No, I haven’t fallen and hit my head. I actually have a funny little hypothetical situation to share with all of you. (And greetings to all the new readers! Welcome, pull up a pillow and make yourself at home!)
We all know that when I say “hypothetical” I actually mean something that has happened, but I’m protecting the guilty…right? 😉
Anyway, let’s say something happened kinda like this:
Imagine, if you would, a young lady in high school. She’s full of energy, a head full of ideas and can’t imagine anything stopping her from reaching her goals. She has decided to become a lawyer. Politics are in her future and when asked during a government class, she quickly raises her hand and lets the class know that she has every intention of being the first female President of the United States.
“Hypothetically,” the gal on the right (at her junior prom) may have had some lofty goals. The goals are still lofty, it’s just the focus is better! (And nice gloves, by the way…nice gloves.)
And then life throws a few curveballs: family illnesses, career distractions, four children, a roadtrip through Mayo.
But fast-forward a few decades, and this young lady has found her energy again. But she’s discovered that the real power isn’t found at an address in Washington, D.C. The real power can be found right at your doorstep. Grassroots at its finest.
Rumor has it that someone’s photo graces Morrill Hall at NDSU. The honor of being named Sigma Alpha’s Agricultural Woman of the Year in 2012 for NDSU. I still am in shock and absolutely blown away.
Idealistic? Perhaps. Realistic? Most definitely.
It’s all about making a difference, and you MUST start locally. Where you go from there is up to you!
Oh, and just to clarify…the young lady in our story isn’t eligible to run for President until the next election…just FYI, Mr. H! 😉
So, the other day I wrote a blog about playing “farm ball” (or “barn ball” as was also pointed out). And looking back on it, it sounded almost like a little bit of complaining. And I really don’t like that, so I’m going to start by saying, “I’m sorry.”
Here’s the scoop: I’m busy. But I’m busy because I want to be busy. I could easily quit with the extra stuff, drop a few boards, scratch a few projects and eliminate a hobby or two. But I won’t. Not yet.
I couldn’t imagine not taking the opportunities that are presented to me, like meeting Dr. Bill Danforth, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
Why? Because the world isn’t run by people who have time to do all the things that need to be done, the world is run by people who take the time to do all the things that need to be done.
And a little secret, since we’re such good friends…I thrive on it.
Give me two weeks to finish a project, and I’ll work on it. I’ll do a little here and there, and eventually it will take shape. Give me 10 minutes and it will be a masterpiece. Well, at least as close as I can get it. It’s as if my body shuts down, my mind takes over and I’m just as surprised as the next guy as to what is on the screen. Seriously.
For example, I write for several papers and publications. Since some of them have the same general readership, I write different articles, so no one gets bored with what I’m writing. Sometimes I spend 2-3 hours per article – which actually should tell me that I need to scrap it. The stuff that people like? The words that ring the most true? Those are the articles that take me less than 10 minutes to put together.
I don’t get it. I’m sure there’s some psycho-analysis that could be done. Perhaps it’s due to the cold, harsh winters in the great north…or spending too many hours ice fishing…or too many shells through my .270…or one too many concussions during softball. Whatever it is, I don’t take it for granted. It helps me immensely.
Yes, I’m busy. No, I’m not complaining. Yes, it’s stressful. No, I don’t need an intervention…yet. But I thank you for noticing, for expressing concern and for asking if you can help out. If there is anything that last weekend’s blizzard taught me, it’s the fact that it’s better to be too busy, than suddenly finding yourself with nothing to do.
So tonight I switched up my workout a bit. The elliptical wasn’t going to cut it. It’s been one heck of a Monday, filled with unneeded drama, day-to-day stress and this issue I’m having with a recurring dream.
Have I mentioned taking a few college courses, the fact that rain has delayed harvest and that I missed my 11-year-old’s first ball game tonight?
The whole point? Not much, really. Just letting off steam, and since this is my blog, I certainly can do that. 😉 Who am I kidding, this blog has long since left the realm of a private rant! (Not complaining, not one bit.)
So instead of sitting on a machine in the warmth of my house, I braved the rain, ran out to the shop and played a little farm ball. Now that harvest is stalled because of the weather, and mostly because what farm shop isn’t stacked with machinery and what-not, playing ball in the shop isn’t like regular basketball.
Nope, you have to make up your own rules, call your own shots and award points and rewards accordingly…and you need to know when to call the game.
