Mankind owes a lot to the cow. The first animal to be domesticated, humans began capturing the large and aggressive auroch 10,000 years ago and selectively breeding it for more docile behavior.
At one point in the tour, the owner of the property stopped at a small shack. He pulled back the curtain to reveal a toilet made from a plastic bucket. He held up a finger and said something stern in Spanish. My wife leaned in to translate.
The other day on the internet, I saw an old commercial of a semi truck that had these words painted on the side: Jonny Kat, Kitty Litter. For some reason, that had a profound affect on me.
A while back, I was asked who has had the greatest influence on my life. I hadn’t ever given it much thought, like most folks, I guess. After considerin’ for a while, I came up with six people that I could say actually affected the direction of my thinkin’.
ATTN: This is addressed to teenagers, tuba players and grown-ups in the news media who have gotten great giggles out of the story that cow flatulence is a danger to mankind.
There are a lot of memories and nostalgia surrounding a farmhouse, since for generations your family gathered there. Our house is 145 years old, and my kids are the seventh generation in our family to live in it. My great-grandma was born in it, my great-aunt got married in it, my parents improved it, and now it houses three teenage boys who jump to hit every doorframe each time they go through a door.
The farm I am employed by had tossed around the idea of collars for a couple of years, but never really investigated enough to make the push to purchase a certain system type until the past six months.
It recently came to my attention that employee retention is an issue in most businesses today, and we are an outlier in this area. Sourcing employees and employee retention is a common question we receive during tours and community presentations.
Over the past two years, I’ve brought you along on my book reading journey. I’ve covered a lot of ground since January 2021. In fact, I’ve read so many books I had a realization … are all professional development books the same?
As a young female farmer in her late 20s with a bachelor's degree in biology, public speaking seems like it is just part of who I am. Growing up in the era that I did, and as a student in the science field, it seemed as if multiple times throughout the year, I was speaking in one of my classes or giving a talk on a science project.
I slipped my husband’s boots on to grab the mail this week. It was cold
and wet outside, and I didn’t want to go through the effort of digging
mine out of the closet, so I grabbed his that were sitting next to the
door.
As soon as we enter fall, whenever my kids start asking for something, I suggest they put it on their Christmas list, and I try to make a mental note to remember it myself.
Last week, I finally had a chance to catch up with some college friends I
hadn’t seen in well over a year. Between kids, house renovations, work,
travel and living in different time zones, finding time for a phone
call can be challenging and seeing each other in person is a rare treat.
