Garden City Leadership KFB

This last weekend was incredibly eye opening for me! It was our fifth and final Leadership class in Kansas. All the way across the state to Garden City we went! Kristen, my mom and Dean were off Thursday morning. Stephanie, another class member, met me to ride out with me at four thirty in the morning! I didn't even know that hour happened twice in a day. My travels haven't ever taken me to Garden City so I didn't know what to expect.

Day 1 started with a tour of a dairy. They had 6500 milking cows and 6500 replacements on that particular farm. The next stop was a 40,000 head feedlot. Both had very similar parallels. High level of commitment to their employees and the care of their cattle was the top two items both places talked a lot about. The work out there is hard long hours. Many Americans won't do it. They have to resort to refugees and immigrants to do the work. While there are bad apples in every group, every place we went stressed that these folks wanted to be there and to have a job as good as they had. The dairy put an ad in the highest unemployment counties in the state of Kansas. They paid milage to come out for interviews. They said most applied to meet their application number to keep unemployment. They brought 5 out to interview, I think. They offered a couple of jobs, but those individuals decided that the work was not what they wanted. The problem isn't that there are not jobs out there, the problem is Americans simply won't take them. Obviously, we have an immigration reform policy. How are we going to solve these problems? That's something that I can't answer, but it needs an answer.

Another place we went and toured was Tyson. There were 16 different languages spoken in the plant! The diversity was incredible! Not my favorite thing to see, but I know that it's a part of the food chain. They are very highly focused on producing a high quality product and treating their employees with the highest standards.

I don't know what needs to happen with immigration reform, but there has to be something done! This trip was so fascinating and eye opening for a Northeast Kansas girl that has been around very little diversity. So thankful I applied for this class and have been given the opportunity to expand my horizons and meet the lovely ladies I'm in the class with. I encourage all of you to apply for this amazing opportunity by October 1st. Apply today at http://www.kfb.org/getinvolved/leadershipkfb/index. It is definitely worth the time commitment. 

More to come next week! 

Brome Seed

So this blog is much delayed. We were doing this around the end of June, beginning of July. Sorry I'm so far behind. I didn't realize this was such a speciality crop for just a few counties in northeast Kansas until our next installment of Leadership KFB and was talking to Beth (who is from Northwest Kansas) and she didn't have any idea what I was talking about. These videos are not high quality, but I tried. 

This is the actual cutting of the brome seed. It is the yellow/brownish part on top of the brome grass. It is very light and will easily blow away if there is a lot of wind. 

Since it is so light, it doesn't run our of the combine onto the truck like corn or soybeans does. It's very fluffy. Therefore, to get it out, someone has to push it out. That's what Matt is doing. He's using a piece of PVC pipe to get an opening in it so it will fall into the auger. This is very dangerous to do. There are augers at the bottom of the bin that could seriously injure or kill somebody if they fell in the bin. Extreme caution must be used. 

Another video of pushing the brome seed out. 

It comes out very slowly. 

Since it's so light and fluffy you waste a lot of truck or trailer space if you don't stomp it down and add more. It's just like grape stomping, just less fun. Brome seed will stick to your clothes and get wedged in your socks and not come out unless you pick it out one piece at a time.

Brome seed is a lot of manual work. It can be time consuming. However, since it's such a specialized crop with few places able to grow enough of it to make it worth cutting, it's normally worth our time to cut. After cutting the brome seed off, we put up the bottom part for hay. If buyers aren't buying brome seed in a certain year, the brome seed isn't cut. We mow it with the rest of the hay to be fed to cattle in the winter. 

Hopefully that gives you a little big of an idea about what brome seed is. After being harvested it is taken and cleaned and bagged. Then it is shipped all over the United States and world to be used for a variety of different things. It's definitely not my favorite thing to do on the farm, but it must be done. 

Have a great week!!!

