I swear, I was born to marry a farmer (sorry honey, I’m glad I married you! I wouldn’t change/trade you for the world!!). But boy I wish we could make our living as farmers. I love the heat (I’m weird like that, blame it on a summer birthday), I love farm machinery. I like being out there driving tractors and big trucks. Yes, I was made for farm life. Maybe that’s why I pursued my degree in Agriculture??
Anyway, this last weekend was the Four State Farm Show over in Pittsburg, KS, so we headed over to check out all the new cool gadgets :). It’s like a farmer’s dream! haha.
Seriously, what farmer do you know that doesn’t want this!
I found my dream tractor!
While I’m adding my tractor to my list of things I want, lets add a combine also. K?
It’s only $250K. That’s chump change!
And if you bought me a combine, color doesn’t matter, I promise!
I just want this truck. no reason. Well maybe to pull my horse trailer with!
This was seriously the length of one row….
I saw in a magazine one time a few years ago that people were taking Silo’s and making houses out of them. Boy I sure thought I wanted one of those at the time :). Maybe not so much anymore, but how cool would it be?
Currently right now all we farm on our land is hay. I’d love to have soybeans and corn and wheat and yada yada, although with this drought, yikes. That’s kind of scary thought!
Anyway it was fun climbing around on all the latest and greatest farm equipment.
Have you noticed how it’s the little things in life that are forgotten? Why just yesterday my husband reminded me that I used to call him Goob Goob. I seriously had forgotten that, and it really makes me sad! btw, I think he kind of got the name based off the movie Night at the Museum when the statue said, “Dumb Dumb you bring me Gum Gum.” Obviously my husband isn’t a dumb dumb, but I started out calling him Goober then Goob then Goob Goob.
So in that thought there, think about the average, normal, everyday things that you do, that probably go unnoticed or missed. When I get in my car, I put on my Sunnies (unless it’s dark or not bright). When I get out of my car, I take them off. So in habit, when I get in my car in my glasses (few and far between) when I go to get out I take off my glasses realizing that didn’t work out so well. (more…)
One night we got the idea to mix up our breakfast crescents and try to make it a dinner crescent.
We had some chicken that my mom gave us that needed to be used. We used part of one breast the night before, so we had 1 breast and a half of a breast so it wasn’t two whole chicken breasts. So we thought and we thought and that’s when we came up with the idea to add it to cream cheese, some cheese and wrap it all up in a crescent.
Oh YUM!
So we cooked up the chicken, but not to the point it was dried out.
1 block of cream cheese with a handful of shredded cheese.
Shred up the chicken. We used our chopper, but you can always do it with 2 forks.
So I was reading a review on my camera the other day and I got tickled. A gal was bragging saying how she had taken 800 photos between a 2 week trip to Europe and a couple horse shows and a couple other things. I giggled. My husband and I took 2500 photos just in Hawaii last fall. In fact he took 600 photos while I was judging the Round Robin the other day. Maybe we’re trigger happy?
So we decided we wanted to see how many shutter actuation’s we had on our cameras. Yes I said camera’s, his and hers. His btw was the one that went to Hawaii. His had 9,909 photos taken as of last night. Any guesses on what mine was??
Last night my eye started hurting. I knew a stye was forming on it. I guess that’s what you say, forming? This is what I woke up to this morning, and boy does it hurt! Don’t judge me, it’s a horrid photo!
If I could get by wearing my Sunnies all day I’d be doing great, you’d never notice! I think this is a better picture, just sayin!
So when I got in my car this morning, this is the temperature I saw. I’m fairly certain it’s going to be a scorcher today boys! Come on Rain!
I saw this on weather.com this morning. I’m thinking they could send some of that water to the farmers and all would be good.
Ok, that’s all I have on this Thursday. Is it Friday yet?? Maybe in Australia?