So, here’s my lesson for the night…let’s see if you can find the deeper meaning:
Sometimes you have to take an outside shot…sometimes from behind the Gehl cutter. Double points if you don’t break out the glass in the tractor.
Hitting a three is always a challenge in basketball. Now hit one from behind an air seeder. It’s not just the distance you shoot from, but the obstacles in your way and whether or not you make the shot, no matter what you’re facing.
The only triple in this shot was the tractor I was standing behind. Follow-through is a must in the game…basketball or otherwise.
Your obstacles don’t have to be something new, and your answers don’t have to reinvent the wheel…use what’s in front of you. You won’t be the first tackling that particular problem, and you most certainly are not the last. Even if your problem is the size of an old Massey Ferguson combine. Get the job done. (Oh, and doesn’t everyone have an old fridge in their hay shed?)
Most importantly, know when to say when…and tonight it was losing the ball under the combine, and not wanting to go after it. Sometimes it’s not worth getting dirty over…
Earlier this week, I posted about the devastation that hit to the west of us. So many farmers and ranchers lost so much in the blink of an eye. People were quick to share photos and stories of heartbreak, but the questions started pouring in.
So I’m going to attempt to answer a few, from this farmer’s point of view. Please remember, these are my thoughts and reasons, but I’m hoping to give just a bit of insight.
1) It’s the Dakotas, why aren’t we ready for a blizzard?
Well, it’s pretty simple. Look at the calendar. It was the first week of October. And although snow is always a possibility, just about any month, the early snow falls are usually fast, wet and disappear. It was predicted to snow, but not even the most cynical of weatherman predicted it would hit that fast, that hard and bring with it the winds that were present.
There were 26 named winter storms across the country last year, according to The Weather Channel. There were many, many storms that hit our area throughout the winter. We don’t usually name them, and they don’t usually impact our lives too much. This was unexpected and beyond our realm of normal.
Our cattle spend the summer, and part of fall, on grass.
You see, in my case, our pasture is located about 15 miles from our farm. The land is hilly, rolling and wouldn’t be suited for farming. Yet it makes the perfect pasture. If a storm were to hit suddenly, and packing the punch that this one did, there is no way I could drive to the pasture, have them loaded up and brought home, and do so safely, in anything less than a day.
This is how we get our cattle to and from our pasture. It takes about a day to bring them all home, or take them all to pasture.
This is what our pasture looks like. Not quite as hilly as the area where the storm hit, but you can get an idea of what it would be like.
3) OK, I get it, it was a freak storm, the cattle were on grass…but why did they die?
Good question. And it’s simple science. The storm hit fast, the snow was heavy, many suffocated under the weight of the snow, or ended up disoriented and wandered into a more dangerous area. (Below you’ll find a video I did a few years ago, when I went out to check cows after a blizzard…you can see how they gather.)
Snow accumulates and builds in drifts, much like sand dunes. And when the wind is blowing like it did, it creates very dangerous drifts. If the cattle gathered in an area that was protected from the wind, they may have ended up buried.
You would think that a building would provide protection from snow, but it can actually collect more snow than an open area.
Here’s the one thought I would like for you to take away from all of this: We deal with these types of storms every year. It had nothing to do with lack of care or not knowing how to handle the weather…it had everything to do with timing. The fact that we handle hundreds of winter storms without a loss every year speaks volumes to the care that we provide our animals.
As I sit at my computer, typing this post and considering the challenges that face those to the west of me…all while in a severe thunderstorm watch, I can’t help but shake my head at the irony of it all.
A blizzard last week? Potential for tornadoes this week? Perhaps this government shutdown is even getting to Mother Nature? (Sarcasm…that’s sarcasm.)
I can tell you that the farm and ranch community will rally around and do what they can to help each other out. But the fact is, we may lose a few farms and ranches…and when our numbers drop, the effect is felt throughout the country.
The storm may have hit a small area, but we will all feel it.
According to my calendar, we’re entering another week of government shutdowns…and it doesn’t appear as if there is an end in sight. After this weekend’s early blizzard in the upper Midwest, I have a few things that are on my mind.
Apparently Mother Nature didn’t get the memo that there was a government shutdown. In fact, Mother Nature decided to show many just who is in charge…and it was a hard lesson learned. They estimate that as many as 100,000 cattle have died from the results of the massive blizzard that took many by surprise.
And where is the assistance? The websites of information that could be used to help? Oh, sorry, didn’t you hear about the furlough?
