Farmer girl went off to talk about her project with some judges.  They look at her extensive book of information on her fields that was created over the last two years.  They ask her questions and guess what, she actually knows the answers!  This is unlike her mama who has been around farming for the last 22 years and I wish I knew half of what this girl does!

Good luck today girl.  You got this!  Farm on!

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What’s a trip to Springfield without a trip to Scheels?  What’s a trip to Scheels without a ride on the ferris wheel and a spin through the presidential characters and maybe even sitting through a simulated Nascar race?

This year may have been the last on the ferris wheel for this boy.  Not a fan of stopping at the top.  Just like his mama I guess.  

Then these animated, moving, realistic, totally awesome and completely creepy figures of the presidents.  

Eeek.  Not sure he was a fan of them either.  

We did manage to spend a mere 3 hundo on running shoes for the big kids’ upcoming track season. Now THAT is scary!

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Here is the update I included with this photo on the farm page: “God’s handiwork enlightens the sky as we apply #anhydrous to the soil of what is to be a field of corn this coming crop year. #plant17#heritagehappenings #justin“

All true.  The part I left out was that this is the first day or spring work.  So it signifies the beginning of a season of single parenting due to long work days for the hubs.  It means juggling kids’ activities alone.  Sitting on the sidelines by myself., cheering on my runners during their events alone!  The fight that ensues each night when I break it to the kindergartener that it is again….BATH TIME!  Ugh!  He hates bath time and he ain’t afraid to say it.  Loudly, with gusto.  This I have to endure alone. 

Also it means that those small honey-do items in the house will likely not get done until the end of June.  The reality of this photo taken on this day is that it is:

TIME OUT on LIFEand GAME ON for FARM WORK

I’m all in, I’ve got my uniform clean and ready, I’m a gamer and a veteran.

But the first day of field work each season is always a little bitter sweet.

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Before I get to feeling too badly and make you feel bad for him, and heaven forbid when he is older and reads this, I want to clarify.  He doesn’t miss out on a darn thing!!!  Not a thing.

Yes, he doesn’t get to do many of his own structured activities, but he does get to do cool things like work concession stands, hang out through praise band rehearsals, watch his siblings in various sporting events and learn so much from watching them and emulating them.

He is a happy boy and he makes us all so very happy too.  While working a track concession stand, he took a little break.  He came back into the building with this beautiful rock collection.  Gorgeous.  Thoughtful. Creative.  In his own little way.

 These were all in the pocket of his sweatpants.  Don’t ask me how they didn’t fall down around his tiny little hips under the weight of all of these rocks, but he managed to keep them up!

I’m a lucky mommy to have a kid that helps our his family an me so cheerfully, and even finds the magic in the rocks beside the concession stand.  

We somehow managed to leave all of these in the landscaping, but we did end up coming home with a Sour Patch Kid box and a box from Rice Krispie Treats.  Why?  Because they are “SO COOL MOM!”  Whatever makes him happy.  It’s not all about the structured activities.  Sometimes it’s in the littler things.

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Here they are working on a project about how nitrogen stays in the soil. Yep.  I can’t tell you much more about it, though I have asked lots of questions. I guess I just don’t share that passion so it doesn’t stick in my brain, but seeing moments like these between two of the people I love the most just warms this mama’s heart.

Besides that, somebody has to worry about the nitrogen and the weed pressure and the fertility and the runoff and the levels and the pH and all of that good stuff around here.  These two seem to be the perfect fit.

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He rode his bike to work, see it in the background? And oh ya, he picked out his own shoes. He probably worked 15 minutes and had 3 snacks and likely a potty break.  Love this little man.

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Well, our girl, being mature an all said….”let me think about it.”  Grr….come on, you are 9, just pick something girl!  And a few days later she said she wanted to show pigs.  Um….pigs?  We literally knew nothing about pigs.

And so it began…….fast forward about six years or so and a friend introduced up to livestock judging.  She was on a team, had a great coach and loved it.  It literally took one conversation and my girl was hooked.  It was her thing.  And off we went.  Another new venture.  We joined a team, the same one our friend was on and we drove our girl an hour and half to practices aka workouts.  We took her to competitions, we hung out at farms while she was with her coach.  We researched, we talked, we followed her lead.  

Last winter our girl’s team got third place in the Illinois State 4H Livestock Judging Contest.  The first place team gets to go on to compete at the American Royal in Kansas City.  The second place team goes on to compete at the National Western Livestock show in Denver Colorado.  Well, lucky for our team, the second place team had already been to Denver to complete for their one and only time, so the honor was passed to our team!!  Image the excitement!  We were headed to Denver!