Grandma

My grandma was 79 before I was born. So we didn't grow up with the typical really active Grandma. However, I wouldn't change her for the world. Both grandpa's had passed on before we were born-so Grandma was the one we went to. I can remember having sleep overs at Grandma's and being excited about sleeping in since she didn't get up very early when I knew her. When we got up she would fix pancakes or oatmeal for us. For lunch she would make us mac & cheese out of the box. To this day I haven't tasted any as good as hers. I don't know what the secret ingredient was, but she added something.

Ever since I can remember we (everyone in the family, approximately 20) got a quilt every year for Christmas. She would always have embroidery or quilting in her hands. When she got older, I can remember her reading more. Always quilting or a book around. Grandma lived in her own home until the first part of June. Kayla & Garett moved in after they were married to help cook and clean. Grandma didn't eat well and was getting weaker so she went to the hospital with full intentions of going back home. I spent most of the nights with her and the moments we had I will cherish forever. When fluid started building in her lungs and around her heart and it was clear she wasn't going to make it, the decision was made to take her to Mom's and give her the best care we could (with Holton Community Hospice help-they are amazing!) and love on her until she went to be with her God. And that's what we did.

Grandma I will miss your ornery grins, your kisses, your quilts and knowing I can always go to Grandma's. Your independence, stubborness and strength will live on in your children and families. You were such a strong woman to live 102 years, go through what you've gone through and emerge on the other side as the happy and loving person you are.

Grandma liked being home. She didn't really like going anywhere. Whenever we would get her to go someplace and ask if she was ready to go home, she would reply, "anytime." Well, Grandma your anytime has arrived. We will miss you down here, but you're free. I hope your anytime is everything you deserve and more. If I need a chat, I know you'll be listening. Grandma I love you more than words can describe. Until we meet again Grandma-you enjoy your anytime.

Grandma, Dad and Life

Okay, so I'm still here and still planning on blogging, but life has interfered.

At the beginning of June, I spent a couple days at my parents cleaning out my old room so my Grandma could move in. She was there for just over a week when it was decided to take her to the hospital due to her being weak. She went with the full intention of returning to mom and dad's. Her lungs and around her heart started filling with fluids. When it was clear she wasn't getting better, we took her to my parents to love and take the best care of her that we could with the help of Holton Community Hospice (who are fantastic!) She was in the hospital for about a week. I spent most of the nights with her and will cherish the memories. She passed away Sunday, June 28th around 2:34 in the afternoon. I will post a blog later about my memories of Grandma.

So we had that going on in our lives. Just in case we hadn't spent enough time in hospitals and our emotions weren't crazy enough. Sunday night, we took my dad to the Onaga hospital. He had been acting odd. All weekend Mom was planning on getting him an appointment Monday. However, when he told her he fell in the shower a couple times, it was time to go that night.

A scan showed that he had blood on his brain so he was immediately shipped back to Topeka to the hospital. He had surgery on Monday to drain the blood. They were planning on him being able to be home to go the funeral on Friday. He didn't get the drain out until Friday morning. He made it to the lunch. He's going back in a couple weeks to see if the fluid is gone and staying gone. Hopefully, it will take care of itself now. He won't be able to do any farm work for quite some time.

It's of course a busy time on the farm as well. Wheat got cut this week, straw baled behind it, brome seed is being cut, hay to bale, more to drill, fertilizer to spread and of course the cows to still keep up with. Individual blogs about all these at some point is my goal.

Anyway, just wanted to check in and say I'm still here and apologize for my lack of blogs. Hopefully, more to come this week even if it's not on Sunday, the scheduled blog day!

Ants, ants and more ants!

So more raining has led to more grouchiness on Matt's part because he can't be in the field getting the stuff down that needs done this time of year. Knowing that it will someday dry I've been trying to get my projects that I would like to get done before starting summer field work. However, Matt has been keeping me busy and there is always work to do on the farm. 

