Family Farm Friday #100: The Boys on the Farm

A while back our friend D. Felger Photography came out to take photos of rams for us.  While she was there, she got some pictures of the boys being boys.  The humans and the ram, Forrest.

(And yes, if you are wondering...the ram chasing my brother is the same one loving on my kid.  He's a good judge of character, that one!)

If you're needing a photographer--whether for livestock or people--D. Felger Photography is absolutely phenomenal!

Feeding the Cows

Just about every night, BB and I go outside and see the cows.   They come right over to the fence and he talks to them and points at them and it's about my favorite part of the day.

Now that he's walking so darn well, we've strapped some shoes on him and let him go to check his cows without the stroller.  For the past couple of nights, his dad took him out into the pasture and showed him how to scatter cake (small cubes of feed for you non-cattle folk) for the cows.

BB eats it up.  Watching every move his dad makes and seemingly in awe of the cows.

Well, last night The Boy from Texas had to work late, so BB and I were on our own for chores.  I got his shoes on and we headed to the garage to get the cake.  

As soon as he saw me pour it into the bucket, he grabbed a cube for each hand and took off running out the garage towards the pasture...

He walked himself all the way to the pasture (stopping several times to inspect rocks, dirt, and a frog along the way)...

When we got to the gate, he mixed the cake around in the bucket to be sure the cows were paying attention...

And then, just like his dad taught him, he threw the cake right to the cows...

And I could not have been one dang bit prouder of my husband or my kid.  A couple days worth of lessons and he's already got feeding cows down.  We're working hard to raise a stockman over here, and based on what I saw last night, I'd say we're succeeding.

Well, almost succeeding.  After we threw all the cubes to the cows, I turned around find this.  He had hidden a few cubes to taste for himself.  

I suppose there are still lessons to learn.

Family Farm Friday #99: Raising Livestock

Raising livestock is in my blood.  The Boy from Texas' too.  For generations, our families have raised cattle, sheep, and horses.  So when BB came along, there was really no doubt that he would be raised along with the livestock.

Already, we talk a walk every night so that BB can talk to his cows.  He now says "cow" despite still refusing to utter the word "Mama."  As he grows up, he will learn to bottle feed lambs.  He'll be in charge of watering the cows.  We'll teach him about sire selection and how to know when a lamb needs pulled and what medications to use when one of them is acting sick.  He'll know the different breeds of cattle and how to tell the grade of a staple of wool and how to tell a snaffle bit from a hackamore.  My guess is that he's always going to be as excited as we were as kids about branding and jumping in the wool sacks during sheering and his life will eventually revolve around stock shows.  He'll probably ride past the house standing up in the saddle and has already developed a sincere love for green tractors (yet another word he's mastered before Mama...)

I don't know what BB will be when he grows up. If I had to guess, based on the way he always wants to touch everyone's teeth, maybe a dentist.  Or maybe he will be a train conductor as he runs to see them every time he hears the horn. Or maybe he will work in the oil and gas industry like his Dad and Granddad or be a lawyer like his mom.  

But even if he doesn't go into agriculture, he will take the lessons he learns here with him.  He'll leave here with a strong work ethic.  He'll understand responsibility and sacrifice and how to balance a checkbook.  He'll understand the circle of life.  He'll have memories of good times with his grandparents and parents and sister, many of which will happen in a barn.  He'll learn to be a fierce competitor, a gracious loser, and a humble winner.  He'll be able to identify different types of grasses, understand why the percent protein matters in a ration, and I'm sure he'll be able to tell a good steak based on the amount of marbling it has.  He'll understand that life isn't always fair.  He'll know where his food comes from and why America needs her farmers and ranchers so desperately.

And my bet is that these things will make him a better dentist or train conductor or [whatever he chooses to be] A better husband.  A better father.  A better man.

That's the point of these cows and the sheep.  Sure, we are raising meat to help feed the world.  We are hoping to make a slim profit at some point.  But more important than that, we are giving our kids a legacy and a way of life.

