Family Farm Friday # 18: California....Knows How To Party

'There’s a family dairy farmer and personal story that comes with every glass of milk, piece of cheese, scoop of ice cream and pat of butter you purchase." ~ Michael Freeman, the CMAB’s Vice President of Advertising.

When you think of American Agriculture you probably picture cornfields in Iowa or cattle ranches in Texas. When you think about dairy farming, you probably think of Wisconsin. California might not be at the top of your list for either of these categories, but they sure have some things figured out. This will be the first of two blogs giving kudos to California for supporting and promoting family farming.

You've probably seen the popular "Real California Cheese" commercials with the talking cows. Well, they are made by the California Milk Advertising Board. They are launching a new commercial series called "Real California Dairy Farms." The commercials feature a different California dairy farmer telling his or her story. The videos focus on family farms and do a great job of showing what dairy farming (and agriculture in general) is really about.

This is exactly the type of marketing that the agricultural industry needs. America needs to see the faces behind the products. This is what the consumers care about and can relate to. We can (and should) talk about our products and our animals and our industries, but at the end of the day, people relate to people.

When you see PETA, HSUS, or other anti-agricultural groups talking to the public, they stay as far away from talking about the people in our industry as they can. They know that the public supports farmers and ranchers.

Our people and our stories are the biggest marketing tool and asset our industry has....we have to keep using them! Way to go California!

You can check out all of the videos on this website, and I included a few below in case you're interested.

Here is a dairyman who hosts school tours at his farm.


This one is a great discussion of growing up on a farm.



Here's a video that discusses calving at the dairies.

Throwback Thursday #22: Tables and Snakes

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” ~Ashley Montagu

I've decided, yet again, to make a little change to Throwback Thursdays. Instead of having a set topic (like Europe or San Francisco) to write on, I'm going to just think back to random funny stories each week, regardless of whent hey happened. We'll start when I was 9 years old.

When my grandma passed away, part of my family from Tennessee came out west for the funeral. This included my cousin, who we'll call Swiss Mister (get it? Like Swiss Miss, but he's a boy?) who was probably about 21 or so at the time. Swiss Mister was a straight up city boy. He didn't wear boot cut jeans, was scared to death of horses and didn't like to get dirty. My tomboy self, at 9 years old, couldn't figure this guy out!

Anyway, one night another cousin, Swiss Mister and I went to my house to feed my show lambs. The WHOLE TIME we were outside, Swiss Mister kept asking if there were snakes, if we ever saw any snakes, if we knew how to kill snakes, etc. We went into our lambing barn to get some hay. Out of nowhere, a little garter snake slithers across the ground right in front of Swiss Mister.

Now, just to get this straight, I hate snakes. Hate them, hate them, hate them. All of them. My dad says there's no such thing as a good snake, but a dead one is not quite as bad as a live one. I buy that. But for some reason, this story still cracks me up.

Swiss Mister flips out. He starts screaming like a little girl and runs across the barn to this little Fisher Price plastic tea party table we had in there at the time. He jumps on the table, jumps up and down, continuing to scream. Picture this 6'2, 21 year old guy jumping up and down on this tiny table. My other cousin and I are laughing so hard we can't do anything to try and kill the snake. We're on the ground rolling.

Poor Swiss Mister stood on the table the rest of the night while we were feeding. When it was time to leave, he grabbed me by the arm for us to walk out together to the car, where my other cousin was waiting. We get about halfway there and she honks the horn. Swiss Mister flips out again, jumps like 10 feet in the air and goes back to screaming.

Sometimes, there are stories that you will just never live down. Sorry for you, Swiss Mister, this is that kind of story!

Brooks and Dunn's Last Rodeo

"We never take this stuff for granted. The longer we're out here, too, in a lot of ways, the more we appreciate it." ~Kix Brooks

Last weekend was my Brooks and Dunn celebration apparently. On Saturday night I got to see them in concert. You know how you go to some concerts and the singers are just not as good live as they are on the cd after the record people work their magic? Let me assure you, they just might be better. On Sunday night, I watched the tribute special on tv.

I've always loved Brooks and Dunn--I remember being a kid and Boot Scootin' Boogie was pretty much the coolest song ever. They are wrapping up their last tour ever, titled Last Rodeo. I was going to post a video of my favorite Brooks and Dunn song, but I couldn't pick one. Instead, I decided to post some of my favorite lyrics and videos of my three favorite songs. Hope you enjoy!

