So God Made A Farmer

As you all should know, last night was the Super Bowl.  I figure you watch the Super Bowl for one of four reasons:  the game; the commercials; the half-time show; or you don't care, you just like getting together with friends and eating good food.  Well I fall under the commercial category and I always find the Super Bowl as a good excuse to get together with friends and eat good food!

My favorite commercial this year was from Ram Trucks.  It included the transcript from Paul Harvey's speech, "So God Made a Farmer," that he deliver at the 1978 National FFA Convention.  The hidden greatness of this commercial is two things:

• First, Ram has declared 2013 as the Year of the Farmer.  Throughout the year, Ram will be celebrating the American Farmer.  I'm excited to see what else Ram does during this year of dedication to the "people, food and lifestyle that keep America growing".
• Second, every time you watch the Ram Trucks Super Bowl Commercial, the National FFA receives $1, up to $1 Million.

So do your part.  Spread the message.  And Support FFA.  

Do you want to learn about my family's "rest of the story"?  Check out my Farming - A Family Tradition blog post.

And if you are interested, here are the words to Paul Harvey's "So God Made A Farmer" speech:

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.

"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.

LV2FRM

While I'm driving I always look at personalized license plates on other cars and try to depict what they mean.  What do you think this license plate says?

Do you see "Live to Farm" or "Love to Farm"?  The first time I saw it I saw "Live to Farm" and I think that is because I've always said that My Farmer and I are "Farming to Live and Living to Farm."  

Well, whatever way you see it, both views were welcome at last weekend's Iowa Farm Bureau Young Farmer Conference.  This was My Farmer's and my sixth year attending the conference.  It has been great to see this program expand over those years.  This year's conference had a record attendance of over 350 young farmers from across the state!  And we were proud that our county was one of the top attendance counties with 12 attendees.

The Young Farmer Conference delegation eating Saturday dinner
Photo taken by Hayley Muff

I would say My Farmer's and my favorite thing about Young Farmer Conference is networking - getting to meet up with friends we've had for years and at the same getting to meet new people.  We both enjoy being able to talk to others that are in similar "places in life" about everything from farming, to family, to kids, to even politics and religion, two things that were discussed heavily one night...

Besides networking, we also enjoy the breakout sessions.  This year I went to breakout sessions on "Speaking Up!  Telling OUR Agriculture Story" from Katie Olthoff who is a Common Ground volunteer and I went to "Influence Those Who Influence Our Bottom Line" from Zach Bader who is the Grassroots Program Manager at the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.  My Farmer went to "Continuing Our Legacy of Family Farming" from Dr. Ron Hansen of the University of Nebraska and he went to "Healthcare & Insurance for the Future" from Deb Ferjak, a Health Insurance Manager for Farm Bureau Life Financial.  These were just some of the options for the breakout sessions and we both agree that next year's conference should have three rounds of breakout sessions and not just two!  It was hard to decide which two we'd go to.

Katie Olthoff speaking about how to educate and answer questions about farming and food

This year's conference also had a great group of keynote speakers - Dr. Ron Hansen and Matt Lohr gave the group some great information that hopefully left everyone motivated to start discussing succession planning with our families and to make an impact that will leave our legacy, respectively.  We also had a lot of laughs with Damian Mason, as he discussed "Farm Camp."

A fun side note from this year's conference for me is that I made the Top 10 for the Discussion Meet!  Which means I'll have a chance to compete at the Iowa Annual Meeting Discussion Meet finals in December.  The Discussion Meet helps young farmers build discussion skills, develop a keen understanding of important ag issues and explore how groups can pool knowledge to reach a consensus and solve problems.

Discussion Meet Top 10 (I'm fourth from the left)

I just want to thank the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Young Farmer Advisory Committee for another great conference this year!  My Farmer and I look forward to it every year.  If you are a young farmer in Iowa you should get involved too.  It is a great group to work with where you get to learn and have fun at the same time!

I'm hoping to go more in depth in the next couple weeks on some of the breakout sessions and keynote speakers that we heard from.  So keep your eyes out for more information from this great conference!

Ice, Rain and Snow Oh My!