Photo by D. Felger Photography

They say that we are raising livestock.  But maybe it's the livestock raising us.

Family Farm Friday #96: Roadtrip to Iowa

My dad has been asking about when I'd blog about our adventure for months.  Here's hoping I don't let him down.

We needed a new Dorset ram.  Our current go-to is a great fella named White Lightning, who we've had for about 6 or 7 years.  He came from Iowa, the result of a road trip my dad and little brother took together.  And he did exactly what we bought him for--raised champions.  But, alsas, White Lightning is starting to show his age, and it was about time to find his successor.  So, when The Boy from Texas, my dad, and I had the chance to load up in the pick up for a 14 hour road trip (one way) in search of the successor, you better believe I was all in.

The Boy from Texas drove the entire way there and back.  At first, I think he was just trying to be nice.  Later on, I think he wanted the badge of honor to use in future arguments about who should clean the floors or take out the trash.  "I mean, I could do that, but I did drive 28 hours to Iowa."

For the record, he was not texting and driving, we were just pulling out of the drive.

 One thing I'll say about The Boy from Texas, is that he's up for anything.  I guarantee you had you told him before he met me that he'd go on a 28 hour trip to look at sheep, he would have told you he was crazy.  But for this one, he studied up pictures on websites before we left and got right in the middle of things when we arrived.  He's all in, that husband of mine.

We went by two different sheep farms while we were there and, as always, we enjoyed the chance to look at the livestock, meet the people, and see how farming is done differently in another part of hte country.

We ended up back at the same farm where White Lightning came from those years ago.  The owners are a middle aged man and his 94 year old father, Roger.  I'd heard stories for years from my dad and brother about Roger, so I was excited to meet this guy.  He didn't disappoint.  He was sharp as a tack, funny, really interested in "life out west" and reported that this year--when his son had a bum knee--he sheared the flock himself.  At 94.  They don't make 'em like Rog anymore.

After lots of analyzing, looking, thinking, figuring, we selected the ram that we would bring home. And we promptly loaded him up in the cage.  At least we thought it was him.  While my dad was writing the check and The Boy from Texas was organizing things in the truck, I caught a glimpse of the eartag and realized the owner had loaded the wrong ram.  That could have been a major mistake had we not caught it until we made it back to New Mexico some 14 hours later!

The correct ram ready to roll.

When we got home and I thought about what I had learned on the trip, there was one thing that kept coming to my mind.  The entire drive, my dad continually commented on the beauty of the area we were driving through.  Fields of canola in Oklahoma, rolling hills and rock fences in Kansas, black cows, freshly planted corn fields in Iowa, pouring rain.....he enjoyed seeing it all.  He wasn't focused on how much farther we had to go.  He wasn't preoccupied with a cell phone or the radio.  He was content to just look out the window and see the beauty passing by.  I've traveled the world, he's never left the US...but I'm not sure I see, really see, anything as well as my father.  He's got a gift.

Let's hope his ability to see translates to picking rams too.  We're breeding the new guy for the first time this year, his lambs should be on the ground starting in December or January.

Oh yea, the new ram's name?

Rog.

Confirming I Am Still Alive

After getting multiple emails checking on my well being after a week of blog silence, I want to assure you all that I am, indeed, still alive.  Here's a little summary of what's been goin' on 'round these parts.

*  Southern Dairy Conference.  Last week, I made a whirlwind trip to Atlanta to speak at the Southern Dairy Conference.  It was a really fun presentation on how to prevent and survive an undercover video on your farm.  There was a great group of dairy industry folks in attendance, and this was a fun (and important!) new topic for me to speak about!

* Bucket List Checkmark:  Meet a Blogger in Real Life.  For years I've hoped to meet one of the bloggers who I follow (and didn't already know) in real life.  I was able to do that in Atlanta when I met Dairy Carrie.  She is a huge blog and twitter sensation, so when I saw her on the agenda, I had big hopes that I could introduce myself and check this one off the list.  Sure enough, she actually raised her hand to comment during my presentation, Tweeted that I had done a good job, and we got to visit for about half an hour while waiting for an airport shuttle.  She was the sweetest person in the world and, turns out, we have quite a few things in common.  Biggest blogger regret to date....no picture was taken. What was I thinking??

