Hoard's Dairyman Intel

Once again, I'm going to talk about how excited I am to be writing for Hoard's Dairyman Intel! It is SO interesting to me, so fun to write about, and so very relevant to my everyday life and business. The only subject more relevant would be about living with teenage and pre-teen boys.

You can subscribe here: https://hoards.com/articles.sec-27-1-hoards-dairyman-intel.html - On my computer there is a little blue button on the right that says Subscribe/Opt in. On my phone I have to scroll to the bottom of the page to see that button.

Some of my family members said they didn't get it, and others said it went in their junk mail. Let me know if it doesn't work for you.  Did I mention it's free?

Here are some of the latest articles if you're into dairy.  If you're not, then here's a seasonal picture of my boys on a different farm - Uncle John's Cider Mill! 

Latest articles:

Farm fatalities

Going vegan

Meals at home support dairy retail

Work on methane 

The West may not miss a beat

Happy reading!

MSU Broad Art Museum - Acts of Care

I'm no artist, but the MSU Broad Art Museum has an exhibit called Acts of Care, and they invited people to submit a statement of gratitude to people you appreciate especially during the pandemic. They used my submission, and yesterday Julie and I went to see it! 

(Kris and the boys didn't know anything about it until yesterday, because who doesn't love a surprise? Or...because they would have said not to submit it. : )

Thanks to all the people who work every day to keep us going. 

Hoard's Dairyman Intel!

I am so, so excited to be a part of the Hoard's Dairyman Intel team!

I've been writing articles for Hoard's Dairyman magazine since the beginning of the year, but this national dairy magazine was founded way back in 1885.

Last week they contacted me to see if I was interested in writing for their online newsletter, too. Of course! 

The newsletter is published on Tuesday and Thursdays each week, and I'll have articles in both.

If you'd like to sign up for more dairy news, you can here:

https://hoards.com/articles.sec-27-1-hoards-dairyman-intel.html

Raise the roof. Or, fix it.

Remember when our roof was torn off in that wind storm? We're having it repaired by Wirth & Fedewa today!

Agent Tom French of Michigan Farm Bureau Insurance was here within hours of the storm, and Wirth & Fedewa put a temporary fix on it before coming to do the replacement.

We're so fortunate to have so many people that help us farm. I'm documenting them all on my TruthOrDairy Facebook page, if you'd like to go there.

***

We're heading into corn chopping, the cows are withstanding the heat, we're having tons of calves, and everything has been going on like a normal summer.  The biggest difference this year is that our sons work mostly every day! It's great. They are so helpful. 

They're starting school up in September (HOPEFULLY, MY GOODNESS) and it will be much easier for them than being in the work force!

Tour our farm ... on video!

Tour our farm!

My friend Ashley Foster put on a Cub Scout virtual day camp with a farming theme. She asked me to do a virtual tour, recorded it, edited it, and showed it to her scouts. And ... here it is now for everyone!

Check out - cute calves, a cow being milked, our feed piles, the free stall barn, and even the manure lagoon. This is essentially the same tour I give everyone who visits, and I'm so glad Ashley asked me to do it. Thanks to her, and enjoy!

See the farm tour!

Summer of COVID

Everything seems so normal here ...

We're milking and feeding and harvesting as always
The boys are playing baseball
I just finished teaching 91 students in swimming lessons
My brother, sister, cousins, aunt, uncle just visited from various states

However ...

There's an executive order to wear masks
There's a question about in-person school in the fall
The news is filled with horrible headlines

It all, really, just seems so far away.  Our lives, as much as we can control them, are the same.

The cows don't care - they're still getting milked.  The boys are still doing calf chores.  Our wonderful team - plus all the vets, nutritionists, hoof trimmer, custom harvest guys - are all working just like normal.  There's never been a time they didn't.

That's what we do ... not only do we do it because it's our job, we do it because we all need to eat. 

Looking around at the farm, you would never know anything was different.  Let's hope we all get back to that soon.

Sunroof?

We went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone - a trip I've been planning for the five of us for a very long time - and we stayed with my cousin Carrie and her family, and my cousin Cindy and her family!

Carrie and Cindy are two of the nine children of my Uncle Dave (my dad's brother) and my Aunt Robin - also in the picture.  

Uncle Dave grew up on the farm just like my dad, and since he was the oldest, he started working with my grandpa at an early age.  He was in the first graduating class at the Air Force Academy, followed then by my brother, Gage!

When we took this picture of Cindy, Barney and family, Cindy said, "Is this going to show up on Truth or Dairy?" Ha!  

To offset the beauty, I included a picture of the barn roof.  There was a wind storm while we were flying, and we landed to this news - the barn roof peeled off, there were eight utility poles ripped out and lying in the road, and there wasn't any power.  It's a great way to kick off a vacation!  There were two other kind-of-emergencies while we were gone, and I don't know when I'm going to be able to shoehorn Kris away again ... but it was totally worth it to see these gorgeous places.  

Ours is pretty gorgeous too.  Between fireflies, cattle on the pasture, berries, flowers ... I love coming back home as much as I love going away.