Evening chore time rolls around once again, just like every other night. I put on my boots and head out to the barn. The bigger calves and heifers get their hay and grain, and then I start to mix up milk replacer for the baby calves. Upon entering the calf pens, I immediately know something isn’t right.

“I’d never worked in fashion or retail. I just needed an undergarment that didn’t exist.”

Years ago, when my wife and I bought our farm, some friends had a farmwarming party for us. Among the guests who came that day were Ed and Ruth from the local feed mill.

When I was 19, a guy about my age was hired to work on our farm. He was a good worker and took to the job well. So most of my family thought he was a great guy.

January will mark our first six months of business with gelato, an Italian dessert much like ice cream. We’ve learned a lot and accomplished some things we didn’t anticipate. Our ultimate goal was to see if people were interested.

“Nothing haunts us like the things we don’t say.” — Mitch Albom. Everyone has secrets they don’t want to share out loud. Some are small secrets, but some are huge, life-altering secrets. A secret is a secret for a reason; I get it. But what if there was a way to share your secret without anyone knowing it belongs to you? Would you share?

On our farm, we try to host a university student or two every year. We find that it is a good experience for all involved. Typically, we learn from them, and hopefully they learn something from their time here.

As adults, we prefer to feel and look as if we’ve got it all figured out, especially in the eyes of our peers. It pains us to appear vulnerable, inexperienced or at a disadvantage when in pursuit of success.

With Thanksgiving here, it’s a good time to look back on the year and see how the Lord has safely brought us through another year and blessed us. This year certainly wasn’t an easy one.

Last year, a National Public Radio broadcast inspired me to write about women’s leadership roles and what I consider the virtues of being an unsafe woman.