I Love Being in Love

Little Big Town's song, "Sober", sums up my feelings this week. Coming off a not so great week last week, this week was GREAT! I'm told that all good blogger have a nickname for their husbands. I don't think Matt would appreciate the one I've called him in the past going public so I'm going with "my Forever". I realize that we've only been married a few months so I'm still absolutely enamored with him, but he is my Forever and ever. We vowed to be together until death do us part. He will forever love me, infuriate me, make me laugh, make me cry, make me very angry, and make me very very happy. So I've coined the nickname, "my Forever" for Matt. I guess I'm now considered a good blogger since I have a nickname for my husband. If only it was that easy!

So my week started off not so great last Sunday after posting my blog. My niece, Autumn, was back visiting Grandma while her parents were looking at a sprayer. I went down to my parents' house to spend time with her. While I was down there her fever spiked, so we took her to the hospital. She was diagnosed with influenza. As long as she was kept on Tylenol so her fever stayed down, she was happy. She's all fixed and very healthy now. Now I think Matt's side is getting sick. Hopefully everybody gets over it quick!

Monday Matt and I spent quality time together repairing one of the haybusters. The shaft that actual tears up the hay broke while Matt was running it. Thankfully, my Forever is good at fixing things so we got Humpty Dumpty put together again to running condition. It's now working wonderfully! Yeah to him for fixing it!

I apologize for these sideways photos. I'm working on getting them right.
This is my Forever working his magic on the haybuster. He's so talented!

Next exciting thing for this week-we had twin calves! All producers do things differently, some pull one of the twins off and some keep both on the cow. It depends on how much milk the cow has, how much time the producer has to spend with the twins to make sure they are both eating, etc. Luckily, our cow is taking care of both of them. When cattle are raising twins, they require some special care. Better feed, more of it, etc. This is because they are raising two! Works the same way for humans, I'm sure. We'll ask the twin expert (Matt's sister, Jenny) about what it feels like to raise twins. The cow and two babies are doing well and are turned out with the rest of the cattle.

One on each side. We have worked with the twins to make sure that
both of them knew how to suck. It's important to ensure that both are eating well. 

Being on a farm is fun and eventful. Everyday is doing something new and different. With as many cattle as we have there is sure to be entertainment to find everywhere. One of our bulls has a knack of getting his head caught in things. This week he decided to carry around an old mineral feeder. Matt's philosophy is that he's a good junk picker-upper. He'll help clean up the farm. Whatever works I suppose. It's hard to take a bull serious when he's carrying around an old mineral feeder.

Matt and I laughed for a long time. Then I helped him get it off. 

During the harvest off season a lot of producers haul the grain they harvested and stored in their bins. Marketing grain is a very tricky thing that almost requires a professional, but that's a whole other blog topic. So Henry has been hauling grain to empty the bins so they are ready for harvest next fall. My dad and sister are also hauling grains to fill contracts. When the bins are almost empty, a sweep auger is put in to help clean the grain out.

This is the auger dumping grain into the truck used to haul the grain away.
Matt is watching to make sure it doesn't run over.

This is the whole series of everything involved in hauling grain.
The bin is what stores the grain, the tractor runs the PTO that
gets the grain up the auger, the actual auger and then the truck
to haul the grain to the elevators.

This is inside a bin. When is gets to the bottom, the sweep auger
gets the grain out. The we sweep the grain to the center so none of it
is left in the bin. 

The last really exciting part of this amazing week that has made me extremely thankful for my family, new and old, and made me fall much much much deeper in love with my Forever is new paint in our house. My oldest sister Kristen and my mother-in-law Margaret helped me paint our bedroom and hallway and staircase. Our bedroom is now purple, hallway teal-ish and stairway white. I absolutely love our bedroom and stairway, the hallway I'm not so sure about, but hopefully it will grow on me. I'm so very blessed with amazing family.

This is the before photo of our room.

The during. My sister is on the left and mother-in-law on the right.

My Forever even got involved in painting!

