Memories

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years

So, last week I borrowed a tote full of old pictures from my Mom's house.  I used to look at these pictures a lot years ago, before life got busy and hectic, but it's been a while so I felt a look into the past and into fond memories was well needed so the tote took a ride over to my house where I've been occasionally going through them all one by one.

 

Oh my goodness there are some real good pictures and some funny ones too.  It's fun to go through them with my kids and give them a glimpse into my life when I was young.  What Grandma's house looked like years ago when I was growing up compared to now.  How I looked and our various family members did and Sam especially got a kick out of the hair and clothing from years ago.  I'll admit, it is quite funny to look at.

 

While going through some of them I pulled out some of the more significant ones for me.  Pictures that no matter how many years go by before I go through these again, these are some of the pictures I will hunt to find and pull out to make me smile.

 

Like this one....

 

Yeah, this lovely lady is me when I was about 6 months old.  Look at those legs!  This photo is actually painted and my Mom and Dad had pictures like these done of my brother and sister as well when they were 6 months old too.  For the longest time these portraits of us hung on the living room wall at my parents house, in order by age of course.  I just think it is one of my favorite pictures of me ever.  I love the little flower basket.

 

Then while searching for more pics I came across this one.  Another family favorite.

 

 

 

 

The man in the center of this photo is my Great Grandpa Oscar, he is from my Dad's side of the family.  I am the little tiny baby in the yellow on the left and am sitting on my sister's lap.  The sweet little girl on Grandpa's lap is my cousin, Cindy and the two boys are my brother (the older one) and my cousin Tim on his lap. 

 

In fact, we decided to replicate the pose at my cousin Cindy's wedding in 1996, but instead of Grandpa Oscar we let his daughter (our Grandma), sit in his spot.  This photo was taken 24 years later.

 

 

 

 

Man, those were some good times.  I really do like to look at these old pictures and think back to those days and remember moments that correlated with the photos.  I remember her wedding being such a fun day.  It would be fun just to redo it all over again.

 

As I was going through the tote I was brought back to my roots and thinking about my Dad as so many people have told me in the past that I look a lot like him.  I also think our Zachary resembles him in many ways.  He has that super dark skin tone that my Dad always had.  He has the dark hair color as well as the big dark eyes.  Here are some pictures of him as a young boy to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I really think this last one looks a ton like Zachary. 

 

 

 

Oh and yeah, the funny pics.  Somewhat embarrassing pics I might say.

 

How about this one?

 

 

 

 

Nice polaraid picture of some obnoxious orphan Annie lookalike.  Yep that's me alright.  I'm looking pretty hot, heh?

 

I actually remember going to the salon in Random Lake to get this wonderful perm.  The Golden Palace I believe it was called, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Don't ask me why I thought I needed my hair to look this way but at the time I think I seriously thought I was looking pretty darn hot.  LOL!

 

Oh and the annual Christmas photo of the grandkids at Grandma's house.  We are all so cool, aren't we?  I love my plaid dress and my cousin's matching sweaters, not to mention my sister's lovely outfit and glasses.  Hilarious stuff!

 

 

 

 

Okay, enough of this for now.  My bed is calling me and I just can't look at anymore of these old time photos.  Although they bring back a lot of good memories it is also starting to make me feel REAL OLD!!!

 

Nighty night!

 

 

 

A Little Glimpse

"There is no gilding of setting sun or glamour of poetry to light up the ferocious and endless toil of the farmers wives."  Garland Hamlin

 

So it's been a while since I've posted about my daily happenings around the farm and Lord knows I'm always full of good stories about that place.  It is a never ending storybook really.  Some good stories, some comical, some dramatic, always something.

 

In fact, it was Monday today, start of the work week for normal people.  I obviously am not normal (never have been really now that I think about it?), and well with the way my day started all I could think was, "Yikes!  If this is any sign of how the rest of my day is gonna go, I'm in trouble!"