So unless you live under a rock, you know that most of the country is in a drought or severe drought conditions. I heard them say on the radio the other day, they haven’t seen conditions this bad since the 50’s. I truthfully love summer and warm weather, but things are REALLY dry around here in SW MO, but they say if you go east of us a couple hours that we don’t even know what drought is and our forecast doesn’t show very good chances of rain anywhere in the near future.
On my drive in to work this morning I hooked my iPhone up to the car and was listening to random music that was coming on when Jason Aldean’s song “Amarillo Sky” came on the radio. Last summer when it was so dry around these parts (2 summers in a row, am I beginning to live in the desert?) a lot of local churches spread the message about if everyone would pray for rain, maybe it would.
So the lyrics came across:
He just takes the tractor another round And pulls the plow across the ground And sends up another prayer He says Lord I never complain I never ask why But please don’t let my dream run dry
and this part
Just like his dad and grandad did before him On his knees every night he prays Please let my crops and children grow Cause that’s all he’s ever known
And it got me to thinking, you never rarely ever hear of a farmer who doesn’t believe in God and the power of prayer. Seems like so much rides on that thought and a higher being that truthfully I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a farmer say he doesn’t believe, although I’m sure there has to be some out there.
I dunno, just something I thought about. Just something to ponder. Just a deep thought on a Wednesday morning drive to work. Oh, and I heard there’s an old folk tale that says if you marry frogs together, that it’ll rain. Supposedly someone up in Northern Missouri did that and it rained the next day. Something to keep in mind….
And while I go try to find some frogs to marry, here’s that lovely Jason Aldean song. Here froggy froggy 🙂
So last week I got a surprise, Jilly gave me an award! Thanks, Jill! So glad your post told us what Liebster stands for though! I’ve seen it around bloggy land for what seems like ages and had no clue!
What Is The Liebster Award?
“Liebster” is German for “dearest”, from Liebe, the verb ‘to love’. This award is given to bloggers who are up and coming and who have less than 200 followers. I’m honored that she chose me and I’m excited to join in the Liebster fun!
Here’s How It Works:
Each person must post 11 random things about themselves.
Answer the questions that the tagger set for you and create 11 questions for bloggers you’ve tagged.
Choose up to 11 bloggers and link them in your post.
As I mentioned in a few previous posts, we recently went to Las Vegas. It was such a great treat to get away from the everyday bump and grind of daily life.
Every now and again, hubby and I come up with gift cards to different places. One of the places we came up with a gift card to was Maggiano’s Little Italy. We didn’t know what it was, neither of us had ever eaten there, however Italian food, I’m in! It just so happened to be in the Fashion Show Mall right next door to Treasure Island where we were staying. If you’ve never been to Vegas, a lot of the larger intersections have crossing bridges. You either go up via escalator, stairs, or elevator, cross the intersection above, and then go back down to the street sidewalks. This place just happened to have a cross intersection right there from TI to Fashion Show Mall.
Again, I didn’t think to do restaurant reviews until after I ate here so here is their storefront via their website.
You’ve also seen me mention before that when we try new places, hubby and I try to get different things. We both almost ordered the Chicken Parm but decided on different things. My other option was the Fettuccine Alfredo, but Hubby decided on Chicken Marsala and I went with the Chicken Parmesan. We both love Chicken Parm and think the best is at Zio’s, so we had to see how this compared. I’ll tell you, it was fabulous dawling! It compared!
This last week was our county fair; generally it falls the week after the Fourth of July. All the 4-H’ers and the FFA’ers in the county come together to exhibit their animals and projects.
Once you get to the livestock division the kids not only show and compete with their animals but in each division (Hogs, Beef, Sheep, Dairy Cattle & Goats), the kids compete against each other to be the best showman. Once they win the showman ship class (junior, intermediate & seniors) they all come together on Saturday at noon to compete in the Round Robin class. In Round Robin they show all 5 species of animals and compete to be the best of the best showman.
I actually got the pleasure this year to be the Round Robin judge. Now, I’ve been on the other end of the spectrum, but being the judge was kind of fun, but extremely nerve racking too!
