This is My Father's World.

Tomorrow is the first official day of spring! Who's excited!?

We've been enjoying "spring during winter", as one friend called it. This past weekend we did some kite-flying on the farm!

Jeremy provided some guidance in keeping the kites from getting tangled.

The Wee Redhead did her best to keep her Winnie the Pooh kite in the air.  Special THANKS to our Irish friend, Mrs. B., who sent us green shirts and necklaces for St. Patrick's Day!

The Little Boy on the Prairie sat on his sister's sweatshirt and enjoyed some sunshine and kite-watching.

In celebration of the glorious weather we've been having and the time our family has spent on our farm soaking it up, I am posting part of the wonderful old hymn, "This is My Father's World".

"This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father's world: I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas- His hand the wonders wrought.
This is my Father's world, the birds their carols raise, the morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker's praise.
This is my Father's world: He shines in all that's fair; in the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere..."

This was written by Maltbie D. Babcock in the early 1900's and was taken from "Devotional Hymns", which, according to a note inside the front cover, was purchased by the Ladies Aid of Edmunds, North Dakota in 1953.  It was a gift to me from Jeremy's Grandma Eberhardt and it is a treasure to me.

Listen to the melody on "Cyber Hymnal" here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/i/tismyfw.htm

Have a wonderful week, wherever you are in our Father's world!

Sarah :-)

A wild night with Lutheran ladies then lunch with the Governor.

My life is filled with contradictions. So much so, that some days I feel like I'm living a double-life.

For instance, here is a summary of the last 24 hours of my life.

- I attended baby shower for our Pastor's daughter last night.  Had only my baby boy in tow, because Jeremy had (thankfully) offered to stay home and put the girls to bed so I could have a "night out".  I don't know when toting an 8 month old along to a baby shower with the gals from church became a "night out", but it has, and I was grateful for the opportunity.  We played the typical baby shower games and I got to visit with some of my favorite women in our community.  I had two cups of punch. I know. I'm wild!

- The baby shower just so happened to be at the same apartment building where Jeremy's grandmother lives.  She's a Lutheran too! I skipped out of the shower a little early to visit with her a bit.  What was supposed to be a quick visit turned into two and a half hours.  I'm telling you, these Lutheran ladies are a bad influence :-)

Baby boy hangin' with Grandma E.

- I was so tired by the time I got home, that I didn't pull far enough into the garage and managed to shut the garage door on the back end of the pickup.  I assessed the situation. Thankfully, there was no damage and I toted my little guy and my prize for being one of the baby word scramble winners into the house.

- I awoke this morning 45 minutes late, only to see the alarm clock blinking and to find that the power had gone out last night.  This put our little family into a fumbling, chaotic version of warp speed.  Jeremy raced out the door to meet a friend so they could go to an auction sale in Fargo, 100 miles away, and I got all three kids assembled and loaded into the pickup.

- I turned the key in the pickup ignition and all I heard was "click". Apparently, after my little incident with the garage door, I was so flustered that I left the headlights on ALL NIGHT. I got all the children and their stuff back into the house, only to hear my oldest exclaim "AWESOME! Now we get to play!" Ah, to be a kid again :-)

- So husband, along with our second vehicle, were gone.  All the neighbors were at work.  Car repair/tow service man was on vacation.  This was looking pretty grim.  Eventually, a neighbor farmer and friend came to our rescue and gave the Hi Ho Silver a jump start and were on our way. Again.

- I got the two little kids off to daycare then swung by one of our fields that has a weather station in it that was slightly malfunctioning.  I annoyed my oldest daughter, who had been watching The Muppets on my iPhone, and took the phone back so that I could stand in the middle of the field and call the professor from North Dakota State University that is working with us on this research project and confirmed that a deer had NOT knocked the weather station over and the solar panel is fully functioning and we got the issue figured out. 

NDSU Weather Station. Part of a project with NDSU and the Natural Resources Conservation District and Soil Conservation Service.

Delighted to find this shriveled, decomposing purple top turnip in one of the research plot with cover crops.
It's doing it's job well by decomposing and leaving behind nutrients in the soil!

- I got the big girl off to school at by this time it was ELEVEN O'CLOCK.  I realized the pickup was nearly out of gas so I fueled up, tried my best to scrub the mud off of the headlights and brake lights while it was filling up and then I bolted home to clean up for a luncheon.

