Frosty Morning on the Farm

"Be still and know that I am God..." Psalm 46:10. 

This morning it was about 23 degrees out with heavy fog.  This, along with my baby boy not being at the top of his game, changed my plans for the day completely.  I was supposed to be blogging from the Dakota Grown Conference the Department of Agriculture is putting on in Fargo, but I decided to skip the 100 mile drive and stick close to home.

I have to admit that I started out the day feeling pretty disappointed, but there's nothing like the tranquility of a farm on a foggy morning with beautiful frost on the trees to set a person straight.

Well, that AND spending some time with my assistant farm cat caretaker :) 

Here Miss C.W. greets C.T., otherwise known as "Coon Tail" ..."because he has dark gray stripes on his tail." We also have the calico named "Rainbow Tail", the orange cat named "Orange Tail" and the striped cat named "Stripey Tail"...are you sensing a pattern here? :)

In other news, the "big blue tractor" (New Holland 9882) is getting new tires. If you think tires on your car are expensive, consider that this beast requires 8 of these huge tires.

Believe me you do NOT want to see the bill for this (and neither do I, ha!).  Ever wonder why your food costs are going up? Consider the enormous increase in the costs of inputs farmers have experienced in recent years.

 Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
- Sarah :)

Thankful Thursday: I sure hope that's my husband!

 
During harvest, every night, and sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, this dark figure appears in my bedroom long after I finally call it a day. He stumbles in all grubby, smelling of grease, fuel, dirt soil and whatever else he's had a run-in with that day. (Hopefully, not a skunk).  I would request that he shower, but I know he is so tired that he is capable of falling asleep standing up at this point. 

I do his laundry, so even in the dark, I know that he probably looks like he rolled around on the floor of the farm shop or was dragged behind a truck and that his pants may very well stand up on their own from being caked with mud. I also know I could likely plant a few acres with the soybeans, corn kernels, or grains of wheat that have accumulated in his pockets. Cleaning the lint filter in our clothes dryer is always interesting.

I have gotten used to this nightly routine, out of necessity.  You see, an infant will wake me long before dawn.  Soon thereafter the wee Wilson gals will stumble out of their bunk beds and expect "bekfest".  I have to try to force my brain to turn off and get some shut eye, or I will be Zombie Mama the next day, and believe me, she is NOT pretty.

As I'm lying in bed and this nearly unidentifiable creature enters my room, practically falls into bed, and puts a rough, calloused hand on my shoulder, the only thing that goes through my mind is, "I sure hope that's my husband!" :-)

After I put my hand on his, confirming that it is indeed my dear Jeremy, I say a little prayer that goes something like this: "Lord, I thank you for giving me a husband who works so hard to provide for my little family. I am so grateful you got him home safe and sound. In Jesus' name. Amen."

When harvest is complete, Jeremy and I will get a babysitter, go out to dinner, give ourselves a few hours to celebrate that another year of feeding families around the world is behind us, relish the fact that we have a lot to look forward to, and we will fall in love all over again :)

My Harvest Prayer

Dear Lord,

you know it was a fight,

morning, noon, and night,

to get this crop into the ground,

but in you our strength is found.

So we cared for every seed

to grow the food your people need

Now I humbly ask,

Please make the yields abundant and keep us safe in every task.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Progressive Dairyman: Dairy Blogs We Love

I am honored that my blog is featured on Progressive Dairyman Magazine's "Dairy Blogs We Love" list! Progressive Dairyman is one of my favorite agricultural publications and their "Proud to Dairy" campaign is fabulous!

I'm not offically a dairy farmer, although I am a passionate advocate for dairy and on our farm here in North Dakota we partner with a local dairy farm to graze dairy heifers on our cover crops and my family raises dairy heifers in Maryland.

If you'd like to see the complete list of "Dairy Blogs We Love", check it out here:

http://proudtodairy.ning.com/page/dairy-blogs-we-love

Oh, and one more thing... someday, somehow, I WILL have dairy cattle again (like this adorable little gal I met in Germany). Mark my words :)

Wordless Wednesday: Faith, Hope, Love.

C.W., my four year old daughter, took this picture when our wee little man was brand new. This week he'll be 12 weeks old. My how the time does fly.

"...And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love".

1 Corinthians 13:13.

What is a Farmer?

This is my Mom and my Grandfather in November 1959, around the year this poem below was published :)

My Mom shared this with me. She is the daughter of a dairyman and a retired farmer's wife. When I asked her where she got it she said, " I don't know, but it's old. I think it was from something from the Maryland Extension Service. The original is on yellowed paper with worn edges." She guessed it was from the 1960's. So enjoy this oldie, but goodie, with an anonymous author. THANKS MOM!

WHAT IS A FARMER?

Well, that depends entirely on where you stand.

To his wife, he's a big eater, heavy sleeper, someone to share hopes and dreams with.

