So it's Saturday, and while the breakfast dishes are cleaned up and a few of the kids are dressed (well, if you consider a tutu dressed...which today, I do), Joe wins for busiest male in the house...and that competition is fierce, considering Jack's non-stop toddler job.
If Joe were a list maker, or one of those Facebook status updaters, those ones that list all the things they have done in a day, it might look like this...and again, it's only 9:15:
Up at 5:45.
Trucks started and checked.
Dog fed.
Coffee made (this is important).
Anna up and at 'em to help.
Our seasonal truck driver arrives.
Trucks rolled out and headed to Bartonville.
Trucks unloaded.
Breakfast at McDonald's (this is also important...especially when you're 7).
Home.
Quick stop home to drop off Anna, say hi to the kids, and make coffee again (this is again, important).
Dog called into the truck.
Cattle chores to start.
Did I mention that it's now 9:21? In the morning?
Good heavens...not that he should win your pity or a contest, but just remember as you're headed to soccer or football or to get the paper in your jammies at 8:00 on a Saturday morning, there are people out there, already enjoying the blessing of a Saturday morning so you can fuel your car, eat your Corn Flakes and enjoy a hamburger at the ball game.
Maybe hand him a cup of coffee or a Mountain Dew at 3:00 this afternoon...he might need it!
Happy Saturday!
And if you're interested...here's my other 30 Days of Life on a Prairie Farm posts:
Day One
Day Two
and linking up with Holly Spangler as well, right here!
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Day Two: Appreciating Expertise
So have I mentioned we have had a few breakdowns in the last leg of our harvest?
Yeah, I know I have.
But what I have failed to mention is that with a cell phone call, a parts run, and a repair truck's arrival, our combine has been back in the field, rolling without much delay.
Our operation consists of years of experience, expertise, ability to discover problems, fix little or big ones, but also the ability to know when to step away, lean upon the piece of equipment that is the source of issue, and make a call for help.
The amazing thing is, unlike a lot of industries, it seems to me that the customer service we receive from the agriculture industry from before the seeds are even in the ground to the time when the tractors, combine, semis, etc. help take the crop out, there's always a face with a first name, cell phone number, and a recognizable pick up truck that will pull in at a moment's notice.
For instance, the guys have become close (this week especially) with Andy Carroll, our repair man from Kliene Equipment. He's been here, whether first thing in the morning or close to quittin' time last night, tinkering, fixing, all the while pleasant and conversational to our farmers who are just almost to the end of their patience.
We appreciate this.
Whether you run green or red or blue or yellow tractors, if you have a good relationship with the service folks, salesmen, parts department, you're going to be loyal to that particular company.
Isn't that something we all believe in? Isn't that why we go to certain grocery stores? We frequent Hy-Vee because of the free cookie. I love Running Central because they help me find the right shoes, and don't mind that my kids may or may not dismantle their sock display while I'm testing them. I love the lady who cuts my hair because she tells me when I show her a picture yay or nay...and I believe her...and she waxes my eyebrows, which is something that not just anyone should do!
As consumers, you deserve a relationship with someone who is providing you a service. From the food you eat to the shoes you wear to the hair you're cutting, you should have a good enough relationship to appreciate and trust their expertise. If you don't, figure out why, ask questions, and possibly move on.
So today, we're hoping to have a big day. We're hopeful that Andy's fix will put the end to the annoying little things that have gone wrong. I am cautiously optimistic that we're close, but I know that with the end of Andy's visits, we will start to see Sam's truck (the salesman)...which I will try to appreciate this relationship as well...even though it could affect my shoe buying habit!
Read more from this 30 Days of Life on a Prairie Farm series here:
Day One
and from Holly Spangler (the queen of this project) here
Yeah, I know I have.
But what I have failed to mention is that with a cell phone call, a parts run, and a repair truck's arrival, our combine has been back in the field, rolling without much delay.
Our operation consists of years of experience, expertise, ability to discover problems, fix little or big ones, but also the ability to know when to step away, lean upon the piece of equipment that is the source of issue, and make a call for help.
The amazing thing is, unlike a lot of industries, it seems to me that the customer service we receive from the agriculture industry from before the seeds are even in the ground to the time when the tractors, combine, semis, etc. help take the crop out, there's always a face with a first name, cell phone number, and a recognizable pick up truck that will pull in at a moment's notice.