 

What happened you ask to make me think this?  Well, how about a big, old, poop-covered cow tail smacking you square across the face at 4:15 am?  Nothing like waking a person up, heh?  NOT NICE!  Honestly, that was the first time I've ever gotten caught off guard that bad.  I had to go to the milk house and wash my face off completely with warm water afterwards and I think there could've been some in my teeth?  Yuck!

 

Anyhoo, after that incident, the day did seem to take a better turn and so far so good.  Thank goodness!

 

So yeah, I thought today's post would be about showing you a little glimpse of my daily happenings around the farm.  In the past I've showed pictures but they don't capture the true essence of the animal's personalities and what I get to see every day and what makes me enjoy the job as much as I do.

 

So here are a few little glimpses into my "life as a farmer" and "farmer's wife".

 

This first little clip is to show you some of the baby calves I have to feed outside.  I only have five of them outside right now but they are soooo sweet so I had to include them.  So soft and cuddly with their little winter coats on.

 

 

 

 

How can you not love and want to take care of these little ones?  When my day isn't going so great, they do help to lighten my mood a bit by just being "them".

 

The next clip is of some more of the youngest babies we have at the farm.  Born just last Wednesday and Thursday so they aren't even a week old yet.

 

 

 

Can everybody say "Awwwwwww...."?

 

Now, enough of the little ones.  Let's meet some of the "big girls" on campus.  The cream of the crop!  The top dogs (hee hee top cows I mean).

 

These lovely ladies are the money makers at our farm and like I've said before, each and every one has a very distinct personality, just like humans.  Some of them I like a lot and some not so much.  Some like to be drama queens and some go through the daily routine practically unnoticed.

 

Funny stuff, heh?  When I watched this over for the first time I seriously cracked myself up.  Maybe you didn't find it as funny but sometimes I question my sanity.  Talking to cows?  I need to get out more.

 

And last but not least, here is a little introduction to some of my girlies inside the barn.  And yes, when doing my chores and feeding them hay or whatever else I do talk to them and call a lot of them by name.  They don't usually answer me but they do show interest.  That's more than my husband does sometimes :)  Us girls got to stick together!!!  I apologize for this clip as my battery died on my camera as I was recording so it cuts out kind of rudely.

With that I hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into "my world".  A lot different than most of you can imagine I'm sure.  I still say, I'd rather be shit on by cows at this job than shit on by people like at my last.

 

These girls don't do it intentionally at least and they DO appreciate me.  They love when I milk them, they love when I feed them and they may not show it by hugging me or sitting on my lap like a dog (that wouldn't be good?) but I know they do.

 

Have a great week!!!!

Progress

Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress. - Nicholas Murray Butler   Winter stinks, it really does and I've surely had enough of it.  It makes chores longer at the farm, it makes me add about 5 pounds to my body every day by wearing triple layers of clothing to keep myself warm at work and any sign of Spring I get a glimpse of makes me a little giddy.   Even before working at the farm I wasn't fond of the winter months.  I am not an avid snowmobiler or skier or anything like that so I could care less if there was any of that white stuff outside.  All it does for me is make a bigger mess inside and outside of my house.  Snow pants and boots strewn all over out kitchen area where our side door to the house is, mittens miscellaneously placed where they fall at the time and I've had enough.   But, today was a little warmer out.  There is a little sunshine in the distance and things are thawing at the farm, I could feel it instantly this morning and the cows could too I think, a couple of them were smiling real big and I saw some chatting about it in the distance.  They too can't wait until they have those wide open pastures to graze in during the day and don't have to be stuck in the barn anymore, it's no fun in there.   With this warmth brought me new energy.  A new attitude I guess.  At least while it's here.  I know what those stupid weather men are predicting right now for later this week so I'm not getting overly excited but am "living for the moment".   So while my little guy is keeping himself busy playing on the WII on his new Hot Wheels game I am making some much needed progress on neglected areas of my house.

