Another Typical Day

A day in the life...

8:00 a.m. Walk over to our office next door. Linda our secretary is having a root canal so I'm on my own today. Linda has worked for us for over 19 years and is the glue that holds our ranch together, without her I'm convinced we would literally fall apart.

8:15 My dad comes in with a stack of bills- his daily routine. The phone rings several times. My brother brings in a new Mr. Coffee and starts to brew a pot in the kitchen (our office has a kitchen which we use during harvest and working cattle).

8:20 An anonymous (the name has been omitted to protect the embarrassed) person announces their visiting relative, a vet, is neutering the family dog on their dining room table. Astonished? Me? Not much...it's a typical day.

8:25 Three more males make their way into the room and a group discussion begins on the complex maneuvering of cattle, people, and trucks-from one pasture to the other; from grass to wheat; from wheat to grass; from one state to the other.

8:30 A neighbor and his wife stop. They ask if we're missing a water buffalo; they have an extra in their pasture. I call and check. No missing water buffalo...not that we know of. Shocked? Me? Not much...it's a typical day.

8:45 Crawl into the Mack (a truck) and head north with hubby to haul cattle to the sale.

9:20 Arrive 35 miles north to a remote homestead which we've renovated and lease to hunters. The guys start sorting old-dry (they're not expecting) cows from the young ones. I visit with a hunter's son and a friend about their deer hunting and their show calves which they'd hauled with them (they had taken them to a show on Saturday and had them penned in the corral) The show calves looked really out of place-fat and sassy-next to the thin old dry cows we were hauling

9:30 Deer Hunting Season. Need I say more about the actions of some "packing" men...and women? We arrive with the cattle at the destination pasture greeted by a group of individuals displaying some of the unsavory actions which accompany the overzealous hunter. Remember the movie Deliverance? Remember the movie Open Range? Let's just say the encounter we had with the "packing" individuals hung somewhere in between. Uneasy? Me? YES...this ISN'T typical and it's a relief to unload and drive away.

10:45 We head back north to load another group of cattle. After loading we make the 40 mile trip to Woodward where we unload. After unloading we drive north of town to the "wash out" to clean out the rented cattle trailer. This is a giant "car wash" for manure filled truck trailers. These wash outs are rare jewels in the cattle hauling truck world. If this one had been closed we would have been forced to drive to the next closest 60 miles away.

2:30 So much for eating at my favorite Mexican restaurant; we're stuck at the truck wash out and eat at their little cafe. Queasy? Me?...maybe a little but I'm used to the smell plus it is extremely clean and the chicken fry is excellent.

3:30 We're headed back home, but not before making another trip to return the trailer.

5:00 We drop the trailer off east of Fairview where we visit a while with relatives---I swap recipes and Brad swaps stories and ideas.

7:30 p.m. We're finally home. Brad heads to the family room and I head to the frig where I stare mindlessly at its ingredients. After a few minutes I conjure up a new recipe; Corn Meal Crepes with Broccoli Sausage Cheese Soup.
Tired? Me? Yes...it's a typical day---But I wouldn't trade boots with anyone.

Random Thoughts

Do You Know?

What color your face can turn when your dad tells the hospital receptionist that she resembles one of the homliest national public female figures you know then tries to get you to agree with him---which you don't...reassuring the poor lady you see no resemblance?

How wonderful it is to visit with your adult children one on one, all alone, all day long and reconnect?

How great it feels to have your whole family, all 19, arrive at church at the same time?

How important your small town is to the survival of America?

What a challenge it is to stay girly in a guys world?

The gratitude you owe your dad for insisting you attend church every Sunday (a.m and p.m.-no questions asked)?

What it feels like to let your 3 year old granddaughter paint your nails with hot pink Hello Kitty nail polish (which should be sold in the professional spa section because it won't come off) forget you're wearing it, then realize how tacky it looks while fine dining with friends?

What a blessing daughter-in-laws are?

How good it feels to have a family picture taken and everyone shows up, all 19 of them?

What a blessing son-in-laws are?

How much fun your mother can be?

The satisfaction of pulling a loaf of homemade bread from the oven and covering a slice with your own homemade jam?

How important the 2% of our U.S. farmers and ranchers are to the survival of 100% of America and the world?

How much fun your pastor can be?

How good "catching up" feels-on bookwork, housework, church work, yard work etc.?

The fatigue a farmer and rancher feels at sunset..and sunrise?

That farmers and ranchers (and a certain husband I know) are made of "tough stuff, don't sleep much, can get kicked repeatedly by cows,calves and bulls, yet get back in the pen, fix your heater-faucet and leaky roof, abort their dreams and goals for the good of their families and still appear cheery?

What a blessing sons and daughters are...all 4 of them?

What A Super Duper Blessing Grandchildren are...all 9 of them(thanks to the super kids and their super spouses)?

The importance of rural fire departments?

That microphones can literally suck the brains right out of your head?

How strong the bond between a brother and sister can be?

The importance of listening. Listening to stories of the past; our grandparent's, our nation's, our world's, our creator's, for strength and solidity of strong families and nations.