But don’t worry, while the government is shutdown, hosting its own two-year-old tantrum, claiming that no one wants to play fair, workers that aren’t guaranteed pay are pitching in to help, organizations are offering services to connect those that have lost cattle and those that have found cattle, setting up sites for information and tips on how to make sure your losses are reported.
At a time when assistance from elected officials could be felt the most, there is no one there to answer the phone.
#DearCongress: Mother Nature is not on furlough. Farmers and ranchers are not on furlough. Emergency workers are not on furlough. It’s time to do what you were elected to do…grow up and represent our country, lead us to a better future, not down a path of destruction.
On the plus side, perhaps this shutdown will lead many to decide that it is time to step out of the shadows and start becoming actively involved in our government. Remember, this is our government…not just the government.
Run for office, whether it be township, county commission, school board, state or local offices. Let your voice be heard. Write letters. Make phone calls. It is well past the time to start charting our course back on track.
We cannot go back and change the actions of the past, but we certainly can make sure that our future is a different story.
A government shutdown will not have an impact on Mother Nature. But it can unite us in a drive to finally do what we should have been doing all along…be involved.
Censorship…it’s a tricky topic. And yet, every day our freedoms are infringed upon due to someone determining what it is we have the right to know. So how do we find the fine line and tread somewhere between our freedoms allowed by the Constitution and mass chaos?
Some deep thoughts for a fall day, isn’t it?
Yet, these are the issues troubling my mind today.
It started off as a blog post by a dear friend of mine. She was checking into what her son was reading for his sixth grade requirements. He wasn’t answering her questions as thoroughly as she would have liked, so once he went to bed, she read the book he was reading.
She was shocked, to say the least.
The book was about a teenager giving birth to a child, abandoning it by a river bank, and the physical changes and complications that arose from the situation. And it was labeled as a sixth-grade-level book.
My friend had trouble sleeping that night. She knew that her son was confused by what he was reading, but since he was on a deadline to finish the necessary points for the quarter, she allowed him to finish reading the book. But she did speak to the school administration about the book. It is no longer labeled as sixth-grade appropriate.
But is that censorship?
In my mind, no, it’s being a responsible parent…and looking out for others as well. The book is still available at that particular library, it’s just not available to a crowd that would not understand the touchy issues involved. And all it took was a concerned parent to actually read what their child is reading.
Reading is important, but knowing what your children are reading is even more important.
Some would say that we should be able to read whatever it is we want. That we should be able to have answers to all our questions and nothing should be kept from us…and to a point, I agree. But the problem arises when others start flexing their “freedoms” as well.
I have the freedom to write what I like…at least on my blog, within reason. I do not have to check my facts, I do not have to support my suppositions, I just need to write. And if someone wants to come along and accept what I have to say as fact, that’s their right as well.
Can you see where the problem can arise?
We are bombarded daily with things that people claim as “fact.” We want to know the answers to our questions, but we don’t know where to go for the right answer, and we don’t know whom to trust. And when it comes to things such as the food we eat and how I raise it, I can’t help but wish that we could censor just a bit more.
Much like a sixth-grade boy, not sure what to do with the information provided to him in a book, my friends and neighbors are being bombarded with information that can either answer questions with the truth, or spread fear and misinformation.
For example, many assume that our cattle spend the majority of their life in a feedlot. When, in reality, they spend the majority of their life on grass.
So, although I will defend your right to share what you wish, I will also exercise my right to share my own story. And perhaps, between the two, we can find common ground.
So, here we are…at the beginning of the much-anticipated government shutdown. Aside from the angst and anger aimed at the powers that be, I have found a few solutions to some of the problems we may be having. Let’s look at them, shall we?
First of all, the fact that we are at this point is sad and telling of the state our country is truly in…there is nothing like having to explain to our children that the government is “shut down” because two sides can’t communicate effectively. Perhaps it’s time to implement that t-shirt you see on Facebook so often – you know, the one where two kids are stuck in the same shirt, until they agree to get along? I’d pay good money to see a few delegates in those!
Second of all, why is it that the people who refuse to work together are those least-affected by the shut-down? Shouldn’t their jobs be the first on the chopping block? Perhaps that would be a little more effective in getting some rational discussions taking place.