God won't make a mountain I can't climb. (Getting Better All The Time)

Lessons in life are gonna show you in time, soon enough you're gonna know why. It's gonna hurt every now and then, if you fall get back on again. (Cowgirls Don't Cry)



No matter where you are, you're always on my heart...I may never get over you. (I May Never Get Over You)

I'm proud of the house we built. It's stronger than sticks, stones and steel. It's not a big place sittin' high on some hill, a lot of things will come and go but love never will. (Proud of the House We Built)

I know in the big picture, I'm just a speck of sand and God's got better things to do than look out for one man. I know he's heard my prayers cause he hear's everything, he just ain't answered back. (God Must Be Busy)

You're the man of the house you better think of something 'cause Mama don't get dressed up for nothing. (Mama Don't Get Dressed Up for Nothing)

I'm a lonely dreamer on a highway in the skies...she's the sunlight when my skies are grey, she treats me so right lady take me away (My Maria)

I think of two young lovers, running wild and free and close my eyes and sometimes see you in the shadow of this smoke filled room. (Neon Moon)



One kid dreams of fame and fortune, one kid helps pay the rent. One could end up going to prison, one just might be President. (Only In America)

'Til you put a girl in it you ain't got nothin'. What's it all worth without a little lovin'? (Put a Girl In It)

I learned the path to heaven is for the sinners and believers. Learned that happniess on Earth ain't just for high achievers. (Red Dirt Road)

She kissed him on the cheek, daddy's little girl. Then a woman walked out to take on the world. (She Was Born to Run)

He didn't know what a good thing he had, now it's too late and that's too bad! (She's Not the Cheating Kind)

Threw back a shot, yelled I'm a George Strait junkie! (Play Something Country)

The dance fooor's hoppin' and it's hotter than the Fourth of July. (Boot Scootin' Boogie)

No Regrets?

"Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did." ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

I have never understood when people claim to have no regrets in their lives. There are lots of quotes, songs, and I've even heard people in my own life talk about how they have no regrets in their lives. I can't relate.

Don't get me wrong, my life is great--I've been able to experience so many things, go so many places, and meet so many people--far more than anyone deserves. But I there are definitely things I regret.

A few examples here--mind you, there are a lot of things that I think are too meaningful to share on the blog, so I generally go with the lighter things to make my point. There are plenty of "I wish I would have said...." or "I wish I would have seen that person one more time...." type regrets that are much more serious than the blog. So let's keep this upbeat!


I wish I had gone on a study abroad trip in college. OSU offered SO many options---from semesters to just two week trips to places all over the globe. I never went. I thought it was too expensive and I didn't have time. Now that I have been able to travel overseas, I kick myself for missing that opportunity.

Another college regret is that I never did a wild and crazy Spring Break trip. Now, mind you, I'm not talking something trashy that would be on late night tv here, but just going to the beach or somewhere fun with my friends and letting loose for a few days. Instead, I usually went home for Spring Break to see the family (not something I regret, mind you family). My senior year College Roomie, Cousin Whitney and I went to D.C. and Virginia to look at law schools. Lots of fun--but not the typical college spring break experience that might have been really fun.

Like the quote above explains, it's much more common to regret not things that you did, but things you didn't do. I doubt many people lay on their death bed and think about the things they wish they could take back. Far more common must be wishing that they had done something fun or expensive or crazy or meaningful for them.

I think the regrets in my life I regret have taught me something. When you have an opportunity to go overseas for two weeks and wonder around Europe, take it. When you can buy tickets and jump on a plane 24 hours before the flight to go see your friends, do it. Without realizing some of my regrets, I don't that I would have taken full advantage of these experiences.

So I don't buy the "no regrets" thing. I think the key to it is not that we should have no regrets, but instead we should not dwell on the regrets we have, but learn from them instead. If we realize that we regret doing or not doing something, so long as we learn from it, then the regret serves a purpose. If, instead, we go around insisting that we didn't want to do that thing anyway, or we would have done it the same all over again, we don't improve our lives. We risk falling into a pattern of repeated regrets.


I say we should think about the things we regret. And vow not to do let them happen again. And go live our lives. It's never too late for that crazy spring break trip you know!