For instance, the guys have become close (this week especially) with Andy Carroll, our repair man from Kliene Equipment. He's been here, whether first thing in the morning or close to quittin' time last night, tinkering, fixing, all the while pleasant and conversational to our farmers who are just almost to the end of their patience.
We appreciate this.
Whether you run green or red or blue or yellow tractors, if you have a good relationship with the service folks, salesmen, parts department, you're going to be loyal to that particular company.
Isn't that something we all believe in? Isn't that why we go to certain grocery stores? We frequent Hy-Vee because of the free cookie. I love Running Central because they help me find the right shoes, and don't mind that my kids may or may not dismantle their sock display while I'm testing them. I love the lady who cuts my hair because she tells me when I show her a picture yay or nay...and I believe her...and she waxes my eyebrows, which is something that not just anyone should do!
As consumers, you deserve a relationship with someone who is providing you a service. From the food you eat to the shoes you wear to the hair you're cutting, you should have a good enough relationship to appreciate and trust their expertise. If you don't, figure out why, ask questions, and possibly move on.
So today, we're hoping to have a big day. We're hopeful that Andy's fix will put the end to the annoying little things that have gone wrong. I am cautiously optimistic that we're close, but I know that with the end of Andy's visits, we will start to see Sam's truck (the salesman)...which I will try to appreciate this relationship as well...even though it could affect my shoe buying habit!
Read more from this 30 Days of Life on a Prairie Farm series here:
Day One
and from Holly Spangler (the queen of this project) here
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Patience With a Capital P
Farm life is great, right?
We're living this life to ensure the health of our land, supply food and fuel for our country, and teach our kids great, big life lessons on our tiny piece of planet Earth.
We're actually on the cover of this month's Prairie Farmer magazine singing the praises of raising kids on the farm. Farming makes multi-generational relationships stronger, creates opportunities for responsibility for kids (as seen in Holly's blog today), allows so many life lessons to be learned and virtuous character traits to be fine tuned...
So why is it so DANG FRUSTRATING????
Because it tests everyone's patience.
A lot.
Like yesterday, we tried to be country and town folks when it came to trick or treating. As a town kid, I used to just roll out of my house when trick or treating began, met up with my buds from down the street, and visited neighbors, as long as I promised to be home by dark. Easy-peasey.
As a country kid, one has to be more patient, getting in and out of the car multiple times at neighbors' and grandparents' and relatives' homes before landing in town, only to have to unload stray costume pieces and coats and then, and only then, can you get out and about to trick or treat.
It's a process, and one that requires patience.
Which I didn't have much of by 6:00 last night, but that's another rant.
Anyway, the patience of the guys around here was being tested, but not the sweet candy-coated kind, they were being tested by the giant, green, angry combine kind.
Yes, a breakdown.
In the bean field.
With only a few measely (well, like 100ish) acres left in the whole dang farm to be harvested and then we can get this silly year over with.
While I realize my life is very easy as of today, considering the treacherous weather folks are having to endure up and down the East Coast, I also know that my big deal is still a big deal to me, and I wish for pity's sake this year could be chalked up to one of those patience testing ones, and I could move on to next year, which I know, without a doubt, will be a better one, right?
This year will go down as one that tested my patience, and I will learn from it, right?
Probably not, but I will try.
Either way, as a farmer or a farmer's wife, or a farmer's kid, you have to be patient. This breakdown caused a lot of sighing, then hustling, then considering, than banging around, then hustling, and now rolling, all the while making the guys' patience stretch very, very thin.
Farmers have to be patient, and, consequently, so do farmer's wives.
And for this farmer's wife, that's a NIGHTMARE!
So I think this life that has been laid for me and my kids is a test from God. I think he's trying to make me loosen my white knuckled grip on everything by giving me a lifestyle that you cannot predict like a bi-monthly paycheck. I think God wants me to see a life lead by patience with a capital P is one that accepts the late night, warmed up dinners with more dishes to do. He wants me to see that my kids can roll home on the school bus, change clothes and roll out with their dad or grandpa in a semi or a grain cart. Having patience with a capital P makes the challenges of this profession, like this year and its lack of rain, seem less tragic and more educational. Good stories...good for blogs...
