We've designed everything in life to be as simple/convenient as possible. We have cell phones that keep up our calendar, emails that sync to our calendar, call/text anyone anytime to get our thoughts communicated. But, we haven't figured out how to make nature convenient or simple. We've developed tools to help, but nature is still completely out of our control.

Every year we take our cows through a cycle. Starting in December, we select the ones we think we can breed to special bulls through AI (artificial insemination), and those that should be put with our Angus bulls. We've done DNA tests to make sure we aren't putting any cows back with the wrong bull.

It's all quite technical and scientific. Who'd have thought?

So we start the last week of November or the first week of December. We get the cows up to the barn and we sort out the ones going with the bulls, then the ones we need to set up in the first group. We do them in groups to extend our beef season, and to limit how many breedings have to be done in 1 day.

So the groups for the bulls get moved, and the other cows start setup. They have 1 week of set up, then another week to check heat. We watch the cows in the group to catch them in heat and breed them at the right time. Once we've done AI on a cow, she goes with the bulls so they might catch the next cycle.

We have special tools designed for this: heat patch, a semen tank with liquid nitrogen, tweezers, snipper, straws, gloves, and AI gun are just a few. We do this for many of our own cattle, as well as cattle for some friends.

When things go right, someone that's really good at it can get up to 90%ish success rate. We've done that well with friends' cattle before, but never our own.

The next several months we just monitor the pregnancy. This takes a lot of training, dexterity, and confidence. Imagine putting your arm inside a tight, hot sleeve, and trying to feel a golfball amidst a bunch of rotten tomatoes. Then you have to tell what kind of tomato each one is because the golfball will be inside one of the tomatoes. Gross, right?

Well this has to happen 4 or 5 times along the way. Each time, the golfball becomes a new, bigger object until we expect a hoof or nose or something. Eventually, we can tell from the outside if a cow is pregnant and have even seen the calf moving from the outside.

Finally, in mid-late September, we have calving season. Our little babies starting running and playing and just being super cute. Most cows only have 1 each, but we seem to have at least 1 set of twins every year. If they are the same sex, everything is fine. If they are opposite, the female will always be sterile. Thankfully, this year, they were both boys.

Sometimes a young cow needs help having her first calf. Sometimes the momma cow gets extra protective. Sometimes she doesn't understand what's happening and doesn't take the calf. Sometimes, especially with twins, she forgets she has a calf. Rarely, a cow will take any calf that needs her.

All in all, it seems none of it is in our control. We can do our best to keep the cattle calm, do the AI correctly, get the timing right, keep the best records and triple check our work. But ultimately, its out of our hands.

Nature is something we will never be able to control. We cannot create or even maintain all life. It's something I don't really want to responsibility of controlling. It makes me grateful for the one who is powerful, and wise enough to control it. All we have to do is trust that it's the right way even when it feels like it would be easier to control nature than to trust.

Yesterday a new baby calf was born. It was a little girl. It has the same birthday as my sister-in-law, Kim.

Several hours later...
Me: (Mouth full of Chocolate) Kim likes us naming that baby calf after her.
Mom: What?
Daddy: We? Did I get credit for that?
Mom: What?
Me: Yes
Mom: WHAT ARE YALL TALKING ABOUT?? I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND A WORD YOU SAID!
Me, Daddy:**Laughing
Daddy: We had a whole conversation about it, and you didn't catch any of it?
Mom: -_-

Do you ever encounter those people that are extra emotional/reminiscent/deep about things?

Mom is one of those people. She keeps making comments about how amazing everything is, or how this reminds her of something.

The other day she was reminiscing about the first time she saw the cows eating turnips over spring break. She was misty eyed and took the thought all the way to nearly tearing up about how happy she is to be out here.

Daddy had texted for us to hurry up and get outside because the cold front was blowing through. The air was completely still one moment, the next it could blow us over. Mom was so shocked she jumped when the wind hit even though we could see the effect of it moving toward us.

Then just now, in a tone of complete awe, she starts talking about how crazy it is to be sitting in the office with the windows open, but it is significantly colder out of the building than inside the building. Her tone was almost reverent.

It's diffcult to describe how odd her perception seems unless you know someone like this. Most of these things just seem ordinary. The things that are cool just don't elicit that big of a reaction from any of the rest of us. She is just so amazed by everything that she not only has to mention how awe inspiring, she gets emotional about it.

Are these things people who don't spend A LOT of time outside are surprised by?

Today was a BAD day. Personal life not going right. Things keep seeming to fall apart at work. Work is incredibly overwhelming, and the to do list just keeps getting longer without stuff getting crossed off. AND THEN....

I was on the backhoe. Mom was on the ground. Daddy was on the overseeder. I had a 2,000+ pound bag of seed hanging from the forks of the backhoe. I had it lifted WAY up in the air (like 8 ft) trying to get it over the bin in the overseeder so that it could be emptied into the bin.