I've been doing a lot of spraying. There are always trees and thistles to be sprayed. We like to spot spray rather than spraying the whole pasture and potentially killing some good stuff like red clover. Matt has set up a sprayer to be in the back of the gator. That's normally what we take to check cows so we can spray while checking cows. With the rotational grazing we like to do, I like to wait until the cattle have been on the certain paddock for a while and have the grass ate off around the bottom of the trees. That way I can get better spray coverage on the tree using less spray and get a better kill. We are very careful about using the spray for only the purpose it is supposed to be used for. If we don't control the trees and noxious weeds, they will overtake the land-making it impossible to raise grass which the cattle eat to grow. 

On another spraying note, our house has been overtaken by ants. We've been battling them for a while now, but kind of thought we had it taken care of. This morning when Matt went into the kitchen, there were ants all over. It was like a four lane highway for them going back and forth Matt said. Well, after an intense day of cleaning and spraying and mowing and weed eating, we're all set tomorrow to do a ant bugger while we're gone and hopefully they will be gone. I've heard ants have been worse than normal this year. If anybody has suggestions of how to get rid of them, please let me know!

As for a positive note...I've been getting some of my wish list projects done. Don't make fun of my wish list items, they may be small and you do them all the time, but to me they are projects that I don't get to do very often. 

The first...planting flowers! And I only got that done because Margaret gave me some flowers. Normally anything I touch in terms of plants die so hopefully this will make it. I thought it turned out well and adds a nice touch to our front deck! 

I bought some tomato plants at the JH FFA plant sale. They went through quite a bit before I got them in the ground. I've been pleasantly surprised that Abilene has left them alone and not dug them up. Maybe it's only her, but she's been doing more digging. I think it's because of the cicadas. They say those go into the ground. I'm pretty sure she can smell them or hear them and is trying to get to them. So far the tomatoes are still living. I finally put the cages around them. I wasn't going to worry about it, but the things are still going so thought I should put the cages around them. I'm not a big fan of tomatoes, but Matt loves them. So if they make it, I get a good wife point, maybe two for planting and taking care of them for him. 

Project number three...a towel rack. My dear Forever and I have been married for a year and three quarters or so and we've been using a bathroom that has one towel rack. It's been something that I've been nagging Matt about since we got married. There are two people living in this house, there should be two towel racks in our bathroom. But not just any towel rack...a horse shoe towel rack that he made for me. After one of our major fights a couple weeks ago, brought a couple home to me. After some grinding, painting and touching up...one of them got hung today! Super excited! It's the little things in life that make me happy! 

I believe last week I forgot to mention that one of my best friends from high school got married lat Saturday...however, I didn't get a picture with the beautiful bride. This is some more of my classmates though! It was such a beautiful wedding and Janae was such a beautiful bride! May her and Greg have many many many years of happiness and love!

Well, that's about all I've got for this week. Time for bed...hopefully tomorrow it will dry a little so we can get some outside work done. Have a great week and let me know any advice on getting rid of ants!

Grandma's Big Move

This week has been another interesting week in our lives. First, my 102 year old Grandma has becoming increasingly weak. While Kayla and Garett have been living there since they got married to help her, both of them are working really hard and are rarely home. My parents lived with my Grandma when they were first married, so now my parents are returning the favor. Hopefully, the arrangement will work out and Mom won't get too stressed.

This is a picture of my Grandma, mom and a fellow church goer of Mom who happens to be Grandma's doctor praying after Grandma took her first communion. She told my mom after one of the nightly chats that they've been having since she moved in that she had never taken communion. Mom asked at church and there was communion delivered the same day. Dr. Allen did such a beautiful job and prayed a wonderfully heartfelt sincere prayer. I had to take a picture, bad though it may be, so that I can remember that moment. The moment that my Grandma at 102 took her first communion, served by the doctor that has been taking care of her medical needs for a long time. It's the little moments in life that you will remember when your final day arrives, and this will be one of the moments I remember. I want to thank Dr. Allen and his daughter Annalyse (sorry if I spelled that wrong) for taking time out of their lives to come give my Grandma (and everyone else they go to) communion. There are still good people in the world and Dr. Allen and Annalyse reminded me of that this afternoon. 