Roof Friends

"Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends." ~Virginia Woolf

It's sort of interesting being a young female lawyer. The girls in our generation grew up being told that we could be anything we wanted to be and do anything we wanted to do. Now that we're doing and being....sometimes its hard! Trying to figure out our place and find a balance in our lives and decide what our priorities are going to be can be really stressful. Sometimes its just nice to chat with other people who understand what's going on in my work life!

Last weekend in San Francisco, I got to hang out with two other first year attorneys that I worked with as a summer associate. Gonzaga and Yoga Master both accepted positions with the firm we were at in San Francisco.

We met up at Yoga Master's adorable apartment in Noe Valley. Gonzaga and I took the train down and walked through the Castro to get to the apartment. This is a total aside, but I have to say walking through the Castro was really funny--we were literally the only girls on the street and none of the guys gave a rats about us being there. Yoga Master says she likes walking through that area because she never has to worry about anyone bothering her or attacking her. Unless she was wearing really cute shoes that someone was jealous of.....

Anyway, we had a great night catching up on work stuff and talking about our jobs and projects and lives. Yoga Master made an excellent dinner including fresh fruit and veggies from the Farmer's Market (talk about a reason to miss San Francisco!). It was so great to hear that all o f us are dealing with similar issues as we try and figure out how the heck this job thing is supposed to be working out. Of course, we are twenty-something girls, so there was a little boy talk thrown in the mix as well.

I am blessed with a lot of non-attorney friends who put up with me talking about law stuff probably far more than they have ever cared to hear! But it's really great to have friends who understand what you're dealing with and talking about and why things that don't sound so bad--like drafting a summary judgment motion--can just about make you want to jump off the roof of your building.
For me, Gonzaga and Yoga Master are those friends so thanks, girls, for keeping me on the roof!

Dumping the Girl Friends

"A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth." ~Charles Darwin

I read several blogs each day even though I don't know the writers. Last week, I had smoke coming out of my ears after reading what one girl wrote on her blog. Of course, this means I have to rant.

The Anonymous Blogger is getting married soon, and her blog was discussing her expectations for marriage. Most of them were fine....then one of them blindsided me.

"His female friends from high school (he graduated 11 years ago) will stop calling him to chat. I know it only happens maybe 2-3 times per year and there are only like 2 girls who do it and he may only see them once a year when they come into town, but it still bugs me and I will want it to stop."

Are you freaking kidding me Anonymous Blogger? As the girl who has always been on the other end of the phone in this situation, I am horribly offended.

Girls and guys can be really good friends---and that's all. There are lots of boys in my life who I love dearly and consider some of my best friends, and have no other feelings for. I don't see anything wrong with this type of friendship continuing on after the guy gets married.

Clearly when the guy is marrying another girl and is not even seeing the girl on the phone except for once a year, there is no threat there. And what happened to trusting someone in a relationship? Call me crazy.
It can be really hard when your guy friends get into relationships. If you're not lucky, you end up losing your guy friend. It's hard and it's not fair. Sometimes, if you're lucky, like I've been with a handful of my boys, you end up keeping your guy friend and gaining a girl friend out of the deal too.
So my message is this. If you're a guy--stand up for your girl friends. They've probably been there for you through a lot and they don't deserve to get dumped for no reason. I'm not saying your relationship should not change at all. Clearly priorities shift and your relationship changes some--but I think having to cut someone completely out of your life is just ridiculous.
And to the girlfriends/fiancees/wives of the boys in my life who have not made me get dumped--some of whom I'm including on the blog--thank you. You're wonderful and I'm so glad my boys found you!
I appreciate not being dumped. In return, I strive to always send birthday and anniversary cards and cool baby presents. See? The girl friends might just be worth keeping around.

Aunt Tiffany Is So Proud

"Babies are such a nice way to start people." ~Don Herold

I'm not a huge kid person. I wouldn't say I dislike kids, but I'm not one of those girls that is dying to have one anytime soon either. My biological clock is certainly not ticking. However, Aunt Tiffany spent lots of baby time the last couple of weekends with my favorite kiddos.

Eli James (Little Linebacker) and Madilyn Rose (Little Princess)

and Landon (Little Yao Ming).

