12 Days of Christmas - 2023

I did this last year and had a lot of fun with it. For the next 12 days, let's take a walk down memory lane!

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

It's our Christmas card picture from this year, taken by our friend Andrew! Somehow he knew that standing in the ditch right off our lawn was going to be a great view of the leaves.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Thank you for reading about our farm all year long!

On Christmas Eve...we love a photo recreation, and what's better than a photo recreation of a Christmas card photo? The calf had no interest. We had so much fun doing this one!

These boys have been putting tires on the pile since they could drag one. 

Thanks to the many people who have helped over the years - not only our wonderful team (they are so fast and strong!), but our family, tons of friends (even from out of state), our pastor, our kids' friends...you have all made this giant job go quickly! 

The pizza tastes even better when you're looking at all the hard work of the year - the planting, growing, irrigating, worrying, harvesting - in a nice, tidy pile, all covered up and secure, ready for your cattle to eat the rest of the year. There's no other feeling like it! 

And...it's three kids and three calves! Helping with calf chores was one of the boys' first jobs, and probably the cutest one we have.

Kris and I both grew up watching our parents (and grandparents) work, and we're trying to instill the same work ethic in our kids. Living on a farm makes it easier, since there's always some work to do! 

On the fourth day of Christmas...

Below - my dad and little me sitting on the porch swing on our front porch in our first house on the farm. Based on what he's wearing, you can tell dad is just taking a break from working to say hello. (Terrible colors back then, right?)

Top - my dad and little Ty and Cole, on the same swing! It's still on our porch today! You can tell they are fascinated by the candy they are about to eat...and their grandpa.

Kris and I both grew up living next to our grandparents, and we wanted the same for our kids. My dad told us he would work with Kris for a year on the farm when we came back, and then he wanted to do his own thing. And he did! Got his private pilot's license, flew all over, followed his own interests...while always still helping, giving advice, working anytime he was asked, and best of all...helping raise our kids. And still is today! 

On the fifth day of Christmas...

Field rocks can be used for so much! My mom has hauled so, so many rocks out of rock piles over the years. Not only has she built a rock wall at her house (now mine), she built one at her new house, too! This picture is after she revived mine, since it's been there so long it was sinking into the ground. 

My ancestors moved here when the land was first being settled and cleared trees and rocks to make fields. It seems like such hard, manual labor. 

The rocks still emerge from the ground any time we work the soil. We rock pick fields - one of my favorite jobs, because it's so easy to see the results - every year. We have rock piles next to the fields everywhere, and we even have one next to our yard, waiting for our next project.

We're thankful for my mom making our yards and farm beautiful. Have I mentioned she also mows all the lawns?! 

Sharing about the farm on my blog and social media made me a photographer, because I wanted to show what I saw. 

There were wonderful shots like this one - in 2019, we had to clean debris off the irrigation screen when the water was low. Now we cover it with a moving screen so this isn't needed anymore. But for a time, this was a job that needed doing that no one really liked. On this day, it appeared that Cole was perfect for the job. 

#12DaysofChristmas

In 2012, Faces of Agriculture did a little article on us, and that's how this picture came about. Did they take it? Did I have someone take it? How did it come about that I was wearing a dress, holding little Max in our pasture? I don't remember that part, but I do love this picture!

In that article I said, "My favorite part about having a farm is the lifestyle. Not only is this our business, but it’s a way of life. Since there’s no real separation between work and home, the five of us are often together. Of course, it’s hard work, there’s not a lot of time off, and it’s stressful. But so is owning any business. At least with this one, we’re producing something we’re proud of, and we have a great view while we’re at it."

On the 8th day of Christmas...we spend a lot of time not only feeding, milking, and caring for the cattle...but looking at them on the pasture. It's one of my favorite sights. My house has pasture in front and behind, so I see it a lot! 

I love seeing them excited and jumping around, when they come to greet me, when they run alongside me, when you get in there and they grab your clothes with their mouths, eating and calm, lying down and sleeping. I love living alongside them. 

On the 9th day of Christmas...this is our calf cart, which Kris made so we can take milk from our dairy barn to feed our calves.

When Kris worked for Caterpillar, he was gone a lot. He wanted to farm in part because he wanted to be around his kids (who weren't born yet.) This picture is a good representation of their younger childhood - we always visited Kris for some entertainment! You can tell how used they are to calves that they are mostly interested in this cup!

On the 10th day of Christmas...

This is in May 09, as our two-year-olds were walking out to the field. Kris and the tractor are in the background. This may have been the last time they wore jeans.

Taking Kris lunch, riding with him in the chopper, the kids falling asleep in the tractor, taking turns - all good memories. I'm sure many of you have similar ones!

On the 11th day of Christmas...

I present the farmiest picture that also shows the strength of genetics.

Four years ago, my dad headed up building a place to feed our cattle. Here we're discussing it as he, Cole, and I stand in the same position. Bare feet, barn cats, and silos also make the scene. Photo credit goes to my mom, who was also working on the feed pad while recording gems like this one.

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

We moved from Connecticut to Michigan in February 2007, and we had our twins in June. I rarely dressed them alike, but I apparently couldn't resist these Santa outfits in Christmas 2008. 

