New Year. New Goals.

One of my favorite things about New Year's is that it's a perfect time to have a fresh start and set some new goals and habits.  This year I've set some personal and blogging goals that I wanted to share with all of you, because I don't know if any of you are like me, but when I have to be accountable for my goals I work harder on them.

Personal Goals:

• Learn Spanish - When I was in high school I didn't take any foreign language because I thought I'd never need it because I was going into agriculture.  The truth, twelve years later, knowing Spanish wouldn't just help me as a farmer understanding others we do business with, but it'd also help me as a member of my community, as I live in a diversified area.
• Be Financial Savvy - As baby #3 JP should arrive any day, and as I am decreasing my consulting work, and as the farm markets look shaky, 2015 will be the year to stay on top of my family's finances.  One of my roles on the farm and for my family is taking care of all of our financials.  I want to do a better, more timely and better organized job of doing this task.  Things I'm going to do include utilizing our financial software all year long and not just at the end of the year as we are get ready for taxes, and I'm going to monitor our expenses to help create a budget as the year goes on.
• Pray - I would already consider myself a disciplined prayer but in the New Year I just want to refocus what I do and how I do things through my faith, and to receive support and guidance through prayer.  Prayer is an amazing thing and helps you accomplish anything.

Blogging Goals:

• Country Fair Blog Party - I am so excited to join several other blogs this year as a co-host of the monthly Country Fair Blog Party!  I have participated in this blog hop several times over the last year and was excited when the hosts invited me to join them as a co-host.  Each month has a different theme and is a great way to check out new blogs.  And if you blog yourself, a great way for new people to see your posts!
• Become Self-Hosted - I'm ready to step up my blogging game and become self-hosted.  Last year I made some contacts about going self-hosted and now this year I'm planning on actually taking those steps.  I already own my domain of www.cornbeanspigskids.com but have it redirected to my blogspot address.  By becoming self-hosted I have full ownership of my blog and have more freedom to do more with my blog.
• Daily Routine - Now I might not be making the best start by not getting this post out till 11pm... but I'd like to do little, simple, daily tasks in relation to my blog and my social network, rather than having certain days where it seems all my free time seems to go towards blogging.  I enjoy blogging and find it as a personal outlet in a way - why not make it part of my daily routine, rather than every few days.

I am excited!  How about you?  What are you looking forward to the most in 2015?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

31 Days from a Tractor Seat

I'll be the first to admit that I have neglected my blog lately (I guess that's what happens when you're pregnant with baby #3 and all you want to do is take naps whenever possible...), but that is all going to stop because I have signed up for the #31Days blogging challenge, that encourages bloggers to write a post every day in the month of October.

The first thing to do after I accepted this challenge was to come up with a topic to blog about for 31 days.  Many things came to mind such as family, food, and agriculture.  So as I pondered more about my topic from the comfort of my tractor during our fall corn and soybean harvest, I got to thinking, why not blog about:  

I always tell everyone that fall harvest gives me a lot of "thinking time" while I'm in the tractor and I always come up with lots of ideas.  So this fall I'm challenging myself to actually act upon those ideas and share my thoughts with you all through this series about things like agriculture facts, harvest fundamentals, "tractor approved" recipes, and of course some fun photos from the field.

And we might as well start by sharing a couple photos from harvest this week!

Soybean Harvest

Combining Soybeans

A look at soybean seed with dried soybean plants in the background

My first harvest felfie (farmer selfie) of the season :)

So what do you want to hear about during my "31 Days from a Tractor Seat"?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Check out these other 31 Days from a Tractor Seat series posts:
We are a FAMILY farm
Tractor Seat Update (October 3, 2014)
First-Time Combine Rides for #FranklinCoHarvest Bloggers
How to Celebrate National 4-H Week as an Alumni
Why we choose to raise GMOs
Six Week Muffins - Tractor Approved Breakfast
Wordless Wednesday - Views from my Tractor Seat
Take a Tech Timeout in 3 Easy Steps
Tractor Seat Update (October 10, 2014)
Guide to Help your Local Food Bank this Harvest
#SelfieSunday
Can We Feed 9 Billion People by 2050
Wordless Wednesday - Sometimes You've got to Stay Up for a Homecoming
World Food Day Addresses World Hunger
Tractor Seat Update (October 17, 2014)
The Best Tuna Salad - Tractor Approved Sandwich
31 Days from a Tractor Seat Questions Answered
Learn about where your food comes from by watching Farmland for Free on Hulu
Sweet & Salty Corn Chips - Tractor Approved Snack
Wordless Wednesday - My Favorite Buddy Seat Riders Through The Years
A Little Dirt Never Hurt
All Purpose Pork Rub - Tractor Approved Recipe
Wordless Wednesday - Harvest Sky
Farming - Lifestyle vs Business
Tractor Seat Update (October 31, 2014)