Little Linebacker is my SoulMateFriend's baby. I feel a special connection to him because I was the first person to know that SoulMateFriend was pregnant. Her husband was at a band concert, so she picked up the phone and gave me the exciting news! We spent the next hour googling "false positive pregnancy tests" just to be sure we were not getting excited about nothing. As soon as I was convinced (thank you, Web MD) I rushed to the bookstore to pick up a book on pregnancy (Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy) and to the store to get some cute baby stuff!
Nine months later, Little Linebacker was here! He's the cutest little thing ever--and he is so built to be an athlete. His little legs are all muscle and I swear, I swear, we were talking about football and when I said Notre Dame, he smiled and laughed. YES!


Little Princess is the first baby for my group of college friends we'll call Animal House. I'm not bragging, but the group earned the name--we're talking college classic stuff here. These guys were a part of most of my best college memories, and I can't believe that any of them are actually having babies! One of these boys, the Governor married a girl who hung out with the group, FavoriteWife. (Not because he has moe than one wife, but because of all the friends' wives, she's my favorite!)They started our group off by getting married first and now having the first baby. She is honestly the prettiest baby girl I've ever seen in my whole life. Most newborns are red and wrinkly--not Little Princess, she was beautiful when Aunt Tiffany met her 18 hours after she arrived. She's only the second baby I've ever actually met in the hospital, but she's set the bar pretty high for the ones to come!

Little Yao Ming is my first Asian nephew. :) His mom, Canoe Friend, and I worked together when I spent the summer in San Francisco. We hit it off right away and have stayed in touch for the last two years. I call her Canoe Friend because if you remember my canoeing blog, she and her husband were the nice couple in the canoe who was so kind and supportive when they got stuck in the tree branches.

I was so lucky that they were able to meet me in San Francisco last weekend so I could meet Little Yao Ming for the first time. And FYI--he's in the 95% for height. These may not just be crazy Aunt Tiff dreams of NBA fame and fortune here! He is such a happy, adorable little baby!

I can't wait to watch these three little ones grow up.

And a special note to two of my dear friends who are both really struggling to get pregnant---I have complete faith that soon, I'll be blogging about your beautiful little ones!

I am so lucky to be able to live vicariously through my amazing friends.....and lucky that they have to change the diapers instead of me!

Bay to Breakers 2010: One of Those Days

"I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” ~Joseph Campbell

You know how when you are really excited for an event and you think about how great it will be and what it'll be like and then, once it actually happens, it's not as good as you planned? Well....Bay to Breakers Weekend in San Francisco was one of those times that was a TOTAL EXCEPTION! College Roomie deemed it "the perfect day" and I think she might have been right. Once we got in the starting corral, the chaos began. The traditional "tortilla toss" began and there were corn tortillas flying everywhere. College Roomie took one in the head. The energy there was amazing. There were 33,000 registered runners and a total of 80,000 spectators and people who joined in the race along the route. It was amazing and everyone was just having a great time! Somehow, our friend Nomad found us in the crowd of people and started the race with us. He is actually a runner and finished like 20 minutes ahead of us, but hey, at least we got our pre-race group photo!
And then we were off!
There are so many great costumes at Bay to Breakers, we tried our best to capture a few before the race started and along the way.

There were also a lot of people who chose to forego costumes, or any other clothing. I'll spare you any photographs, but one of my favorite exchanges of the weekend occurred at about the half mile mark:

Tiffany: OMG, College Roomie--ugly naked guy!!
College Roomie: Get a picture!
Tiffany: He's running too fast!
College Roomie: Go faster---I'll catch you! GO GO GO!
Little did we know by the time the race was over, we didn't think twice about seeing ugly naked guys running around!

The most challenging portion of the race is the Hayes Street Hill. If you've been to San Francisco, you know that hills are no joke! People had suggested that we walk the hill because it would just be too difficult to run. Well, it might be for some, but not for the hard core girls who train at high elevations. We ran that hill like champs (and quickly looked for the water station near the top!)

TONS of people come out to watch the race. Many bring cow bells, signs and air horns to cheer you on. My favorite spectator, of whom I have no picture, saw a guy running along who had decided not to wear a costume (if you get my drift) and yelled, "Eww! Gross. Dude, put that thing away!" I love San Francisco!