First I started off with a request from Luke (who always has to help) and whipped up some chocolate chip cookies with almonds to keep everybody in the household happy.  Double batch as usual, and it will likely only last until the end of the week if I'm lucky.         During the baking process I did two sinks full of dishes, one from last night (I refuse to do dishes at 8 pm in the evening after we've come home and ate supper) and one with the plastic containers in the cupboard I reorganized this morning.         In-between baking cookies, retrieving drinks and food for Luke, and doing dishes I've also managed to fold and put away two loads of laundry and have another one in the dryer and one in the washer as I type.  Sweet!         Our dog Lucy hasn't been much of a help with any of this.  She didn't even flinch much this morning, even while the wonderful aroma of cookies was baking nearby.  She's got the life!!!         Earlier I also reorganized the upper kitchen cabinets.  Tossing out a lot of old things we accumulated over the last while, expired medicine, etc.  I have a motto at my house when cleaning, "If I haven't been using it and it's just taking up space, it's outta here!"  Oh sure, sometimes these poor, neglected items end up in a box for the local Goodwill or they meet their fate in our beautiful garbage can.         Oh don't get me wrong, I have a very LONG way to go before my house is back the way I remember it being long ago, before three kids and before working a lot of long hours.  But for once I feel like I am making some progress.  Just these small baby steps are making me smile.   Now granted, it's very likely nobody else in the house will notice, and what I just spent time organizing will more than likely be out of sorts sooner than I hope, but such is life.  I have temporary satisfaction from these small little things.  These small steps toward some control and some balance in our life makes me happy for now.   Although, by this time, Luke is ticked at his game on the WII and just stormed off to his room because he's mad at me.  I actually kind of like when he does this, it gives me a little quiet time and it usually makes him rest on his bed and give into his much needed nap.   I hope you all have a great rest of the week.  Hopefully I can keep up my energy level (keep your fingers crossed) and continue on this progress I'm making.  I have so much more to do.

The Eyes of a Child

 

 

While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Yesterday was a good day.  Initially, in the morning while doing chores, I didn't know if I would have the energy to do this when I got home, but a special little boy in my life was begging the second I walked in the door and well, my arm was twisted and my decision was made.  Little Luke was finally going to have the fun experience of going to Build A Bear Workshop to create his very own special friend.

See about three months previous I had casually mentioned the idea to him and how there was this cool place where you could pick out your own animal, stuff it, name it and get clothes for it and all this stuff at "the mall", needless to say, he hasn't let the topic go away since and I can only make up excuses for so long as to why we couldn't go.

So we went.  I had special talks with both of his older siblings that although they were going along, this was Luke's special day and neither of them were going to talk me into getting new bears themselves (and yes for those of you wondering, they would've).  Nor were they getting anything at the mall at any other store unless they paid for it with their very own money.  Although they weren't thrilled at the idea, they got it and away we went.

There is nothing better to me than taking a young child somewhere he's never been before.  I honestly never go to malls shopping and when I do it's either for school shopping when Luke isn't along or Christmas shopping when he isn't along either so this experience was very new to him.

The first thing he saw when we walked into the mall were the escalators.  He was very excited!!!  I think if he had the chance he would've rode up and down them all day.  He kept calling them "the steps".

 

So, once up "the steps" we headed over to Build A Bear.

 

 

At this point Luke has absolutely no idea what to expect, we aren't frequent flyers in these kinds of places.

 

We head into the store and show him the roughly 20-25 animals to choose from.  Bears of course, dogs, kitties, bunnies, monkies, there was even a penguin.  He looks with all seriousness and then stops and says, "Oh nevermind...we can go.  Let's go to the monster truck store."

 

Can you believe it?

 

Of all those animals, each of them really cute, he didn't want any?  Most people would find that a good thing, that their kid didn't want something from Build A Bear, but I didn't drive roughly 40-45 minutes away to this special store to drive to the nearest Walmart instead and buy a monster truck.

 

I then explained to him that if he picked out the cutest one, he would get to help put the stuffing in and name it and wash it and blow dry it and that the animals would be really sad if nobody took them home to love them.  After that he was convinced.

