Thanks to our team members

 On my farm Facebook page I was going through a series of recognizing people who help us farm.  

There's no one more important than the people who are here every day - our team members. Some have been here longer than we've been here, some just a few years, one babysat me, I taught one to swim, and we're all neighbors! Thank you for farming with us. We appreciate you more than we could ever express.

Farmers and food pantries working together!

 

The United Dairy Industry of Michigan, which is funded by dairy farmers, gave away grants for coolers for food pantries. I asked for suggestions, contacted all the pantries I knew about, and the Roscommon Food Pantry wanted one! (Thank you to Elaine Palm for the suggestion.) Lynda Hogaboom is their delightful director who helped make it happen. Thanks to all involved parties for helping those in need! 

Ten year anniversary of Truth or Dairy

Oh my goodness...ten years ago I said to Kris, "I think I'm going to start a blog." He was supportive of me doing what I wanted, as long as he wasn't the subject. Blogs had been super popular for awhile, I read lots of them, but since I had a two-month-old baby, two three-year-old twins, and just one freelance writing job, I felt like I had some extra time on my hands.

Honestly, I just really wanted to share what was going on. We were three years into farming, and I wanted to share with my family and my community. It's turned into a large community! 

Ten years later, here I still am, and here we still are! I also post a lot on Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube, if you'd like to check those out.

In these ten years, we've built barns, increased our herd, poured a lot of cement for feed pads, built a lagoon, and also ... done a lot with agricultural organizations, boards, and other farmers. So much! Looking back, it's been a great decade. 

This year was terrible in so many ways, yet on the farm, everything plugged away like mostly-normal. We are so sad about all the awful things going on around us, so many people suffering, and so many businesses being forced to close by uneven policies. We really feel for our fellow business owners. I truly hope that people wake up in 2021. 

This morning I walked over to see the work on the barn project, and Kris was looking at it too. I wanted to take his picture, and he didn't want me to do it. Some things never change.

As always, thank you for reading.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TruthOrDairy

Instagram - @truthordairyfarm

More pictures

I'm splitting my personal and farm Instagram! If you like cow pictures, and I know you do, on Instagram I just started @truthordairyfarm.

New barn project!

We are so excited! 

Today we started a new project - we're adding a row of free stalls to the outside of the barn to make it 6 rows instead of 4. 

The advantage is to make more beds for cows without building a whole new barn. Our herd is bigger than when we built this barn 7 years ago, and they need more space!

It's rough living in Michigan right now, (ugh), so it's nice to have something to look forward to.

Eagle wings

We never used to have eagles when I was growing up, but now we see them every week. I was finishing a run by my house, and I stopped on the corner to see if a car was coming. There wasn't, but an eagle was! It was so quiet out, and it was flying so low, that when it flew right over my head, I could HEAR its wings flap. So cool to have them here on the farm!

I didn't have my phone on me, but here's a recent picture my mom (and neighbor) took of one.

December 2020

I started blogging in December of 2010. I started it because I liked sharing with people about what was going on here on our dairy farm.

Now TEN YEARS later, we've covered building up the farm, growing our herd, raising our kids, and doing dairy promotion.  

Today, something momentous happened ... I got left a present on our front porch. 

 The return address was McDonald's. I excitedly opened up the box and inside I found a bib, pop socket, and gift certificates for a free McRib!  

They asked if I would share my McRib experience on social media.

1. I have never eaten a McRib.

2. This marketing works and I'm totally going.

3. I thought all along I was talking about dairy, but maybe this time it's going to overflow into pig farming!