Maybe I'm onto something.
I'm hopeful that even if I still try to be the control freak that I am, my kids will learn from our up and down and all around crazy farm life that patience with a capital P is the way to be.
Here's hoping.
Author's note: I am linking up with Holly Spangler for her 30 Days on a Prairie Farm series. Check our her Day One link here.
We're living this life to ensure the health of our land, supply food and fuel for our country, and teach our kids great, big life lessons on our tiny piece of planet Earth.
We're actually on the cover of this month's Prairie Farmer magazine singing the praises of raising kids on the farm. Farming makes multi-generational relationships stronger, creates opportunities for responsibility for kids (as seen in Holly's blog today), allows so many life lessons to be learned and virtuous character traits to be fine tuned...
So why is it so DANG FRUSTRATING????
Because it tests everyone's patience.
A lot.
Like yesterday, we tried to be country and town folks when it came to trick or treating. As a town kid, I used to just roll out of my house when trick or treating began, met up with my buds from down the street, and visited neighbors, as long as I promised to be home by dark. Easy-peasey.
As a country kid, one has to be more patient, getting in and out of the car multiple times at neighbors' and grandparents' and relatives' homes before landing in town, only to have to unload stray costume pieces and coats and then, and only then, can you get out and about to trick or treat.
It's a process, and one that requires patience.
Which I didn't have much of by 6:00 last night, but that's another rant.
Anyway, the patience of the guys around here was being tested, but not the sweet candy-coated kind, they were being tested by the giant, green, angry combine kind.
Yes, a breakdown.
In the bean field.
With only a few measely (well, like 100ish) acres left in the whole dang farm to be harvested and then we can get this silly year over with.
While I realize my life is very easy as of today, considering the treacherous weather folks are having to endure up and down the East Coast, I also know that my big deal is still a big deal to me, and I wish for pity's sake this year could be chalked up to one of those patience testing ones, and I could move on to next year, which I know, without a doubt, will be a better one, right?
This year will go down as one that tested my patience, and I will learn from it, right?
Probably not, but I will try.
Either way, as a farmer or a farmer's wife, or a farmer's kid, you have to be patient. This breakdown caused a lot of sighing, then hustling, then considering, than banging around, then hustling, and now rolling, all the while making the guys' patience stretch very, very thin.
Farmers have to be patient, and, consequently, so do farmer's wives.
And for this farmer's wife, that's a NIGHTMARE!
So I think this life that has been laid for me and my kids is a test from God. I think he's trying to make me loosen my white knuckled grip on everything by giving me a lifestyle that you cannot predict like a bi-monthly paycheck. I think God wants me to see a life lead by patience with a capital P is one that accepts the late night, warmed up dinners with more dishes to do. He wants me to see that my kids can roll home on the school bus, change clothes and roll out with their dad or grandpa in a semi or a grain cart. Having patience with a capital P makes the challenges of this profession, like this year and its lack of rain, seem less tragic and more educational. Good stories...good for blogs...
Maybe I'm onto something.
I'm hopeful that even if I still try to be the control freak that I am, my kids will learn from our up and down and all around crazy farm life that patience with a capital P is the way to be.
Here's hoping.
Author's note: I am linking up with Holly Spangler for her 30 Days on a Prairie Farm series. Check our her Day One link here.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
30 Days...
of accountability.
of documenting.
of potentially complaining.
and rejoicing.
and writing.
and writing.
and writing!
Yikes!
Did I seriously link up with Mrs. Holly Spangler to do this? Amidst the finishing of harvest? Amidst some big changes that are presenting themselves (no, I'm not expecting, moving, or checking myself into the looney bin).
Yes, I did, and yes I will blog about an agricultural topic each and every day for the month of November.
Because Holly is my friend, mainly, but also because this blog has changed and morphed with our relationship with our farm life and the busy-ness of our business as well as the season of life. Read: Jack is currently not on my lap, but I did get my hair cut yesterday (chopped, mind you), and he was on it for the majority.
Good times.
Not times that lead themselves to much heavy-hitting agricultural advocacy.
So today is a day that I will start. And my topic is...
drumrolll please...