Dad has started having headaches and has been sleeping a lot. Mom took him back to the doctor and they think he is having some post concussion symptoms. Hopefully, the medicine will help and getting some more rest can't hurt either.

For some new farm news...it's been raining so much it's hard to get anything done in the fields. There is more to drill and triticale to bale and wrap,  crops to spray and much much more, but we can't get in the fields due to it being too muddy. A lot of farmers are going stir crazy right now. It's hard not to be able to get their work done and knowing they can't do anything about it. When it dries out, they will all hit the ground running and won't stop until they are done. I hope for safety for everyone when that time comes and nobody is getting enough sleep. Matt has been doing a lot of work in the shop getting all the equipment ready and checking cows.

WIth so much water and mud everywhere it's easy to get stuck. This happened to be my sister Kayla that did it. Mostly because I never have time to take a picture of me when I get stuck. So I'll put hers in my blog for the world to see. 

I love storm pictures. Here's a few of my favorites.

Beautiful blue clear skies in front of me...intense storm coming fast from behind. I was trying to capture that with the mirror of the pickup. 

Good thing we've got patient horses. After working cattle and unsaddling the horses, Matt hopped up flat footed from the ground to make Red carry him over to their pen, rather than Matt leading him over there. It was like Matt had been the one doing all the work getting the cattle in rather than the horse. 

So we believe in rotational grazing. It's great for the grass to get the rest in between grazings. We also believe that it's incredibly important for the cattle to have mineral. So that means when we move the cattle, the mineral feeders have to be moved as well. Matt is strong enough to lift them up into the back of the Gator. I, however, am not. So I have to be creative about how to do it. I use a strap down to wrap around the feeder and pull it with the gator, no lifting involved! It makes me happy because I don't have to lift anything, Matt's happy because he doesn't have to come do it.  

This past weekend was our 5th annual Jackson Heights FFA Alumni Tractor Drive. Yes, you read that correctly tractor drive. People bring their tractors and drive roughly a 30 mile route all in a line like a parade. Why farmers that spend a lot of time driving tractors want to come drive their tractor which means their diesel and tires and wear on the tractor and pay an additional fee for the opportunity to drive is beyond me. Other than they want to support the local students. It was a huge success with 38 tractors! That's really exciting for us! 

This is my dad outside his tractor ready to head off for the drive. 

This is Garett, my brother-in-law, in his tractor in the drive. 

And my Uncle Lester in his Gator. 

 I hope you have a great week and maybe it will clear enough to get some field work done sometime. Have a great week!

Beef Month

So May is Beef Month. And true to my normal timing, I'm doing a blog about beef on the last day of the month so enjoy beef not just in May, but the rest of the year.

I grew up on a beef farm and married into a beef farm so our freezers have always been full of beef for cooking. My mom was always really busy with farming, cattle, paperwork, cleaning and taking care of us to do a lot of cooking which was fine by us. Since getting married, my mother-in-law does a lot of cooking for us, but with our own freezer of meat to cook and a husband to cook it for, I've been trying to learn some new recipes and cook with cuts that I haven't used before. Matt would probably tell you I'm failing miserably, but since I grilled hamburgers for him before he got home tonight a few minutes ago, I don't think he should complain to much.

I'm, of course, still learning and will always be learning. One of the ladies in the Leadership KFB class that I'm in works for Certified Angus Beef. She pointed me to their website and I've found it very useful. It will show you where the cut came from on the beef and give you several recipes and ways to cook it to perfection. Here is their website- https://www.certifiedangusbeef.com/ I would highly encourage you to visit it before visiting your grocery store to know which cut to choose or if you already have some meat in your freezer it's very handy for new recipe choices.

We've been spraying some weeds today and been getting ready for a busy week coming up. We'll be very busy getting the rest of cattle rearranged to grass, drilling the triticale ground, possibly replanting and helping my mom get her cattle out to grass.

Lots more to tell you about what's going on on the farm, but it's off to get some sleep for me with a very busy week coming up.

Hope you have a great week!