Project 64: Week 12 - Tickle Me Pink

Well this was the right time of year for this week's color, Tickle Me Pink! All week I knew I wanted to use a picture of pink flowers. While driving down the interstate I saw some awesome trees, but decided for safety reasons, I probably didn't need to stop there! :)

Fortunately, I cam across the same kind of trees next to a local restaurant while driving down the street. I swung into the parking lot, snapped some photos, and was on my way. With that, here is my version of Tickle Me Pink!

As always, go over and check out the other participants in the challenge!

Photos of the Week - Week 12

Another week full of photos to share....hope you guys enjoy! Which one is your favorite?

Theme: Spring

Yes, I realize this is the third photo with this theme in the last two weks (remember these pictures) so I tried to do something a little different! I love how the flower looks like it's reaching out for the sunlight! I'm linking this up in the Live Every Moment challenge. To see the other entries, click here!

Theme: Pets

I had a hard time picking a photograph for this theme......I used one last week for "Friends" of my brother's dog Ace that I thought about entering. Then there were all of the baby animals photos. In the end, I settled on this one of my parents' dogs, Boomer and Dollar, doing their favorite thing....cruising down the road.

Theme: Moon

Before I even knew that this was one of the themes this week, I snapped this picture in Santa Fe when I drove up to have dinner with Notre Dame Friend and her parents. I loved the moon shining on the St. Francis Cathedral.

Theme: Your Streets

I struggled with this picture all week. But then I went out for a little run and took my camera along. I saw this sign showing kids playing in a park and liked that in the background, you can see the kids actually playing.

Theme: Planning

If you know me, you know I'm old school. Like seriously---I am not much of a technology person. My friends make fun of me all the time. I realize that I may be the only person in the world who still keeps a hard copy planner, but I love this baby!

Theme: My Favorite

I realize you guys have seen this picture before, but I seriously think it's my favorite one that I've ever taken. My boss has encouraged me to get it printed poster size to hang in my office. Since everything else in there has to do with cattle and sheep and horses, I might take him up on it!

Theme: Ephesians 2:8

I love this verse. I tried to take a photo that captured some of the gifts that God gives us and eventually settled on this one that shows the sunset reflecting on the river.

Family Farm Friday #46: Farm Colored Glasses

"My father asserted that there was no better place to bring up a family than in a rural environment.... There's something about getting up at 5 a.m., feeding the stock and chickens, and milking a couple of cows before breakfast that gives you a lifelong respect for the price of butter and eggs." ~Bill Vaughan

You might remember my blog from a couple of weeks ago about my first 4-H speech, which described what it was like to grow up as a 9 year old kid on a family farm. Well one of my readers commented with a great question. She said that she was curious how my love of agriculture played into my practice of law. (Sidenote....this is why you should comment with questions, because I will answer those babies!)

I thought this was a great question, and after thinking about it, I figured out my answer. My love of agriculture plays into EVERYTHING that I do, the practice of law included. I see the world through farm colored glasses.
I read a quote once that said, "You raise your kids on a farm, and they look at things differently." I think that guy hit it right on the head. Growing up on a family farm and being involved in agriculture completely impacts the way that a person looks at the world. I am not sure if any other lifestyle has such an impact on a person, particularly a child. I've discussed ag kids before here and here and here. How many other kids do you know who are passionate and involved in their parents' careers?
By way of a quick example, Little Brother won showmanship at the State Fair one year, and in the contest he was asked a question about the biggest threat facing the US sheep industry. The judge didn't know what he was in for when he asked Little Brother that question.....what he got was a 5 minute lecture about imports and markets and marketing our product effectively. Afterwards, someone said, "Little Brother must have given a speech on that to have know that answer off the top of his head." My Dad responded, "That didn't come from a speech. Hell he's lived it his whole life." In our family, farming was something we were all involved in, and that included discussing problems, making decisions, and understanding the industry.

For ag kids, agriculture is not just their parents' job, but it is their whole family's way of life. They are connected to it in a way that is just special. That translates to knowing a lot about the industry and to seeing the world through farm colored glasses. (In the picture below, Little Brother and I are docking a baby lamb's tail in case you can't figure out what is going on!)