New Year. New Goals.

The New Year is a perfect time for a fresh start, a clean state, or a new beginning, and that is why so many people look forward to this day.  Some people transition into the New Year by declaring a resolution, making predictions, choosing three words to live by or doing nothing.  For me, I set goals.

Goals are great because they help you think thoroughly through your ideas.  I can't help but think of making goals for 4-H in my youth when I write down my goals every New Year.  A goal must contain 1) the action, 2) the result, and 3) the timetable.

New Year.  New Goals:

• My goal is for our family to go on dates with each other, My Farmer and I, My Farmer and LP, My Farmer and MP, LP and I, and MP and I, four times each this year.
• My goal is to create more me time by waking up at 6:30 am daily to do things I find enjoyable.  I will also plan on connecting with friends by doing something special for a friend monthly.
• My goal is to preserve memories and special dates for my children by journaling in specific journals for each kid.  I will keep the journals in my office where they are easy to get to.  I will plan on journaling at least once a month.
• My goal is to promote my blog more by sharing each post on Pinterest and Google+.  
• My goal is to start a Comments for a Cause program by choosing a new organization monthly to donate 50 cents for each blog comment to.
• My goal is to attend a blogging conference or gathering by the end of the year to help me learn more about blogging and make more blogger connections.  I will ask other bloggers what conferences they recommend to help me determine which one to attend.

Happy New Year everyone!  What do you do to transition in the New Year?

Liebster Award 2.0

Last week I was honored to be nominated for the Liebster Award!

So what is the Liebster Award?  Well, it really isn't an award, it's more of a recognition from a fellow blogger (in my case Country Bunkin Mama).  Liebster means dearest or lovely in German.  This award is a great way to discover new blogs.  As a recipient of the award I must:

• Link back to the blog that nominated me
• Answer the questions posed by my nominator
• Share 11 random facts about myself
• Nominate 11 bloggers who have less than 200 followers on Google Friend Connect, or Networked Blogs, or Google +, or Pinterest, or less than 200 likes on Facebook
• Also eligible are bloggers who have less than 200 posts
• Also eligible are bloggers who have been blogging for less than 2 years
• Share my preferred way for readers to follow my blog
• Create 11 questions for my nominees to answer
• Contact my nominees

So here it goes...

Questions from Country Bunkin Mama:

1. As a kid what did you do that got you in trouble?  I would have to say the biggest trouble I got into growing up was for drinking underage in high school.
2. What do you miss about being a kid?  Being able to just live and enjoy life and not worry about obligations, bills, etc.
3. What is your first memory of being excited?  My memory is failing me right now but probably going to school.
4. What was the first thing you bought with your own money?  Clothes.  My parents put my sisters and I on clothing allowances when I was in second grade.
5. What story does your family always tell you?  Lately I've been hearing stories about when I had new baby sisters come home from the hospital or how we played when I had baby siblings.  The best is once after arriving home from grocery shopping my Mom ran inside with the first round of frozen and refrigerated food and told my sisters and I to wait in the car.  When she got back to the car she saw me carrying my youngest sister out of the car (who was a couple months old at the time) by her head/neck and I told my Mom that the baby needed her.  She calmly said - yes, the baby does need me.  She said it was hard to not freak out when she saw me and my sister but knew it'd be best if she calmly approached me.
6. If you were to turn on your most used music device right now what genre of music would be playing?  Does AM Talk count???  If I'm actually listening to music, I listen to country music primarily.
7. Are you a night owl or a morning dove?  Can I say both?  I'd prefer to be more of a morning dove because it is a great way to start the day and I'm a lot more productive in the morning then I am at night.
8. If you could travel in time just once, what year would you travel to?  I think it'd be fun to experience the roaring '20s.
9. What is your favorite board game or card game?  Black jack.
10. Traveling only by car where is your favorite road trip destination?  Yellowstone.
11. What is your favorite social media platform?  I probably use Facebook the most but I enjoy Twitter, Pinterest and of course Blogging!