Also - photo quality has come such a long way in such a short time!

New construction!

New construction!

We're building a management rail (also called a palpation rail) where we can take care of cows. We're also putting in a dedicated area to trim their hooves, which we do on a regular schedule.

It will all be controlled with an electronic sort gate which is run off the RFID tags in our cattle's ears. This way, it's easier for them to know where to go, since the gates will open automatically to guide them to the correct area. This is less disruptive for them.

This includes an office where the computer running the sort gate will be housed in half, and the other half will store pallets of minerals and supplemental feed. 

We're excited!

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Check out this old blog on hoof trimming ... Josh Salisbury, once our longtime employee, is our trimmer now, (Sheldon moved away), but it's the same idea! Click here: Hoof trimming.

Alfalfa - the process!

A beautiful field of aflalfa

My mom Cherie Anderson wrote this on her Facebook page, and since she described it so well, I'm going to use it here! She also took all the pictures. Even though I grew up here, I didn't really pay attention until we started farming here ourselves. Growing and harvesting alfalfa to feed our cattle is a summer-long process with rewarding results! 

~

It’s haying time in Michigan. Everyone knows what hay is, but maybe not everyone knows the process. This is a field of alfalfa. Alfalfa is planted in late summer or early fall to use the following spring. It’s a high protein food for cattle. It’s a legume and has deep roots. A field will be good for three to five years, or even longer, depending on the weather and soil. 

When the alfalfa is at the right maturity and there’s no rain imminent, the farmer mows it and the machine lays it in rows. Then a rake or merger will put those rows together into larger swaths, or windrows. Then a chopper will scoop up those rows, cutting the alfalfa into smaller pieces and shooting it into a wagon or truck which is driving alongside. It’s trucked to a cement pad, dumped out, and another tractor pushes it into a pile and drives over it, compacting the pile. When it’s all done, the pile is covered with plastic. The alfalfa ferments, does not rot or spoil, and makes nutritious, delicious feed for cows for later on. It’s called haylage. 

You can also bale alfalfa into round or square bales. In that case, it has to be much drier than chopped alfalfa. You can’t bale wet hay. It can actually spontaneously combust, as crazy as that sounds. 

Alfalfa is mixed with corn sileage and other feeds and fed to cattle. Hay for horses is generally not purely alfalfa - it is either grass hay or a mixture of alfalfa and grass. Alfalfa is harder for horses to digest. They only have one stomach, unlike a cow which has four. 

The last picture shows the field when all the chopping is done. The cool thing is that the alfalfa will grow back and the farmer can get three, sometimes four, cuttings every summer!  Of course, at that point you WANT rain, unlike when you’ve got hay on the ground. 

Oh, and it smells wonderful when it’s freshly cut!

Alfalfa close up

Cut

Merged

Chopper chopping it

Dumping onto feed pile

Tractor driving on continually to form file and compress it 

The alfalfa field afterward

Ready to grow...in just 28ish days we do it again!

A history of work

Kris at work

                                           

When I was in first grade, my mom told me she had gotten a part-time job. I was sad, thinking that she wouldn't be home when I was home. She explained to me that since it was part-time, she was going to be there when I was. It's not like she wasn't working already - she was the township treasurer, and she also helped on the farm. She worked the rest of my home life and until retirement age, in three different, enjoyable and good bookkeeper jobs, never more than seven miles from home. It worked out great. My dad was farming all this time, and he always credits my mom for helping support our family. 

My dad also really admires my grandma Caroline Anderson for getting her education degree after she had her five kids, then teaching and helping support their family while my grandpa farmed. She had already graduated from MSU with a degree in home economics - that's where she and my grandma met - but she returned to be able to teach. 

Kris' mom also always worked while her husband Mike was farming, whether she was making stained glass art or owning a quilt shop or accounting for the golf course. Kris' grandma had off-farm jobs too, including being a secretary, a typist, and driving a school bus from 1965 to 1989. 

I have always also had an off-farm job. Of course I help out here whenever I'm needed, but I've always worked contract or full-time since college. Kris and the team are doing the work on the farm. Sometimes people ask me if I keep the books, because a lot of families divide up work that way, but that is probably the last job I would do. Kris does those too.

When people ask me what I do, I say "I'm a writer, and my husband and I own a dairy farm," and depending on whatever part of the answer interests them, they'll ask about that. I feel very fortunate that I've had a career as a writer since 2001, starting with my first job out of grad school. I've written and worked for industries from agriculture to health care to software to GPS tracking for fleet vehicles. 

I'm also strong on the dairy farmer side, having grown up on one and now an owner of one. I love talking about it, living here, and being a part of it all. I live and breathe it. Literally!

Yesterday I was in an online meeting, and I introduced myself to some people in there from around the country. I included that I live on a dairy farm. After I gave my work update, my coworker running the meeting said, "Raise your hand if you like milk or cheese!" The nine people onscreen laughed and raised their hands. 

So, here's to farming, here's to off-farm workers, and here's to heading into the weekend, where in some jobs it matters and some it doesn't. We're very thankful to be farming, and I'm also glad I have a phone in my hand and a computer on my desk to share it with you.

