Engaged? Enjoy it.

(This was supposed to post on 12/22 and blogger didn't post it....so will post it now!


We got engaged a year ago last week! It seems like it just happened, yet so much has gone on in the last year!! I'm taking the week off from Western Wedding Wednesday, but have a quick post to share.

A dear friend of my mom's also lost her daughter to a car accident a year ago - the day before Jay proposed to me. Watching what that family has been through in the last year has reminded me to make every moment with my loved ones count - from going to visit, to picking up the phone to call Grandma once a week. You never know how short life is or how long you will have together. I always remind myself that everyone is fighting some kind of battle, so a warm smile or just a message to let them know your thinking of them can make someones day.



For those of you who are newly engaged - remember and revel in this moment. Be excited about being engaged, be excited that you have each other for the rest of your lives - because the rest of your life can end anytime. So take a deep breath and slow down. Slow down before you jump into wedding planning. Spend the holidays with your loved ones and make them one to remember. Wedding planning can wait till after the holidays.



Planning a wedding is stressful. Remember how excited you are to marry that man, remember the flutters in your stomach when you look down at that big sparkly ring, and remember to call your grandma after he proposes! When your stressed about planning, look at the big picture - it might not be worth that fight with your mom over something small, or forcing your fiance to do something he doesn't want to. At the end of the day, your getting married to the man you want to spend the rest of your life with - in front of God and your friends and family. And that is what matters the most.

Merry Christmas and God Bless!


Jay and Sarah Myers

The Writing on the Wall

 As the Ag United Intern, I get exposed to lots of opportunities to educate people about agriculture at different events. At last month’s Moms Day on the Farm events, 60 Sioux Falls area moms toured  beef, hog and dairy farms to learn more about where their food comes from. While all the farmers, industry representatives and speakers did a fantastic job of talking to the moms, one thing said at lunch the last tour really stuck in my mind as something to blog about. We were eating at the Tri-Valley School, and Dr. Stacy Scramlin, meat scientist from SDSU, looked up at the wall in the lunch area where the words PRIDE, PURPOSE and PASSION were painted underneath the school’s mascot. She said to the crowd “If you only take one thing away from today, look up at those three words and remember that farmers take pride in what they do, they have the purpose of feeding the world, and as you have seen today, are passionate about their animals and way of life. "



Brian Alderson

 We all know the farmer’s Purpose – feed the world. And with the world growing at 222,239 people PER DAY, farmers strive to produce more food with less land. On average, one farmer produces enough food to feed 155 people!

Karen Hofer shows moms a piglet

 

America’s farmers certainly have something to have Pride in. Producing the world’s cheapest, safest, most abundant food supply is a pretty big deal. Farmers love sitting down and talking to each other about their crops and cattle – and when one compliments another, their face lights up.

Laura Nielson

The final word on the wall is Passion. To every mom on the tours, it was pretty obvious that every farmer visited had passion about their operation. Brian Alderson held their attention for twenty minutes when talking about his hoop barns. Ferlyn Hofer and his family talked about their pigs and sheep, and even brought out some brand new baby piglets to meet the moms. Doug VanDuyn spoke to the women about his feedlot and beef industry – and all the women commented later that he really really loved his cows. After visiting the Nielson Dairy, moms commented that they could really see the passion in Laura’s eyes when she talked about her cows.

Doug VanDuyn

Telling the story of farming is so important, and through Moms Day on the Farm Events, moms saw the Purpose Pride and Passion in the farms they visited, and realized that every farm in America has those same qualities. Moms on the tours commented that “I have a face to put with where my food comes from, and I really like that”. As for me, I learned more about how to talk to consumers from all of our awesome farmers and presenters - and found three more words to talk about when people ask me about farming.

Storm Season

Its storm season out there, and I want to take a mintue to remind everyone to be smart and to be SAFE, because scary storms can happen anywhere, as my family learned a year ago.

It was a warm July day, and there were tornado warnings and sigthings in our area. I was working at the DQ in town, and we had almost 40 people packed into our food coolers because the tornado sirens were going off.  We were sent home when the sirens quit, and Mom called as I was driving. "The hoop barns are gone." Gone?  

South Barn

We had just finished this barn about 4 months before the storm. There were 600 lambs housed in our two hoop barns. Fortunately, we only lost one lamb!  You can see overturned feeders in this picture - They had been filled with corn just that morning. 

The north barn

Twisted beams!

We were so lucky to have not lost our house, or more animals! This experience made me very thankful for our neighbors. That night, we had several visit and offer to help clean up the wreckage, even though it was almost a month later when we finally started ripping things apart and attempting to salvage posts and hoop sections.

A year later, two new hoop barns stand in the same spots - It's almost as if the storm never happened. I keep a bolt that is bent to a L on my dresser to remind me to never underestimate mother nature - and now I really really don't like storms!!