Prior to the event Larry was out watering the ring down so it wasn’t quite so dusty. One of the showman’s father’s was out in the ring walking the pig around.
Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous. On the ride in to town I really thought I might throw up. TMI? Sorry!
Once all the showman checked in, they received their numbers and away we went. The first species up were the hogs. The way this particular Round Robin was I had the Senior, Intermediate and Junior winners of each species out at the same time.
In Showman ship events you are judging the showman, not the animal. Every animal has a flaw, just like every human. So I asked each showman 2 questions about each species. The first question is, what breed are you showing? A good showman knows, even if they are a bit off and say cross bred when it is a pure bred or visa verse, usually, they’ll be very close. The second question I asked, what is something you’d change about this animal? My thought was maybe I could get the kids to converse with the other kids just before entering the ring. Plus help them talk to me. I’m not going to lie, some of them looked at me like I was a big scary person, especially the juniors. By the end they relaxed and talked to me better.
1 tip, if you’re showing livestock such as this, don’t wear a hat. Horses you have to, livestock you don’t. I was impressed with this boy, he was only in the ring about a minute and realized so he threw his hat off to the side and left it there.
I got a piece of paper and a pen and tried to judge them from 1-10, 10 being the highest so that I would remember by the end.
You could find your Diary cattle showman because they show in all white. I’m not sure why, but if you look at a cheese factory, they all wear white. If someone knows why, please share :).
It was definitely fun to watch kids showing species of livestock they’ve never shown before.
It was a warm day and knowing the kids and the animals were hot I tried to help move the kids through so the animals could go back to their pens and relax.
At the end they introduced all the kids and what species they represented. Then I got introduced. They asked if I wanted to say a few words. Truthfully I’m not the best public speaker and I went to school to be a teacher. I’m sure I was talking 90 to nothing, but I tried to give the kids a few pointers just to help them out if they ever wound up in a Round Robin competition ever again.
So here are a few tips if you or anyone you know ever winds up in a competition.
Once you know you’re in the competition, go hunt down a fellow showman of every species and get some pointers. Generally they are happy to help.
Don’t wear a hat.
When you let the hog out of the pen, close the gate behind you.
You get a brush for a hog, if the hog roots, brush off it’s nose. Pay close attn to your hog.
Beef Cattle – You get a curry comb. If a judge ruffles the hair on your cow, comb it back.
The stick for beef cattle is to keep them calm and for helping to set their feet. Relax.
Dairy cattle – Walk backwards when leading them. Don’t touch their feet with your hands.
Also you can use your feet to move their front feet, but their back feet, set by trying gently pulling on their halter.
If the Dairy cow has an udder, set the back foot back to show off the udder to the side the judge is standing on. If it is a heifer (not lactating), set their feet square under them.
Sheep – In the state of MO, keep front feet on the ground.
Also if the judge is standing in front of the animals, step off to the side and show the front end to the judge. Stand on the side of the animal furthest from the judge.
To set their hind legs, if you have to use your hands, reach over their back if you can.
Goats – Determine if you have a dairy goat or a meat goat – they are shown differently.
Dairy goats, same way with their udder, if they are lactating, show off the udder.
Meat goats – set them more up square, but similar to a market lamb. Hard to explain without showing.
And when setting their hind legs, you reach under their belly.
Ok sorry, I know this is just info, probably useless at that, but maybe someone somewhere will benefit from this.
By the end of the event I had relaxed and had a blast. Sometimes it is good to step outside your comfort zone. And it was so hard to believe I haven’t been able to show in these events in 8 years. 8 years!
Ok so I’m not sure if I’ve actually watched the tv show “Chopped” on Foodnetwork or not… I just can’t remember, but a friend of mine sent me this link at work the other day.
You have to get past some of the crassness of it… I thought it was funny but for some people that isn’t their thing. But I just wanted to share with you this link.