WHEN...the front straps of the bag broke, the massive bag rocked so hard it shook the backhoe. I hardly had a moment to register what had happened before the entire back panel of the bag was ripped off as the rest of the bag fell 8ft to the ground.

Seed spilled everywhere, thousands of dollars potentially lost. The back panel of the bag was still fluttering in the wind as it hung from the backhoe forks.

I of course went to pieces. Mom kept saying how cool it looked for the seed to tumble out in such a flowing mass. Daddy kept trying to keep me from crying. And I, being the only one NOT of sound mind, was the only one who actually ran into action to get buckets to try and salvage as much of the seed as I could.

Daddy wasn't far behind me, and mom kept asking what we should do. We spent the next 30 minutes - an hour scraping the seed off the gravel with a shovel and pouring buckets into the overseeder.

We did eventually get most of the seed picked up, and we did manage to keep most of the gravel out. The remainder of the bag went into the frontend-loader on the backhoe. But Oh My Goodness, it was a difficult day. Looking back at it, the whole mess is kind of funny...granted, we didn't lose much seed after all.

In my last post, I talked about a "normal day". Well this day was an abnormal day. It should be more regular, but too often, too many things get in the way. So, today was a cattle vaccination day. Yes, we do vaccinate our reproducing cows. There are so many diseases that can cause spontaneous pregnancy loss, and death. It's not optional because we've suffered too much loss without it.

But moving on, it was a very long day. We did our morning briefing, prayer, hi how are you's, and mom's list of "to do's". It's cow working day! First, the cattle had to be moved from a field nearly across the property. We drove around opening and closing various gates, making sure the cattle could get where we wanted without us having to cut them off along the way.

On a separate note, it seems we need to declare war on the fireants, because their hills are sometimes over a foot tall. Driving the mule (ATV) around we run over them because they are hidden in the grass. The mule jolts and bumps and bounces and Mom (Sally) "goes flying off her seat" (her words, not mine). Daddy and I are both incredibly annoyed at the roughness of the ride because of these infernal useless insects, and mom is over there laughing herself to death like someone is tickling her because its just so funny to hit a pile of dirt hard enough that your butt leaves your seat. Am I missing something here????

Anyway, we have 60 cows and 12 babies. The last 2 babies were born 2 days prior. You know how human babies can't do anything but eat, cry, and poop after 2 days? Well baby cattle can do a lot. They can hide, run, play, call to mom, nurse, drink water, and lots more. They hide so well that we've spent hours trying to find them before moving the herd. They run so fast that we can't catch them. They are so strong that we cannot pick them up and hold them. And, they weigh as much as most 5th or 6th graders. Sometimes, the mom cow is extra protective and we can't even get close. Other times mom might go with the herd and get too far before she realizes how far she's gone. We had both.

Mom #1 wouldn't get moving because she was too concerned about making sure her baby, which was right next to her, was still there and following as she went. We drove around behind her for a couple minutes before she finally accepted that baby was coming. Mom #2 nearly left her calf a quarter mile behind because she was too busy moving with the herd. Luckily, she (baby) was doing her best to stay with the herd and not hide. Long story short here, we had to pick her up and carry her across the creek because mom #2 didn't make sure her baby crossed with her. We left baby and Dad (John) to wait for the herd to catch up and cross the creek while Mom (Sally) and I went back to push the herd.

There is a bend in the creek that works perfectly for funnelling the cows to encourage them to cross the creek. We sit back and try not to give too much pressure while they figure out the best way to cross. Most of them take their babies, but 2 got left behind (neither was mentioned above). One baby finally went, and we hoped the second would watch and follow, but he didn't. He had us running all over that 3 acres trying to get him to cross. Finally, we got his mom's attention enough that she came back and got him to cross. It took forever!

So, nearly 2 hours after we had started, we had the cattle moved the near mile into the barn. We still had so much work to do. Once they are in the barn, we have to sort. This is kind of like when you pick out your favorite MNM color, except that every MNM has legs, can think for itself, smells bad, and I'm pretty sure if you licked it, it wouldn't have a candy coating. So with all the cows in the barn, we separate the babies to work first. We have to give them ear tags so we can identify them in the field, and we have to give them a respiratory vaccination to prevent pnuemonia. It's just a nasal spray...

They are a handful. I usually prep the materials while everyone else gets the calves into the pin...USUALLY. I got into the office, and before I even opened the cabinet, I heard "KRISTI!!!". I go back out to see Mom, Dad, and Papa all bending over trying to herd the calves toward the gate. Mom is trying not to fall over as a calf shoots past her. Dad is wrestling a calf to turn around. Papa is whacking his stick on the ground trying to get a calf to go forward...imagine a circus out of control... I jump in to help. The gaps get filled and we round up all the calves into the pin, only to realize there are 3 that have already been worked that shouldn't be in there.

