I’ve written now a few times about my introduction to FFA. It came at the 1992 National FFA Convention held in Kansas City, MO. It was there that I found peers as passionate about agriculture as I was. It was there that I put on the blue jacket and felt like I belonged. It was there that I took off my blue jacket for the last time and wondered if I’d ever find a group like this again. ...
Dad’s Church
Sleeping in is just not part of a farmer’s vocabulary. Whether it was chores during the week or housecleaning on Saturdays, our bodies unfolded from deep sleep in the wee hours of every day. Sundays were no different. Although our church offers mass at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, we have attended the 7:30 a.m. Sunday mass for-e-ver. I can count on two hands the times we’ve ...
Super Swiffer Saturday
When Saturday dawned at home on the farm, we didn’t even have to ask what was on the agenda for the day. Cartoons? No. I really don’t remember watching cartoons at all. In fact, at one time my siblings and I could pick one half hour of television to watch in the day. 30 minutes. That’s all. Do you remember Sunday night’s Disney Family Movies? We watched the first half hour of those movies and ...
Munchy Cheese
My family ate three meals a day seven days a week at home around our kitchen table. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, and my mom prepared them all. Feasting at a restaurant was a rare treat. I don’t think we ever brought a meal home and delivery . . . if it didn’t come UPS or postal service, then it didn’t come. Only special occasions warranted meals in front of the television. ...
Things My Mother Said
The first time I heard the words sternly rush from my mouth, I gasped. What did I just say to my kids? Was that really me speaking or was that my mother? Come on mothers, you know you’ve done it. All those “words of wisdom” we pretended not to hear, we actually heard and remembered. Tonight as we prepared to leave for 4-H, I called out instructions, “Turn off the lights. We don’t need to fund an ...
Chores in the Dark
If you are a reader of farmer/rancher blogs, you probably know that livestock farmers are never off the clock. Raising animals is a 365, two-to-three-times-sometimes all day, seven days a week kind of job. And just like the postman, farmers head out to the barns or the pasture rain or shine, snow, sleet and hail. I grew up on a livestock farm. My dad raised pigs and cattle, and my sister had ...
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