 

So he picked this adorable little puppy.

 

 

 

He still didn't completely understand the process yet and while waiting in line kept wanting to go back and grab the already stuffed one like this on display.  I think he was pretty certain that the unstuffed one he had wasn't going to be loveable enough and didn't want to get ripped off.  Thank goodness the line moved at the pace it did or we could've had a major meltdown real soon.

 

Onto the creation of his puppy.

 

 

 

Being asked if he wants his doggy to be soft, medium or hard.  He chose soft.  I would've too.  Who doesn't love a real softy, heh?

 

 

 

 

Luke running the foot pedal to put the stuffing inside his newly found friend.  He was starting to dig this Build A Bear thing now.  Or Build A Dog in our case.

 

 

 

 

Here he just picked out the heart that eventually goes into his new friend.

 

 

 

 

Here he is rubbing the little heart for his friend to warm it up.  Previously he had to kiss it too but I didn't get that on film.

 

 

 

 

And the heart is in and his new friend is complete and being stitched up.  Dontcha love how he picked a very feminine, pink little doggie?  LOVE IT!!!

 

Now, time to bathe, blow dry and comb his new friend.

 

 

 

 

 

Ta da!!!  A new found friend.....who he ended up naming Butterscotch?  Yep, he has a pony from Christmas named Butterscotch too and we have a cow at the farm named Butterscotch and well, he's stuck on that name for now I guess. 

 

 

 

 

By the time we left the store he was allowed to pick out some clothes, so he picked out a little pink, multi-colored onesie jammie with hat and some hot pink slippers for her feet.  Too funny.

 

 

 

 

And the Build A Bear experience was a hit.  And luckily for me it wasn't that expensive by comparison. 

 

 

 

 

We headed to the food court for some grub and had conversation.  Luke only had one complaint about Build A Bear, he was not happy that they didn't have any farm animals to choose from.  His list included cows, pigs, horses and chickens.  Apparently he would've liked to have stuffed one of those instead.

 

And before heading out of this big place "the mall", we had to stop at Luke's favorite thing there...

 

 

 

Seriously, I can't pass these up myself, how could a 4 year old?  We had some Mike N Ikes and a few gumballs before leaving.  I think we even stuffed some pockets with some extras for the long ride home. 

 

It was a step away from reality and the strains of the adult life.  Just the four of us "chilling" and not caring too much about anything for the moment.  Life was good.

Snippet

Snippet -a small part, piece, or thing; especially: a brief quotable passage.

 

I've been busy this week and have had a ton going on.  Oh don't get me wrong, my weeks are always busy, but this week had an extra celebration that wasn't planned for at this time last week.

 

Here is a little snippet of the following week for myself.

 

It started out with the baptism of my nephew's beautiful baby girl, Kylee Lynn.  My daughter, Samantha, was asked to be her Godmother and truly honored by this.

 

 

 

 

I think she is going to go out of her way to make an impact on this special little blessing from God.  Truthfully, at the ripe old age of 14 I believe my daughter has already made big impacts on other people's lives with her caring and compassionate ways that I am 100% sure they picked the perfect Godmother for little Kylee.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for these girls and look forward to watching them grow up together.

 

As my week went on I had to find the way to break the news to my 11 year old that his steer, Angus, that we have been raising since August at the farm, got sick with pneumonia and once this nasty cold spell hit earlier this week he passed away.  He was already sick on the below picture but was holding his own and we had our fingers crossed for a full recovery but well, he's no longer with us.

 

 

It was horrribly cold in these parts this week and on my drive to the farm on Monday morning it showed a wonderful -11 degrees.  Yuck!!!  So, needless to say, more work was required around the farm all week with frozen water tanks, frozen water pipes, cowies having to come back in the barn every day after getting some grub outside and it was tiring and somewhat depressing.

 

So, mid-week, to get out of the depressed mood that had overshadowed the house, Luke and I were spending some goold ol' Mama/Son bonding time while the other two were in school.