The after photo! So much better!!!!

Our hallway. I'm not for sure if I like it or not?
Hopefully it will grow on me.

And one last tiny bit of news for our family-Kristen is pregnant!! Due in September. Autumn is going to be a big sister and excited about it for now. Not sure she really understands that after September she won't have everybody's full attention. 

So not much about agriculture this week, sorry! It's been a hectic week! The best I have for a recipe is the roast I made and that wasn't that exciting. Haven't done much cooking this week and forgot to take a picture of the roast that I made. 

What I did with the roast was thaw it in the refrigerator, put it in the crockpot with seasoning from a family friend in North Carolina, with just a little water and cook on high for about 4-5 hours. Matt really likes them and they are fairly care-free. If anybody needs help making Pillsbury cookie dough, or packaged biscuits or box potatoes, I can help you with that. Otherwise, can't help you much with cooking this week. 

"I love being in love, it's the best kind of love, drunk on a high leaning on your shoulder, sweet like a wine as it gets older, when I die, I don't wanna go sober." I'm so in love with my Forever. He's been an amazing husband this week and I'm so thankful I've found him. But ssshhh don't tell him, he'll get big headed. 

I encourage you all to take a moment this week to say thank you and love you to somebody in your life. Appreciate the little moments in life and be thankful for every day that we're given. Have a wonderful week and thanks for reading.

One of Those Weeks

Ok...big sigh...it has been one of those weeks. We're still calving, although they are slowing down the rate they're having the babies. The weather is improving (so I hear, since I haven't been outside for a while), so that's great news. We've had sick baby calves this week so everyone was stressed and not in the best of moods. A lot of our time was spent doctoring the babies and keeping the cattle fed. Then at the end of the week, I got sick-flu sick. Friday afternoon and all day Saturday I was in bed. Matt started to not feel well yesterday, but I guess he's a lot stronger and more tough than I am because he's out doing chores and says he feels fine. Today I'm doing better, my back isn't allowing me to be in bed anymore it hurts so bad, so I'm up in the chair at least. I have the washing machine and dishwasher running so that makes me feel a lot better! Honestly, I was going to skip doing a blog this week, but on the way out the door Matt asked me if I was going to get the blog posted today, so since he apparently enjoys them so much, I'm making an effort.

I have had a few questions about where to find credible information. The following websites are what I believe are very credible websites. A lot of them have actual farmers giving the information with scientists and experts backing up the information. I'm going to try to address some of the issues on these websites; however, it may be a while so if you have any questions in between please look at these websites.

bestfoodfacts.org
fooddialouges.com
gmoanswers.com
findourcommonground.com

Let me know which one you think is the best and easiest to navigate.

That's about all I've got for this week. The recipe I have for this week is one I made for last Sunday when we had lunch at my parents. I got the idea off the internet. It's super simple and really cute. You've probably made the same thing multiple times. All I did was make brownies and baked them in to round cake pans. After cooling one brownie went on the bottom. I added some cool whip and strawberries. I repeated for the top layer. Super simple and it looked pretty professional! Enjoy!

Hope you all have a great week! Sorry about the shortened blog! Though my mom told me I should shorten it so it doesn't take so long to read so mission accomplished! 

Calving

Right now is a SUPER busy time on the Pagel ranch. It's officially calving season! What does this mean? It means early mornings, short nights (for Henry anyway-one advantage to living a little ways away from the home operation), constant checking and some interesting windbreaks. Every producer has a different theory and idea about when and how to calf. No matter what that idea/theory is, the producers work with what they have in order to give the cattle the best care they can get. Since we've only been married since October, this is my first official calving season with the Pagel's.