That finding the "perfect handbag" is futile and costly?

The value of the hidden collective wisdom that can be found at your local nursing home, if you would only take the time to seek it?

That laughter is good medicine and if this made you smile read again every four hours as needed :)

Sunday dinner is a big deal around here...I mean literally. When all of us get together there can be upwards of 20+ mouths to feed. Yesterday I served Beef and Beans, Homemade Whole Wheat Bread and for dessert-Oatmeal Cake. I doubled this recipe and had enough to take to friends today. Enjoy!
OATMEAL CAKE
1 cup Old Fashioned Oats
1 1/2 cups boiling water
Mix and let set for 10 to 15 minutes
Cream Together:
1/2 shortening or use (1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup oil)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
Add:
2 beaten eggs to oat mixture
Then Add:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp soda
1/2 salt
1 tsp cinnamon
Bake in greased 9 X 11 inch pan for 30 minutes at 250 degrees
I don't usually top mine but if you want the recipe is below
Topping:
5 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cream
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Spread on cake after done then return to over to toast about 5 minutes or until brown. You can use the broiler, but watch so it doesn't burn.

Movin' On Up

God Bless America

I can see a rainbow at the end of this confusing last two years...
2Ch 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land
Keep Praying America and visit constitutingamerica.com

A Tale of Two Messages

HERE'S A MESSAGE...COWBOYS LOVE THEIR ANIMALS
I'm beginning to stay perpetually confused. It started...oh I'd say about 6 months ago. It revolves around Social Media. Last year I was gung ho. I was told to share my ranch/agriculture story via social media in an attempt to educate consumers about where their food comes from, so I started a blog. A little later I was urged to create a personal website (our ranch had one but a more personal one would be better), so created chainranchlady. My blog didn't want to follow me to my website, so I just let it stay there and started writing stories in it. All the while my website continued to grow.
A few months later an increasing, almost frantic, concern that animal activists were destroying our livelihood I started a Facebook page to get that message out. Before long that too was growing. On top of that I threw in Twittering and Tweeting...also an attempt to warn the public about animal activists threats.
Where does the confusion come from...my audiences are all different. I feel like Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde...I'm not sure.
I'm "hacked" when I read and post animal activists and government agendas against agriculture on Facebook. Then it's really, really hard to turn around "slap on a happy face" and tell a positive ag story to the rest of the world.
I'm compelled to tell both of these stories. I must. I have no choice...my family's livelihood depends on it.
I'll sort it out...it's just taking a while. Ag Chat Training has helped, I'm mapping a plan, trying to focus, working on being congenial to the masses---but I was just wondering...does anyone own "The Three Faces of Eve?"

Fair Time

We've entered every year for as long as I can remember. Fairs are the chance for rural Americans to show off. Most of us are pretty humble throughout the year but come August and September watch out, because the gloves come off. Bread making, picture taking, fruit preserving and cattle,chicken,hog,sheep and goat showing become cut throat competition. Our county is known for STIFF competition on just about anything you enter. We have 20 consecutive year bread baking champions, 30 consecutive year canned pickle, peach, pear,green bean champions. Fair warning to other 3-5 year old entrants...these girls mean business.

The Next Generation-Seven of What?

To the crew here at home I’m viewed as kind of a “Ranch Office Seven of Nine” When it comes to technology I get asked the questions. They’re not hard questions,non-the-less,I run the technology side of the “Ranch Voyager”. That feeling was lost this past week when I wound up with a group of high tech ag chatting, social media gurus. I left Oklahoma with Dino, my 35 pound laptop, feeling very tech efficient. I boarded a train and headed north to attend the Ag Chat Foundation 2.0 Training at the Dairy Management Institute in Rosemont, IL.
Arriving at the DMI pulling Dino in a rolling carrier the “Seven of Nine” feeling left and a “Wilma Flintstone loading her record player via a bird” feeling set in. One look at the teeny tiny lap tops, Kindles, the quick fingered texting, tweeting and twittering and I was suddenly embarrassed. I left Dino in his sleek, black leather carrier, pulled him around all the first day…and took notes.

In March of last year, Ag Chat Foundation was founded by Michele Payn-Knoper and 7 other individuals, including 26 board members with a mission to encourage the agriculture family to tell their stories, and share their passion. The core message of this diversified ag group; “It doesn’t matter the size of our operations or the commodities raised, agriculture has a common goal- we provide food, fiber and fuel to the world and we must unite and tell our positive stories instead of allowing anti-ag groups to continue to portray us negatively”.
This past week I met with around 50 other social media agriculture individuals from across the nation in a training session designed to empower us to tell our positive ag stories. On the third Tuesday of each month Ag Chat meets online to discuss issues facing our ag industry.
Following is just a glimpse into the presentations by a few of the speakers who urged us to create a road map for agriculture’s success.