And when ag kids grow up, nothing changes. I remember being in law school and a lot of times I would have a different perspective or opinion on a case, because I saw it through farm colored glasses. I distinctly remember reading eminent domain cases (this is where the government can come in and take private land for a public purpose so long as they pay just compensation to the private land owner) and being really, really disturbed. Lots of other students commented that these people could just go and buy new property with the money they got from the government. I was beside myself trying to explain to people that they didn't understand. If you have a family farm, one that has been in your family for generations like ours (remember this post), you can't just go buy a new one to replace it. It's more than the fact that you own land, it's the fact that you own YOUR FAMILY'S land--the land where your parents and grandparents and great grandparents worked and sweat and prepared to leave a legacy. I saw this case differently--through farm colored glasses.
Plenty of other parts of my life are seen through these glasses. Growing up on a farm impacts the way I shop at the grocery store (how I look at cuts of meat, etc.), my memories of the State Fair (you read about that here), the way I deal with traffic (I never honk or pitch a fit at a slow moving tractor or grain truck on the highway...I've been that guy!), the way I relate to songs on the radio (you've read one or two blogs on this topic as well)....the list could go on and on.

The bottom line is that agriculture is so much a part of who I am, I truly believe that it plays into every part of my life. I'm proud to have been raised to see the world through farm colored glasses. I hope one day my kids can wear a pair of their own.

Throwback Thursday #49: We Are Not Getting Off This Bus (Wild and Crazy Spring Break Part III)

“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.”

And now, the long awaited finale to my Wild and Crazy Spring Break trilogy. You can go back and read part one and part two if you missed them for any reason.

So, after our adventure in Williamsburg, we loaded back onto the train for Baltimore on what happened to be St. Patrick's Day. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel by the airport and decided that we should go down to the Harbor and drink some green beer at an Irish pub to celebrate properly. One problem---we were all cheap, this was the end of our trip, and our hotel was not close to the Harbor. We had two options: a taxi or a city bus. The choice was obvious--city bus it was.

We stopped in a bank to get a bus map and figure out where we were going (and I'm assuming someone had to get money because why the heck else do I remember stopping at a bank?). The nice lady working there told us where the bus stop was and said that the Harbor area was very safe and that would would be find so long as we did not end up on the projects. (Come to find out, the projects of Baltimore are the #1 most dangerous place in America. Remember that.) So, off we go, us three little backwoods, twenty-two year old girls, off in search of green beer. Here we were at the bus stop.....a really nice homeless man took our photo.

We got on the bus, which was pretty full, and got separated. Cousin Whitney and I were sitting together and College Roomie was a few rows back. Soon, I realized our first problem. We hadn't paid. When did they take our money? Would they arrest us if we didn't pay? Did we pay when we got off? And then, came problem number two. How did you get off anyway? How did he know where to stop? And how did you know where your stop was?

And then, came the big one....problem number three. The bus kept getting fuller and fuller and I looked out and knew right away where we were......THE PROJECTS.

I'm trying to keep Cousin Whitney calm and be sure that College Roomie is still alive. I would periodically just yell out "College Roomie?" and she would say, "I'm here!" As for Cousin Whitney, she kept saying, "We have to get off of this bus, we have to get off of this bus." Now, I understood her thinking, especially because a very large man was standing right next to us and you could see the gun sticking out of his pants. However........as I ever so gently explained to her, "Look outside----we are NOT getting off of this bus!" About that time, we saw what I'm 99.9% sure was a drug deal go down.

I just remember praying we made it out alive and that we could figure out when and how to get off of the bus. Finally, a really nice older lady took pity on us and told us how to get off. She also said our stop was about three or four away. We kept on riding the bus, and then.....we saw it. The Harbor--full of tourists and chain restaurants. We pulled the little chain to tell the driver to stop and ran like hell (excuse the curse word but it's necessary to convey the meaning) to freedom/safety. I will admit, this was one of the top three scariest experiences of my entire life. (You've read about one other one, the taxi in Rome and you will read Thursday about the third event involving the Bay Bridge and my crazy friend next Thursday!)

I don't remember much after that---probably post traumatic stress disorder. Photographs indicate that we had California Pizza Kitchen, ice cream, and I think that we did end up in an Irish Pub with green beer (obviously much needed at this point!). The part I do remember was that when it came time to go home, we had two choices: a taxi or a city bus. The choice was obvious.

