Life is Bumpy and We Don't Always Get Air Ride Seats

Life is very, very unfair. This week is definitely one of those weeks in my family's lives. This week's blog is going to be less about agriculture and more a tribute to the women in my life. So if you're looking for agriculture, skip this week and read the next one. 

I've had the title of this blog saved in a draft form for several weeks now. I've thought about using is several times, but it has never felt right. This past week I've heard a lot of blood drives being advertised and felt the need to donate. I've never donated before and always felt a little bad, but not as guilty as I did this week. 

With this being said, bad news came to our family Thursday night. My oldest sister, Kristen, due in October, started bleeding, the start of a miscarriage. She ended up going back to the hospital Friday night and had to have surgery. My mom went out to be with Kristen's husband, Levi and to help Kristen. She's doing much better. She came home Saturday afternoon and is recovering, very tired, but recovering. Kristen had two transfusions of blood before going home since she lost so much. Coincidence that I felt the need to give blood so strongly this week? Coincidence I've not used the blog title before this week? Don't ignore the feelings you get, call the person you're thinking of, send a letter or email to the friend you haven't talked to in a long time.

Kristen is such a strong woman and getting stronger. When I called her on Friday, I started crying. She told me, "It wasn't meant to be. There will be future chances." She went on to tell me that God had different plans. To say her faith is MUCH stronger than mine is an understatement. The brave and confident way she is mourning the loss of their child is heroic to say the least. She and her family are confident that God has different plans for their child and needed the small one in heaven more than we needed baby here.

As sisters we fought A LOT growing up (and I'm sure we will have more fights in the future), but I can confidently say that she has become one of my heroes seeing her go through this experience. Kristen isn't blaming anything for causing it, but rather accepting God's plan for her life. If everyone approached even small problems the way that her family is approaching this huge loss in their lives, I can only imagine how much better of a place this world would be. Kristen, Levi and Autumn I'm so terribly sorry for your loss. You have such a great and supporting family on both sides that love you if you need anything. Anyone of us would be willing to do anything for you at anytime. We're here for you.

The next woman I would like to take a moment to thank and appreciate is my other sister, Kayla. She helps my mom and dad and without her I'm not sure they could continue with their farming operation and definitely not the scale they are. She's here everyday working. Kayla has missed several events and family stuff because she's helping here. Having Kayla here allowed Mom to be able to go to Abilene during her busiest calving time. I don't think Mom has ever left home during calving season before. She was able to go be with one of her daughters during a very tough time because Kayla knows how to take care of all the cows and is here to watch them. With Dad's help with feeding Kayla is more than able to direct me in helping her and is making sure that everything gets done and the cattle are well cared for it. Thank you Kayla for helping the way you do.

Next, we have my mom. I'm so blessed with a mother that loves all of her daughters more than she loves herself. For someone that wasn't going to have children, she's an amazing mother. She works harder than any woman I know. Mothers in general often go un-thanked. My mom is no exception. So thank you Mom. Thank you for the sacrifices you make. Thank you for the time you take for us. Thank you for always cleaning our houses when you come to visit us. Thank you for yelling at us growing up and for giving us punishments, because it made us the amazing women we are today. The women that get you so many compliments. We take after you, Mom. Thank you and I love you.

Next, my mother-in-law. Not sure there is a more thoughtful person out there. Always thinking about what she can do for somebody else, how she can help take make Matt and I's house from the bachelor pad he made it to a forever home for us. She thinks of the little things that most don't think of. Flowers to Kristen in the hospital, supper to us after a long day of work, buying pop for the guys even when she claims she won't, taking care of her father and mother-in-law and the list goes on and on. Margaret  is always available to her children that are moving, anytime anybody is painting she is there, and always always always she has food ready and available to eat. 

My 100 year old grandmother deserves a paragraph of her own. I grew up with an older grandmother than most, but that never stopped us from staying with her. She can make macoroni and cheese better than anyone I know. I wish we could count how many quilts she has made in her lifetime. I have one for every year of my life, as do my sisters. That's over 65 right there for just us three girls. She's an amazing woman that raised 3 wonderful children, one of which was my mom. Thank you Grandma and I love you.

