March Madness

Love how March turns the lights on around here! Not just longer daylight but the electric seems to go up because the shop work increases ten fold.  The tractors are making their way out of the barns and sheds....the planter is dug out to begin it's final preparations for April planting....and the roads seem more traveled with equipment.  The air has become a hair warmer after this harsh cold winter and the wind always seem to be blowing.  The farmer gets up early and stays in the shop til this momma calls him home to eat. Harder on the girls and I because dinner is moved back about an hour due to the longer daylight. 

We all start to get a little quirky because we know Dad will soon be gone long hours.....and sometimes not come home til after the girls go to bed.  

The smell of grease and oil fills the shop...AND MY LAUNDRY ROOM! Our winter hibernation comes to an abrupt end 😞.

But we love routines around here! Not a schedule but the routines of getting work complete. Unlike many we aren't bound by time schedules....we can plan all winter long but until the weather is set we work til the job is done. 

The girls look forward to March madness because they know

•time outside is longer 

•tractor rides become the way of travel to spend time with their parents

•they can watch tv in the office because dad is working in the shop

•more picnic dinners

•and their most favorite.....their boys are due within weeks to the farm!

Welcome spring.....we are sooooo ready for you!

Farm And Fitness

As a farm mom we are like every other mom in the world. We get up start our day with the kids getting them to school and then head to our second job either on the farm or working with the public.  We end our day trying to be mom/wife /farmer and then lay our heads down in exhaustion!  So who has time to exercise and be healthy right?

WRONG!!  

As the most important part of our day is others....why isn't it OURSELVES? I have learned thru my love hate relationship of running the amazing feeling I get when I accomplish something for myself. It's the rise of mental attitude and knowing if momma feels good then my afternoon and night will be better. 

I am like every mother in the sense that I feel guilty when I take time for myself. Or I feel guilty when people constantly say "who has time to workout" or "I work and have to run kids." Well so do I and most everyone else!! I can't worry about your life but only my own. To live a healthy lifestyle it must start with yourself. It takes time to buy and grow the proper foods that I know will be healthy and substainable for my family. Prioritizing what's important for you and not someone else should be your first goal!

Forget those that are jealous you MAKE time to exercise....

A farmer gets the hype that we aren't human. We are regulated in our jobs like you are in yours....I wouldn't feed my kids anything that you wouldn't feed yours. The difference in me is that I research and trust my fellow farmers in food growth. I rock the beat to my own drum. I have learned that properly taking care of my family first comes with me....I am glad you don't have time to workout.  That means there is less at the gym when I go.  

Never feel discouraged or complain there isn't time....if there is a will there is a way!

Why do I FARM?  Because I can Find A Reasonable Mean in anything! Now get out and get busy....

If you GROW it then you will KNOW it

12 years ago we bought our first cattle crop......unknowingly understanding the importance at the time of what "raising your own beef" meant.  As a business venture and our love for animals we spent the first year grooming and raising a breed of animals like no other.  

A city girl myself we always had a freezer full of farm raised beef.  We bought a half of a cow yearly when we could afford it because we knew how it was raised and the quality it would attest too!

Scott and I married young and were green so it was much easier to sell calves and make back our initial Investment money than to hold one back for your own freezer.  

The beef lovers that we are took the opportunity over the last few years to cull and groom some stock of our own for our table. Why??  Because each calf we raise is fed with quality hay and all natural feed. I don't just have the title of farmer but as mother too. I know exactly what goes in and out of each cow and what to expect when my husband brings the beef home.

My advice....don't gripe about your local stores and gossip over the latest news on meat. The medias job is to publicize news true or not for a thrill and a public rise. Find a local trusted farmer who KNOWS what they GROW! Or GROW It YOURSELF! To many use their mouth to try to solve an issue finding that they have only paralyzed their hands at fixing it.....time wasted and energy. 

Along with our farm raised beef we raise home grown veggies (salsa too) and chickens for organic style eggs!

3 P's of Farming and Me

PURPOSE
I have heard for a lifetime that we were all created with and for a PURPOSE............well that is easier said than figured out, because sometimes it may take a lifetime to figure out our purpose.  It wasn't quite a lifetime but it took many years for me to see where God had led me.
 1.  A mother...........not just the ability to give birth to my 2 blood children but the motherly ability to love those that need the unconditional love of others.  The ability to reason and nurture the ones that I work with.
2.  A wife......because its learning to join or unite with another person that believes in what I do and where we shall serve.
3.  A farmer...........taken in consideration #1 + #2 yes you get a living......or choice of life.  I believe all these together have given me the opportunity to build the living where we work the land, care for the animals he created and feed his people not just by mouth but by deed!