To his minister, he's a believer in God in nature, and nature in God.

To a politician, he's someone you talk about during elections.

To a businessman, he's a customer.

To the banker, he's a depositor.

To his neighbor, he's a friend.

To his children, he's a man who always has a chore for them.

To his dog, he's a man with a quiet voice.

To the grocer, he's a Godsend.

To the dairy cooperative, he's the owner.

To the insurance agent, he's a big risk.

To the mechanic, he's a mechanical wizard who fixes things himself.

To the doctor, he's a physical wonder.

And to himself, well, only he can tell you that---but chances are, he won't.

You see, it depends entirely on how you look at him.

Actually, the farmer is all of these---and more.

For one thing, he's just about as close to being an independent business as one can be these days. The farmer is pretty much his own boss, and what he makes, he makes by the sweat of his own brow. Each year he has to gamble with nature as to whether or not he will have a crop. If nature wins, the farmer loses- if the farmer wins, then nature has been kind.

He's quite a man, this farmer of ours.

- Anonymous

A Hunger For Faith-Based Ag Education

A vacation bible school student greets a calf at Entzminger Dairy, Jamestown, ND, as part of a lesson on "creation".


This time last year, I wrote this guest blog post for a dear friend and an "agvocate" I admire greatly, Michele Payn-Knoper at Cause Matters Corp. , about the concept of faith-based agriculture education. THANKS Michele for this opportunity!


Thought you all might be interested in seeing it since it's back to school time and as a farm wife and mother of a pre-kindergarten student, I'm thinking of what is being said about agriculture in the classroom and what I can do to help tell the story of agriculture both in and out of the classroom...

A Hunger For Faith-Based Ag Education

Enjoy!
Sarah :)

Thankful Thursday: Pigs Saved My Life and My Baby

Our little miracle who arrived at the end of June.

"Pigs Saved My Life and My Baby"...

That title might sound dramatic, but it is the truth.

After having two miscarriages last year, my physician tested me for a number of things. Turns out I have not one, but two, genetic blood clotting disorders. For both disorders bloodclots that cause miscarriage are one of the main side-effects.

One of the disorders is called "Factor V (five) Leiden".

You can learn more about it here:

http://www.fvleiden.org

If this disorder goes undiagnosed, a woman may experience repeated miscarriages and these may occur at just about any point in pregnancy. You can imagine that it just takes a small blood clot to stop the flow of blood through a tiny umbilical cord. Factor V can also cause a dangerous blood clot in the mother (aka ME).

When I was diagnosed I realized I had been walking around like a ticking bomb. I had two healthy pregnancies with my daughters, now 4 and 2, but I was doing some very risky things for a person with Factor V, including long-distance driving, sitting in long meetings without moving around, and simply being pregnant. I could have lost either child at just about any point or had a life-threatening blood clot at just about any moment.

I thank God for the quality care I have recieved from my doctors and nurses and the hematology team at the Roger Maris Center in Fargo that I was able to work with, especially since I live in rural North Dakota in a community of just 15,000 people.

There is no cure for Factor V, but once diagnosed it is fairly simple to treat. I just have to give myself a daily injection of an anticoagulant ("blood thinner") when travelling long distances (ex: long overseas flights where I can't move around very frequently) and during pregnancy.

So here is where my background in agriculture and animal science helped me realize something very interesting.

When Jeremy and I found out we were expecting again in November, I was reading the information on my injection- the generic name is "enoxaparin sodium" and the trade name is "Lovenox"- and right there on the package it said "derived from porcine intestinal mucosa".

That means that this wonderful drug that kept myself and my newborn son alive is from PIG GUTS!

I was ecstatic!

I realize it might sound a bit wierd to be so excited about pig guts, but once upon a time, I raised pigs. I know how much work it is, and I am SO VERY grateful to God for making these wonderful creatures that can sustain human life not just as a source of food, but also pharmaceuticals. I am also grateful to those in the swine industry who have dedicated their lives to the quality care of these animals. I am especially grateful to the scientists who discovered and developed this amazing link between pigs and human health!

Thanks for stopping by on this THANKFUL THURSDAY!

Sarah :)

*If you have had suffered the loss of a baby, know that you are not alone. Feel free to contact me, or talk to a friend or family member about your feelings, or contact one of many support groups:

http://www.missinggrace.org/LinksSupportGroups.html

May God keep you in His tender loving care in your time of need.

Family Photos From a Talented Friend

I consider myself very fortunate to have such great friends in my life, especially Mrs. Tonya Perkins of Pauly James Photography (www.paulyjamesphotography.com)

Twice a year she comes on over to our home or travels out to our farm fields where she captures the most amazing images of my family. She has a knack for wrangling wiggling kiddos and has even teetered on our pickup tailgate to get just the right shot.