But it seems to me that if our government is laying-off workers, we should easily be taking care of a few shortages around the country. And although I completely realize that the workers laid-off are highly skilled and needed, I wish that the lay-offs would hit the lawmakers first. If they did, here are a few of my suggestions:
1) Apparently the shut-down is affecting farm laborers – but if we have laid-off park rangers, etc., then shouldn’t the problem solve itself? I know that sometimes on the farm, our greatest requirement for a skill set is the ability to shovel manure…and I do believe that qualification is easily met.
2) There is a daycare shortage around the country. I’m guessing that many workers could find a part-time gig helping out by watching children. Of course, that may require a little juggling of skills. But really, if you deal with the whining on the Hill successfully, children may be even easier to handle.
3) Government websites are shut-down, as well as Twitter feeds. It’s not as if someone is hired full-time, just to hit refresh on a page…or are they? But really, if we have some web-savvy folks looking for something to do, I have a page or two they could work on.
4) Perhaps some of the USDA folks looking for good, cheap meals to stretch their waning dollars could go eat lunch at a near-by school. It’s supposedly cheap, and although it’s not filling, it definitely won’t make you fat. Just don’t expect to get much out of it, perhaps pack a snack…since those available through the school are now regulated as well.
5) Substitute teachers are needed as well. I’m sure that those workers that are looking for some temporary employment could easily find a subject that would fit.
I’m thinking that next week I may propose a farm shutdown. But unfortunately, the first one affected would be me!
I am on a bus, on my way out of a tour at a horse sanctuary. It was a first for me…I had to walk away, knowing that I could not express the ideas and opinions in my head. It wasn’t because I wasn’t sure what to say, or how to word it, it was because I knew that we were too far apart in the conversation. We would never see eye to eye and neither of us would be able to be rational in our discussion.
When the conversation turned to horse slaughter, and comments were being made that equated the horses in the rescue to children, I knew that our views were not compatible. So I decided to walk away. Sometimes in life you need to know “when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em,” and this was one of those moments.
Why did I walk away?
It was the right thing to do. We were on a tour, I was a guest on a farm and I had no business criticizing her decisions on her home turf. It would have been rude, impolite and unacceptable. But it doesn’t change how I feel, and it most certainly didn’t change my opinion.
But I did learn a lesson on how to walk away, and exercising control.
My tongue will heal from biting it, my brain is spinning from the information and I was motivated to break out my blog…so it was a great experience.
But I will admit that I did not leave anything in the donation box. That was as loud of a statement that I could make.
When I think about my hours spent in the kitchen on the farm, my first instinct is to grab my lasagna pan. Whenever we work cattle, have a crew out to help or need to work together on a project, I know that I can never go wrong with the cheesy, meaty greatness that is my “Farm-ous Lasagna.”
So here it is…AND I have a crew to feed it to today!
This is what we’re doing:
This is corn that has been chopped and will be used this winter to feed our cattle. We have a crew of 7 here today to help us get our feed ready!
And I’ll be sure to explain it more later.
But for now, here’s the recipe:
Val’s Farm-ous Lasagna
Ingredients:
ground beef, browned (I use 1 1/2 pounds of meat, but not everyone likes their lasagna THAT meaty, use your discretion.)
1 can pasta sauce
4 cups shredded cheese of your choosing (I prefer the pizza mix, because it melts so yummy!)
1 22 oz. container cottage cheese (I use low-fat…which is almost laughable because of the amount of cheese in my lasagna, but I didn’t ask your opinion, now did I? 🙂 )
lasagna noodles, about 12, depending on your pan size, cooked al dente’ and drained/rinsed
1) Add pasta sauce and browned hamburger together in a skillet. I make sure it’s all warmed together before layering my lasagna.
This is how I start my lasagna, with a layer of sauce.
2) Layer your lasagna: I always start with a base of sauce/burger mixture at the bottom, then a layer of noodles, then a layer of sauce again, cottage cheese and shredded cheese. Continue layering, ending with shredded cheese that covers the whole pan. (I use one package of cheese in the layering, and one package just for the topping…I like cheese.) Like this:
3) Bake at 350* for about 30 minutes, or until you notice the sauce in the lasagna starts boiling.
Can we say, “YUM!”
4) Enjoy! And perhaps consider hitting the gym for a little extra time tonight. The beauty of this recipe? If possible, it tastes even better as leftovers. Unfortunately, it’s been a year or two since my boys left us any leftovers!
* I am participating in Indiana’s Family of Farmers Table Talk Series and received a gift in exchange for my participation.
Wag'n Tales 