*  We suspect a pregnant dog in our midst.  Don't even get me started.  Apparently the dog The Boy from Texas repeatedly told me as old and barren is like Sarah of the Bible and it looks like we will have puppies in the next month or so.  The puppy daddy belongs to my parents, so I'm on a mission to make these things half their responsibility.  They claim no parental responsibility.  Sheesh.

*  We've hit up several sheep shows.  So we've been running all over the Panhandle going to sheep shows.  Our lambs have been doing an excellent job of bringing home purple banners.

*  We bought a house!  We are so excited to have closed yesterday on our very first house together!  It's a tiny little cottage (well, not quite like that show Tiny House, but not that far from it) with a few acres.  As you know, The Boy from Texas and I are both farm kids and we love the idea of having our own land.  So the next week is going to be chaos as we clean out junk (why is it that when people move they don't haul off all of their crap??), doing a bit of work and painting, and moving in.  I took before pictures last night and will have after pics soon.....stay tuned!

Big Win

Last weekend, we got a big win at the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky.  It's a huge show.  Over 1,200 lambs from all over the country.  Winning here is a big deal.

One of our favorite showers (am I allowed to say that?) took a crossbred lamb to the show.  She works hard, shows extremely well, and is a blast to be around.

When all the dust settled, she ended up the Champion Whiteface Cross. 

It was a huge win for her and a huge win for our family.  It's amazing to think how far we've come. As we head into lambing season, which occurs in the middle of the freezing cold winter and requires a lot of hard work at the barn, it's pretty nice to have this as motivation.

Be sure to check out our website to see some pictures of the ranch, the rams that we use, and to see our winners, check out our website.

Sheep Sale Weekend Report

“When you do what you love, the seemingly impossible becomes simply challenging, the laborious becomes purposeful resistance, the difficult loses its edge and is trampled by your progress.”   ~Steve Maraboldi

To set the background, my family raises show lambs....this means that we raise lambs and sell them to kids in 4-H and FFA to exhibit at various fairs in their state.  The kids will buy the lambs in April, take care of them all summer, and then show them at the fair in the fall.  If they do well, they will sell the lambs in what's called a premium sale hopefully for a profit.  Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The first time we decided to have our own lamb sale (rather than going to a sale where multiple breeders each sell a few lambs a piece....you've read before about that first sale) was probably about 8 years ago or so.  The sale was at our little show barn.  About 7 buyers came.  My dad just called off the various ear tag numbers and asked if anyone was interested.  We started the bidding low, sold about 10 lambs maybe, and I don't think anyone paid much.  But it was a start.  It gave us something to work on and grow and aim for.

This weekend, we had our best sale to date.  There were over 100 people there.  We sold 59 lambs in about an hour.  It was pretty cool to look around and know that all of these people were there because of the work that we (my parents in particular) have done to continue improving the quality of our lambs.  It was even cooler to know where we started and what we've been able to create.

Of course, the sale is first and foremost a revenue generator for us.  Obviously, we've got to pay the feed bills for all of those sheep we have hanging around having babies!  But beyond that, it really is a little bit like a reunion of sorts.  We are blessed with great neighbors and friends who show up to help us every year.  We never have to wonder if they will come, we never have to pay them, we never have to ask if they remember.  They're just there, ready to help.  And we've got several long-time customers...some who were there at our house that day 8 years ago buying sheep and did the same thing yesterday at the fairgrounds.

I suppose I could end this blog in a lot of ways.  Thoughts about setting goals and working hard.  Or wrap things up by talking about the sacrifices that my parents have made in order to keep things afloat during the worst drought in history.  Or look back on the winning lambs we've had over the last few years. 