Ironically my last blog post was about how beautiful winter is in Iowa.  Now, for the last few days we've been having the exact weather that people dread during winter...

It all started with an ice storm on Sunday and Monday, along with heavy fog all day Monday.

Look how weighed down one of our lilac bushes is due to the ice
and how low the neighboring trees branches are hanging to the ground

Ice was coating everything - trees, bushes, grass, vehicles, the house, etc.
See how foggy it is, at the bottom of the photo you can kind of see the ground through the fog

Thunderstorms and rain Monday night and Tuesday.

The thunderstorm and rain left everything very wet

We usually have puddles like this in April, not January...

And now this morning we wake up to snow, with wind to pick up later today.

Our dog Bailey taking a mid-morning nap in the snow
I don't know why,
but she'd rather sleep in the flower box next the the house, rather  than her doghouse

Bailey back on duty protecting the farm, she'd never want us to see her sleeping on the job!

I guess the only type of weather we're missing now is sunshine!  I just have to laugh and smile and say, this is winter in Iowa!  I'm just happy that we've been getting precipitation!  After the 2012 drought, I'm concerned with what sub-soil moisture we have left and what conditions our 2013 crops will have to try to grow in.  So bring on the moisture, in whatever form it comes!

Hope you all are taking care in whatever weather conditions come your way!

The Beauty of Winter in Iowa

I know I've said it before, I love winter!  Technically, my favorite season is fall, but winter comes in a close second.  So many times I hear people at the grocery store, gas station, church, etc., complaining about winter.  They complain that it is cold, that it is boring, and that it is just kind of a blah time of year.  To all those that don't think there is a special beauty to winter, here are a few photos I've taken this winter that I hope will make people smile and cherish this special season we call winter.

My inspiration for this blog post - a bald eagle in one of our fields
My Farmer and I were commenting today
how there are so many more bald eagles in Iowa  now
than we have ever seen before

There is just something about winter sunsets (and sunrises)
The extra cold moisture in the air brings out beautiful colors in the sky

Ice and Snow - the two things people complain about the most during winter
But don't they look beautiful on this tree!

Get Your Flu Vaccine So You, Your Family and Your Pigs Stay Healthy

The Flu Epidemic of 2013 is all over the news lately.  Currently 47 states are at widespread epidemic levels. A lot of the articles I have ran across about the flu include reminders to get your flu vaccine and what to do to prevent, but I didn't expect to see something in my latest Pork Checkoff enewsletter about getting the flu vaccine to help with herd health.

Some of our pigs saying hello!

But it makes sense, doesn't it!  Getting the flu vaccine not only protects the farmer, but their animals too.  Many of the articles I have ran across remind people to stay home if they have the flu so it doesn't spread.  Well, farmers have to work through all sorts of conditions, that includes being sick at times.  Getting the flu vaccine and doing preventative measures such as washing our hands, keeping equipment and buildings clean, and wearing farm-specific clothing and boots, can help keep us and our hogs healthy.  We, along with other pork producers, pride ourselves on producing quality, affordable pork in clean and healthy environments every day, 365 days a year.  So for the health of yourself, your family and your pigs - remember to get your flu vaccine and enforce bio-security practices!

19 Weeks - Corn, Beans, Pig & KIDS

When I started this blog over a year ago I decided to call it "Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids" because that is what we raise on our farm and it just has a nice flow to it.  "Corn, Soybeans, Pigs & Kid" just didn't seem to have the same ring to it.  And My Farmer and I often, if not always, introduce ourselves as farmers from North Central Iowa who raise corn, beans, pigs and kids.  Now we have been caught a time or two having to explain the kids part since we only have one, but now I'm officially excited to announce we are expecting a second child on June 6th, so we officially will being raising KIDS on the farm!

Now I had hinted at that we were expecting another child in my New Year Resolutions, but I figured today, at 19 weeks, I'd make an official announcement that MP (Mini-Plagge) will be arriving this spring.

The best picture MP would give us yesterday at my ultrasound

So what does it mean being pregnant with your second child when your first is a busy toddler?