While I was growing up, my family started calving in mid-March. My birthday is March 12th and it was always really close to that so needless to say I didn't have very many birthday parties. The presents normally came in May. My mom may not be known for absolute promptness, but one can always trust her to get it done in due time so I'm not scarred for not getting parties. Anyway, we started calving around the middle of March. Again just a disclaimer, every producer does things differently. Growing up, this meant the cattle went from summer pasture to winter pasture sometime around the first of November. It depends upon how much grass is in the pastures. From then until mid-March, they would get fed hay (that was put up in the summer) and wheat mids or whatever else they needed to meet their nutritional requirements. Whenever the first calf arrived in the winter pasture or it looked like there were a lot getting ready to calf, they would make the yearly trek home. We have two calving pastures around our house. They stay there while they are calving until mid May when they get worked and put out to their summer pastures. Then the cycle repeats itself. If only it was as easy as that sounds! Every step of that requires work and constant care and attention. Calving is normally the most intensive part of any cow/calf operation. There is a lot that can go wrong in the calving process.

Now that I'm married into a different operation, I'm learning the new ropes and how everything works. The first calf heifers (Heifers are young female cows. Normally, there are first calf heifers-heifers having their first calf that require a lot of attention and second calf heifers. From there they are considered cows.) were scheduled to start calving about two weeks earlier than the main cow herd. First calf heifers require more attention than cows do. Some producers have their heifers start calving before their cow herds for a couple reasons. First reason-the heifers require more attention. As with any "first" experience, they can be more nervous, don't know what to do and sometimes require help. Second reason-normally producers have less first calf heifers as cows, so they get a heads up that the rest of the cows are going to start soon. Third reason-First calf heifers need a little more time than cows to breed back. Producers don't want them to be later than the rest of the cow herd the next year calving so their first year, they are giving a little more time so they don't fall behind and get culled the next year. Fourth reason-Some producers have limited calving area. They want the first calf heifers to have the cleanest ground. Their calves are going to be the most susceptible to becoming sick so producers want them to have the cleanest ground before the rest of the cow herd comes in. Those are a few of the reasons, I'm sure there are lots more.

So our first calf heifers started calving around the first of January. These heifers are brought to Henry and Margaret's house. They just built a new calving barn a couple of years ago. There is a pen connected with the barn. We let the heifers out in the mornings so they can have the whole space and don't make a mess of the barn and at night they get put back into the barn. The barn was built so that the opening is on the south end. This was done because it's used in the winter. In northeast Kansas the strongest and coldest winds are from the north so you want to protect against that wind. Very rarely is there a really cold south wind. Henry gets up several times in the night to check on the heifers. If there is one calving or already calved, he ensures that the mother is taking care of it and the calf has nursed. It's important for the calf to get colostrum right away so that it builds immunity. This works very similar to how it works in humans. The cow's milk has nutrients and antibodies in it that boost immunity in the calves, the same way it works with us. If it's cold outside and the calf doesn't get colostrum, the calf can get cold very quickly. Getting a good start is very important for cattle, the same way it is with babies. It affects the calves later in life. If calves get colostrum early on and get a good start, they don't seem to get diseases and sicknesses like some other calves do that don't later down the line. When calves get a clean, healthy start in life, it requires less medication down the line since they don't get sick.

The heifers get the cleanest and closest care (right by the house so that they can be checked easily and often). The rest of the cows came home around the middle of January. They are put into a few different paddocks (small pastures so they can be checked easily). They aren't right at the house, but close. They start getting fed hay. When the cold weather started coming in, we cleaned out a shed that we normally store machinery in. We made a fence outside of it that connects with the barn we put the cattle in if we have to pull a calf. Then we set up hay bales along it to block the wind. We use our haybuster to blow straw (the stubble left over from the wheat crop) out on the ground so they have something warm to lay on. Straw doesn't hold water in it, so when they cows lay on it with wet coats, the straw repels the water and gets warm from the cow's body heat. It's such a pretty sight to see the cows all bedded down for the night on their straw and all chewing their cuds. Cows can take temperatures much, much, much colder than we can. But it's really important, when they are calving, to give them a warm place to lay down and the wind blocked so that when they calf and the calves come out wet, the calves don't get too cold to get the colostrum. It's important to give all cows a wind break against the cold weather, but once the babies are all dried off and going good, they don't necessarily need the protection that brand new ones do.