Me at work

Detroit Mom and Domino's Pizza tour!

Last fall blogger Elizabeth Lewis of Detroit Mom came on a visit arranged by UDIM! 

It was a fun, two-part visit - one, go to Domino's and make our own pizzas with owner Eric Arntson and his family. We focused heavily on cheese and how it got there in the first place, since most farming boils down to food. 

Two, the bloggers, their friends, their families, and the Arntsons came to tour our farm! So we all took the entire journey from the beginning - calves, feed, raising healthy heifers, cows, milking routine - to the end, cheese on your delicious pizza. 

THINGS FROM THE TOUR

1. Eric loves showing people how to make pizza, and he and his daughter Abby were really good at it. It was so fun to go behind the counter and do it ourselves. Our kids - all of them there - really loved it, too. Kris made his own cheese bread, which he orders all the time from Domino's.

2. We are Domino's lovers already. They are the only pizza place that will deliver to our farm, and we buy a lot of it for our family and for our team. A LOT. I mean, we have the app and are frequent buyers and we all know our order by heart. Eric and his family also live in St Johns, and we're happy they're part of our community! 

3. We talked about nutrition and safety and all of the important things people should know about milk and cheese, but we also talked about the wonderful taste.

4. My boys each had their own pizza to themselves, and THAT does not happen. 

5. Domino's has a great relationship with dairy farmers! Order extra cheese!

Then on the farm ...

1. During my tour, I told them there's no party without dairy. Pizza party! Ice cream party! We're there. It's hard to party without us.

2. Elizabeth's son Nolan really jumped in and did all the things that my farm boys did. Get in the pen with the calves? Climb up the side of the barn? Run in the pasture among them? Yep. He was all in, and we loved it.

3. Christina of Socially Chrissy was there with her daughter Eden, and she really made me laugh. She also has a fierce love of dairy, and it's so great hearing that!

4. Elizabeth loves cows in a serious way, and will travel any distance to see them. It's always heartwarming to have people on the farm who feel that way about animals.

5. Katie Jones of Lansing Mom came with her kids, and she was my kids' friends' parent's student teacher! You find me a person, I'll find a connection!  

Honestly, showing people around our farm, going through the end product of the milk, talking about the ins and outs and benefits and consumer fears - it's all so wonderful, productive, and fun. You're all welcome! I'll bring the ice cream, and Eric's bringing the pizza - it's a party!

Domino's Tour with Detroit Mom

Wardin Family Farm Tour with Detroit Mom

I assure you, they ate these like someone might try to take them away.

Kris is loyal to these jalepeno cheesy breadsticks.

Welcome to our farm! And windblown hair! I need a hat.

Katie, her son, and a giant cow

Detroit Mom, Lansing Mom, St Johns mom lowercase : ) 

The whole farmy gang

Christina feeding a calf a bottle

Nolan COMPLETELY at home

Maryn, Eden, and Nolan climbing the wall in the background

Is there anything cuter? No.

We love milk and our friend Jolene!

And the gang's all here

This is just a little snapshot of a few of the million things that went on this month ...

We finished our third cutting, and this time we used trucks and a bagger.

                     

It's fun to watch.  The chopper blows the tiny pieces of chopped up alfalfa into these trucks we rented.  The trucks drive to the baggers, and they tip into the bagger as it moves forward.  Ahhh...nice, full, big bags of feed for the winter!

               

We had preemies. Not twins, but two tiny girls at the same time.  They were half the size of a normal calf - and so small they looked like goats!  They were healthy, though!  Our team member took them to her grandparents' house to raise them.  Before they left, she put little pink collars on them, which was a definite first for calves around here!  So cute.

                                     

One evening my neighbor Ashley called me and said, "I can see three of your cows in your corn."  Oh no!  I raced out of the house.  My neighbors and I easily got them back in.  Kris rode up on the quad and I said, "We got the cows back in."  Kris said, "Those aren't cows.  Those are heifers."  This meant that they didn't come right from where I could see them ... they had come from across the corn field!

We weren't dealing with three cows ... we were dealing with 50 heifers.  My parents, my neighbors, my kids, the three guys milking, Kris and I started searching in the 12-foot high corn for lost heifers.  We walked through, calling them, and they were so happy to find us and followed us out.  Meanwhile, we were trying to fix the fence, but we couldn't repair it until all of them were out.  It took about three hours for us to find all the heifers, and Kris was able to fix the fence before dark.  Whew!

                       

We had a lot of visitors, including my family.  One night all of her nine grandchildren helped her with calf chores!

                                                 

It's here!  I'm so happy with Sawyer in the Sky, my second book in the Sawyer in the Woods series.  So excited.  My boys loved it, and I hope your kids love it too! Available on Amazon.

                             

Something else new ... I'm going to be hosting the Michigan GROWN, Michigan GREAT podcast!  I start recording in August, and I'll be sure to post the link to the podcast here.  I'll be interviewing farmers and agriculturalists from around the state about what's happening on their farms!  I'm really looking forward to it, and I hope you enjoy listening.

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