My last group of women is those of you that have had miscarriages. You are heroes. If I feel this way as an aunt, I can't imagine how you feel as mothers. You're the ones carrying those children, the ones that are sharing your bodies to create a human life. For God to take that baby WAY earlier than we had planned, is unfair, but apparently in God's plan. I'm sorry for your losses. 

No recipe this week. Instead of cooking one night this week, I encourage you to stick a frozen pizza in the oven, use paper plates so you don't have to do dishes and simply be with your families. Talk to each other, let everyone know just how much you appreciate them. Don't worry about the laundry that needs done, the paperwork or the big project you have at work. Simply be with your family. Love them, tell them you love them. Life is much too short, take a night to let everyone in your family know just how much you appreciate and need them. 

When I ask Matt if he loves me, he says, "every day". I love every time he says it. Love EVERY day. Not just the days you want to love or when we're being lovable, but EVERY day. And tell the people in your life that you love them EVERY day not just the good ones or the bad ones, but the average ones that we don't remember. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, take advantage of today and...

Love EVERY day.

Cattle Week (Growth Implants & Vaccinations)

Busy busy week. Lots and lots of cattle work. We worked all of the fall pairs. We poured the cows (the moms). Then for the calves we poured them and gave them two shots and implanted them. I hope a lot of questions are arising from these words. There are several people who are misinformed about the use of these things. We use all of these tools to help grow the beef we produce. Just because we use implants and shots in our cattle doesn't make the beef any less safe to eat. As I've mentioned before we're set to hit 9 billion people by 2050. That means that with decreasing available land, producers need to be more efficient. Using these tools enable producers to produce more with less. Most are worried about implants because of the hormones in them.

This is the only picture I got of us working cattle.
Still getting used to taking action pictures. I was pushing them
through the chute and Henry and Matt were doing the vaccinations.

I've researched and am using the Baldwin County Extension Report. You can find it at blog.al.com. On this (and several other websites back this up) it says that, when used correctly, "few cattle management practices are more cost effective or have a higher return on investment" than properly used growth implants. The amount of estrogen in beef produced with growth implants is 1.9 nano grams. Beef produced without is 1.3 nano grams. A nano gram is one billionth of a gram. So let us compare this amount of estrogen to other common foods and people. A female child before puberty produces 54,000 nano grams of estrogen per day, a male child before puberty produces 41,000 nano grams per day, an adult woman produces 513,000 nano grams per day, an adult male 146,000 nano grams per day. So what produces the most estrogen among people? Pregnant women! Melissa, one of Matt's sisters can relate to this since she is due in October, produce are you ready for this, 19,600,000 nano grams per day! Watch out Jason! That's not the first or last time Moe will be compared to cattle. We also got to see our niece on Matt's side, Sawyer, when they came up to tell us the news. So now we both have a sister pregnant and due in October! Hopefully harvest is done early this year, otherwise, they will both have to hold those children in until we're done! Okay Kristen and Moe?

So let's compare the 1.9 or 1.3 in beef to some of the other foods we eat since we've compared it to the amount of estrogen in our own bodies. 8 ounces of milk contain 35.5 nano grams, three ounces of peas have 336 nano grams, 1750 nano grams in two ounces of hen's eggs and the list goes on and on and on. The .6 increase in estrogen from the non-implanted beef to implanted beef is so negligable compared to the amount of estrogen in other foods and in our own bodies. Due to how the food is broken down in our stomach and intestines to base amino acids, it removes any effect those .6 nano grams of added hormones would have.

In conclusion of explaining growth hormones, each producers decides whether or not they want to use growth implants. These implants increase efficiency in the cattle so we can produce more beef on less ground for a growing middle-class population. The importance of the growing middle class is that the more your income increases the more protein (meat) you buy. With an enormous growing middle class in China and other places, these people will want to buy meat that they've never previously been able to buy. In order to make that happen, producers are trying to make raising beef as efficient as possible. Just because it's more efficient doesn't mean that your beef is any less healthful or safe.

About the shots now. We gave the calves two shots. The first is a blackleg shot. It's one of the most inexpensive medicines out there. It's silly not to give blackleg. I've never seen a calf with blackleg. It's a disease in cattle, but is rarely seen because everybody vaccinates for it because the vaccination is so inexpensive and very effective.