11 Random Facts About Myself:

1. I am the oldest of three sisters.
2. When my sisters and I were younger and played "jobs" they were a teacher and a veterinarian, I was the person who weighed trucks at the grain elevator.
3. I played the trombone in band in middle school and high school.
4. I have a scar on my back from falling down the stairs as a kid.
5. My husband was the first guy I ever said "I love you" to.
6. My husband and I started dating our freshman year in college but discovered we had been at the same place at the same time many times before college, the earliest realization being a honor band in 5th grade.
7. I have really bad eyesight - without my contacts or glasses I couldn't see the big "E" on the eye chart.
8. I don't drink coffee.
9. I consider myself to be a strong Christian with solid moral convictions.
10. I prefer to have as little email as possible in my inbox but over the course of the last couple of months I have gotten behind and have over 100 emails sitting in my inbox - I feel so behind!
11. I have a collection of aprons that I both use and display in my kitchen (every apron has been worn at least once).

My Nominees Are:

1. Prairie Princess
2. Stories of a First Generation Farm Wife
3. [j.l.d.] Photograph
4. COUNTRY LINKed
5. FenceRow to FenceRow
6. The Udder Side
7. Full Her Life
8. Suzanne's CommonGround
9. Adventures of a Semper Fi Family
10. Adventures in Mommyhood
11. Marvelous Mommy

Preferred Way To Follow Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids:

I prefer readers to follow my blog two different ways - facebook or bloglovin'.  

My blog's facebook page not only includes blog updates, but also includes extra photos and questions for readers' to answer.  I love how starting my facebook page just four month ago how much I've been able to interact with readers as well as gain new followers!

My preferred way of catching up on blogs is bloglovin' and I encourage all of you to start a bloglovin' account to keep up with all the blogs you follow.  I use to use Google Reader to subscribe to blogs but that program is actually shutting down on Monday.  Learn more by checking out my post on making the switch to bloglovin'.

Questions for my Nominees:

1. Are you a night owl or a morning dove?
2. What is the first thing you think about or do in the morning?
3. What is the last thing you think about or do before you go to bed?
4. What is your favorite childhood memory?
5. Do you look more like your father or your mother?
6. Do you have any pets?
7. What is your favorite social media platform?
8. What is your favorite food?
9. If you were to turn on the radio right now, what station or type of music would the radio be turned to?
10. What do you wish you had more time to do?
11. What are you looking forward to the most this summer?

#UBP13 Blog Party!

So, at the beginning of the year one of my blog goals was to promote my blog more through social media and to utilize followers, so that is why I am linking up with 5 Minutes for Mom's 2013 Ultimate Blog Party!

Me driving tractor during this fall's corn and soybean harvest

Welcome any new readers from the #UBP13!  My name is Val.  I wear multiple hats, like many Moms do, but the most important two are being a stay-at-home Mom to a two-year old boy referred to as LP and a soon to be Baby #2 referred to as MP, who will bring our family to a total of four in a couple of months, and I'm a farmer who raises corn, soybeans and pork with my husband referred to as My Farmer - which brings it all together in my blog name:  Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids.

My Farmer, LP and Me (with MP in my belly) last month on our farm

I started blogging as a New Year's Resolution in 2012 and I'm always looking on how to do more and reach more people with my blogging and social media in general.  My blogs mainly consists of things either family or farm oriented.  I have to admit, when I started blogging I'm pretty sure the only people that followed my blog were my family and close friends.  Soon I started getting followed by other farmers and now I have really enjoyed meeting other Moms through blogging!

