Here is the update on the great World Dairy Expo 2011 and my grand adventure to Madison, WI.

5 am Friday morning my Father and I left our house to set off for a tour of UW-Madison. At 9:30 we finally found our way out of the parking garage and to the ag. building we were meeting in. Since we were a half hour early for our 10 o'clock tour, my dad decided we should walk around the building. Apparantly 20 feet into our walk we looked lost and one of the profressors there stopped us and asked if he could help us, we looked lost. It turned out the this proffessor was a dairy science prof. (the same area I was looking at at the school) and he told us a little more about the dairy department and took us to meet the head honcho of the dairy department. This was the guy that could give me lots of money was how i was introduced. He later told me that I was "special and diverse" because I was from Minnesota (basically because I talked funny) and interested in dairy science. We finally made it back to the ag. building for our tour. I was on the Madison campus last year for NDC and it didn't seem that big then, but let me tell you, it definitely was this time! When we finished the tour it took us a half hour to find the parking garage. The fact that this campus was so big was almost an immediate deciding factor that made me not want to be a Badger. But, I must commend the Madison prof. that took his time to make sure my dad and I weren't lost, and to help us learn more about my specific area of interest.

Then we moved on the WDE, now we have never gotten there at 1 pm before but we had to park over a half mile away from the grounds. We were lucky enough to get a ride on a trolley on the way in but no way did we get one on the way out! My dad was beside himself! But we still got to see all that the dairy industry has to offer and the newest technology. I even got to see my lovely sister :) Besides being sick and feeling like I was going to die that night, it was a terrific day.

Saturday was the national dairy quiz bowl competition. My team and I were first (out of three) but it was still a national contest so it still makes us sound really good. That took about an hour or so. Then we had to rest of the day to look around while we waited for the supreme champion to be named. This was my idea because I seem to have the knack for show cows while my parents just like cows that make milk. But i was thrilled! Show cows are really my weak point, put me in a barn full of them and i could spend all day admiring these great animals, that are realistically placed on this planet just to look good. (what a life). We saw Eastside Lewisdale Gold Missy from Alberta, Canada be named supreme champion of the 2011 World Dairy Expo, jumped in the car and were in home 4 hours later.

I love world dairy expo!!
I'll update you on my great trip to Indianapolis, Indiana in a few days, it was a terrific trip.
Have a safe and happy halloween!

the land of chocolate, cows, and amish

As Grace has begun to continuously nag me about updating the blog I finally will get around to doing it. So here it is, the blog update on my trip to the wonderful state of Pennsylvania and the All-American Dairy Show.

Well if you can recall at the beginning of the September my dairy judging team won a trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to the All-American Dairy Show held there. 2 weeks ago me, my 3 teammates, a coach and a teammates dad drove the 16 hours to Pennsylvania. We left friday night at 11:30 and arrived there around 3. That night we travelled to Gettysburg to look at the battlefields. Sunday morning we took 45 minutes to get to a farm that was 6 minutes from our hotel. We judging 3 classes with not enough time to judge them and ate a very nice lunch. That afternoon we travelled to Hershey and toured the chocolate plant. it was a very impressive mechanical tour. We then went to New Holland, which they told us was just a short drive, an hour and a half later we got there. But it was all worth it.

Monday morning, we woke up, ate our poptarts and set out for the judging contest. We ended up judging 10 classes of animals (which is a lot considering the most I've ever judged is six) and gave 4 sets of reasons (also a lot, but I ended up having too much time between sets and overmemorized). We went back to the hotel, watched friends, and were almost late to the awards. We ate a very nice dinner and waited to find out how we did. In the end, I was 1st in ayrshire (only ever judged ayrshires a handful of times in my life), our team was first in ayrshire, 3rd in brown swiss, and 1st in guernsey. Wouldn't you know that the 2 breeds we see the most often we did the worst in. We weren't in the top 5 for holstein or jersey. Individually, I was 5th overall and our team was 5th overall. Pretty good for a national contest. I was satisfied. We left at 5:30 from our hotel and arrived back to our coaches house around 9:30. I was home by 10.

Needless to say it was quite the experience, I definitely don't ever need to go on a van ride with an inconsiderate person who puts their seat back all the way the whole entire trip all 32 hours. It was fun to look at high quality cattle and to get to judge one last time for 4-H this year. Plus!! bonus showcase points next year! :)

It's sad though that I will never be able to judge FFA dairy again because last year I won, even though they didn't announce my name. I feel like i got chipped!! what's up with that?? well, enough of my ranting. Saturday we're in Madison, WI for national dairy quiz bowl. We'll see how that goes, hopefully well but no promises. Happy World Dairy Expo!! :)