Life on our Farm.
I know, big shock...but I feel like I can touch on a lot of different sub-topics, and, let's be realistic...we've got a lot going on, and a good thing going, so why not beat a dead horse??
Anyway, it's Halloween, and there's a combine and a grain cart still going in our bean field. While I know that we are close, there's no cigar yet. 2012 is the year that will not end. Between weather delays and other factors, we're still going. We're always still going around this time, but the potential of a quick harvest was enticing in August, sounded super in September, and became just a myth in October. Our yields have been surprisingly good in some fields and not-so-surprisingly not-so-good in others. My hope that this post will be the only one of the 30 with me contemplating the end...I hope to know by tomorrow or the next day when our end date will be set.
That's my hope.
So today, while we're trick or treating, Joe will be working. He's hoping to meet us in town, but you never know. So if you see a softball player, Monster High Girl, Abbie Cadabbie, and a LumberJack out...give us a wave, and maybe offer to take a kid with you...I'll need all the help I can get!
Happy Halloween!
of documenting.
of potentially complaining.
and rejoicing.
and writing.
and writing.
and writing!
Yikes!
Did I seriously link up with Mrs. Holly Spangler to do this? Amidst the finishing of harvest? Amidst some big changes that are presenting themselves (no, I'm not expecting, moving, or checking myself into the looney bin).
Yes, I did, and yes I will blog about an agricultural topic each and every day for the month of November.
Because Holly is my friend, mainly, but also because this blog has changed and morphed with our relationship with our farm life and the busy-ness of our business as well as the season of life. Read: Jack is currently not on my lap, but I did get my hair cut yesterday (chopped, mind you), and he was on it for the majority.
Good times.
Not times that lead themselves to much heavy-hitting agricultural advocacy.
So today is a day that I will start. And my topic is...
drumrolll please...
Life on our Farm.
I know, big shock...but I feel like I can touch on a lot of different sub-topics, and, let's be realistic...we've got a lot going on, and a good thing going, so why not beat a dead horse??
Anyway, it's Halloween, and there's a combine and a grain cart still going in our bean field. While I know that we are close, there's no cigar yet. 2012 is the year that will not end. Between weather delays and other factors, we're still going. We're always still going around this time, but the potential of a quick harvest was enticing in August, sounded super in September, and became just a myth in October. Our yields have been surprisingly good in some fields and not-so-surprisingly not-so-good in others. My hope that this post will be the only one of the 30 with me contemplating the end...I hope to know by tomorrow or the next day when our end date will be set.
That's my hope.
So today, while we're trick or treating, Joe will be working. He's hoping to meet us in town, but you never know. So if you see a softball player, Monster High Girl, Abbie Cadabbie, and a LumberJack out...give us a wave, and maybe offer to take a kid with you...I'll need all the help I can get!
Happy Halloween!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
What Did I Just SAY?
Oh my, I wish it was drier...
WAIT...
WHAT DID I JUST SAY????
Seriously, wasn't there a post here, and here, and here, here, and possibly here that alluded to the fact that we need moisture...rain, sweet, lifegiving, bill paying rain????!!!
Well, yes, but that was before we needed to get our crops out.
Gah.
No wonder I have a weird stomach...
Anyway, we have had a good stretch of wet-ish days, so our harvesting has been limited. We still have quite a few acres to finish, and it's hard on the guys, the kids, and, most importantly (ha, ha) me to continually start stop, wait a day, start, stop, wait two days.
It's getting to the point where I'm finding myself praying every night to bless our family, keep us safe, bring peace to earth, and for heaven's sake...get the friggin' 2012 crop OUT!!
Is it possibly blasphemous to put friggin' in a prayer?
Well, you pray for my soul.
Anyway, this year has been nothing but interesting, for sure, and my attitude has been nothing but impatient in regards to the craziness of the weather, but the seasoned farmers will explain to me in a rather calm, slightly condescending way, that this is the way of this livelihood, so I better just get used to it.
So, while the continuous tractors in the driveway, then out in the field, then back to the driveway makes Jack one happy toddler (yes, he's now a toddler), it makes for this mama to pop Tums like they're going out of style.
Pray for my soul...and my stomach!
WAIT...
WHAT DID I JUST SAY????