We all take a breath and get started on the rest. We have 9 calves to work, so I need to set up 9 vaccinations. These are modified live vaccines. So I have to empty the bottle of saline to mix with the dehydrated virus. Then we need the ear tag tool to give them their earring tag. It does actually look like the earring gun they use to pierce our ears.

Daddy and Papa have the chute ready. Daddy picks a calf to run through first. He gets an idea about which momma belongs to that calf and calls out a tag number for us. I have the tag and nasal cannula ready. Mom walks over and starts doing everything, and I realize it looks funny. However mom is doing it makes it look like she's struggling. I finally figured it out...shes left handed...

It seems to take so long and go so fast at the same time, but we got the calves done. Now we needed to work all the cows. This means 2 shots and a "dewormer". I call this stuff goo, but it's to get the flies to leave the cows alone. We are working to eliminate the need for this, but we aren't there yet.

For the morning portion, I prep the vaccines, mom gets weights and goos, daddy gives shots, and papa ran the back end. My job is to refill the syringes between animals, write down the weights as mom calls them out, mark what lot of the medicines each cow gets, and change out needles. Daddy's job is to catch the cows in the chute 1 at a time, and give the shots. Mom records the weight in the scale, calls it out to me, and gives the appropriate amount of goo. Papa splits the cows into smaller groups and moves them to the front of the line so they can go into the chute.

It's all very involved....

They were a very rambunctious group though. They were very nervous, didn't want to go through the chute. Banged around the whole way there. Snorted and mooed and huffed. Altogether it was a very long 2 hours. Lunch time came, and we took a break.

Papa decided he was beat and done for the day. Mom, Dad and I got back to work. The cows had all had time to settle down a little, and were much calmer. I shifted to the back to run the cows through, mom kept doing her job, and daddy started refilling between animals. We finished working the cows, and paired the calves back with their moms. It was about 20 minutes before my usual leaving time, but we still weren't done.

Daddy had a list of cows he wanted to palpate and figure out when they should be having their babies. We separated those from the group and let out everything we didn't need. I continued to work the back. Mom helped move the cows up to the chute and wrote down what daddy said. Daddy got a glove on and stuck his hand up every cow butt. YUCK!!!

At the end of the day, its a very long process, but it feels so productive. You end up tired, and covered in poop, dirt, pee, and sweat. But you've done a good thing trying your best to care for the animals God put under your charge.

Like with any job, sometimes things are great and other times things are not-so-great. Today is an in between day. Nothing is bad, but we are just kind of pushing along trying to do what we can to be productive.

People always ask about a typical day at the farm. The short answer is: “THERE IS NO SUCH THING”. Usually, the weather, or some other incident dictates what our day will look like. I suppose if there was one though, today would be it. Each of use has our own task list, we all go our own separate ways, and we try to get as much done as we can.

So, whoever is here first feeds the cat and the steers and unlocks the office. Usually that’s me, but I had to make a stop on the way out. Then we get a few small office tasks done. We call it piddling. Once we are all a little settled in, we do our prayer. This time is very important to me. (I’m certain it is for my parents too, but I don’t like to speak for other people). Our prayer time is a moment where we are all of the same mind and heart. We bow our heads together and we set our sites on God, His will, and ask for guidance.

In our line of work, guidance is a big key. We NEVER know what the day/week/month will bring. Sometimes its progress, others its heartache. To get through it with sanity, (yes, I know that word is a stretch for us) we need Him to make the path as clear as possible.

After our prayer, we make sure to communicate anything new, or our plans for the day. For example, today I needed to: finish the newsletter, update quickbooks, do some research on fake meat, this blog post, work on our agritourism logo, email one of our volunteers, mow the carriage ride paths, verify our next beef harvest, work on 2 meat orders, email a customer, research how to improve our SEO’s create an FFA Volunteer form, and measure the carriage.

I managed to cross 7 things off that list. Mom had her own list. As far as I know it involved food for this weekend, and event area lights. I have no doubt she did a myriad of other things, but that’s all I know about. Daddy went to cut/rake hay…that takes like a week to do. Papa went to get parts from Hillsboro, and did a few other things that are slipping my mind.

I hope I didn’t lose you there, because I just jumped ahead in the day. Back to our early office time…after our “Iteration” time, we always stop in the house to say good morning. This is not just a farm, it’s a home to 2 lovely people that are very dear to us…Mema and Papa. Aka: John and Vi. We spend a few minutes in the morning catching up and again, communicating anything important for the day like tasks, Dr’s appointments, trips, etc. Basically we have a daily staff meeting.

From the house, we do what mom calls “Walkabout”. She got this from Crocodile Dundee…for all of you younger than 50, it’s an old movie about a guy in Australia and a journalist from NY. He saves her life, she writes about him, they fall in love…blech. Anyway, on our walkabout we go check the pastures, animals, new babies, electric fences, etc. Simply put, we drive around (not walk about) and make sure everything is in order and that nothing needs immediate attention.