PASSION
If you have followed any of my blog you will know that I am a 1ST GENERATION FARMER !! At times in my life I thought we were crazy to keep pursuing a dream that is costly and so physically and mentally challenging. But a spark was lit years ago and the fire continues to burn brighter and longer each and every day.
"You will never make it.....You do not have the finances to start or grow such a business......You can never touch so many people by being a farmer."  Just as cruel as it was then when I heard those words....it still is today.......BUT that spark lit the fire beneath 2 young, you will never make it off love hearts......that continues to oil the fire that passions my soul!!
It is the individuals that criticize you that can make you stronger!!
1.  The mother in me that would stay up long hours to make sure a calf made it thru the night......the mother in me leaves the house in the middle of the night to tend to a sick worker who needs medicine....the mother in me takes care of the flock by day and night.....the job has never clocked in hours. Its the idea that watching every animal like my child......will nourish from the care.
2. The wife in me makes sure the work is complete at home and on the farm so that the table can be used......the wife in me listens in the wind and watches with her heart to see where I am needed most!
3.The farmer in me delights in the smiles from families that I know are able to eat and from the seed that is planted.............watered, sheltered and harvested because we know no different.
Not just the occupation as a farmer but also the biblical meaning of farming when God said "the Harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few."  Learning to sow a seed spiritually.....educating and being a joy to someone who needs you!

PRIDE
Pride in the bible I understand is a sinful thing, so before you assume..... listen to my meaning....
The Pride that ignites me.....inspires me.....makes me better.
It is the self respect, hard work that I have personal worth to make a difference and learned to be humble. It is my hands that have been left to his decision in where to take me next.....

For it's the "hands in the dirt, hearts at work" for it's the 3 P's of the world that made me."  The friends that have shared in my endeavors and understand our passion and the family that keeps us stable!  For if no one reads my blog I know that one person will.....thank you Grama.....

Going to be a voice....

Had the most wonderful opportunity to hear from the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) Krysta Harden at the American Farm Bureau Federation conference. As a woman it is so exhilarating to see her stand proud from the farm to the city.....sharing her story and love for the land!

I myself am living this dream backwards....coming from the city to the farm.  Deputy Harden states, "Its not our livelihood but our way of life!" If we don't share our story no one else will.

Some do not understand my story that why it's important to share it.....especially as I am still writing my personal book. 

The daughter of two school teachers....my morals and tradition runs deep!  Just like the farm tradition does for most. I grew up under street lights and by the sound of vehicle traffic. So many say "when I grew up a farm...." Something that I can never say......but live for the day when my two girls will share that phrase. I can't wait to hear "my parents started their own farm and I grew up in agriculture and understand the viability of hard work, taking care of your resources and learning what feeds the world really means."Each day I learn more my feet may move me but my voice is what will grow me. 

"If your not at the table, then you will be on the plate!" A phrase I heard in a leadership class a couple of years ago is so very true today. If we don't sit at the issues then we will not be able to stand for the solution.  I want to be the voice for us farmers because we all can't.....especially if we are tending to the fields. I use my voice....louder and prouder........as Neale Donald Walsh said....Life begins at the end if your comfort zone.

Another job on my list of already too many things to do right????  For it's all another day in the life of the farmers wife.....

Me and Deputy Secretary

It's not what I do....it's who I am

Everyday we all get complacent in our ways and our works.  I myself fit into that sentence.....but have to say not 100%. Every day is still anew day in our house and on the farm. The weather in KY changes as often like you change your underpants it seems. 

We get up, go out....well in the winter my husband does....he breaks water, feeds the hay etc.  I take care of kids, the house, and TAXES. 

We travel in the winter to meetings and leadership conferences.......and my most recent trip with Farm bureau I realized again I am exactly where I am meant to be.

The woman in the airport started to stir conversation and asks, "why are you traveling?" I simply said for a meeting....and she ask then "what do you do?" I then went into my spill of owning a farm and being a farmer myself.  The look on her face was priceless as she pondered her next statement...."wow I would have never guessed that because you do not look like a farmer." (Not sure if she was stumped by my dress, age or maybe it was the long blonde hair.)

My story was then simple....it all started with a dream....the ability of health to tackle that dream, and the willingness to work to live that dream! Obviously 30 minutes later she heard my life story.....and I realized again it doesn't matter what you look like, or what you do......it's really who you are!

I don't farm for a living.....I am a farmer and I work for a living!

Farming, Friends and Fun

Each year we look forward to our winter meetings, mainly the time off from home/farm responsibilities but most importantly the chance to catch up with our farmer friends around the state!!!

This becomes the place where more corn is grown, the tractors are always bigger and the yield could honestly feed the world!  Men farm, women talk babies, and the kids......well you can always hear them!!

We educate ourselves on new processes, discover new ideas to expand, and lastly hug and love everyone we have missed since the last meeting.

Winter months can be just as hard as the working field months.......it's the planning and conditioning phase.  It's the time set aside for family and education!  

We dig in the mental dirt and farm the best and worst options Mother Nature could possibly hand us.  

In the end, we have more information to take back to our farms and a stronger understanding of community and why friends are so important......mentally or physically....hands in the dirt...our hearts are at work!!