The second shot is very equivalent to the flu shots that we use to help protect our families. It helps prevent several different diseases in cattle including respiratory issues. They get two different shots of this. One is called a booster shot. You want to protect your family from anything you can protect them against and give vaccinations to your children, this is the same type of thing. We care about these animals and don't want them getting sick, so we vaccinate. When I asked my dear husband how I should explain this, he told me to explain it like giving your children their kindergarten shots. There are a bunch of cattle (your kids) turned together with a bunch of different things happening in their systems so because we want the best for our cattle (and our kids), we prevent the sickness we can. That's why we vaccinate our cattle. It doesn't have any lasting effects on the cattle, no contamination in the meat and helps keep the United States cattle herds safer because there isn't unnecessary diseases.

I hope I've explained these practices so that you can understand. A lot of people have questions about implants and giving vaccines. Hopefully, this blog has answered some of your questions. If you have more please, please, please let me know. I'd be happy to answer them or guide you to someone who can answer them.

Mom and Dad have just gotten a good start on calving their cows. They started around the middle of March. I helped walk one bunch of those cattle home to their calving pasture. My oldest sister, Kristen, also came back to help which mean that Autumn was there too! These are just some fun pictures I took while we were waiting on the cattle to get ready. Little Miss Autumn is definitely NOT afraid of cattle. She was having a talk with them about what needed to be done when I took this first picture and she has grass in her right hand to emphasize her point.

Has to have her pink on. 

Then she wanted to smile with her cows after their pep talk.
I think she's going to be a farmer model someday.

Safety issues out the wazoo here, I know. A side note on safety issues. ALWAYS be careful when you're on an ATV or anything. Know who and want is around you and be mindful of how fast you are going for the terrain you're on. This is the girl that made me an aunt for the first time. She will always hold a special place in my heart, especially since I'm her favorite aunt! She has it figured out that her favorite aunt is the one she's with right then so she can have us all wrapped out her little finger. 

We moved some grain bunks around so the calves could get to grain. This is how Autumn helped me pull the grain bunk. She may only be 25-30 pounds or whatever she is, but goodness she gets heavy after dragging a bunk for a long ways. But did I ask her to get out? No, of course not. She was having too much fun. I needed the workout anyway I guess.

I know it's far away, but that's when I thought about taking the picture. This a picture of the cattle coming out of the gate to start the walk home to Mom and Dad's house. 

I ended up behind them and walked around 3 out of the 4 1/2 miles with them. Good week for my exercising.

We, as in my husband and his family, got some new cattle this week. They are due to start calving the middle of April so just about the time we get wrapped up with calving, we're going to start all over. They are Herefords so Margaret and I are hoping they are really calm like Herefords tend to be.

My recipe for the week is Cherry Surprise. Mom made it while us girls were growing up. It's super easy to make and really great. (Catching a trend in my recipes...super easy to make and really good. I'm not a great cook and don't have a lot of time so I like easy and good). I didn't actually make this one, my oldest sister Kristen did. I was told I couldn't claim credit for making it.

Cherry Surprise

1 can cherry pie filling (the big size-32 oz? maybe)

1/2 stick butter

1/2 package yellow cake mix

Cinnamon

Pour cherry pie filling into 8x8 pan or 9x9 pan. Pour yellow cake mix over the top. Melt butter and pour over the top of it and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until top is browned a little. 

Super easy and super delicious. Put some ice cream on top and you've got a little slice of heaven. Hope you all have a great week and get a lot accomplished! Thanks for reading!

Washington DC

What a week. Matt and I spent Monday through Thursday in our great nation’s capitol. We went on the County President’s trip with Kansas Farm Bureau. Kansas Farm Bureau facilitates this trip every year to take agriculturists to DC to meet with Congressman and women. So many of us get so involved in day to day living on the farm and in our lives that we forget or don’t have time to advocate for agriculture. After being in in DC for four days, I can guarantee you that we need to be advocating for our industry.