After this is finished, we officially start our day. That seems odd to say because we’ve already done quite a bit, but nothing on our list is done yet and it’s already after 8:30am. Mom and I usually head back to the office and do any tasks that need the computer.

This is backward from this summer, but its all based on the temperature. We want out of the heat, so in the summer our afternoons are in the office. But then once the low gets below 70, mom is freezing in the mornings, so we wait out the “cold” (it’s not cold until its below freezing) in the office.

We each work on our lists. Sometimes these lists overlap and we are all working together. Like last Thursday and Friday, we all worked on getting the picnic tables put together. We all go in for lunch and take about 30 minutes as a group again. Mema has usually made food, and we appreciate the break. Papa jokes that we could solve all of the world’s problems with our little group.

If we let ourselves sit too long, we could all take naps, but after cleaning up, we jump back into work. Today, I spent almost the whole day in the office. Mom and dad both spent almost the whole day outside. I’ll admit, the quiet is nice.. ;)

Outside of this, our day is never the same. Some days we are working on the computer because we’ve put that stuff off. Other’s its raining, so we have to be inside. Sometimes we spend the entire day/week putting up fences. Sometimes we spend the day working cows. Lately, we’ve spent nearly all day every day setting up for the corn maze. Come winter, we will be building raised garden beds. At some point we will be building a chicken coop. The plan is always fluid.

Every day is a new adventure, and it’s never boring.

Me: (excited) Did you see we have a murder of crows moving in?

Papa: I may need to borrow one of your scarecrows

Me: Why? We want a healthy range of wildlife, and that includes birds of all types. They aren’t bad.

Papa: Well I’m about to murder me some crows if they don’t quit eatin’ my pecans!!

LOL, He has his priorities…don’t eat his pecans

If you’ve ever met mom, you know she is the quintessential teacher. Some people seem to just have a purpose/calling like this. She taught high school science for 30 years, and loved every minute of it. She taught in 2 school districts, and did both a regular classroom, and an alternative classroom. She took a break for 5 years to be a stay at home mom while we were little. She mentored kids, pushed them to do their best, held them to a higher standard, and helped them see that the world may not care, but that doesn’t mean that no one cares. She worked hard to give the students a safe place. These are the parts of the job that she is missing.

But God decided to expand His plans for her. During the last 2 years, she started feeling restless and began to understand that He was calling her elsewhere. Now don’t get me wrong, He apparently still wants her teaching, He just altered how she would be doing it. So this school year was the first year she was eligible for retirement. She hasn’t looked back. She keeps commenting that she would be alone in a classroom doing online teaching. Instead, she’s outside doing farm work.

Now this lady has got a big imagination. I made her watch Harry Potter, and she decided they needed to implement the “House System” in her school to give the kids a feeling of belonging and inclusiveness. She saw a charter school that had a wall devoted to keeping track of where the kids where in their courses and how close they were to graduating. She designed an image and her Sunday School class got together and painted the wall of the main hallway with magnetic paint so each of the kids could be represented on the wall and encourage them to keep moving their race horse forward to the finish line. SHE PAINTED HER ROOM TO BE A JUNGLE! My sister and I spent a summer with her in that room painting a Panther, Elephant, Gorilla, Python, waterfall, fish, Cockatoos, Gibbins, trees, Venus Fly Trap, frogs, and a hut all over her room. The students LOVED her room.

This imagination has carried over to the farm. She knew this was her next step, so before she had even finished school, she started getting her ideas rolling. Spring break got extended because of the pandemic, and she utilized the break. Her plans started out with: Corn Maze, chickens, goats, and Camp Golly. They have grown… The corn maze went from 5 acres of corn with paths cut to make a maze, to 10 acres of event space, food truck, picnic tables, popcorn stand, JM2 Ag and Cattle Shopping tend, handmade games, FFA animals, scarecrows, and maze activities. And all of that is just on the basic Saturday. She also added a Special Needs day, a Friday Night Fright, and an Autism Awareness Fundraiser and Scarecrow Competition. The chickens turned into egg sales, and a mural on the barn…which also exploded from being inside the chicken coop to taking up an entire side of the barn. The goats have expanded into cheese sales, and cheese making classes. I really hope we get some heads up before Camp Golly takes off. Daddy and I are still trying to make the first idea a reality.

Keep an eye out for more posts about how her presence is changing the farm.

Daddy started out at the farm in 2009. He’d been here a bit before that, but officially started the company in 2009. God had given him a dream. He says he knew he was being called to be a business owner, and to do it God’s way. His dad owned some land, and a few cattle, and God told him to come out here, build on it, and do His work. He was going to improve the land, provide food, and be a good steward of all of God’s creations and gifts.

He listened to his dad, went to a few industry conferences, and dove in head first. If you spend much time around him, you’ll learn that that’s the only way he does things. He’s all in. In some ways, he was behind. He had learned a lot about raising cattle through his life. He knew how to treat them, knew about their health and diet. But one thing stuck out to him in everything he was learning…there simply wasn’t enough grass to increase the herd and the land was continuing to suffer.