Okay, it's a really bad picture and I can't figure out how to get it rotated, but this is Matt blowing straw out for the calving cattle. If you look close, you can see the barn that provides a wind break for the cattle. The straw gives the cows a warm place to lay down and dry off. Sorry about the quality of the photo. I was driving another tractor. I forget to take pictures and then by the time I remember I have to hurry to get it taken. 

I mentioned pulling calves earlier. Calves are positioned to come the same way every time. Same as in humans. Sometimes, for whatever the reason, they don't get positioned like that before they get too big to turn in the womb. That's when the problems occur. Normal position is the front legs coming first with the calves. Producers can tell if it's the front feet or back feet after the cow has pushed the legs out. If it's the back feet, the calf has to be pulled. The cow has problems having it if it's backwards and if she can get the calf out, the calf is normally dead due to too much fluid being ingested. There are a lot of other calving problems that can happen, but due to the length of this blog, I think we should wait until next time. We're going to be calving for a while, so I'm sure there will be lots more stories.

Okay, I apologize for all these pictures being turned. I'll have my sister teach me how to turn them for the future. We had about a foot of snow on Tuesday. This is me (in the tractor and haybuster) following Matt who had the tractor to push snow. We did chores with two tractors that morning in case there were any roads blown shut that he had to open so we could get to the cows and also he bladed out the snow when we got to the pastures so the cows and calves would have a dry place to lay down. No matter how cold it is or how much snow, farmers are out there taking care of their cattle, normally before we eat. 

This is what we do. The cattle on the right are standing on the straw and the cattle on the left are eating their hay. Cattle eat more during cold weather. I'll explain why like my dad explained to me a long time ago when I was riding around in the tractor with him. He told me to imagine a cow having a wood stove inside of her. When it was cold outside, she needed more wood (hay) to keep warm. As the weather got warmer, she didn't need as much to keep warm. And that's how I still remember it to this day. 

This is a picture of the haybuster. It hooks onto the back of the tractor. You put a bale of hay in it. The hay turns in a circle inside of it. There are mechanisms (somebody more proficient in names of that stuff would have to tell you exactly how it works-I just run it) grind the hay up. Then it gets blown out on the ground. These have become very popular because the cattle waste less hay (important during drought years when there isn't a lot of hay) and the cattle get more out of the hay they are given. 

Cattle must drink. This is Matt breaking the ice so the cattle have water. I conveniently got out of doing it by telling him I had to take a picture :) 

Another picture of cattle with their hay and straw to lay on.

Please, please, please, let me know if you have any questions. I know I used a lot of terminology in this blog and if you don't understand some of it please let me know and I'll be happy to explain it further.

One good thing about the snow is getting to sled! A big thanks to the Slipke's (our neighbors) for bringing their girls, Brooke and April, over to go sledding so Matt and I didn't look ridiculous sledding by ourselves. Farm sledding is a little different than sledding in town. Forgot about pictures, I promise to try to get better at getting pictures, but I was having too much fun. We sled down the hill, then had our UTV pull us back up, so we're sledding both down the hill and up! It's basically a really lazy version, but it was a lot of fun! Glad we took the time to do it!

Also, if you have a blog topic request let me know. I've already gotten several from Matt's sister, Melissa. I'm going to try blogging about what we're doing on the farm at the time, so I can have pictures. But, I'll try to incorporate some issues or concerns you have about agriculture in to the blog. Didn't have time this week due to the cold weather and calving, but hopefully next week.

My recipe this week is one of my favorite foods-macaroni and cheese! This is a fun twist and even a little easier than regular mac and cheese for those of us lazy ones or for a quick recipe. Feeding Matt is a little difficult because he's pretty picky about his food and likes what he likes and doesn't what he doesn't. No changing him! But I think this was a hit and since I love mac and cheese I love this recipe! Sorry I forgot to get a picture before it was all gone.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

2 cups elbow macaroni
5 cups milk
1 stick butter
Cheese-I use shredded cheddar and sometimes mozerella
Salt and Pepper
The last time I made it, I threw a bag of frozen corn in it and Matt really liked the addition. It made it more filling.