California beef/equine producer, Jeff Fowle, reminded us that we all have a story, and we need to use that passion to tell our positive ag stories. He reminded us that we are inundated with technology but what keeps us “special” is humanity. Passion for our industry distinguishes us from the anti animal ag sector. Passion and emotion for our industry can’t be bought; activists can’t take that away from us. He encouraged us to indentify our own talents and utilize social media tools we are most comfortable using. Two questions Jeff told us to ask ourselves;
“What are our objectives?” and “What do we want on our road maps?”

Missouri pork producer, Chris Chin’s message: “Our nation’s food security depends on agriculturists telling our own stories.” This was Chris’ message who also stated that we had gathered this week because of agriculture; we’re not all alike but we share a commonality…Survival of Agriculture. She shared personal stories that had affected her family’s life, including death threats when her family began construction of a more humane, efficient confined hog facility in their community. Thinking that the rural ag community understood agriculture, they chose not to confront negative media coverage which ranged from individuals who said they’d witnessed manure being dumped into local water, witnessed it coming out of their faucets and a local individual’s need to wear a mask when going outside of her home because of the stench… these reports being expressed before any hogs were confined on the property. Chris shared the fact that her family had missed the mark by allowing someone else to tell their version of their story. The public was misinformed and continued circulating negative stories; her family had been scared to tell their story. All of that has changed. Today they use social media, T.V. and local tours to portray the image they want portrayed.
Chris explained another wake up call to tell ag’s story sharing other experiences while sitting in on National EPA meetings. These stories included a vegetarian thinking it was O.K. to eat chicken wings because “they grew back” to conversations with a U.S. Ag liaison to the EPA stating that if Chris really cared about her pigs she would have left them in the care of a spa similar to the one she’d arranged for her dog, After Chris asked the ag representative to explain a “puppy spa”, since their were none in her rural community, the woman explained that the spa included a Safari theme room, personalized menus, phone calls to the owner and choices of shampoos.
Today Chris faces more negative ag issues including her school district’s decision to incorporate “meatless Wednesdays” and addressing issues such as the fact that animal activist’s videos are contributing to young “ tween” (ages 10-12) girl’s decision to become vegetarians.
Below is a small summary from my notes. Each speaker shared abundant knowledge, great ideas and informative messages.

Summarization of Tips & FYI
• PCRM is the Health and Awareness arm of PETA (A chart exists showing the connection of all animal activists, their names and acronyms)
• We must throw ourselves on stage, someone has to do it (tell ag’s story) no one else will do it for us.
• We need to express ourselves individually with a unified consistent message.
• Before we can tell our story, we must have a message they can trust, consumers must trust the messenger.
• Ways we can increase trust in mainstream Americans: (1) Education (show them we care) (2) Communicate honesty (3) Show transparency- Be Yourself.
• Show consumers that we’re striving to provide safe, affordable food for not only our families but theirs as well.(this isn’t extreme, we’re already doing it)
• We are actually speaking to Middle America; we aren’t going to change the extremist, so we must educate those Americans. Most Americans want to feel good about the food they’re purchasing for their families. We need to work hard on making it O.K. to purchase conventional food that isn’t cage free, grass fed, organic etc. These foods have their place, but we cannot sustain the world on them.
• Once we educate consumers about us, they will not only understand agriculture but they will probably appreciate what we do for them; today they’re just misinformed.
• We must not think of our conversations with them as arguments but as chances for discussions to explain what we do. We want to have conversations not a fight.
• An interesting study has shown consumers weren’t so concerned about feeding the world as they were about feeding the U.S.
• In creating messages that work, positive value based communication works best: Be positive (know what drives your passion), Be genuine.
• In Social Media- listen to understand where the person is coming from, then use a value based commonality to engage with them instead of using an “educating” attempt to get your message across. Ask yourself what do we both “share” in common?
• Build a foundation of Goodwill. Be proactive instead of reactive.
• It’s important to “read’ your audience, talk about your strengths, and measure your response with what they actually know about the subject you are discussing. Listen 80%, talk 20%.
• It’s important to “Connect Ag’s Good” inject it in conversations every chance you get. (example: “I know John Brown and they’re good stewards of their animals.”) Look for opportunities to “Give Ag a Boost.” And don’t throw your neighbor under the bus!
• Use pictures to tell your story. Studies showed consumers loved pictures with family on the farm vs feedlot pictures. In picture taking and in hosting public events make sure your farm, ranch, cars, people, animals are at their “best.”
• Interesting research showed that consumers thought farmers were men, they thought they were nurturing and they thought they were caring.
• They had images that we work hard; they want to trust us and thought we protect our families.
• There’s been a gap in consumer’s perception of what we do, and anti-ag has been filling the gap with how they want to portray us. We must bridge that gap with our positive image of agriculture.

This is just a glimpse of what I learned at the Ag Chat Foundation 2.0 Seminar. I can’t begin to explain it all.. Please tune into Social Media’s Ag Chat on the third Tuesday of each month and engage. You’ll love meeting these great Ag Advocates. Relationships will be made and strong bonds created to move agriculture through these difficult times. I’m back at the ranch, my “Seven” hat’s back on, I’ve penciled my roadmap for social media and my old friend, Dino, is back on my lap.
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