The instructors at these conferences had started calling themselves “Grass Farmers”. It’s kind of a crazy concept. You think we are beef producers, and we are, but the beef can’t exist without the grass, right? So where did he start? He caught up learning about grass. He learned how cattle like all kinds of grass, and really need a variety. He learned about when certain grasses become toxic or poisonous, how to get rid of them or manage them through grazing. What he really learned though, was how to manage the grass.

He started implementing rotational grazing, limiting the effect of the grazing to keep the grass from getting too short, and lots about over-seeding. He looked into native grasses, and what would invite more wildlife. It took a really long time. But after about 6 years, he really started to see the effects. Now, 11 years later, we almost can’t remember the bare, dry dirt that’s now covered with grass.

We still feel the effects of every big season change. Going from winter to spring when all the winter grasses are dying but the summer grasses haven’t caught up. Or worse, going from summer to fall when there’s no grass and drought.

In other ways he was ahead of the game. When I first started out here in 2014, he had to teach me all about the beef side of the business. I went to the same conferences, but everything was about the big feed lots and how to prep for that. Daddy was playing a different game altogether. He said “We want to focus on a ‘quality product’ to sell.” So how do you know that someone is buying your meat in the grocery store? Short answer, you don’t. So how can you market a quality product? Again, you don’t.

Here is where Daddy was ahead of the game. In 2010 he had started raising cattle, feeding them out, getting them processed, and selling the meat directly to his customers. This allowed him to tell his customers exactly what that steer experienced from the day it was born. He could ensure that the animals were healthy, and never given antibiotics or extra hormones. He could honestly say that his cattle had 24/7 access to grass. He was hand delivering the meat to the customers’ door.

We did another conference this year called Direct 2020, sponsored by Barn2Door. They had a group of farmers get together and show us how to optimize the process of selling direct to the customer. But can you guess, Daddy had already implemented almost all of the practices they were suggesting. It’s crazy. When covid meant that grocery stores were limiting what meat people could buy, we were already set up to be able to provide. Now we are reading articles about big farms that were feed lot prep, now selling direct to customers and asking small farms, like us, how to do it.

God had shown us some of the fruits of the dream He had given Daddy. He went from a simple dream of working the farm, to being a grass farmer, to providing a product we can be proud of. All from His direction. It’s still a challenge every day. We need rain, is God going to provide it? We need profit, do we keep waiting for God to open a door, or is this idea His door? There’s not enough grass again, do we need to sell some cows, or buy hay? But this is how we got here, a big dream getting bigger, and a lot of faith that God will provide.

Daddy: “Do you think we need to worry about Hurricane Sally hitting the farm?”

Me: “Hurricane Sally already hit the farm!”

Mom (Sally): The face of the Sloth in Zootopia as she slowly gets the joke

😂

Someone recently asked me how I ended up on the farm. They had looked through the diary and not seen anything. So here is my story…shortened…

I started working at the farm because I was struggling to find my place. I graduated college with a teaching degree. My first year teaching ended in massive, statewide budget cuts. I was one of the teachers that found out I was not going to be reinstated through the news…. The school I was teaching at announced that they were letting go of all first year teachers to try an balance their budget on the news before my principal had even talked to me. Then she came in during my biggest (worst) class on Monday to give me the paperwork saying I was “Non-Renewed”. I was so devastated and hurt by the way it was handled that I struggled to consider teaching again. I applied to a few teaching jobs in larger districts, but nothing came of it. From there, I bounced around from job to job trying to find a career since teaching was an unlikely option. I had done everything from Starbucks, to interning as a PT Tech. Finally, I gave in and resorted to the farm. Yes, that’s right, it was a last resort.

Jumping to today, it’s been 6 years. I’ve done a lot of growing as a person, and I’ve done A LOT of learning. Nothing out here is what I expected. Well, the heat…I am an air-condition-a-holic…the sun…I might as well be a vampire for my hatred of the sun…and the physical work…I am a tech nerd. But the vast majority of what we do is completely different than I expected.

I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate the quiet. The equipment is loud, but there is serenity in the quiet of the farm.

I had no idea how connected I’d be with the animals. I’ve named the “varmints”, as papa calls them. We’ve got Pete and Lucy (bunny rabbits in the hay barn), Hoot (great horned owl in the pasture), Snow and Huntsman (snowy barn owls in the hay barn), Li’l Bit (a young hawk that frequents hunting by the barn), and countless others.

I had no idea how important grass was. Daddy calls us “Grass Farmers”, because that is the absolute main focus of every day and season. Without the grass, there’s nothing at all. We’ve got coastal bermuda, buffalo, little blue stem, switchgrass, ryegrass and rye grass, sorgums, native and introduced, broadleaf, legume, and I couldn’t even begin to list them all. Who would have thought I’d know as much about grass as your landscaper?