Put the 2 cups of uncooked macaroni on the bottom of the pan. Melt your butter and pour it over the top of the macaroni. Put the cheese on top of it. Use however much you want. I normally put a lot on because we like it really cheesy. Next put the package of corn on top of it. Pour the milk over the top of it and put salt and pepper on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.

Super easy and even picky Matt likes it! Have a great week!

Let's start at the very beginning...A very good place to start!

To borrow from the popular musical, "Sound of Music", let's start at the very beginning. My name is Kelsey Pagel. I grew up on a farm and ranch in Northeast Kansas. Both my mother and father are self employed farmer/ranchers. I grew up with cow/calf pairs, pigs, corn, soybeans, wheat, brome hay and native hay. We always had horses, dogs and cats. I have two older sisters-Kristen and Kayla. Also, worthy of note...my grandma (my mom's mom) is 100 1/2 years old. She lives in her own home and gets around pretty good with a walker. 

I'm going to be using a lot of wedding photos since that's what I
have at the current time. This is my family. From left to right front
row, my sister Kayla, myself, Grandma, my amazing niece Autumn,
my other sister Kristen. Back row L to R, Kayla's husband Garett,
my husband Matt, my mom Dori, my dad Butch, and Kristen's
husband Levi.

My new family since October. Front row L to R, Matt's sister Melissa,
her daughter (my new niece!) Sawyer, my mother-in-law Margaret, myself,
Mauricio (a new nephew!), my father-in-law Henry, Matt's sister Jenny.
Back row L to R, Jason-Melissa's husband and Sawyer's dad,
my wonderful husband Matt, Samuel (another nephew!),
 Matt's brother Will and his wife Dora (parents of Mauricio and Samuel) and Greg-Jenny's friend.

Since October Jenny and Greg have blessed our family with twin boys-Greyson and Granger. They arrived in November-a month early, but they are both well and growing!

I'm 21 years old, married and living my dream. I'm a farmer/rancher. I help to produce the food that arrives on your plate.  Farmers/Ranchers (producers) care a great deal about their animals, environment, land and the safety of the food they produce. We care about all of these things because the same food that is put into grocery stores from our farms is the same food that we put onto our dinner tables for our families. We want a safe and healthy product to feed to our families, the same as you want for your families. Bottom line, farming is our livelihood. It's a lifestyle. We're all helping to make sure that the food supply that is offered is safe, healthy and sustainable so we can feed a growing worldwide population. We're working to make sure NO ONE goes hungry. Producers care. Kansas Farm Bureau (see www.kfb.org for more information on KFB) has a great tag line that sums this all up...care and respect practiced daily. 

My husband Matt and I. He did all the decorating for our wedding ceremony.
I did the reception hall. The first time I saw the set up outdoor wedding was
when I was walking down the aisle. He did an amazing job.

My goal with this blog is to help educate consumers about producers and why we do what we do. I'm a farmer and so is the rest of my family. We have cows, horses, and all sorts of crops between all of us. I encourage you to ask questions if something I say doesn't make sense. If I don't know the answer, I'll find someone that does. If you want to see an operational farm, we'll work something out so you can. I want to be a voice for farmers making their living feeding the world because that's what I am. I care about consumers being given correct information. The choices you make are yours, but I want to help make sure that you are given factual information and know just how much producers care! 

Okay some more about me and mine...

Growing up I always wanted to be a doctor. That changed when I was about fourteen and decided that I didn't like seeing blood, or stitches, or shots (giving or receiving), or seeing people being sick (normally I get sick too) or just about anything else a doctor would have to be around. That's when I decided that I wouldn't be a very effective doctor. From there I changed my mind dozens of times on what I was going to do with my life. Finally, I landed on opening an Agri-tourism business to help connect the unconnected urban family to a farm where food is grown. With less than 2% of the American population involved in production agriculture, there is a growing gap between the producer and the consumer. So many different options line the store shelves from organic and natural to big commercial and everything in between. I hope to help consumers learn about what happens on farms and give them a resource to ask any questions they have. 