- I traded my jeans, hooded sweatshirt and stocking cap, for a nice cardigan and heels, and headed downtown for the annual Ag Week Luncheon the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce puts on.  I turned up the heat in the vehicle as high as I could get it and set the vents to blast in my face and fluffed/dried my hair on the way across town.

- I shook hands with the movers and shakers in our local ag industry, and sat down to have lunch, a few feet away from our Mayor and the Governor of North Dakota.

- After lunch, I discussed development of ag policy, leadership training for young people in agriculture, promoting agriculture through social media and a new multi-million dollar ethanol plant project with the Governor.

- I then headed home to get all the work done that I hadn't gotten done this morning, meanwhile contemplating my "double life".

- When I pulled into the garage I put up a sign in front of my pickup that says "Turn Lights Off!".

- That's my day in a nutshell.  How has yours been? :-)

  Sarah :-)

Another Reason to Drink Milk!

One of my favorite publications is Disney's Family Fun Magazine.  There are TONS of ideas for, well, family fun....crafts, activities, recipes, etc.  Our local library has a subscription, so I get it read it for FREE!

In the past I have been disappointed in other family/parenting magazines for regurgitating misinformation and scare tactics from environmental and animal rights activist groups about food and agriculture.

That's why I nearly jumped for joy when I saw this recent article called "Another Reason to Drink Milk"!

THANK YOU Family Fun Magazine for sharing a POSITIVE story about milk! 

My family "back home" in Maryland raises dairy cattle and we graze dairy cattle here on our farm in North Dakota, so I know how hard dairy farmers work to get that milk from the cow to the kitchen table and how dedicated they are to making high quality products.

Featured on page 47 of the February 2012 issue of Family Fun Magazine!

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 :)

Apfelschorle!

I first tasted "Apfelschorle" at a farm museum in Germany.

 It was a beautiful place, overlooking a picturesque valley.

I could have spent a week there, but we only had a few hours, which included one of my favorite hours, the lunch hour :)

My fellow McCloy fellow in agriculture, Erin, introduced me to this wonderful drink. 

Here's what Wikipedia says about Apfelschorle (pronounced Ahp-fell-shore-luh).

"Apfelschorle, also known as Apfelsaftschorle, is a popular soft drink in Germany. It consists of carbonated mineral water and apple juice. The broader category Fruchtschorle consists of any fruit juice mixed with carbonated water, but Apfelschorle is by far the most common. Spritzer (that is wine mixed with carbonated water) is called Weinschorle.

Apfelschorle contains fewer calories and is less sweet than pure apple juice. This makes it popular in summer and among athletes. Commercially available Apfelschorle generally contains between 55% and 60% juice.... However, in most bars and restaurants, Apfelschorle is mixed ad hoc from apple juice and carbonated water."

I make it at home...a lot...ever since I introduced my children to "the special drink".

I love that it is bubbly like soda and not as sugary.

And it's SO simple to make!

1 part apple juice.

1 part sparkling water. (I found the "Mendota" brand at our local grocery store called Hugo's)

If you REALLY want to knock the kiddos' socks off, serve it in a wine glass, just make sure it's a wine glass you don't mind having broken. I don't know about your place, but my kids break stuff. all. the. time.  :-)

When served in a wine glass, Apfelschorle can also make a pregnant lady feel like she's drinking something alcoholic.  Not that I really NEEDED something alcoholic when I was pregnant, but it just felt nice to have that glass stem in my hand :)

Also, my oldest daughter, C.W., takes the ingredients for Apfelschorle when she's "snack kid" at her pre-school.  She has done this three times and it's always a big hit! 

However, I found out that this last time she was "snack kid" some of her classmates requested to only have the sparkling water.  When I asked WHY they only wanted the sparkling water she informed me that "it made them burp a lot".  Uhuh.

Well, I THOUGHT Apfelshorle may somehow impose some class and culture on them, but leave it to kids to just be kids! LOL! :)

Have fun making Apfelshorle!  Special THANKS to American apple growers, like my friend in Michigan, Jeff Vanderwerff !

Thanks for stopping by,
Sarah :)

Bang, crash!...well, what do we have here?