Cattle management is serene to me. It calms me to my soul. Standing in the pin with a cow, waiting for her to see the only open direction. Watching a baby calf follow momma through a field. Seeing how excited the steers get when they get feed. We see them as such simple creatures. It’s humbling to know that God created us to TAKE CARE OF them.

Then our dreams to help people arise. Selling our beef and wood products. Working at fundraisers and other events to bring awareness to certain conditions and agriculture. Our hope to aid in feeding the world, and teach people about God and where our food comes from.

This job went from a last resort, to a genuine life dream! So, I was asked how I got here…How did I get here?? I went from forcing my own path, to rock bottom, to seeing God’s vision and plan were far greater than I could have guessed or imagined. That’s how I got here.

Today has been interesting. The morning started off with everyone talking about our plans for the day, asking questions about what we need to prioritize, and our morning prayer. We went in the house to say hi to Papa, and get caught up on the latest news about Mema’s recovery.

In case I haven’t already mentioned, there was an accident and she needed a partial hip replacement. She is doing well, and in recovery. It was a bit scary for a while though.

We went straight from the house to check on the cows. They were moved to a field with Sorghum (pronounced Sore Gum), and we always have concerns about prussic acid and nitrogen poisoning. They LOVE these grasses though, so we are careful about when they go in. They are calving too, so we wanted to go see if any new babies had arrived. We did not realize though that we would be encountering a JUNGLE. I am nearly 6 ft tall, and this stuff is well over my head.

So while we were in there, there was a young cow walking around funny, by herself, and opting to lay down when everyone else was up and eating. Daddy goes out to look at her and see what’s wrong. He comments that he thinks she’s going to have her calf soon. Of course, mom has to ask why he thinks that…hehe. She drives him nuts sometimes with all her questions.

We keep going and cannot find any babies. We know there should be at least 5, but they are all hidden. And these little ones can hide better than a mouse in a hole. We drove as much of the pasture as we could, but didn’t find a calf. Mom kept saying she wanted to keep looking, but Daddy vetoed because we just have so much to do and the calves should be more than old enough to be ok.

Next, we had to set some posts and move a building. Yes, you read that right. We need to MOVE A BUILDING. Mom and dad had measured, cleared space, tamped dirt, and leveled the ground work for the building to be placed on. We had spent a large portion of the previous day figuring out how to move it ourselves thinking there was no way the company that does it could get out in time to move it. We had the backhoe out and strapped the building on, tried 2 different ways to move it, but all of those efforts were fruitless. So then today, this guy comes in and his trailer did all of the work for him. It had hydraulics, a wench, and the ability to twist itself. He had the entire thing done in less than 15 minutes where we had spent hours.

While he was moving our building, we could not get on the same page with the sign posts. Daddy and I had had several conversations about these posts, and we would have sworn mom was there for them, but she had pictured something completely different. Finally we found the common ground as the guy moving our building finished putting it on the blocks.

If you ever work with either of my parents, you will find that they are very ADD about their work. Mom went to do her own task, and Daddy and I went to set posts. In trying to figure out where we wanted to put them, Daddy found another problem. He decided to spend the entire time we were supposed to be setting posts, fixing the dirt…no, I’m not kidding…fixing the dirt. We had a gate that would only swing one way, so he used the backhoe to fix the dirt so the gate could swing the other way…sometimes I wonder how we manage to check anything off our list.

So then the insurance guy came. We sat in the office for 20 minutes making sure we have the right insurance coverage for the BIG CORN MAZE EVENT!!! This thing has morphed into a monster of colossal proportions. Have you ever seen Pacific Rim? This event has become our own personal Kaiju. We are a week and a half away, and things are as crazy as ever. It turns out our coverage is great, so no big worries there.

We ate lunch…I had a delicious Keto Quiche, and mom and dad had sandwiches again. The news had said this morning that there would be rain this afternoon. So we started watching the radar and felt confident in our time until after 5pm. Mom was working on getting an aerial shot of the corn maze, while Daddy and I went to check the calve again hoping we might find them this time. We got over there and immediately found the oldest one. We went driving through the jungle again.

First we found a cow that was moving odd. We knew she isn’t due to have her calf until December, so we knew she must be hurt. She laid down, so we left her alone to see if she might be better in the morning. We found 3 of the other 4 babies. Unfortunately, we still couldn’t find the youngest of the group. We found his momma, and she wasn’t upset. She would occasionally look off in a specific direction, but the field is 20 acres and we couldn’t find him. We found the cow from this morning though, and she had just had her little calf. The first little girl!