We gladly paid the insane cab fee and gave that guy a nice fat tip!

On Friday Too

"Lord let me praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach you without preaching, not by words, but by example." ~Mother Teresa

ND Friend recently gave me a cd of a speech given by Archbishop Timothy Dolan at a conference a couple of weeks ago. So, as I was preparing to drive across the state to the middle of nowhere for a hearing, I decided to pop it in and listen on the drive. (Note to self.....invest in some books on tape because that made the drive so much faster!) While I plan to do a blog about the speech itself in the near future, today I want to focus on one little line in the introduction.

One of the moderators for the conference was trying to kill time with the crowd because the Archbishop was running a little late. He sort of made the typical small talk, and then asked how many of the attendees had been there the day before, which was a Friday. Then he made a little joke and said, "Jesus is on Friday too!"

And just like that.....God whacked me upside the head with something I needed to hear. (He seems to whack me a lot....remember this? What about this? And this?). The time killing introduction was probably only put on the cd by accident, because it was automatically set to record at 10:00 or something. It had nothing to do with the speech, yet it was on the cd, and ND Friend thought to give me the cd, and I thought to put it in on my drive. Okay, God, I get that you must have really wanted me to hear this!

"Jesus is on Friday too."

Obviously I know that Jesus is 24/7/365. But KNOWING and ACTING are two different things. It's one thing to sit in church on Sunday and quite another to really focus on living our lives every minute of every day in light of this fact.

Think about it.....when the moron driver in front of you slams on his breaks and you start your morning two inches from a car crash.....or when someone makes a comment that you think is really stupid......or when you get in the slowest line at the grocery store (I mean EVERY time?!?)....or when someone in your life does something that really annoys you.....Jesus is then too.

Our attitude during these times should be no different than our additudes while we are sitting in the pew on Sunday. But it is, at least for me, so much easier said than done. My first reaction in these situations is usually NOT the reaction that I would have on Sunday.

And you know what? I'm so not okay with that. So, I'm going to make a conscious effort to change. I'm not expecting that this will happen over night. In fact, I know that it won't. When I end up in one of these situations, I am going to try and remember that Jesus is on Friday too. And, hopefully, every other day of the week will follow. Baby steps. :)

A Little Reward

“Life is the greatest bargain - we get it for nothing.” ~Yiddish Proverb

So this weekend I spent a lot of time working on an article I'm writing for a legal journal about right to farm laws. After a little more research, hunting all over my house to realize that one of my folders of info was at the office, taking a trip to the office to get said folder, and a lot of typing.....I finished up my second draft of the article. Mind you, this has been two months in the making!

The bright side? I worked from my balcony because the weather was BEAUTIFUL! I mean, if I could press "pause" on weather, I would hav picked Saturday! Warm weather, just a light breeze and blue skies.

Now, at the risk of sounding crazy, I'm going to tell you about the little bargains I make with myself. Actually, I guess it's with the voices in my head, which is where my concern that you might think I'm crazy comes in.

Anyway, I am constantly making myself deals. For example, "If you just read this stack of cases, you can turn on Pandora." Or "If you run an extra mile, you can have a smoothie." (Yes, I realize that sort of seems counter-productive). Or "If you get the laundry folded, you can watch tv." So.....this weekend was no different and I made a little bargain related to my article. "If you finish your article, you can go shopping for stuff to decorate your balcony." Challenge accepted!

Well, I finished my article and set out to Pier One and Target to change that. I ended up with a much brighter, more cheerful balcony......and a new side table to add to my furnature collection. :)

Super happy with my new balcony......but my checkbook is telling me I need to stop any bargains that include shopping for a while!

Meet the Cast Monday #11: The Bride

Well you read a lot about The Bride on my blog. She and I have been friends since high school, so needless to say, there are a lot of stories and experiences that we share! The Bride is one of the most talented people I know---she works extremely hard at everything that she does and is great at it! She works for a university in the midwest doing some sort of event planning/coordinating (I clearly should pay more attention to job titles....). Luckily for me, she is into photography and took care of getting all of the pictures for this blog (with the exception of the high school one I added....she didn't really thinks he'd get away without one!) and made my job easy.