 

First he decided he should help me with my dishes (a new task he's been wanting to partake in a lot lately).  Not so sure I like this idea but what the heck?  He's happy, and if he's happy I'm usually much happier too.

 

 

 

Shortly after helping with the dishes he decided he should also watch the little stepping stool/ladder deal he was using as well.  Needless to say there was a lot of water on our kitchen floor?

 

 

After cleaning up the water on the floor, my belly was craving some homemade chocolate chip cookies (a Dahm family favorite) and Luke LOVES to help make those as well, so away we went.

 

 

 

His favorite thing to do is turn on the mixer and turn it off when I tell him to, and of course, he cannot wait to lick the beaters at the end of it all.  I made a double batch, which ends up being two full cookie jars, and well, they are almost gone already.  Yummy!!!

 

These cookies were much needed as a comfort food for me and like I said earlier, to help with the sadness I had been feeling all week.

 

On the same day my great niece was being baptized our family learned that my cousin, Donna, had passed away after a year long battle with ALS.  A brand new baby beginning her journey with the Lord not having any clue what great stories she would come to know and how powerful and mighty He is and one beautiful, humble and super kind woman leaving this earthly world to begin her journey with her God in Heaven.  It was rather ironic to me at the time.

 

 

 

I attended her funeral yesterday, a funeral she planned herself before her passing.  It was heartbreaking for so many people but simply beautiful, like her.

 

When I found out a little more than a year ago that she had been diagnosed I sent her a card in the mail explaining to her that whether or not she had known it she had always been such an inspiration to me as one of my older cousins.  She led her life through the Lord and was very family oriented, extremely kind, humble and I can't imagine her ever speaking a bad word about anybody.  She will be missed by so many.

 

There was a quote from the Little House on the Prairie on the program for her funeral that is a little snippet I would like to share.  I liked it a lot and thought it was worth passing on.  I think we should all think of this when remembering loved ones we have lost.

 

"Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all.  If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at al.l"

 

Here's to you Donna.  Her favorite drink in the world is a Lime Vodka Sour.  I will miss you.

 

 

 

 

Bloggity, Blog, Blah......

 

Blah - a feeling of boredom, lethargy, or general dissatisfaction.

 

Ughhh...I have a case of the "blahs" the last few days.  I don't prefer to feel this way, I truly like to be more productive during my time at home, but I can't shake the way I've been feeling lately.  All I want to do is sleep (which I never can really because of Luke) and I want to hide away from society in my house all by myself.  Yuck!  How boring is that?

So...I decided that maybe, to try to get rid of the blahs that I've been having, I should give myself a little question and answer session and include all of you as to humor myself and possibly remind me of good things and happy things so here goes.

1)  What is your full name? - Dana Joyce Degnitz Dahm

2)  Have you ever wished your name was different? - Heck no.  Truthfully I feel very lucky that my parents picked out such a unique name and only once the entire time I went to school did I have somebody with the same name and she only stayed at our school for one year I think.

3)  Do you have siblings?  - Yes I have two.  My brother, Dion, is 10 years older than me and my sister, Delene, is 8 years older than me.  I remember as a child the two of them fighting A LOT but I rarely fought with them because of the age difference.  We really didn't have many things to fight about.

4)  First memory that pops into your head about each sibling? - Well with Dion I think it would have to be me idolizing him.  He was my handsome, older brother and well, I just thought he was the greatest.  In fact when my girlfriends would sleep over and we would play truth or dare, sometimes we would dare each other to sneak into his room and give him a kiss on the cheek while he was sleeping.  LOL!  And well, I would have to say with my sister it would just be hanging out with her when I had gotten a little older and she was driving and we would go to some picnics or fairs together to see Rocket 88 (she loved this band).  I also spent a lot of time with her when her children were first born and loved those days.  And she taught me to crochet when I was small.