We got back to the barn, and daddy decided to go mow while mom and I tried one more time to get an aerial shot with the drone. She and I took off in the mule. Daddy hopped on the tractor and got started… all with this to the south…

Mom and I went to check on him right as he was finishing. We thought for sure he was done for the day. He did not agree and went to mow another pasture. This storm was moving FAST…

Just 2 minutes later, a true torrential downpour. The poor steers came running into the barn soaking wet. That little baby girl had just been born, and was now getting soaking wet. God made them far more durable than we are. Daddy came driving back as fast as the tractor would go, and ran in. He was dripping wet, hehe. We all sat in the office, thankful for the shelter, and finding different computer tasks to do. I had a meat order to deliver, so I left. Daddy went to an eye appointment, while mom stayed fed the animals one more time, and locked up.

The animals should all be safe and sound overnight. We have shelter everywhere, and they are tough. We will be back to check everyone again in the morning.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 pound ground beef

• 4 tablespoons butter, divided

• 3/4 cup chopped onion

• 3/4 cup shredded carrots

• 3/4 cup diced celery

• 1 teaspoon dried basil

• 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

• 1-3/4 pounds (about 4 cups) cubed peeled potatoes

• 3 cups chicken broth

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 2 to 4 cups shredded Velveeta

• 1-1/2 cups whole milk

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper

• 1/4 cup sour cream

DIRECTIONS

• In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook and crumble beef until no longer pink; drain and set aside. In same saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat. Saute onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Add potatoes, ground beef and broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, until potatoes are tender, 10-12 minutes.

• Meanwhile, in a small skillet, melt remaining butter. Add flour; cook and stir until bubbly, 3-5 minutes. Add to soup; bring to a boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cheese, milk, salt and pepper; cook until cheese melts. Remove from heat; blend in sour cream.

CHEESEBURGER SOUP TIPS

WHAT CAN I SUBSTITUTE FOR THE VELVEETA AND GROUND BEEF?

Any low melting-point cheeses, such as Swiss and cheddar, can be substituted for the Velveeta. Or for a kick, use pepper jack. If you’re looking to cut some fat from this soup, replace the ground beef with ground sirloin, round or turkey.

HOW DO YOU STORE CHEESEBURGER SOUP? CAN I FREEZE IT?

You can store soup by letting it cool completely and placing it in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Soups with starches and dairy (like cheeseburger soup) are not ideal for freezing. But these soups are!

CAN I ADD BACON?

Yes, you can always add bacon. Top bowls with crumbled cooked bacon for a bacon-cheeseburger twist. Be sure to check out these other cheeseburger-inspired recipes.

NUTRITION FACTS

1 cup: 450 calories, 27g fat (15g saturated fat), 100mg cholesterol, 1421mg sodium, 33g carbohydrate (8g sugars, 3g fiber), 19g protein.

Everyone sees the impact of the craziness right now. Parents are trying to make money to support their families, while somehow managing to keep their kids from destroying the house in their boredom. Some of us have been laid off and are doing everything we can just to stay afloat. Others are trying to stay off the layoff lists. Still others lucky enough to keep their job are trying so hard to help support those in need. All of this while we know the concern of a disease we still don’t fully understand.

Throughout it all, I’ve been asked over and over how our work is going. Yes, I am one of the ones considered necessary. I was lucky enough to find myself in this position where I still have a job. I will fully acknowledge that this was not my initial choice.

But enough about the past. The quarantining has been scary to say the least. Before any “Initiatives” were instated, before any mass testing was started, before we were even thinking it was a problem in Texas, I was EXPOSED!!! We found out that someone we had gathered with was in the hospital and had swab tested positive. It was day 7 after our exposure before we found out. I work with my parents and grandparents, all in the “high risk” age range. I had delivered meat to customers in that time. I was terrified I had given the disease to people without knowing it.

We had had a flood of orders come in and I had just taken over the meat sales. I couldn’t do anything about it. My dad, who thought he was done dealing with the meat, had to get together, inventory, and deliver multiple volume orders while I sat at home. Once my 14 days were up, I jumped right back into the swing of things.

For the most part, nothing has changed for us. We come to work, and don’t have to wear a mask. We are busier than before. The meat has been and stayed sold out until recently. I wear a mask for meat deliveries.

I’m not completely lacking the emotional and mental effects though. In my personal life, I forget to put a mask on every time I get out of the car. I start to walk into a store and remember as soon as I see another person. Lol, you should see some of the looks I’ve gotten. Sorry Everyone!!! I miss my friends and siblings desperately. My nieces and nephews are getting so big and I miss them…even the stinking cat book I’ve memorized. I miss date nights out with Nick. I NEVER have a reason to dress up anymore. I don’t have work meetings, or dates, or even church. My hair may permanently stand up where my ponytail sits.

God has blessed me though. I haven’t really had the worries and fears of illness. I haven’t had the stress of income. And I haven’t lost all contact with those I love. My prayers go out to those of you that are dealing with any or all of these struggles. There is hope in God’s timing, purpose, and plan. We may not see it until we get to heaven, but He is in control.

