101 in 1001

So last summer I started 101 in 1001 list - and have been working on it on and off ever since. The items in red are done - and for every item I don't accomplish I will donate $10 to Western Wishes. 

1.        Go on the Zipper with Rebecca at State Fair

2.       Get  back stage passes to an ERIC CHURCH concert

3.       Give blood 4x

4.       Seriously beef up my Spanish speaking skills

5.       Learn Portuguese

6.       Go to Brazil to visit Algardo

7.       Go on the Argentina trip

8.       Climb Harney Peak

9.       Run a 5k.

10.   Visit a Winery with mom

11.   Speak at a conference

12.   Go snowboarding

13.   Go skydiving

14.   Learn to swim for real – so I can …

15.   Go down the super cool slide at the Terrace park pool

16.   Make Grandpas stuff pork chops for my roomies

17.   Cook lamb for my friends.

18.   Get my MBA.

19.   Workout 4x a week.

20.   Go to a Eric Church concert with the girls

21.   Go to a NFL game!

22.   Drive in Minneapolis or Kansas City

23.   Apply for the AFA Leadership Team!

24.   Visit DC again.

25.   Go white water rafting

26.   Compete in the Cody Night Rodeo

27.   Go to Cheyenne for Frontier Days.

28.   Have a picture published in a magazine or book or something..

29.   Get paid to write something

30.   Make the Dean’s List again.

31.   Climb to the top of the Rock Wall in the Wellness Center.

32.   Give Shelby riding lessons

33.   Enter Sparky in a big barrel race or futurity.

34.   Volunteer for SD 4-H as a judge or project leader

35.    Buy a new vehicle.

36.   Shoot a pheasant.

37.   Highlight or perm my hair

38.   Write at least 1 agvocate blog a month

39.   Join a intramural team

40.   Buy a fancy camera

41.   Go camping just to go camping

42.   Go to National FFA for Ag Bio Ambassadors

43.   Cheer for Becca at National FFA!!

44.   Learn to play a real song on the piano

45.   Read Smart Women Finish Rich

46.   Read 1 book a month

47.   Go to Vegas for the NFR

48.   Go to the Pendleton Roundup

49.   Go to Calgary

50.   Go to a away Jacks game…or rodeo

51.   Go to more club meetings.

52.    Get my Ambo jacket in first semester

53.   Give my agvocate speech as a workshop to a class or club

54.   Stop judging people

55.   Go to Oasis once a month,

56.   Try Sushi

57.   Finish my scrapbooks!

58.   Make and donate 5 things to a fundraiser

59.   Make friends that aren’t aggies

60.   Write and receive a letter (5xtimes)

61.   Show  a bull at Little I 

62.   Read the Bible.

63.   Go sledding on Larsons Hill

64.   GO on a road trip

65.    Help Drysen DJ at a dance

66.   Give my parents the vacation they deserve by doing chores and taking care of the munchkins

67.   Call my grandpa, just to chat. (1x/month)

68.   Go to Denver Stock Show, just for fun!

69.   Visit the American Lamb Board HQ.

70.   Learn to golf.

71.   Read How to win Friends and Influence People

72.   Stop drinking pop

73.   Ride a motorcycle..all by myself.

74.   Volunteer at STARS in Brookings 1x/month

75.   Volunteer at the Brookings Humane Society 1x/month

76.   Learn to weld.

77.   Learn to play with the plasma cutter J Look out RANDY!!

78.   Thank someone for influencing my life (5x)

79.   Delete all the duplicates and songs I don’t like on my ipod

80.   Sell 10 belts/beaded things

81.   Spend a day at the horse races

82.   Bond with friends at the lawn mower races

83.   Buy a Brule CD

84.   Put videos of our farm on Youtube for the world to see

85.   Try out for a play 

86.   Keep my room clean.

87.   Have a job I love .

88.   Do all the chores at our farm in one day – with mixer wagon, mixer/grinder and bale processor.

89.   Teach a class

90.   Take the felting class at the art museum!!

91.   Build a coffee table to match my end tables.

92.   Turn a bowl and a box on the lathe!

93.   Finish my box of unfinished projects.

94.   Donate school supplies and books

95.   Ride in a Buck Clinic

96.   Invest money in something

97.   Finish 1 major and 2 minors in 4 years!

98.   Be a better big sister

99.   Own Buck the Movie

100.                        Train Harley to ride

My hero in agriculture

One super hot July day...2 people fell in love

My role model in agriculture and in life are the exact same person. My mom wasn't born on a farm - she was born into a family that was passionate about the showing and rodeo with their horses. The closest she ever came to having farm animals was having roping calves and tying goats. It wasn't until I was 8 that she met and married my step-dad, a dairy farmer that also had about 50 head of beef cattle. 

3 generations on the way to George Strait! 

Now we have 1100 head of ewes and about 150 cows. The dairy cattle have long since gone. In the last 12 years, mom has learned everything about the sheep industry, and spends long hours working in the lambing barns when she gets home from her 'real' job. She even wants to learn to drive tractor. My mom is my role model in agriculture because she was willing to learn, willing to change and willing to love the land and life her husband led. She now helps make management decisions, can run the lambing barns on her own, helps work cows and sheep while still getting dinner for 5 or more on the table. My mom is my best friend and my role model, and always will be. 

in her element...

Turkey Thoughts!

I was born and raised involved in agriculture. The picture that comes to my mind when the word farm is said is one of cows and crops, but recently I have been thinking about other types of farming there are in here in the US. My family was sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner last week, and my little sister said the prayer. The words that stick with me are “Bless this food, and the hands that raised it.” My brother asked who shot the turkey, and I corrected him -  Our turkey came from the grocery store, but before that, it was raised on a farm, one that raises turkeys in its barns. Minnesota is number one in the US for turkey production, with approximately 250 farm families raising 45 million turkeys annually. There are other types of farmers that your family might support during the holidays – potato farmers, fruit farmers, vegetable farmers, and vineyards just to name a few.