But in the end, I think it's about the people.   Isn't it always?  It's about spending time as a family, be that feeding show lambs or sorting ewes or making a sale list the night before the big day.  It's about having a day to visit with people who have been part of my life since I was a little kid who I might just see in a barn a couple of times a year now.  It's about doing our part to be sure that the kids showing today make those same memories that we got.  That's what's important.  That's what matters.  We're blessed to be a part of something like this.

Oh, and by the way, stick around tomorrow to hear some of Little Cowboy's best quotes from the weekend.  You won't want to miss that.

5 Favorites

Well I was a bit short on blog content this week, but Super Mom to the rescue with a link up she does each week.  Here are a list of 5 Favorites this Wednesday!

1.  I am obsessed with this song, which I learned about thanks to Super Mom's Five Things post last week.  Seriously, it's been on pretty  much every second I have not been studying for the last few days.

2.  This article about things you should never say to childless women.  A-freakin-men.  There are just some things that are personal and that other people shouldn't inquire about.  Why someone is still single and why they do not have babies are two of those things.  I'd like to send this to about 100 people I know!

3.  This post by Meg Fee, one of my favorite bloggers.  First off, it breaks my heart for her and I'd like to knock the crap out of this guy.  But that's not why it's on the list.  I love her way of analyzing whether this is the right guy...when you've got a kid in the backseat on the way to the ER to get stitches someday, is this the guy you want next to you?  It's easy to get caught up in all the love and romance and whatnot of a relationship, but in the end, finding the guy you want with you on the way to the ER to stitch up a busted head is probably far more important.

4.  We've started up a website and a Facebook page for our show lamb business.  There are some pretty good photos that you all might enjoy.  So check out the website here and go like the Facebook page here!

5.  I mentioned this before, but one of my dearest friends is currently in jail.  (Long story that just gets me on a rant about what a jacked up criminal "justice" system we have.)  Anyway, over Christmas several people were so kind as to send him Christmas cards and he absolutely loved it!  He said it made his day opening cards from people he didn't even know.  I am hoping to rally the troops and do the same thing for Valentine's Day.  It seriously means SO much to him, so if you could spare the time to drop him a note, card, letter, little kid Valentine, whatever, just shoot me an email and I'll get you his info.  (Those of you who have it from last time, nothing has changed but be sure you put your NAME and return address, otherwise he can't have the letter until he gets released.)  Thank you in advance for your kindness to my buddy!

Family Farm Friday #84: He Waited a Long Time

"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up."  ~Babe Ruth

I have to admit, after the success our lambs had last year at the New Mexico State Fair, I was a little worried that this year would be a major let down.  But because I have done this every year for the last 18, I loaded up my bags and headed to Albuquerque last weekend for the fair.  And it couldn't have been better.

I spent four days at the fair in a barn full of dust and animals and some of the best people in the world.  I ate a lot of burritos and had green chile on just about every meal.  I was given free stocks in Mr. Graham's latest scheme.  And I got more hugs in those four days than I'll probably get for the rest of the year.

And the shows?  Well, they went awesome.  Like, real awesome.

First up was the New Mexico Bred Steer Show. We just had one calf showing, but he won his class!  Yay!  We're not just sheep people, turns out!

And then it was the sheep show day.  Which also happened to be my dad's birthday.  He said for his birthday he really wanted a breed champion and another class winner.  Well, he got his wish.  And then some.  Three class winners, two Reserve Breed Champions, and Champion Finewool Cross. 

Dad spent his birthday high fiving moms and kids, answering "Who raised that lamb?" proudly with "We did!"  He teared up when encouraging a little boy from our hometown who got beat, but did the best job showing that he'd ever done.  And he spent the entire next day working on getting a website up and running to share the photos and the news. 

But my favorite moment of the week happened after the show.  My dad--the one who you can hardly get to look at a camera and pay attention--took three photos in a row in the sheep show version of the winner's circle and smiled bigger than I might have ever seen.  When the first picture was over and the photographer (not realizing we had won three breed or reserve breed champions) tried to shuffle my dad out of the photo backdrop, my dad told him, "I've waited a long time for this and I'm going to be here a while."  And he was, for three photos in a row.