One of the hazards of working with an eccentric personality is that you never know what new oddity you’ll find around the corner…

There I was, alone in the office. I got up to do something and turned the corner to see these…

Then, I came in first thing this morning and ground these…

At least she’s productive!

Some days are fun, some days we want to cry. Lately, we’ve just been busting our butts trying to get everything done. Summer is a busy season. The days are longer with warmer, dryer weather, and we are just able to get so much more done. Not to mention Mom and Dad are babies about the “cold”… ;)

First, it’s hay season. We try to get our first cut in May, then cut about every 4 weeks after that. This year, we’ve had broken equipment, rain, and so many other things going on that we’ve struggled to keep up. Normally, with how great the grass has done, we’d have had at least 3 cuts by now. Instead, we’ve done 2-ish this year.

Next, its weaning season. We group our calves by age, and wean and vaccinate them over a 6 week period. We work a group of 10 calves at a time (the first 10 born last season). The first group was started in June. They got 1 round of vaccines and went back with momma. A month later, we worked them again to give them their boosters, and gave our second group of 10 their first round. At this point, the first group gets separated from momma (across the drive way so they can still see each other), and the second group goes back with momma. The first group stay separated for 2 weeks before they go with our “Stocker” group and their mommas go back to the main herd. Then, another 2 weeks later, we work group 2 for their second round, and group 3 start their first round. This cycle continues until we’ve worked all of the calves for 2 rounds of vaccinations and weaned them. Then all of the calves are in the “Stocker” group and all of the mommas are together.

Then there’s all the usual things like: rotational grazing, electric fences, overseeding, weed management, pond management, and any other basic maintenance that comes up. There are electric fences everywhere. If we never have to do them again…it’d be too soon. :P

Finally, we have the CORN MAZE. We are so excited about this event, but it is kicking our behinds. In trying to get all of this done, we’ve painted the barn, installed an irrigation system, planted corn, created games, planned the event area, booked vendors, set up the web page, created facebook events, designed flyers, trimmed trees, bought all kinds of what’s-its, and tried to keep our heads on straight. There’s been confusion, injuries, hurt feelings, laughs, tears, fun times, hard work, and excitement. Every day has been an adventure.

Our personalities are so different. Mom tends to be the idea person. She gets so enthusiastic that its like her drive runs away and there’s no stopping the ideas. Then when the realization hits that there’s too much, you can see her excitement fall like melting snow from the roof. Mom is also the one that does most of the facebook posts. She drives us nuts pausing to take pictures of everything, hehe, but she is so much better at the social media stuff than either of us. She has the biggest personality of the three of us. Daddy is the physical one. He wants to be out in the field doing. He wants to see the fruits of his labor immediately. The day to day running of the farm, often requires more than one person, which seems to put the other work in the background. Then, he’s always amazed at how much “background” work gets done. He is the most reserved one, introverted, and particular. He has a specific way and purpose in doing everything, and he makes sure to remark about the right way to do it when he’s teaching. I am apparently the organizer and tech person. I have fallen into the roll of event planner/project manager/designer. I’m the goofy, introverted nerd. Regardless of my sun revulsion, my aircondition-a-holic status, and my allergy to sweat, they keep making me go outside to help. It’s kind of funny to see how different each of us is, but our personalities mesh really well together.

My wonderful husband has taken vacation days to help us get all of these things done. Mema and Papa have been wonderfully supportive, and are ready to help in whatever capacity they can. Our family have all committed to coming to the event, and/or shared the event to try to draw people out. And, our friends are always trying to find ways to help and support us.

It’s a difficult and unpredictable job. Every day is different. There’s always something going wrong. But I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I love the people I work with. I love the work I’m doing. I see God in my world every single day. It may be a hard life, but it’s a blessed life.

This survey is to get an idea of the preferences you may have in beef. This survey is completely anonymous. You do not have to buy our beef to participate. Please tell us what our potential market is looking for in our meat!

It seems crazy to me how much learning has to happen in any industry. We are participating in the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, and I’m working on the Barn N Door conference. From forage to marketing, there isn’t a topic we aren’t covering.

Steer 1: What is this thing?

Steer 2: I don’t know. I’m trying to smell it’s rear but I can’t find it.

Steer 3: I think it’s some kind of cow. I smell poo on this round thing. Oh! never mind. That’s your poo.

Talking about a can of fruit

Mom: it had it’s back to me…

Dad: like it was the cans fault?

Mom: yes, so, it had it’s back to me while I used the can opener, and I went to drain the juice and didn’t see the tab on the top until I turned it over

Dad: so it had nothing to do with the can being backwards…it was upside down?

Mom: yes, but I couldn’t tell it was upside down because it had it’s back to me

Dad: so not only first, the can has control of its own position, so it’s the can’s fault, but second, it being backward somehow had bering on your ability to tell that it was also upside down?

Mom: (with a completely serious look on her face) YES!

Me: OMG, my mom is ridiculous