Now of course I think my kids are cute and my husband is a handsome feller, but Tonya has this great eye and I am always pleasantly surprised at the photographs that are the result of her sharing her talents with us and how good she makes us look!

If you're looking for a GREAT photographer in the Jamestown, North Dakota area- CALL TONYA!

Here are the some of the most recent fruits of her labor.

Our baby boy surprised us by arriving a month early, so these were taken ONE day before he arrived. Yes, I had to pause between shots for contractions :)

Our "C.W.", age 4 1/2. Always the professional.

"The wee red head", age 2 1/2. Sweet and stubborn, all in one package :)

"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." (from White Christmas, one of our favorite family movies!)

The Farmer's Daughters. I hope and pray they each get to marry a man that is as much of a prince to them as their Papa is to me.

My big girl. Oh how time flies.

The whole crew!

...And there's the belly! Wowzers!

Now that our baby boy is 6 weeks old, I guess it's about time I get some baby pics on here!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sarah :)

Early 1900's Kansas Wheat Harvest

Last April I spent two solid days with my husband Jeremy's Grandpa "Bill" Wilson at his kitchen table scanning farm and family photos and recording Grandpa's comments about them. They were two of the best days of my life!

Grandpa turned 90 this past November and he is still as sharp as a tack and VERY funny! The vivid memories of his youth are simply amazing and very humbling.

I am so grateful to Grandpa for sharing his time and memories with me and for showing me his precious photos and artifacts. I also have to say THANK YOU to his long-time girlfriend, Lorraine, (aka Grandma Bair), for watching my girls as Grandpa and I completed our task. C.W. and the wee red head were a very busy 3 and 1 then :)

I thought I would share some of the fruits of our labor with you. I hope you enjoy this little journey into the past to look at wheat harvests of the early 1900's. The Wilson family farmed in Kansas before they moved to North Dakota, so what you see are pics from the Salina, Kansas and Cambria, Kansas areas.

This is Jeremy's Great-grandfather, J. Harry Wilson:

Below, a threshing crew. FYI- Threshers separate the grains of wheat from the straw (stem) and chaff (the rest of the plant that surrounded the grain).

Below, Grandpa Wilson's brother-in-law, John Lang, with two of the mules who likely helped with harvest.

Below, Jeremy's Great-grandfather, J. Harry Wilson, ran this threshing crew in Salina, Kansas, 1905.

Here J. Harry Wilson's crew takes a break for a meal. He is seated on the left and is wearing suspenders. Grandpa didn't know who the rest of the folks were, but we agreed that the women standing in the back had a pretty big job on their hands cooking for that bunch!

This is a photo of the Lang and Wilson families. J. Harry Wilson and his wife, Susan (Jenkins) Wilson, my husband's great-grandparents, are standing in the back row on the right.

The pictures you've just seen were taken in Kansas, but Grandpa Wilson said that when his family settled on the farm we're on now in the early 1930's, his mother, Susan, would haul a load of wheat each year to a mill in Valley City (about 35 miles east of Jamestown) and have it ground into flour. The flour was put into 50 lb. bags and she would use 52 bags a year to feed his family and all the men who worked on the farm. Now THAT is some serious baking!

Time marches on and wheat harvest is upon us once again. Looks like we'll get started today if all goes well and this good weather holds.

These are the combines our family used to use:

And here is the one we use today:

We've come a long way since the early 1900's!

I hope that those who read this take a moment to consider the generations of knowledge and hard work that went into raising the wheat that makes the bread and other foods we enjoy today.

Sarah :)

Wordless Wednesday: Moose!

This is an appropriate post for Wordless Wednesday because I cannot put into words how excited I was when Jeremy called to tell me that our Assistant Farm Manager, Ben, had spotted two young moose on some land we farm!

When I moved to North Dakota in 2002, there were two things I wanted to see that I have waited my ENTIRE life to see:

1. Moose in the wild.

2. Elk in the wild.

I loaded up the girls as quickly as I could and Jeremy gave us a sprayer ride out across one of our fields just north of Eldridge, North Dakota. (FYI- Eldridge is a few miles west of Jamestown).

I can now check "moose" off my list :)

And so can the little girls on the prairie :)

A Story of Christian Farmers

During this season of Lent, as we turn our hearts and minds to the appreciation of the greatest gift God has given us: His son, Jesus Christ, so that we may spend our eternal life in heaven, I thought it appropriate at this time to share this story of two incredible people with you.

My Grandparents have always been an inspiration to me, in their faith, in farming, in their marriage, and in the way they have taken my husband, Jeremy, under their wing and loved him as one of their own.

They are a blessing in so many ways, yet they are so very humble.

They have been involved with the Christian Farmers Outreach (http://www.christianfarmers.com/) for a number of years. In 2006 this article was written about them. I hope you find my Grandparents' story as much of an inspiration as I have.

God bless,

Sarah :)