5)  What are some of your best childhood memories? - Hanging out at the race track where my Dad raced on the weekends.  Times were so much different then seriously.  For example, as a parent now, if I don't see my kids next door at the playground for 15 minutes or so I start to worry where they are or who took them.  When I was little and hanging out at the race track I could seriously run crazy all day long with my friends (most of who were boys there) and my parents never really came looking for us.  They were just happy I wasn't bothering them or asking for money :)

Another good memory would be going up north most summers for a week on our family vacation to Big Sand Lake.  Some friends of my parents had a cottage up there that they rented out and we would go there almost every year to fish and just relax.  My fondest memories up there are of seeing the bald eagles in their ginormous nests on the point while out on the lake fishing.  I can also remember every night putting our scraps from supper out on the deck by the all glass front of the cottage and waiting patiently for the raccoons to come up, oh so sheepishly, to chow down.  We sat as still as we could inside and watched.  As a child this was super cool stuff.  There was one raccoon that came up a few years in a row that was missing its tail.

6)  Where is your favorite place to vacation? - The first destination that pops into my head is sunny Arizona.  I love the warmth and the saguaro cactus that surround the entire area but the biggest reason I like going there is to visit all of our friends that have migrated there over the years.  When we see them again and have our get togethers, stories are shared from the past, a lot of laughing is done and you forget about all of the craziness of your normal life.

Honestly though, I have been quite a few places already over the years and I couldn't really pick a favorite.  I have loved all of them in one way or another and appreciated something from each place.  I am very partial to mountains though I'll confess, so send me out west anywhere by the Rocky Mountains and I'm pretty thankful.  I will never get over their beauty.

7)  What things do you like to do in your free time?  - Free time?  What is that?  Ha ha.  No really, IF I get free time by myself, which is like NEVER, I like to go to stores like Home Depot and just browse and dream about if I had the talent to fix things I would buy this and buy that to fix up my house.  Or I would just go to a movie all by myself and then maybe for lunch.  And yeah, I like to browse at the Hobby Lobby too and get ideas about things.  If I have some free time with just the kids then I will usually take them out for lunch somewhere that Jeff won't go to (he is extremely fussy about where he eats and won't try new places), like Chilis or Beanies or Buffalo Wild Wings, and after lunch we might go play at a playground for a while or sometimes hit a movie, it depends on our mood at the time.  Also, I like to crochet, make photo books on Shutterfly or Mixbook, I recently taught myself to quilt and have that on my to do list for the near future and I could spend a great portion of my day just listening and singing to the many songs on my IPOD.

Enough with the questions, here are just a few thoughts and tidbits running through my mind at the moment.

***I need a break from my 4 year old.  Seriously, I love the kid but I am at home with him every day of the week, pretty much every hour I am awake, most of the time by myself.  One of these days I really have to pawn him off on somebody to have some alone time where I can just do something for me.  That rarely happens and if it does it's usually for a dentist appointment or something I'm not enjoying anyway.

***My hair is getting long.  It just dawned on me that I haven't been to a hair salon since April of 2011.  So I haven't had a haircut or professional coloring of any kind since then.

***Do any other wives get along with their mother-in-laws?  I'm not gonna elaborate here or I could get myself in trouble, but seriously am I the only one who is really irritated by mine and never had a special, trusting relationship with her?

***I LOVE my fleece jammie bottoms!!!  I wear these pretty much every day at home between milkings and they are soooo warm and so comfie.  I think I need a few more.

***A little secret, don't share with my husband if you know him.  My husband is also fussy about his soda.  He is a Coke man all the way, prefers not to drink Pepsi if he doesn't have to.  Most milkings at the farm we each have a soda.  His Mom usually has a good supply in her fridge that we get it from and she usually has a variety.  In the past I would bring out two cans of Coke, one for him and one for me but I found that part way through the milking he would open the soda that I brought out for myself and start drinking that one too when he was done with his and then when I finally got a chance to stop and take a drink it would be 1/2 gone and it ticked me off.  Sooo...I wised up.  I now drink Pepsi or some kind of soda I know he doesn't like.  He doesn't touch my soda now!!!