I sort, I wash, I dry, I fold, but I don't empty pockets.  When I do laundry, I figure if you wore it, and you put stuff in the pockets, it is your job to take the stuff out before you put your clothes in the hamper.

This can be dangerous, considering I'm married to a farmer.

However, it's also entertaining, considering he still wears the clothes that had the permanent marker in the pocket, and yes, I still wear the clothes that had the pink Chapstick in the pocket.  So this is NOT me pointing fingers, but I do want to tell you about one particularly exciting, and downright shocking, experience I recently had with our clothes dryer.

Here we go...

A few of these items are fairly standard...

Carpenter's Pencil.  Yes, to be a farmer you must be a "jack of all trades"...carpenter, plumber, electrician, welder, accountant, agronomist, chemist, biologist, wildlife behavior and nutrition expert, human resource manager, etc.

Pretty standard stuff here.  A few washers and a screw, although I'm surprised I didn't get a puncture wound from that one.

Alan Wrench, left over from the assembly of the crib.  Farmers, with their "jack of all trades" talents and their "I've seen in all, so this is no big deal" senses of humor, make GREAT husbands and are WONDERFUL fathers, if you don't mind the constant flow of mud/grease/dirt/smell of diesel fuel into your home, can be a mostly-single Mom 9 months of the year, and can handle phone calls like "Um, Jeremy's driving himself to the emergency room and he's bleeding pretty badly, you might want to meet him there." :-)

Told you I wasn't going to point fingers. Check out this collection of bobby pins I found...yep, those are mine :)

Pretty pink hair accessories...the kids certainly help with the collection of goodies that is building up in my laundry room.

 But NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING prepared me for the sound of what I thought was the dryer self-destructing and possibly igniting into a fiery ball of lint and Carhartt coveralls.  I had just put in a load of work clothes, and I do mean WORK clothes.  This load was so muddy they could have stood up on their own, and they bore the smell of manure from when Jeremy helped the neighbors move some heifers (young female bovines). 

All I heard was this HORRIBLE banging and crashing. I took a deep breath, opened the door of the dryer and what to my wondering eye did appear, but ten HUGE nails!  Together they must weigh a pound.

What the...!!??

It may be time for me to add a new step in my laundry routine...checking pockets :)

Oh, and here's a fun game for this Marvelous Monday, I'll send ten bucks (seriously) to the person can identify this item that I found in my dryer. I bet my fellow farming Mama's will be able to identify it, and I'm betting I'm not the first parent who's had a kiddo rip one of these off.

  

Have a GREAT week everyone!  - Sarah :)

p.s. And if you're having a not-so-marvelous Monday, consider this...

"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." - Peter 5:7, NIV.

My Baby Made Me Clean My Desk

This past week has been C-R-A-Z-Y!

I'm coordinating a conference that's 100 miles away next week and we've had everything from pinkeye, to the stomach flu, to chest colds, come through the house taking out one or more members of my family at a time.  Did I mention my dear husband (who I am very proud of) was out of town for three days while speaking at the Manitoba-North Dakota Zero Tillage Farmer's Association conference?


Here's what I looked like a few days ago:


(photo from http://www.cgiardini.com/)

I was lovely, really lovely.  The bonus is that I only had pinkeye in ONE eye, so instead of looking totally albino, I just looked like I was in a bar fight. 

At one point last week, I commented that I had so many irons in the fire, I was surprised my whole desk hadn't burst into flames.

A friend commented back, that it was actually National Clean Off Your Desk Day.

It really was.

Ha...ha...ha... :-)

I thought, clean off my desk!? WHEN am I going to have time to do THAT!?

And then it happened.

Baby boy got his 6 months shots, was up all night Monday night with a fever and had to stay home from daycare yesterday. 

However, I still had a TON of work to get done.

So here's the view from my desk chair yesterday...



















Oh you can't imagine the joy my litle assistant got from ripping papers off my desk and flinging them onto the floor, giggling/shrieking/squealing the whole time!

It was AMAZING how quickly I got my desk cleaned off and files put away that I've been wanting to file for months :)

He can't talk yet, but it was in fact, my baby that made me clean my desk.

Today, I breath a sigh of relief.  Baby is well again. Desk is clean.  Ahhhh.....

Now it's back to work for me!

Thanks for stopping by! - Sarah :)