We’re very blessed to be given this opportunity to go on this trip and experience the capitol. There were a couple things that popped out at me. 1-Always, always, always pack Matt a hoodie on any trip we take. Since this was our first trip to take together that I've packed for him, I didn't realize that a hoodie was as essential as underwear and socks if not more so. I have learned my lesson and will always pack him a hoodie mainly so I don't have to listen to him complain. 2-Our society is EXTREMELY wasteful. It almost broke my heart to see the amount of food that was thrown away. There are starving people right here in our own neighborhood and the amount of food we waste is incredible. Please make a conscious effort not to waste so much food. 3-There a lot of people (aides, Congressmen and women and a lot of the general public of DC and US) that need to be informed about agriculture. People are so removed from the farming population that the understanding of why, how and what is being done on farms isn’t being conveyed to them. Then the problem arises of whom to listen to.  Which is where the activist groups, that I blogged about last week, come in that have an agenda of their own to accomplish.

It opened my eyes a lot to be in DC and see what the Congress is trying to pass through. So many of these come from urban areas and don’t understand how the regulations that they are imposing really affect their constituents. For example, in the Clean Water Act they are trying to take the word, “navigable”, out of the definition of what defines a water source. If this is accomplished, it will give the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) full rights to regulate any water. They explained to us in our briefing that if it rains and there is water that runs across your land at least 10 times per year (I think it’s 10 times, not positive on that) it’s considered an active water source. Even if that water is only there very briefly, the EPA can regulate and basically control that land. So essentially if the word navigable is taken out, the EPA will be able to regulate land AND the water. This is the Clean Water Act and they will be able to tell people what to do with their land that has water run across it only when it rains! This is preposterous! For you Farm Bureau members that read this, complete and send in the action alerts that they email to us. For those that aren’t, contact your Senator and Representative and make sure they are opposed to taking the word navigable out.

This is just one issue. There are a whole host of other issues and concerns out there. As I’ve said in other blogs…if you have questions about what is being done on a farm, please ask a farmer or extension agent or somebody in the field of agriculture. Don’t ask an activist group that will make sure you won’t support agriculture. Remember, producers may not sound as polished as these activist groups, but we also have a whole bunch less money and time. Many producers are too busy running their own operations and keeping them above ground to spend a whole bunch of time recruiting the members. In addition, we don’t have the financial resources that many of these groups have. As farmers, we choose which organizations we want to give our time and money to just like you. For example, corn farmers usually belong to Corn Growers Association; soybean farmers belong to Soybean Growers Association; cattle producers have Kansas Livestock Association or Kansas Cattlemen Association and the list goes on and on. There are a few organizations that represent all types of farming operations like Farm Bureau. So as you can see, activist groups are united and out to accomplish the same things. Producers are divided. Corn growers want ethanol to be big so their corn is highly sought after and raises the price of it, livestock producers don’t so they can feed their cattle the corn, etc. That is why it’s so difficult for agriculturists. We don’t have the united money that these groups do. The money that we do have is split between so many different organizations all trying to compete against each other. Let alone working against the anti-ag activist groups.

Please, please, please if you have questions let me know! If I don’t know the answer, I will find it out for you. Please continue asking questions, giving advice and suggesting topics. Keep sharing with your non-agricultural friends! This blog is worth taking the time to write as long as there is one learning from it. The day there isn’t, is when I’ll stop taking the time to write it. Thanks for taking the time to read it!

The recipe for this week is macaroni salad. It’s something that my mom has made forever. Not sure where she got the recipe, but it’s good and Matt approved!

Macaroni Salad:

1 (16 oz.) bag of noodles

Miracle Whip

Pickles

Eggs

Salt & Pepper

Make the noodles according to package instruction. Mix the noodles with miracle whip. Probably about a cup of miracle whip. Whatever you prefer. Dice up about 3 pickles (bread and butter is Matt’s preference). Boil the eggs-probably about 2. Dice those up and mix in. I don’t use eggs in mine because Matt doesn’t like them. Mix everything together and season with salt and pepper. A lot of this recipe is personal preference on how much of the ingredients. You’ve probably made a version of this anyway. Enjoy! So another week without a picture. Forgot to take a picture of it when I made it and left it in Mom's refrigerator. Are seeing a habit...taking pictures of food isn't real important to me. Eating it is :) Please forgive me but a girl's got to have priorities in life!

These are just a few of the pictures I took while in DC or on the way. 