So here we go....Meet The Bride!

I call you The Bride because your wedding was amazing. Tell us your favorite part of the day?
This is such a hard question to answer because I'm sure as every bride would say, there were so many! Ironically, my favorite part of the day was when it started raining. {and later hailing} {She's not kidding...it literally hailed. We all ran for cover. But the wedding went on!} It was in that moment that I realized that no matter what happened that day, I was marrying Jon and we were celebrating with a few hundred of the most special people in our lives. And that was what mattered. He chose me to share his life with, and rain or shine, we had to continue to choose each other from that day on! But... second to that moment included the time with my bridesmaids that morning, taking photos before the wedding, the photobooth we had at the reception, and all the dancing we did!

I have also deemed you my marriage consultant. What are a few lessons you have learned over the last year and a half of your marriage?
Oh so many! Not only have Jon and I been married a year, but we've been together overall for 5 years and of that, living together for 4 of them. So we've definitely figured out a lot! The biggest thing I've learned is that you still have to be your own person. I'm a true believer that if you are not happy as an individual, you can't be happy in a partnership, and in turn, can't give 100% to your marriage. So we make sure to have our own time to grow our interests, hobbies, and friendships. Without making this a novel, I also believe in having your own bank account for play money, traveling a lot with your spouse, having real date nights often, and realizing that marriage takes a lot of conscious decisions and actions to make the other person happy. I don't believe in soul mates, I believe you choose each other every day over and over. {I seriously think she should teach a class on this!}

How did you decide to get into photography?
When Jon and I got together, I wanted a really fun way to document our lives and started doing a photo book for each year of our relationship. Because of that I found myself taking photos of everything and realizing that I really really enjoyed it. Being the researcher I am, I read a lot about the subject and learned about the different ways to approach this hobby and finally ended up really dedicating myself this past summer by making it a priority to learn. Like anything we learn in life, some days it's a little frustrating, but I can honestly say I have not regretted jumping into this hobby and really dedicating myself to it! I'm definitely still learning, but it's been fun!

We grew up in the same small town--what was your favorite part of growing up there?
I loved that the entire town felt like your family. {Great answer!} It always seemed that at every sporting or school event, the entire town showed up to support the school and the students. It's an amazing feeling to have that much support behind you through some of the toughest years of life!

Tell us about the worst date you've ever been on.
Oh dear, where to start! My absolute worst date ever was when I invited a boy to spend an evening with my family while they were visiting. It was his first time meeting them {which was not a big deal to me at the time} and he complained about everything. Where we ate, what we were doing, the card game we played. I've had some pretty bad dates before, but since this one involved my family, it made it even worse, especially coming from a family that does not believe in complaining, especially when you are a guest for the evening! Needless to say I was ready for that night to end.

You love to travel--best place you have ever been?
I really loved the trip Jon and I took to Hawaii. It was the first big trip we'd taken that I literally planned every day myself. I did a ton of reading on Hawaii and it's history and found where the best places to see and eat were on the island. Then when we got there, we just treated it like a big adventure and headed out every morning with our list and tried to get as many in as possible! The island was beautiful and we had some amazing food, did some amazing snorkeling, and got to see some pretty amazing things like the volcano that was active from a helicopter and a handful of amazing waterfalls. And it doesn't hurt that this was the trip that Jon proposed to me!

You are also a great cook (my questions make you seem VERY well rounded!)...what is your favorite recipe?
Well, I do love being well-rounded! Again, such a hard question because I do consider myself a lover of food. But if I had to choose my favorite recipe of anything I make it would have to be my green chile posole. Living in the Midwest, we really miss the Mexican food so anytime I make this, it brings us right back to feeling at home!

