Dry

It's dry, dry, dry.  It rained a little last week, but we only got .10 of an inch.  The corn is curling on the edges.  The grass is brown and crunchy under our bare feet.  It looks unbelievable that the alfalfa will recover from the latest cutting.  The creek is little more than a stream.  

We've been really lucky with rain for a lot of years.  I remember summers like this one - when the rain just misses you and you just have to deal with it.

It'll rain again someday ... it always does.  In the meantime, we're just hoping and frequently checking the 10-day forecast!

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On Thursday last week we began the day by giving a tour to my friend Graham Filler and the St Johns Kiwanis Club.  The club was in part founded by my great uncle Stuart Openlander, and it's always nice to talk to people who knew him.

Graham even took a turn in the parlor -

                                         

I ended the day by speaking at the Future Farmers of America State Leadership Conference!  My favorite part that was afterward, many of the students came up to talk to me about farming.  They were all so outgoing, well-spoken, and impressive.  They all shook my hand and looked me in the eye, and I couldn't help but notice they had callused palms.  I felt that our industry is literally in good hands!

                                                
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We're up to 135 heifers and we're starting to wean the first 20 that were born.  The weaned ones will soon move out to the pasture.  The days already seem a tad less hectic.  I mean, there were only three born today!

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Aside from the whole farm scene, I'm teaching swimming lessons this month like I have almost every summer since I was 18.  It is so incredibly satisfying to teach a person how to swim.  So that's another side of things ... the heat and lack of rain is terrible for the crops, but WOW, is it great for teaching kids to swim!

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FFA

At the American Farm Bureau meeting I learned something - FFA, which stands for Future Farmers of America, doesn't call itself that anymore. On their site they say it's because: "The official name of the organization was changed ... to "The National FFA Organization" to reflect the growing diversity of agriculture."

I understand changing a name to make something more inclusive. But it was suggested that they changed the name because of the negative connotations involved with the word 'farmer.'

Do you think there's a negative connotation? I think that when people think of the word farmer, they think of a rube. A guy wearing overalls, chewing on a piece of straw, barely scraping out a living. (I'm basing this mostly on comic strips.)

I, of course, never thought of my dad in that light. But even when Kris was going to tell his Caterpillar coworkers he was quitting to buy a farm, I suggested he tell them he was going to be a rancher. He wondered why, and I said because it sounded cooler. (He didn't take my suggestion.)

Now, four years into the operation, I love telling people we're dairy farmers. People get such a kick out of it.

For instance ... we were at a wedding. A college friend said, "Kris! Tell Teddy what you do!" He said, "I'm a dairy farmer." They acted delighted and asked tons of questions. We asked him his job and he said, "I'm an investment banker in New York City. I'm incredibly boring." (Not true, but funny.)

We were at the hospital, getting ready to have a baby. An attending physician asked what we did, and as always, there was a flurry of follow-up questions. And again, comparisons to pregnant cows.

A friend of ours likes introducing us as dairy farmers at parties. It always makes for good conversation. Lots of questions, and we always invite people over. And they often come!

So, if people use the word farmer, producer, or ... cow raisers, we're all doing the same thing. It doesn't matter what you call it, or what you're wearing while you do it.

Though Kris really does like his new coveralls.