This is in front of the White House on a lighted monument tour we took.

Our hotel was about two blocks from Capitol Hill. 

On the plane. It was REALLY turbulent on the way back.
Another thing I will pack in the future is a book for Matt on the planes.

Anti-Agriculture Groups

Another week gone by and what have we done? Well, more of the same as last week. We did more fertilizer spreading, calving, feeding and hauling grain. So, since I've blogged about those, or haven't talked to Matt about them yet, this week is going to be about anti-ag groups.

I'm almost ashamed of myself for taking 6 weeks of blogging to get to this topic. It's one of the main reasons I'm writing this blog. If it weren't for anti-ag groups, people wouldn't have a bad image or perception of agriculture. But since they do, agriculturalists are needed to combat what these groups are saying.

The most common and well known anti-agriculture group is HSUS (the Humane Society of the United States). Wait, wait, wait you're telling me. HSUS is not an anti-ag group, but rather an honorable organization fighting for our pet populations to have a safe shelter and home to be in. This, however, is as much as a lie as has ever been told. Their goal is to end animal agriculture. Less than 1/2 of 1% of their money is put towards local animal shelters. Many times local animal shelters are actually charged for inspections. DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT THEY ARE SAYING! HSUS has been so successful because their marketing preys on peoples desires to do good and help dogs, cats and other domestic animals. THIS IS NOT WHAT THEY DO! What they don't advertise is their desire to end all forms of animal agriculture. HSUS doesn't understand that producers do what they do because of long scientific studies. We keep our animals safe, well fed and sheltered.

Sure there are a few bad apples in every occupation. This is shown in the videos you see that HSUS puts out. There's a couple really popular dairy cruelty videos that were taken undercover. If HSUS is so worried about the animal's well-being, how is it that they can stand by and film those videos and do absolutely nothing to stop the cruelty? Oh sure they can say that they need the video to show to their supporters and further their cause and they stop the cruelty later. As a human being if I witnessed the kind of cruelty that are in those videos, there is no way that I could stand by and keep taping the abuse. You can bet your last dollar that I'm going to do everything in my power to stop the abuse and cruelty that is happening to those animals AS SOON AS I SEE IT. After the abuse has stopped, I'm then going to move on to shutting that operation down. Notice I said THAT operation, not EVERY operation. If somebody is abusing animals, they deserve to be shut down and for those animals to be moved somewhere else to get the care they need. Most farming operations are very concerned with their animals and their well-being. Most doctors are very concerned with their patients and their well-being. Most lawyers try to do what is best. Most politicians, I believe, try to do their best for their constituents. Sometimes that isn't what happens. In EVERY career there are bad apples. When there are bad apples in any other profession, they are taken out of that career and/or stripped of their license, degree, etc. That is what should happen in the animal agriculture industry. There is no need for an organization that is lying to the public to get their very vast financial resources and have no idea the reason why producers do what they do and how they do it, to be able to change laws for an industry they have no training in. Not every producers needs to change what they are doing simply because a couple are doing it wrong.

Everyone is concerned about food safety. Making sure their families and themselves have a healthy and safe food supply. We are regulating our safe and healthy food supply right out of our country. Everybody thinks that the better laws and what HSUS is trying to change is better for our food supply. It is NOT. With all the regulations and laws being made, producers are struggling to keep up and at the current rate will be forced to get out of the agriculture industry. That means that our food supply will not come from our country, it will be imported from other countries. We have no real way of knowing how it will be grown, what is used on it, how it is handled etc. We will be at the mercy of another country to provide us with food and we WILL NOT get a say in telling those countries how to produce it. So the next time you cheer another regulation that's placed on agriculture for the purpose of providing a safer food supply, make sure you stop twice and think about what is being done. Your food that is being grown in your backdoor (or in the same state as you) WILL NOT be there if there are many more regulations and groups formed to "protect the farmers' interests". If you really care about protecting your food supply, contact your local NRCS, extension office, or high school ag teacher to have them direct you to a farmer that can answer your questions and maybe even visit their farms.

Before giving money to organizations in any area of your life, do research on them. Don't give based on one commercial or simply their own website. Dig deep so you know what you are supporting. It's best to give at the local level anyway so you can see your dollars going back into your community. If you want to support a national organization, try finding local chapters of that orginization. Go to some of their meetings before giving your support.