Champion Finewool Cross

Reserve Champion Finewool Cross

Reserve Champion Finewool

You better believe that my dad deserved his time and three pictures in front of that banner.  Because there was a lot of hard work that went into that.  Generations of hard work, actually.  My grandparents started it all over 60 years ago when they bought our farm and our first ewes.  Then my grandma ignored everyone who told her to sell out when my grandpa died and left my grandma with two teenage boys and a farm to run.  Instead, they worked harder.  They sacrificed.  And they kept on going.  There were hours spent at the barn.  Hot days of sorting ewes.  Pulling lambs in freezing cold blizzards.  Early mornings of getting up to cut hay and late nights fighting with the bailer that is always broken.  Trips to Iowa to find a ram.  Sleepless nights before our show lamb sale.  Dead rams and prolapsed ewes and lambs that just didn't turn out.  My dad waited a long time for Tuesday and I am here to tell you, there's no one who deserved it more than him.

Family Farm Friday #82: 20 Years Ago Today

"Songs and smells will bring you back to a moment in time more than anything else. It's amazing how much can be conjured with a few notes of a song or a solitary whiff of a room. A song you didn't even pay attention to at the time, a place that you didn't even know had a particular smell.”   ~ Emily Giffin, Something Borrowed

20 years ago today, I walked into the show ring at my first county fair.  I mostly got beat, but somehow pulled off a red 2nd place ribbon and made the sale with a blackface lamb that totally knocked me down, ran me over, and drug me across the ring.  And just like that, I was hooked.

For the next 10 years, my life was pretty much consumed with livestock shows and long nights at the barn and trips to buy lambs. 

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2000 (again)

2000 (again)

2001

2001 (again)

2002

2003

2003 (again)

There were belt buckles and purple banners and sale checks to put in the bank.  There were lessons about which guards to use when clipping pigs (and mostly which ones NOT to use) and learning fractions because you had to feed the finewools 3/4 of a can all summer, and knowing more about ringworm than anyone ever should.  There is the feeling in my stomach I still get to this day when I smell sawdust and Revive, and lucky halters, and wash rack moments.There is the way that my dad, brother and I can give you a complete run down of an animal we had 20 years ago upon hearing the names "Walter" or "Harley" or "Daisy."  I could spout off all of the things that showing does for kids....teaches them to balance a checkbook and work a budget and care for another living thing and make sacrifices. 

And those things are great.  All of them.

But without hesitation, I will tell you that the biggest gift that walking into that show ring 20 years ago gave me:  Relationships.  The ag teacher with whom I spent countless hours at shows or sales or in the barn getting ready for shows or sales and who was like a second father to me.  Wade who was always in our corner at every show.  Eric who always made sure our pens were together and sheared every white sheep I ever showed, even though he didn't have to.  The other ag teachers who would sit around and drink coffee and play dominoes.  First Valentine who was always the first one to start up a game of spoons in the pig barn.  BFF who I met at his first county fair 19 years ago.  Opie and First Valentine's Brother who showed countless lambs for us when we had extra in the same class. Teacher Friend who saved us the best bunks in the State Fair dorms every year--in the back, farthest from the bathrooms.  The Little Blonde Kid who I took for ice cream before the State Fair sale.  My brother with whom I could have a complete conversation with one of us inside the ring and another on the rail without a single word being spoken.  With the other exhibitors and their parents who turned into this big, sometimes dysfunctional showing family.  My own parents and brother with whom I spent at least 2.5 hours per night (usually more) in the show barn every April - October.

20 years later, I couldn't imagine my life without these people and those memories.  I preach this all the time, but I firmly believe that there are no better organizations for kids to be involved in than 4-H and FFA, and within those, no better activity than the show program.  I've got 20 years worth of friends (and photos of bad hair cuts and questionable fashion choices!) to prove it.