Running

Alice Murphy sent me this clip yesterday. I've seen it before, but not in a long time. This is my grandma Caroline Anderson, who had five children, then taught elementary school to put her children through college, all while dairy farming with my grandpa, Dale. 

I was lucky enough to have my grandma until I was 15 years old, and since she lived so close, she was part of my daily life. I can't say enough good things about her, since she came to everything we did, was funny and nice, did the hula dance at an event and taught me too, always was delighted to spend time with us, and made my childhood pretty magical. 

A salute to one of the people that made our farm what it is today!

Corn is done!

Breathe a sigh of relief...the corn silage is done! 

We hire Eric Miles and his team to do our chopping now. Eric very kindly sent me a video from the seat of the chopper, because I do miss riding with Kris (plus the boys) and watching it all happen! I don't miss owning a chopper and wagons. Eric and his team do an awesome job.

Our team also was great as always, and our supplementary team of our neighbors (not pictured) and friends (most but not all pictured) who helped us cover the piles!

This is such a big deal every year. All the eagerness to plant, all the hoping for rain, all the concern about it all summer long...then the payoff of a (hopefully) good harvest to feed our cattle!

It didn't rain much here, so our corn crop was not quite as good as some years, so we're buying some beet pulp we also will store on the cement pad.

End of summer

Don't you think it's interesting when a child follows in a parent's footsteps?

Obviously this happens a lot in agriculture. Although we are on my family's farm, Kris also comes from a long line of farmers. Here he is with his dad Mike, who delivered bales this week.

I like asking people who I think have great jobs if they would recommend it to their kids...and often the answer is no.

Do you want your kids to follow in your career footsteps?

(Zero of my kids seem inclined to be either farmers OR marketing writers. But there's time!)

~

Also - there's the beauty of the cows and pasture...and the beauty of technology and machinery! 

1. Manure haulers to fertilize our fields, this week after we chopped alfalfa. Thanks guys!

2. This keeps algae and residue from clogging up the irrigation pipe. We used to have to clean it out by hand once or twice a day. 

3. The irrigation system that keeps our pastures and crops hydrated during this pretty dry summer!

We're getting ready for harvesting corn. It's kind of short due to the lack of rain, but it still looks good. The kids are back in school, I'm working, and we're all readying (and honestly, ready) for cold weather!