Another type of farm I rarely think about is one that is currently decorating and perfuming the Union – that’s right, Christmas Tree farms. According to University of Illinois, there are more than 21,000 Christmas Tree Growers here in the US. These trees take approximately 7-10 years to mature, and are grown in all 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska. 98% of Christmas trees are grown on farms and 73 million trees will be planted in the next year. This is a ‘green’ farming practice – one acre of trees provides enough oxygen for 18 people a year!  

Next time you hear the word farm, go ahead and think about cows and corn fields. But remember there’s other types of agriculture out there that aren’t as common! 

~*~ Remember to thank a farmer for all they do to feed the world! ~*~

Things to be thankful for

This week, I participated in my first ever Rockin Rural Women Chat on Twitter. The topic? #FoodThanks. I think this is an important topic, especially because this time of year, many people don't take the time to stop and think about where that beautiful, tender, juicy, delicious piece of (insert favorite meat cut here) came from, or the people it went through to get to the table.

So I give #FoodThanks now and every day. When I wake up and when I go to bed at night, I thank God that I am involved in American Agriculture, and for the opportunities I have recieved in this industry. I encourage everyone to be thankful for farmers - be they vegans or meat eaters because everyone MUST eat to survive.

So to give thanks for food every day, I eat. I support American Farmers by buying and eating American products like American Lamb, and I enjoy a glass of South Dakota wine with my mom. I celebrate by helping my family raise over 1300 head of lambs that become someone else's delisious entree, or by working calves that move onto a feedlot to feed someone else a nice juicy steak or yummy piece of prime rib. I spend some hours driving grain cart, knowing that our corn goes into ethanol and that some comes back to a farm as DDGS to be fed to our sheep and cattle. I celebrate Food Day when I fill by car with ethanol, grab a bag of sunflower seeds and bottle of Coke to drive home to the farm, headed back to my favorite place in the world, thankful that I am part of American Agriculture.

I am thankful that I can get up every day and do the things I love to do in this great country of ours, like riding my horses, attending college and spending time with the people I choose to do so with. I am thankful that my family can grow the crops and livestock we want to, that we live where we do and that I get to say I am a farmer.

Your Piece. Your Place. Our Future

Rebecca and I prior to the Leader in Agriculture Award Dinner

Your Piece. Your Place. Our Future. Everyone has a place in this world, and contribute their own piece of the puzzle that forms life as we know it - the puzzle pieces determine our future. Many ag-majoring college students struggle to find their place in the puzzle that makes up American agriculture, but last week at the Ag Future of America confrence, over 500 of these students learned more about how to find their piece in this puzzle. AFA programming centers around the principles of being personally aware and the ability to self-assess, communicate, manage change and be a lifelong learner.

While in Kansas City at AFA, I participated in Track 3 and met other college kids from across the country. Our days were spent listening to speakers talk about how to use our leadership skills,  life in the 'work world', participating in discussions about issues facing modern agriculture, and meeting potential employers through mocktails and the career fair. We were motivated and inspired by Captain Charlie Plumb, and greeted by my favorite voice on the air, Orion Samulson.  There were so many amazing presenters that took the time to talk to and motivate us that it was hard to not feel inspired and positive every day.



The SDSU Delegates

 Now don't get me wrong, I enjoyed each and every part of the confrence, but my favorite would have to be the discussions about issues facing agriculture. These were issues that affected almost everyone in attendence, from family dynamics in farming to how most of American's are 2 generations removed from the farm, and therefore are uneducated about why we do what we do. We all talked about the importantance of using social media to tell the story of agriculture, and I made sure to challenge my group to follow through - with videos, blogs and getting on things like agchat via twitter.

At the end of the weekend, I think everyone was sad to return to their respective schools. The enviroment at AFA is one that I have rarely experienced before - there are 500 people all passionate about the same thing in one place, all positive thinking and willing to make as many new friends as possible. I came home from AFA motivated, postive and optimistic about my future - and about the future of agriculture. I think I am closer to knowing where my piece is in the puzzle of agriculture.

For more information about AFA and to apply for next year's confrence visit the AFA Website .

At the FAIR!!

Fair time is one of my favorite times of the year - friends, family, fair food and of course, showing livestock. This summer, I spent over 20 DAYS at fairs in South Dakota. Most of them were spent sitting at the Ag United informational booth, talking to people about ag.

My favorite part of all the days of the fair came at the South Dakota State Fair this week. Our sheep were stalled right by where people walked by. When I was fitting my ewes, several people would stop to pet them and ask about them - me and moms's favorite part of fair! We both love promoting the sheep and lamb industry, and the fair is a great opportunity to do so. Later, we walked the ewes to a different barn, and were stopped by several families that just wanted to pet the pretty sheep. It was so awesome to see the little kids faces when they realized how soft her wool is and how much she likes people.

Fair time always reminds me about how we can take advantage of everyday opportunities like showing our livestock to promote agriculture to consumers. It also serves as a wake up call to remind me about how many are removed from agriculture.

The Cattlemens Story

Recently at Mom's Day Out on the Farm, I took some video at the cattle stop, which was Doug VanDuyn's feedlot. He doesn't usually speak to groups of people, but he had me fooled - Doug is awesome at speaking about the beef industry!  I hope you enjoy - I know all the participants of Moms Day Out on the Farm did!

To learn more about Mom's Day Out on the Farm and other Ag United Events visit South Dakota Farm Families on Facebook, find us at @agunited4sd on Twitter or visit our website at http://www.agunited.org/