• Well, it means when you're tired and just want to take a nap, you can't just take one anytime you wanted to, like with the first pregnancy.  You have to wait till nap time or bed time, which I have to admit, I've thought about changing slightly just so I could lay on the couch.  I found out I was pregnant in September and actually kept the pregnancy a secret most of harvest.  Now this was hard at times because harvest can just be tiring to begin with, add going through your first trimester and you can imagine how tired I was at the end of the day (or in the middle day as the sun was really beating down through the tractor windshield)!
• My Farmer has always told me that I plan too much, but I figure planning for arrival of MP won't hurt anyone right?  Well, arrival of MP makes me think of how much, or shall I say how little, "free" time I'll have with two kids in the house?  I also wonder how well LP will do with MP?  I know he'll be a big helper but I also am aware he might be confused or jealous.  Having two kids in the house also make me wonder how well I'll be able to divide my focus, energy and love towards both of them?  Along those lines, I think how hard it is sometimes for just My Farmer and I to go out and have time just to ourselves now, let alone with another child.
• Now at the same time, I am so excited for LP to have a sibling.  I have two sisters and I wouldn't trade growing up with them for anything in the world.  We are all each others best friends and my parents often tell us stories of when we were younger of how we almost had our own language and I remember the countless games we played, just the three of us.  Earlier I mentioned how I think about how well I'll do dividing up my focus, energy and love towards both kids, but the great thing for MP, they'll have not just Mom and Dad to get attention from, they'll have an older brother that'll give them attention too!

So, yeah, I guess that is what this mother is thinking at 19 weeks.  We are almost half way through the pregnancy and we're all excited for MP to arrive!  Do any of you have any advice for a soon to be family of four?

What I've Learned About the iPad Since Christmas

Did anyone get an iPad for Christmas this year?  Well, my family did, in a way.  One of the seed companies we bought corn from gave customers a new iPad 4 - 32 GB, as a thank you gift.  I say thank you loosely because in the end, we really paid for it, but it was a nice perk from buying from them this year!  Anyways, My Farmer and I have always been PC people and have stayed far away from any Apple/Mac products.  But we are happy with our new iPad and have enjoyed using it.

LP might just enjoy the iPad the most out of the whole family

I figured I'd share a few tricks to the iPad we've learned by "playing around" on it and by going to an iPad class offered through an area Verizon dealer store, Cell Tech in Hampton and the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, along with some of our family's favorite apps.

iPad Tips and Tricks:

• To move an app to a different location or different page, hold down on the app till it starts shaking, at this point you can move it to where you'd like.
• To make folders of apps, for example - we have all of my son's apps in one folder, make the apps shake, then drag apps you'd like grouped together on top of each other.  This will create a folder that you can then give a name.
• To multi-task, double-click the home button and it will bring up all your apps as a bottom scroll bar, you can then bring up another program while saving your spot on another app.

Favorite iPad apps:

• My Farmer's favorite apps:  
• AgPhDMain - farming programs and tools from the Hefty brothers
• AgPhD Fert. Removal - you select a crop such as corn and it tells you the fertilizer removal information for it
• Angry Birds - My Farmer use to have this game on his phone but deleted it because it was so addicting - he says it is even better on a bigger screne! (we might need to delete it in the future... and not just because of him, we all play it!)
• LP's favorite apps:  
• PBS Kids - if you're traveling this is great because it has full episodes of all the PBS Kids television programs - LP loves "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood"
• Farmyard - this is wear you build your own farm by adding animals, farmers, tractors, etc. - everytime you add something to your farm scene it says what it is and makes the sound
• I Hear Ewe - it has a variety of farm and jungle animals, as well as different forms of transportation on it and as you click on something it will say the name along with the sound it makes
• My favorite apps:  
• Evernote - if you're a note taker this is a great program that sinks your To Do list between your phone, iPad, computer, internet, etc.
• Bible - a nice tool to easily search for a bible verse, bible chapter, etc. or just to read the Bible from
• Ant Smasher - this is another addicting game that the whole family enjoys playing where you smash ants, but watch out for the bees!

Do you have any iPad tips or tricks that you can share?  What are your favorite iPad apps?