Seriously, wasn't there a post here, and here, and here, here, and possibly here that alluded to the fact that we need moisture...rain, sweet, lifegiving, bill paying rain????!!!
Well, yes, but that was before we needed to get our crops out.
Gah.
No wonder I have a weird stomach...
Anyway, we have had a good stretch of wet-ish days, so our harvesting has been limited. We still have quite a few acres to finish, and it's hard on the guys, the kids, and, most importantly (ha, ha) me to continually start stop, wait a day, start, stop, wait two days.
It's getting to the point where I'm finding myself praying every night to bless our family, keep us safe, bring peace to earth, and for heaven's sake...get the friggin' 2012 crop OUT!!
Is it possibly blasphemous to put friggin' in a prayer?
Well, you pray for my soul.
Anyway, this year has been nothing but interesting, for sure, and my attitude has been nothing but impatient in regards to the craziness of the weather, but the seasoned farmers will explain to me in a rather calm, slightly condescending way, that this is the way of this livelihood, so I better just get used to it.
So, while the continuous tractors in the driveway, then out in the field, then back to the driveway makes Jack one happy toddler (yes, he's now a toddler), it makes for this mama to pop Tums like they're going out of style.
Pray for my soul...and my stomach!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Neighbors? What Neighbors?
Growing up in town, we had neighbors. My brother and I had kids our age to pal around with, old ladies down the street to mow lawns for (well, he did...I watched). Neighbors were easy to name for us: Lindsay and Corey, Ruth, Jessie, Matt and Angie...you get the point.
However, the term neighbor around here is a relative one. My girls have an idea what having neighbors is like, thanks to our "town friends," but yesterday, as I was getting dinner ready for a neighboring family who just had a baby (neighboring, meaning, three miles up the road and over), my girls were inquisitive.
Not just because I was actually organized and getting dinner, sides and a dessert ready before supper time without weeping over the stove, but because who were these people? Where do they live?
And, the most poignant questions:
Neighbors?
What neighbors?
We don't have neighbors!
Well, technically they are not side-by-side neighbors, but I am realizing that in the country neighbor is really a word with a fluid definition.
Neighbors are folks who farm next to our fields. Neighbors are houses about a mile away, who wave as they pass our house. Neighbors are people you help when you're shorthanded, or, in one case, have a fire and need extra tractors and hands.
Neighbors are not defined by geographic location and property lines in the country.
They're defined by relationships.
Sure, Craig and Tammy and their kids are not our next door neighbors, but Joe and Craig share the love of livestock and farming, and Tammy and I can commiserate about having little kids, and their kids may ride our kids' bus some day...play on the same sports team, dance at the same recital. It's all relative out here, all relational, not one bit geographical.
I like that idea, but it's something I am still getting used to. There are times I crave my kids to have friends to rides bikes with, and I wonder what it would be like to just waltz over to a neighbor's house after dinner. Sure, country living is quiet, there's a lot of space, but it can be lonely sometimes, and unless you make a concerted effort, neighbors can just be folks who share a zip code, fence line, or maybe a gravel road, but not a relationship.
However, shouldn't being neighborly be less limited to geography, and more concerned with relationships? relationships?
Answer: yes.
As country folks, we have to make a lot of effort to talk to neighbors, but that makes the conversations, gatherings, etc., more worthwhile, more intentional. That's a good thing, right? It makes these relationships we have with our neighbors are way more important than geography.
So, I will try (note the word, try) to be more neighborly. I will try to get out in my 'hood and get to know the folks. Maybe that will make me more organized with dinner preparations....
However, the term neighbor around here is a relative one. My girls have an idea what having neighbors is like, thanks to our "town friends," but yesterday, as I was getting dinner ready for a neighboring family who just had a baby (neighboring, meaning, three miles up the road and over), my girls were inquisitive.
Not just because I was actually organized and getting dinner, sides and a dessert ready before supper time without weeping over the stove, but because who were these people? Where do they live?
And, the most poignant questions:
Neighbors?
What neighbors?
We don't have neighbors!
Well, technically they are not side-by-side neighbors, but I am realizing that in the country neighbor is really a word with a fluid definition.