To find out more, check out the rest of my blog and my About Me section!  Besides my blog you can also follow me on my blog's Facebook page, on Twitter and on Pinterest.  I'm excited to be participating in my first Blog Party and Link-Up!

A Quick Blogging Brief

And now, a quick blogging brief from our sponsors...

Or should I say from the writer or owner or I don't know - it's from me!  So, I wanted to let you all know that I've done two updates to my blog lately.

• First, all comments will now need to correctly type a "word verification" before the comments will be posted.  I hate having to do this but I have been receiving a lot of spam comments lately, which then makes me go into my blog and delete them, which then made me accidently delete some actual user/friend/follower comments.  Like I said, I hate to do this, but the amount of spam I have been receiving lately has been driving me crazy and this is one of the easiest ways I figure I can keep my sanity!  I hope you all understand.  Please keep posting comments - I love hearing from my readers!

• Second, for those that use Google Reader to read blogs, you probably have heard or seen that Google Reader is shutting down July 1st.  I even noticed today that Google took the Reader link off its top menu bar.  I loved using Reader to keep up to date on all the blogs I follow, so with the news of Reader going away I searched for a replacement and I have decided to go with Bloglovin.  First, it is easy to transfer your Reader list to Bloglovin.  Second, Bloglovin has easy tools to categorize your blogs that you follow and I love how you can look at similar blogs to those that you already follow if you're looking at expanding your blog network.  Here is the direct link to my blog!

Thank you all for going through these changes with me.  I hope this "quick blogging brief" is helpful for all of you!

2013 Blog Goals

Besides my New Year Resolutions, I have also decided to create some blog goals.  I hope these things will make me not only a better blogger, but that it will also build my audience and outreach.

1. Blog Regularly.  Last year I set a goal of blogging at least three times a week.  I am going to work towards that goal again this year.
2. Promote More Through Social Media.  This year I'm going to look into sharing my blog through more social media avenues and on a more regular basis.  Currently I send out one tweet and one Facebook post per blog post.  In 2013, I'd like to experiment with tweeting posts out more than once, possibly creating a Facebook page for my blog, look into utilizing Pinterest more, and share on LinkedIn when appropriate.
3. Comment On Other Blogs.  This year I am going to make a goal of commenting on three blogs per week, including commenting on a new blog once a month.  
4. Enhance SEO.  In February I will be attending the regional Ag Chat Foundation conference in Rochester, Minnesota.  One of the break-out sessions I'm looking forward to the most is tips on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  I know this is something I need to work on for my blog.
5. Utilize Followers.  This year I want to explore ways of utilizing my followers.  This could mean having guest bloggers, or guest blogging myself on others' blogs.

Here's to a great year of blogging!  Do you blog?  What are your goals for this year?

Me with Darcy Maulsby and Heather Lilienthal at the #140ConfAgIowa
Some great #AgNerd friends I have gained through blogging

Harvest Blogger's Tour 2012

For the 2nd year, Franklin County Tourism, Franklin County Farm Bureau and Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, hosted a Harvest Blogger's Tour.  This year's Harvest Tour took place over this past weekend and had bloggers from Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and New Hampshire.  This is a great opportunity to showcase Franklin County, Iowa from agriculture, to entertainment, to great food!  There are two requirements of the bloggers that participate:

1. They must find a way to get themselves to Hampton, Iowa for the weekend.
2. They must blog about their experiences.

If they do those two things, the entire weekend (Friday-Sunday) is taken care of for them - lodging, food, entertainment, etc.  A few things the bloggers did over the weekend this year include going on a tour of the Old Stone House, toured the REA plant, went star gazing while sampling wine from a local winery (Town's End Winery), went on a tour of the Franklin County Historical Society Museum and Grandpa's Farm, went shopping in downtown Hampton, went to the Windsor Theater for a live Vaudeville show, and participated in the Harriman-Nielsen Historic Farm Fall Festival.

I was happy to be able to join the group for awhile on Saturday while they focused on agriculture.  To start with, the group traveled to Latham Hi-Tech Seeds and heard from the North Central Iowa Ag in the Classroom staff about the program, as well as went through a couple of the lessons that they do for kids in local schools.

Ag in the Classroom

Then the group went on a tour at Latham's.  Following the tour, the group went to the Roy Arend's Farm, where they got to go on tractor and combine rides.