***The other day when looking through my house and stressing over the fact that I felt I would never get caught up no matter how hard I tried I calmed myself down and convinced myself not to stress anymore and get used to the fact that until my kids are out of the house it will not be in order.  I feel better today about it.

***I made Sam's favorite dish for supper tonight - Australian Pepper Steak.  Don't ask me what's Australian about it, I'm pretty sure there isn't any kangaroo meat in it or anything, but that's what the recipe is called.  She'll be happy.

***I should really stop now.  I'm sure I'm boring all of you to death.  Sorry.  When I get started sometimes I just can't stop.

So, it's Hump Day today, heh?  For you normal Monday through Friday people it's all downhill from here.  For people like me the days of the week really don't mean too much, they all run together.  This helped my blah mood, remembering some good things and sharing some of these random thoughts.  My brain has too much time to think some days.  That's not always a good thing.

I hope you all have a great rest of the week!!!  Ta ta for now.

 

 

One Year Later (a little late...)

“If you have faith in yourself, you will accept changes easily. You won’t be afraid of who you might become.”

So, this past month I celebrated my one year anniversary of being a full time farmer and farmer's wife.  Honestly, it didn't occur to me that it was even the anniversary until the evening milking that night, to which I made my husband (my new boss) aware and asked where my present was and to which he replied, "Oh I'll give you a present. *wink* *wink*.  No shocker there!  Nice to know that us working side by side for a year now hasn't changed the way he talks to me and his continued smart assness (is that a word?).

When I reflect on the last year I can say without a doubt that this has been a life changing experience for sure.  As with any other job this one has it's ups and downs and pros and cons but at the same time I'm glad I made the change.

I don't think anybody can truly understand "farm life" and being a farmer without firsthand experiencing it day in and day out.  And I don't even mean people that work part time on a farm, to me that isn't even close reality of it.  To be a true farmer and a successful one you must make a commitment to it that is almost unparalled in any other occupation out there.  Honestly, you have to be married to it really.  Heck, most farmers are more committed to their farms and their animals than most spouses are to each other nowadays.  It really is a "way of life".  But an honest, simple and awesome way of life for us.

Recalling the past year there are a few things that stick out in my head, good and bad and some well just very memorable.  I'll start with the good.

I LOVE the scenery.  Even in the brisk cold of winter and the scorching days of summer, there is nothing like seeing the sunrise in the morning in the East with the neighbor's silos in the distance, hearing the birds chirp, the calves mooing, dogs barking in the distance and nature waking up.  I believe it brings me that much closer to God and makes me really appreciate the world around me and puts life into perspective.

I LOVE that our kids can come to work with us and learn what work is.  Oh sure, when school is in session I do miss out on time with the two older ones as they are in school most of the while I am home and get done when I go back to the farm, but when they have days off of school (Christmas break and summer for example), I am home with them a lot more than I had been in the past.  And like I said, a lot of nights they come to the farm with me when they are done with school and hang out in the barn or run around outside and what not.  In fact,  there have been quite a few nights when all three of the kids and Jeff and I are doing the milking together without any additional hired help.  I think it's important that they are taught a good work ethic and can also appreciate what we do each day.

 

I LOVE the animals.  Oh don't get me wrong, a lot of days they can piss me off and be uncooperative and all, but they really are like little kids (or big kids in the case of the cowies as they are rather large).  Seriously, they look at me and Jeff like their Mommy and Daddy and they know we are in charge.  I have come to know most of them by their names now and not just their ear tag numbers and find myself having one way conversations with them quite frequently.  No I am NOT crazy, just compassionate and lacking adult interaction I think :)

 

 

And last but not least, I LOVE that I miss out on all the drama and bullshit involved with an office/factory job and that I no longer have to get up in the morning worried about who I have to impress today.  I work with my husband every day, he's been married to me for 16 years and has seen me at my best and worst and could care less what I look like when I'm in the barn.  The cows sure don't care what I look like so long as I am nice to them and take care of them.  So because of this I also save time and money, another bonus.  I go through a lot less hairspray, a lot less makeup, I spend a ton less shopping at Kohls for nice clothes, and a lot less deodorant because let's be honest, if I smell... I fit right in there, so I rarely wear it.  LOL!