In January of 2017 off they went to Denver to compete.  They, meaning not Mama and Daddy.  Just the team and their coaches.  Repeat not Mama and Daddy.  

Not US-Her. Alone without us.  This was another new experience for us.  Another example of our laser focused, sharp, confident and capable girl was off with her team to Denver for several days.  

Here they are….your 4th pace team. I’m going to post a link to the results here, not necessarily for you all (um, the 4 of you who actually read this) but for me, well us….to look back on and recall the excitement when our team did a very nice job representing Illinois!

Photo thanks to Sue!

You know what, our family maybe knows a little about horses.  I mean you could say horses are two or three generations deep around here.  But pigs, sheep and cattle.  Nope.  Our girl is figuring that out on her own.  And she is rocking it!  We are so proud.  Not of her performance (of course we are proud of that) but we are proud of her confidence, her poise, her drive, her determination and her passion.  She’s a gem. 

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This was one of those life changing trips for Great Grandma.  Her name is Dorothy.  We call her Dorty,  Dorty often spoke of her friends who lived on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma.  How “the boys” visited a few times in their childhood and rode the horses and met the ranch boys.  These “boys” are now in their 40’s and have kids and wives and a couple horses, pigs, dogs and cats of their own and run a nice little farming operation together in Illinois.   These boys are my husband and his brother.  I’ve seen photos of their tiny blonde toe heads horseback in expansive pastures of tall Oklahoma prairie some 30 plus years ago.  Adorable.

The grown farm brothers, well one of them, was able to visit with the ranch brothers on their Oklahoma ranch.  Grandma was over-the-moon happy to have reunited these two families, if only for a weekend.  Four generations now have fond memories of riding horseback in those OK pastures now.  And Dorty was happy. In OK. 

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I despise gambling (boring and a painful to lose money.)

It is FREEZING in those casinos.

Nutso, nobody sleeps!! (Remember we met those people we know and they hadn’t been to bed yet and it was 10 AM, 10 IN THE AM!!! What the heck?)

But you know what…..it was AMAZING!!!!!!!

 Remember when I made you take a million selfies?  Because my make-up was ON POINT!

Remember, the girls got a regular cab ride and the boys pulled up in this dually limo and we were jealous of you boys?  Sweet ride!

Remember I took a few photos of strange men because I like their outfits?  For realsies, that is a good looking get up there! (Actually a little light on the starch and crease, but hey, ain’t nobody perfect!)

Remember all those dumb selfies?

Rember honey why we went?  It wasn’t to gamble and loose our money or hang out in the casinos or stay up all night.  We went to the NATIONAL FINALS RODEO ON SATURDAY NIGHT BAAAABY!!!  Holy cow I was on top of the world!!  Countin’ it as one of the many highlights of my life.  Right up there with birthing three babies, marrying a superman and Piatt County Rodeo Queen back in the day.

Remember when I just wanted to stand in this crowd and listen to the thump of the base and the strum of the guitar and watch the cowboys and cowgirls?  

And how I realized I am one of those people who would lay their body on the sub woofer if I could? 

Remember how we bought alot of boots and like 22 pairs of jeans for you.  Sup with that?

And how we took alot of selfies.  Remember, mama’s make-up was pretty twelve o’clock.

Love ya my Cowboy (farmer. whatever close enough.)

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It’s our little tradition to pack our trailers and trucks and campers and hotel rooms full of food and stuff, moms and dads and lots of kids.  And lots of food.  Did I say lots of food?  Lots of kids eat lots of food.  We set up shop at the Illinois State Fair!

Yes, it’s about showing the animals that we have been working on.

Yes, it’s the big crescendo before school starts.

Yes, it’s fair food, and 4H milkshakes.

But a big part of it is these 9 kids right here and how blessed they are to have each other in their lives.

See, their moms have been friends for at least 167 years.  There dads were all AGRs (fraternity boyzzzzzz) and friends (2 at ISU and one U of I alum, but an AGR is and AGR:) 

  You see, this crew, we are deep and wide and long.  A win for one is a win for all.  Likewise a tough loss for one in the ring echos through the camp.

These kids rush from the cattle show ring to the sheep and over to the swine ring watching each other do their thing. Each willing to wash, carry or trim or lead the other’s animal if needed.  Each loving each other in a genuine, unpretentious way that makes their mamas and daddies proud.  

Friends since birth.  Through thick and thin.

YEAH!  IT’S ALMOST HERE!!!  

ISF 2016!!

SSS

(Sorry so sappy, I blame it on these photos we shot last year that keep popping up.)

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