Neighbors are folks who farm next to our fields. Neighbors are houses about a mile away, who wave as they pass our house. Neighbors are people you help when you're shorthanded, or, in one case, have a fire and need extra tractors and hands.
Neighbors are not defined by geographic location and property lines in the country.
They're defined by relationships.
Sure, Craig and Tammy and their kids are not our next door neighbors, but Joe and Craig share the love of livestock and farming, and Tammy and I can commiserate about having little kids, and their kids may ride our kids' bus some day...play on the same sports team, dance at the same recital. It's all relative out here, all relational, not one bit geographical.
I like that idea, but it's something I am still getting used to. There are times I crave my kids to have friends to rides bikes with, and I wonder what it would be like to just waltz over to a neighbor's house after dinner. Sure, country living is quiet, there's a lot of space, but it can be lonely sometimes, and unless you make a concerted effort, neighbors can just be folks who share a zip code, fence line, or maybe a gravel road, but not a relationship.
However, shouldn't being neighborly be less limited to geography, and more concerned with relationships? relationships?
Answer: yes.
As country folks, we have to make a lot of effort to talk to neighbors, but that makes the conversations, gatherings, etc., more worthwhile, more intentional. That's a good thing, right? It makes these relationships we have with our neighbors are way more important than geography.
So, I will try (note the word, try) to be more neighborly. I will try to get out in my 'hood and get to know the folks. Maybe that will make me more organized with dinner preparations....
Sunday, October 7, 2012
A Day of Rest?
It's Sunday, so that means that we've been to church, and now we're onto the relaxing Sunday afternoon where families watch football, play in the yard and take a nap, right?
Well, kind of.
Obviously, it's in the thick of harvest, and our family, although a God-loving, church going and faith centered one, we do work on Sunday. Usually, we start later, and some times we take it off, but if stuff is ready to be harvested (or planted, depending upon the season), the guys are working.
Early in our life on the farm, this didn't bother me as much. Maybe it's because I had two fewer kids, and not as many church duties, or maybe because we were just starting out, and this is what I thought we had to do, but lately, working on Sunday has been a tough moral dilemma for me.
It's another day, and that isn't right, right? Or am I just behind the times on this one?
Shouldn't we get a day of rest?
Shouldn't we enjoy the company of our families around a nice, leisurely meal (hopefully prepared by the good folks at Pizza Hut...which, I guess, they're working on Sunday, so maybe not) and a board game? Shouldn't this be a day where the equipment gets a rest, and our minds and bodies can recoup?
Isn't that in the BIBLE??
Well, yes, but because of the nature of our livestock, Joe can't take a day off from chores, so there's at least a couple of hours there.
So, here's my question to you: what's your thoughts on working on Sunday? Is it a sacred, no work, only rest day? I know some things have to march on, but do you have any day that you consider a "day off?"
I'm just curious, I guess, as I know we have friends and family on both sides of this dilemma.
Enlighten me, dear readers. What are your thoughts?
Well, kind of.
Obviously, it's in the thick of harvest, and our family, although a God-loving, church going and faith centered one, we do work on Sunday. Usually, we start later, and some times we take it off, but if stuff is ready to be harvested (or planted, depending upon the season), the guys are working.
Early in our life on the farm, this didn't bother me as much. Maybe it's because I had two fewer kids, and not as many church duties, or maybe because we were just starting out, and this is what I thought we had to do, but lately, working on Sunday has been a tough moral dilemma for me.
It's another day, and that isn't right, right? Or am I just behind the times on this one?
Shouldn't we get a day of rest?
Shouldn't we enjoy the company of our families around a nice, leisurely meal (hopefully prepared by the good folks at Pizza Hut...which, I guess, they're working on Sunday, so maybe not) and a board game? Shouldn't this be a day where the equipment gets a rest, and our minds and bodies can recoup?
Isn't that in the BIBLE??
Well, yes, but because of the nature of our livestock, Joe can't take a day off from chores, so there's at least a couple of hours there.
So, here's my question to you: what's your thoughts on working on Sunday? Is it a sacred, no work, only rest day? I know some things have to march on, but do you have any day that you consider a "day off?"
I'm just curious, I guess, as I know we have friends and family on both sides of this dilemma.
Enlighten me, dear readers. What are your thoughts?
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