Blogger group with the Roy Arend's Farm Family

It was great to interact with the bloggers.  They had a lot of great questions about agriculture in Iowa.  The Harvest Blogger's Tour is a great opportunity to not only promote tourism to Franklin County and Iowa, but it is a great chance to spread the messages of agriculture to new audiences through the bloggers followers.

I can't wait to see what results from this year's Harvest Blogger's Tour and I can't end this post without linking my requested Sweet & Spicy Hog Wild Baked Beans recipe!

My 100th Blog Post!!!

I just noticed that my last blog post, Tuesday Tasty Pork Recipe, 

was my 100th blog post!  

(I created this word cloud through Wordle - a free word cloud website.)

Just had to celebrate!

#140ConfAgIowa

Last week I asked everyone "What they were doing on Friday, August 17th?" and invited everyone to the #140ConfAgIowa conference in Ames.  Today I'm excited to give a quick recap of my experience.

The #140ConfAgIowa conference was an agriculture social media conference whose attendees included farmers, ag business professionals, social media experts and others just interested in agriculture and social media.  One neat thing I thought about the event was that there were several people from the county I live in not only as attendees but as speakers at the event.  There were 16 speakers that spoke each for 10 minutes, which equaled to be three hours of quick hitting information on things like how to "speak consumer", to tips on how to share messages, to resources for facts and figures.  I spoke on how to start a blog from a beginner blogger's perspective.  I covered things to think through before beginning a blog and also shared a couple tips I have learned in my eight months of blogging.  Click here to check out my presentation video.

Me speaking at the #140ConfAgIowa conference

To give you a better idea of what the conference all covered, her are some of my favorite tweets from the conference:

• Use "consumer speak" not "science speak" #140ConfAgIowa @abbyjowhite @bestfoodfacts
• @katieolthoff emphasizes for ag folks to reach out beyond #ag! #140ConfAgIowa
• @FBLJ People outside of #ag want to meet the "right type" of #farmer.  How can we show that we are all "right" farmers? #140ConfAgIoa
• Whether #cotton or #bacon, @JPlovesCOTTON says you can find your niche on Twitter. "Agriculture" is a niche itself. #140ConfAgIowa
• @LathamSeeds How can we create virtual experiences that turn into reality. #140ConfAgIowa

Overall, I had a great time learning and networking.  The common threads from the day were to be yourself and to diversify your audience.  If you have a #140Conf in your area be sure to attend!

Here are a couple other takes from the #140ConfAgIowa conference that you might find of interest:

• USA Today
• Deb Brown

What are you doing this Friday?

What are you doing this Friday?  I am personally going to the Ag Iowa #140 Conference in Ames and I hope you join me!

The #140ConfAgIowa is Friday, August 17th from 2 to 5pm at the Scheman Building on the Iowa State Campus in Ames, Iowa.  This three hour event will consist of presentations discussing social media and agriculture in ten minute segments - with plenty of time for questions, cocktails and networking afterwards.


Here is a list of several speakers who I'm looking forward to listening to:

• Katie Olthoff from "On the Banks of Squaw Creek"
• Larry Sailer - a farmer from Geneva, Iowa
• Heather Lilienthal from Iowa Farm Bureau
• Janice Person from Monsanto
• Darcy Maulsby - a farmer and writer from Yetter, Iowa
• Jeff Caldwell from Successful Farming/Meredith Publishing
• Laura Nguyen from Dupont Pioneer
• April Hemmes - a farmer from Hampton, Iowa who recently did an agriculture mission to Uganda
• Shannon Latham from Latham Hi-Tech Seeds
• Emily Pritchard from the Fred Hoiboar campagin
• Deb Brown from Debworks

(I know you might think this would be the entire line-up, but it isn't!  There are even more a great speakers on the schedule.)

Besides being excited to hear from all the speakers, I'm also looking forward to being a presenter myself!  I am presenting on "Making the Time to Blog," where I'll talk about what you need to think about to start a blog from a beginner's perspective.

If you would like to learn more about the event, check out the event's website, as well as schedule, and then order your $10 ticket online.