Those who live there have Bay to Breakers parties and cheer on the racers. This party looked the most fun to us and, had we not been responsible adults with jobs to get back to, we might have found that house after we were done running!

We decided to document the race by photographing ourselves every mile and crossing the finish line. Here are those shots for your enjoyment.

In the end, we did better than we had hoped! We ran the whole race (including the Hayes Street hill) and finished in the top 10,000 runners (top 9,000 to be more exact)! Nomad was in the top 3,000. Woo hoo! Just think how fast we could have been had we hadn't have been taking all of of the pictures necessary for the blog!

We found a random dude to be our "U" for OSU....his photographer friend got me all confused and didn't tell me the S was backwards. That's why I'm usually the "U"!

Anyway, Bay to Breakers was an incredible experience. College Roomie is already talking about next year's race and Nomad deemed it "one of the top 5 things he's done in his life." Hard to argue with that. Another Bucketlist checkmark down: Run Bay to Breakers

24 Frogs

"It's not 'Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince.' Really it should be 'Sometime you have to throw a few frogs violently against a wall in order to find a prince' but I have a feeling that phrase wouldn't catch on." ~ Unknown angry girl on another blog


For those of you expecting a Bay to Breakers/San Francisco update....they are coming. And trust me...they will be worth the wait! Stay tuned for tomorrow when I'm less exhausted and (hopefully) less sore!

I hate frogs. Always have. When I was a kid there was a pond on our land where irrigation water would drain. In the summer, you would hear hundreds of frogs at night down by the pond. A statistic I heard today gave me a nightmarish flashback to that.



The average American woman dates 24 men before she finds Mr. Right...#25. I'm just saying, that's a lot of frogs to kiss before finding the prince! And think, that's the average--meaning that theoretically half of the women in America had to date MORE than 25 to get the right one.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I want to get married tomorrow, but for crying out loud....if I have to date 24 of them between now and the rock on my finger, this could be a problem. I talked to one of my Oklahoma Girls about this.....we fear that we are very behind! We better start dating up a storm in order to have enough frogs out of the way when the prince comes along! So if you know of a good frog, you may need to send him my way....


So, blog readers, what do you think about this? Can this statistic accurate?

Bay To Breakers Bound!!

"There are many public runs across the world, but none matches this nearly century-old 12K through one of the world's most beautiful cities for sheer spectacle. As many as 80,000 runners compete in all manner of costume -- and sometimes, no clothes at all. This is San Francisco, after all." ~ A Sports Fan's Checklist

College Roomie and I are off to Bay to Breakers!

We'll be spending a couple of days in San Francisco catching up with my friends from my summer living there first, meeting up with Nomad,....and eating our way through the city!

Then, on Sunday, the moment of truth will arrive! We will be running in the 99th Annual Bay to Breakers. You've read about the race before....

I'll have a full report next week! Keep your fingers crossed!

Miss Independent

“A woman is like a tea bag, you can not tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.” ~Nancy Reagan


I like to think of myself as being a pretty independent girl. I'm a single twenty-something living on my own, paying my own bills, making my own money, and making my own decisions. There's not a lot of things I feel like I can't handle.


I had a moment last weekend with my dryer that made me wonder.....Why is it when a home maintainence issue arises, the first thing I think of is "I need a boyfriend for things like this." That's a problem!


So, as part of my Happiness Project (there will be plenty to report when May is over!), I was cleaning out my laundry room. Once I dug back to the back, I find that the little tube thing (yes, that's the technical term) that takes the lent and whatever else from the dryer out of the house had come loose from the wall. Lent had been sprayed ALL OVER the walls and floor. On top of that, I had two bottles of distilled water that had somehow gotten holes in them and were leaking everywhere.

I threw my hands up, and went to my boyfriend thought. Then, I went to my, I at least need the Animal House boys from college to live closer to come fix these things. I racked my brain through my law school guy friends and decided that I am pretty sure I'm more mechanical than they are. I called my dad to complain.


After all of this nonsense.....I put my big girl pants on and went to work. I fixed the hose and the clamp. I hauled all of the boxed andshelves out of the room. I cleaned and moved and organized everything. And you know what? There wasn't a boy in sight.


Even when we think of ourselves as being independent girls, sometimes we revert right to the damsel in distress feeling. There's something good about a little reminder from the world that we can do things ourselves!