Okay, I'm going to get off my soapbox now. I'm very passionate about defeating the anti ag groups like HSUS. There are several more out there. Be careful what you support, and think about how the regulations affect the people involved.

For some fun now...I took some feflies this week while I was waiting for Matt to fill the truck back up with grain. For those of you that don't know a felfie is like a selfie, but with farm animals. These are my debut felfies. We have two horses that we use on the farm for cattle work. Then Henry bought two little horses for the grandkids. Burt and Red are the big horses. Desperado and Danny are the little ones. I don't think I got any pictures with Danny.

Burt-he liked photos!

Desperado-I'm on my knees to take this photo. 

Burt again.

This is the calving heifers in their shed. 

My dear forever leading Burt back to his pen after moving cattle this week. 

Red-he didn't like photos.

This is right before he tried to bite my hair. 

And after I yelled at him.

He's a photogenic little pony!

Who needs a tractor to push the auger around when you have Matt?

We actually had some time to cook this week so I don't know which recipe to put in! Matt helped me make meatballs so since I have a picture of that, I'll put that one in. These are the meatballs we had at our wedding. No picture of the final result, but they are good!

BBQ Meatballs

3 lbs. hamburger

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup onion (or minced onions)

2 tsp salt

1 can (13 oz) evaporated milk

2 eggs

1/2 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp chili powder

Form into walnut-size balls & place in baking pan.

Sauce:

2 cups catsup

1 cup brown sugar

2T liquid smoke

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup onion chopped

Dissolve and pour over meatballs. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. 

Matt helping me make the meatballs! He's such a great help.
I need to train him better on the cleaning up part, but small progress, right!

Have a great week! Please ask questions or give suggestions!

Odd Job Week

Many of you, I'm sure, can attest to this, but the older I get, the faster the time goes. It seems like I just get a blog wrote and it's Sunday afternoon again and I don't have one done again. It's been a busy week. Lots of odd jobs. We're still calving, hauling grain, fertilizing and keeping up with the other daily chores. This week's blog was going to be about spreading fertilizer, but Matt isn't around and I need to ask him questions while writing. So maybe next week. To remember what we did through the week, I go through my phone pictures. I came up with several. 

To start the week, we ran a few calves through the chute to give them their booster shot. It's very similar to the shots and booster shots you give your kids to prevent sickness for them. 

Matt on the left and Henry giving the shot.

Next, fertilizing. Like I said I'm going to do a blog about fertilizing and the reasons for it, but I'd like to talk to Matt before I publish it so it will be coming in the future. Stay tuned! But, this is a picture (below) of the view from the seat of the tractor when spreading. We invested in Auto Steer this year. Inputs are becoming more and more expensive. Farmers need to be very efficient to reduce inputs, increase output, which should increase profitability so that we can stay engaged in this industry. With urban sprawl increasing, land that used to be used for farming is now being used to accommodate the growing cities. The world population is set to reach 9 billion by 2050. Therefore, putting the two of these factors together, producers need to produce more food by 2050 while using less ground. Hence, the much improved technology in recent years. Auto steer can be used year round. We can spread fertilizer, plant and much more with the same system. 

So what does auto steer do? Well, as the name suggests, it automatically steers the tractor. Based on what the operator inputs, it drives the tractor in the precise path so there is no overlap or skips. This decreases the cost for the producer, but also requires less inputs due to the preciseness of the application. Therefore, producers are being more efficient and are well on the path to being successful in the quest to feed the world. In 1960 one has farmer fed 25 people, today one Kansas farmer feeds 155 + you! It keeps increasing! Good things are happening in agriculture.

This is a picture of the fertilizer spreader. It gets hooked on to the back of the tractor. The PTO turns and runs the fertilizer out. There are "spreaders" on the back that spreads the fertilizer 40' wide. (20' in each direction). Not sure if I gave the correct mechanical terms. That's not my thing. I just know how to run them and what to watch for to make sure something isn't broke and to make sure the machine is running correctly. Exact names of things and fixing things is NOT my responsibility. (Hopefully, Matt reads this one! He's trying to get me to be more into maintenance of equipment. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Do you think that's too subtle for him to get the hint?) 