Where am I on the progression of opening an Agri-tourism business? Well...right now it's still just an idea, but it's a life goal of mine. 

Levi, Autumn and Kristen. Autumn has
grown so much since then!

Some more background...my oldest sister, Kristen, got married in February of 2010 after graduating from Cloud County Community College and Kansas State University with an Animal Science degree. She married a farmer from Abilene, Kansas, that she met while in college. Levi farms with his parents. Kristen helps as well when their beautiful 2 1/2 year old daughter, Autumn, isn't keeping her busy. She has made me decide that being an aunt is the absolute greatest thing ever! She's the first child I've been around so I'm learning a lot! 

This is Autumn and I from a while ago sporting our K-State shirts!
That's my parent's hay barn in the background.

My middle older sister, Kayla, got married in July of 2012 after graduating from Johnson County Community College (where she ran cross country and track) and Emporia State University with an elementary education degree. Garett, her high school sweetheart, is a parts salesman for KanEquip. He farms on the side with his parents. Kayla is helping my parents with their farming operation. Kayla and Garett currently have, I think, 3 children. They have four legs and moo. Yes, their children are baby calves. 

See they really are high school sweetheart,
they went to prom together!

I attended Cloud County Community College and Kansas State University and graduated in May 2013 with a Agri-business degree. Matt and I got married in October of 2013 in the middle of a hayfield. My outdoor wedding dream was not even close to comparing to the absolute beautiful and perfect wedding that we actually had. Matt is in partnership with his parents and grandma in their farming operation. I work with Matt and my father-in-law a large majority of the time. Whenever my parents need help in their operation, we try to help as well. 

Middle of a hayfield, under a beautiful tree, we walked through a
hay ring, there were stalks of corn, our guests sat on hay bales, our unity symbol
was soil from a special place on our farms, absolutely gorgeous day to be outside in mid October.
 Yep, it was more perfect than I could ask for.

So as you can see I come from a family that is very agriculturally oriented. Please ask any questions you have. I'll find someone that knows the answer if I don't.

That's about enough information for one blog. I hope to have a blog about once a week, but can't promise anything since we all know about what happens to the best laid plans. I'm going to plan on ending my blogs with a recipe. This whole blog is about food so I think that's one of the best ways to tie everything together so you can make the same foods in your kitchen as I make in mine. I don't get a lot of time to cook/bake, but enjoy it when I can. I'm blessed with a mother-in-law that cooks enough food on the weekends to get us through the week while she's working. Anyway, for the first recipe...not sure what the official name is, but they are a cross between a turnover and pie. My friend Laura made them all homemade for her wedding and shared the recipe with me. I tried making them today with some extra time I had. They turned out good! Keep in mind that normally my food isn't the prettiest, but it normally tastes pretty good. 

This is Laura and I. Not only is she a great cook, but
her voice is absolutely beautiful. She sang and played
her guitar at our wedding. 

The recipe...

CRUST: 3 c flour 1 1/3 c yellow Crisco 1 T sugar 1 t salt Shake vigorously for 1 minute.

½ c cold water 1 T vinegar Add and mix again. Roll the dough thin (1/16th container size). Cut with 4”cutter (Cool Whip or sour cream).

FILLING: Put 1 tablespoon of pie filling in center. Fold in half; wet your fingers and press to seal the edges with water. Crimp the edges with fork tines.

Bake at 350 for 12 (+10 minutes) until golden brown. Spread with glaze when still warm.

GLAZE: ½ c powdered sugar 1 T milk ¼ t vanilla

These freeze well.

My finished product! Like I said, they may not look the greatest,
but they taste pretty good!!