What is one thing you have learned about life that you didn't know when you were 18?
I've learned that in the big scheme of life, some things just really don't matter. By that, I mean that some relationships {friend and boyfriends} are worth the effort, and some aren't, and that I had to stop hoping that my relationships would suddenly change and that individual would make me a priority. I had to make me a priority and give to relationships that were meaningful and where there was equal give and take. As my mom says, "Spend time with the relationships that are real, and stop wasting your time on those that you are just trying to make real". {Amen to this!}

What is one (or more) thing(s) on your bucket list?
I just recently started thinking about my bucket list since focusing on Tiffany's for her Christmas gift. I started jotting a few things down and I have a few things on my 101 in 1001 list too. A few of the things that made my bucket list are to visit Brazil, adopt a pet from an animal shelter, take dance lessons, construct a piece of furniture, plant a herb garden, be content with making mistakes, renew my wedding vows on a beach, throw someone a surprise party, create a home with a loving atmposphere, visit the Grand Canyon, and learn to use the sewing machine collecting dust in my basement! {See? She's super talented in lots of areas!}

Photos of the Week: Week 11

You will probably not be too shocked to see a few pictures from home contained in this week's set. Remember the photos from Friday's blog?

Theme: Texture

I got this shot of our log fence with the windmill in the background. I love the texture of the wood! Check out the other entries at the Live Every Moment Challenge!

Theme: Friends (and Pets)I loved this shot of Little Brother and his dog, Ace, when we were working sheep. I am also linking this up for the "Pets" theme at Allie Photography.

Theme: Green Green Grass

Well last weekend the grass wasn't green yet, but fortunately the wheat was. So this should probably be called "Green Green Wheat."

Theme: Spring

Two of my challenges had a "Spring" theme this week. For the first photo, I caught this little picutre of a new tulip plant just starting to poke out of the ground. It was first thing in the morning and the light was too bright....I didn't realize it or I would have re-shot in the afternoon!

And for the second, I snapped this shot of one of the trees blooming around my house. I got a lot of great pictures of the trees, so you'll be seeing more of these soon!

Theme: Genesis 1:1

This week's verse of the week was the very first verse in the Bible. Simple, yet profound. While I was home I got this shot of freshly plowed "earth" and thought it was perfect for this verse. As always, go over and check out the other readers' takes on this verse!

Project 64: Week 11 - Scarlet

Okay, it happened again. Remember when the color assignment was Robin's Egg Blue? And I had taken a photo of that color the day before it was announced? Yep.....I'm apparently psychic!

You might remember my photo from last week of my Gran's bottle collection. Well, there are 4 different shelves to the collection. I had snapped a shot of a different shelf, and planned to just save it until it was the color of the week.

The time is here! This week's color is scarlet.

And here is my take:

I love the sunlight shining through the window, and the way that the holly bush outside adds some fun texture behind the window.

As always, go over to Project 64 to check out all of the other Scarlet entries!

Family Farm Friday #45: Baby Fever

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" ~Robin Williams

No, it's not me with the baby fever. Don't be crazy, now! Spring means baby time on the farm. I took about a million pictures and figured that I would share a few of the baby photos with you.

I'd love your comments on which (both animal species and specific photograph) are your favorites. I'm going to try and share a few production agriculture tidbits with you as well. If you have any questions about raising the animals, or agriculture in general, please feel free to ask away!

Welcome to spring time on the farm!

First off, we have the baby calves. We have about 80 cows, so there are lots of calves running around. For those of you who remember the classic post, Bull Semen and Bonding, none of the cows who were artifically inceminated have calved yet. They should start any day though. We're watching very closely!
The calves below are out of our own bulls. Here are two of them....Mark and Baracho.

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite baby calf shots.

Next, we have baby lambs. We have about 300 ewes, and we have about a 50% twin rate--if you do the math, that is a LOT of baby lambs! Occasionally we will have triplets---I'd guess maybe 4 or 5 sets a year. When the lambs are first born, we put the ewe and her lambs into a small cell so that we can keep a close watch on them to be sure the lambs are doing okay. Gradually they are moved into a bigger pen with several other ewes, and then outside with the rest of the herd.

Although we do not raise pigs, our neighbor has a few sows, so I snuck up to his house to get a few piglet shots. On average, a sow will have about 8-10 pigs per litter. The different colors of piglets indicate different breeds. The ones with black and white spots are called, creatively, Spots. The ones you see that are black with white belts are called Hampshires.


And, last but not least, is a photo that I didn't take and it involves a different kind of baby, Little Princess. Her mama caught this shot at a steer show last week. Seriously, could this little girl be any cuter??