Now onto the bad.  Hmmm???

Ding ding ding!  First on my list are the crazy hours.  I don't think I will ever be able to say that I enjoy getting my butt out of bed at 3:45 am every single day of the week.  And quite honestly every morning the first thing that pops into my head is usually "This sucks!" or "I can't wait to come home and take a nap".  Although the nap thing doesn't always happen obviously as I have a 4 year old barking orders at me all day.  Oh and did I mention this is 7 days a week (twice a day milking).  So, on an average week I work about 9 hours a day x 7 = 63 hours a week.  It tires you out, really.  A lot of physical labor!!!

One of the other bad things that pops into my head is the fact that I will never get used to or like having to ship any of our animals.  Obviously this is a business we're running here and our goal is to produce milk and sometimes if a cow can't get breed back to keep her milk supply going or well she just gets sick for some reason or other it doesn't do us any good to keep her so we eventually have to ship them.  Not fun.  Because like I said, they do start to become a member of our family in a way and I usually leave the farm before I see them get loaded onto a truck for that reason.

 

Another bad thing that pops into my head is....

Farming in the winter isn't real fun.  I've never been fond of winter to begin with and that was when I didn't have to work outside in it, but now it really bugs me.  Trudging around in the snow outside to get to and from the calf huts to feed my babies is a bitch to say the least and freezing water pipes and having to keep the cows in the barn more often so they don't get too cold just adds to the work we have to do.  Thankfully I've become pretty good at dressing for the elements (a lot of layers-not my best look for sure) and if you are in the barn at the same time as the cowies it is actually pretty warm, so I try to look on the bright side.

Over the past year I've had some memorable experiences at the farm.  The one that really stands out is the day I was hauling a steer back from one of the other barns (we rent two barns from other people where we keep our younger stock).  In the truck with me was the high school kid that helps by us and Jeff was still up the road with the tractor at the barn we had just come from.  My goal was to take the steer back to the main farm so we could ship him that day.  All is going real well until I turned the corner onto Jay Road where our farm is and I looked out the rearview mirror and the steer was standing on the road behind me?!  Honest to goodness I thought I was hallucinating and seeing things and my first thought was "How the hell did he get there?"  and the second thought was "Whose animal is that it certainly can't be ours?"

Well long story short, the high school kid obviously didn't close the door properly on the cattle trailer, the steer came out, for whatever reason when I went running back to the main farm (not even sure why I went running to be honest) the steer followed me and we got him mixed in with the cows before Jeff got back.  I think the steer had the "hots" for me maybe?  Either way I was happy he got back where he belonged and I was real happy.

 

Around the farm there are a lot of things that the kids can get into and it makes me nervous.  There are just too many big animals, moving parts and big machines and those elements and kids don't always mix.  In the course of the last year we have had a toddler put his hand into a moving pulley (emergency room visit needed), a 10 year old drop a wagon pole onto his big toe (toe still recovering), a 14 year old drop a wagon pole on the top of her foot (foot recovered now I believe), a 10 year old get chased by the same red cow that tried to run him over in the barn at an earlier date, a toddler get bucked up against a wall twice by a red cow (damn red cows!) and well, too many instances that I care to mention.  Overall though each of these has taught all of us lessons and what not to do in the future so we stay safe.

It's been a good change.  I think sometimes people in general don't have any idea what we do and look down us.  Those people to me are clueless.

 

Oh sure, we may not be the next Donald Trump or Oprah Winfrey BUT......we live honest lives.  We surround ourself with our kids, each other, nature, beauty and HARD WORK.  I LOVE IT!!!