Next, we're still working on hauling grain to the elevator. Normally, Henry takes it, but I got to haul a couple loads this week. Another future blog will be about marketing of grain, but this will provide a little insight into the logistics of hauling grain. Yes, that's a stop light. I'm sitting at the probe station. Probes get a sample of the grain in each truck. There is dockage for certain things, test weight, moisture and several more things. These are all calculated on the sample that is taken at this stop. Also, while the probe is being taken, you send the card to the office. It's a system like banks have, that you put the card into the tube and then it sucks it down to the office. This card has the name, address, phone number, what you're doing with the grain, the split and the commodity. The office processes that as you move along in the process. You can almost see, the semi in front of me is on the scale. You weigh in, dump, then weigh out. Payment is based on bushels which comes from the weight. 

This is a little closer to the dump. I'm sitting right in front of the scale after weighing. You can see on the left side of the picture is a semi getting his ticket. The ticket has all the information about your grain on it. You don't get paid on the spot so being able to match up the ticket with the check and stub is always a good idea. On the right side there is a semi dumping and one more in front of me to dump. We don't have a semi, just a straight truck which means the bed raises up rather than the grain coming out the bottom. During harvest there is always a line at the elevators and there is always an employee there to help dump. During the off season (like we're in now) there normally isn't. Since I'm a young female, somebody normally comes out of the office to help me dump. This time, they were short on personnel. I was having a little trouble getting the door open on the back (my maintenance man...Matt...needs to do some work on the door so I could get it open.) Thankfully, the driver behind me took pity on me and helped me do it. There are good people still in the world! I think it's just because I was taking forever and a line was starting to form, but whatever the reason I'm VERY thankful! There is a scale right as you come off the dump. A circle drive and you loop around back to pick up your ticket and your on the way back to the farm. 

The last big project we did was spread another form of fertilizer, manure! Again, this will be in the fertilizer blog. Many producers that have both cattle and crop ground, use the manure from the cattle to cut down on the amount of fertilizer that needs to be bought and used. There will be more details in the fertilizer blog I promise, but it looks like this one is getting long enough. 

Just a few fun pictures, I went down to my mom and dad's and helped put out some hay and was playing with their replacement heifers. It's all in the way that cattle are managed. Mom likes to have fun with her cattle and so they are very friendly. Sorry about the bad picture. The calves were running and I was running and it was on my phone so that equals blurry photo, but we were having fun! 

I'm so blessed with many things in my life, but the friends I have are phenomenal! Several of them are going to be getting married this summer which means bridal showers, bachelorette parties and weddings! One of my particularly good friends (I've gone to school with her since 1st grade) is getting married this summer. She has asked myself and another really great friend to be candle lighters. Who knows what she was thinking letting Janae and I be in charge of fire. These two friends are really great. I guess they are friends with me so that I can be "that friend" and they can feel really great about themselves when they are around me because they let me wear my dress inside out all morning at Annie's shower! If you ever need an ego boost, just let me know and I can be of assistance to you! I'm honored and humbled to be asked to be in her wedding. Janae you can't be a bad influence on me and let us be late to the wedding or burn the church down! Annie and Abe I'm super excited about this next phase in your lives and thank you for letting me be a part of your special day. 

Myself, Annie (the bride) and Janae
Doesn't the dress look great inside out!

And for the recipe...again I haven't actually made this recipe, but I can attest to its yumminess. I babysat the Slipke girls (the ones we went sledding with a while ago) and got banana bread from Phyllis! Food is the best payment! It's absolutely wonderful and I'm going to make it sometime soon!

Banana Bread:

1 c. sugar

½ c. oil

3 eggs

1 tbsp. water

1 tsp. baking soda

3 overripe, mashed bananas

2 c. flour

½ c. walnuts….but we prefer chocolate chips

Grease 2 loaf pans and divide dough evenly.  Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.  When I make a double batch, I divide dough between 3 loaf pans.

Amazing recipe! Be sure to try it!

Have a great week! Hopefully this cold we've been having will pass soon! Next blog next Sunday! Keep giving me blog suggestions and comments in general. I enjoy hearing from all of you!