Meet the strange looking calves

well, i have quite the dilemma having lost my camera cord (which of course i put in a place that i would never lose it, guess what?) to upload pictures of our newest additions. Chloe and Gloria.
So i guess I will just have to tell you about them and hope I find my cord lately.
Chloe and Gloria are 4 month old Boer goats. This simply means that they are meat goats. They were born around Memorial day and arrived at our house on August 20th. Chloe has a black head and is the smaller of the two, so it's only fitting that she would be my goat. Gloria is way bigger with a brown head, so of course she is grace's. I can't even pick up gloria anymore.
Now, how did you get goats? you may ask. Well, i told my dad that i wanted goats at the beginning of the summer just because I thought it would be fun. He told me to ask the vet. After having that conversation I sorta decided that I didn't really need them because I just wanted to play with them.
Well, we went to my cousin's wedding on August 20th, and we arrived home from the wedding and what were those funny looking things taking up my calf hutch but 2 goats!!
Since we got them, I have tried to walk them at least once every 2 weeks. It basically resulted in Grace and I thinking we were going to kill them so we just picked them up and walked them to the barn to show our mom that we could walk them that far. Grace has since not walked them. I learned that I need to let the goat think that it's in charge when walking her, so I put on her dog collar and leash and stand behind her. She then runs around the hutch trying to get back in with her friend, and of course there's me, super slow and out of shape, chasing after a goat that has ten times more energy than me. I'm sweating by the end of this excercise and the goat just seems very upset with me.
I will continue to see how good I can get them trained and keep you posted. Maybe grace will have to try again.
I have more to update on but for now that's all. Have a terrific week!

State Fair Review Pt. 2

So I did part 1 review last week so I figure I should do part 2 review this week.

Friday morning at 5 am my father and I loaded up the trailer with 2 heifers and headed to the state fair. We got there at 6:15 and I was done with bedding and washing by 8, just about the same time everyone else in our chapter showed up so I went and helped them unload too. After that, Friday was kinda dull, nothing really happened that was exciting just sat in the barn with some FFA buddies.

Saturday is show day! I got up at 5:30 and get everything washed and bedded and fed. I did showmanship and was 4th in that, I was in 3rd or honorable mention until my heifer decided not to move at just the right moment but what can you do. I usually get kicked out of FFA showmanship so I was just pleased to be in the top 8. I showed both heifers and was 8th out of 16 with my fall calf and 3rd out of 4 with my summer yearling. I watched a beef show, walked around, and went to bed exceptionally early that night at the prime hour of 8:30, pathetic I know (it was worth it though).

Sunday morning is 4-H dairy judging contest. I got up at 5:30 to make myself look half way decent for staying at the state fair the night before while my lovely sister Grace Margaret washed and bedded and took care of my chores for me. (really the only reason I convinced her to chaperone us for FFA weekend). I judged 6 classes and gave 3 sets of reasons. We were done at 12 and went to lunch at Old Country Buffet where I ate WAY too much and went back to the U for results. Now, I was really aiming for top 25 individuals because that's where I usually am and it's a good place to be. They announced 25 through 11 and they still didn't announce me so I figured I musta done pretty bad then. Then they announce that I was 8th place! I was super surprised and excited because that meant that I would probably get to go to Louisville, Kentucky with the top individuals not on a 1st or 2nd place team. Then Maria, my teammate, was announced as 7th place and David as 5th place. Therefore we had to have done pretty well. They announce the top teams and they announced Dakota county as 3rd and with just one more point Rice county was 2nd! Sweet that means we get to go to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 2 weeks! I suppose I should mention that Steele county was 1st with 4 more points than us.

So, we're heading to Pennsylvania on the 17th of September for the contest on the 19th. Now that I'm only slightly freaked out by the thought of 5 sets of reasons! 5 sets!! Now, I can talk but I can't talk THAT much! we'll see how it goes.

Monday, we didn't do much just watched a fellow chapter member win supreme champion beef and wait for our trailers to get there so we could go home. I got home, did chores, and went to bed to prepare to be at school at 7 am because I think I should be involved in school! bad idea!

that's all i've got for now, I tell you more about harrisburg in a couple weeks along with our new additions chloe and gloria when I find time.

state fair review part 1

well, it's been a while since i actually posted anything on here so here goes state fair review part 1.

Wednesday: we load up animals and head to the state fair. wash cattle and get things settled in. i watched princess kay of the milky way coronation which is the dairy princess for the whole state of minnesota. and that was about it.

Thursday: got up and did chores once again. I then proceeded to sit in the same spot from 9 until 12 picking up manure from behind the cows for herdsmanship. i know, sounds like great fun. then of course me being me i had to socialize with all my friends from beef and dairy.

Friday much of the same thing between herdsmanship from 9 to 11 and many other things. I had a workshop interview called fun with dairy foods where we made butter and ice cream. Then i had to take a test with 20 questions on it. I got 15 of them right which from what i've heard is one of the higher scores. I went back to the barns and found out that I was a finalist for the interviews which means I had to go to another group interview. While at this one, me and about 8 other kids sat in a circle and discussed issues currently affecting the dairy industry. It was very interesting to hear other people's opinions. I found out that I wasn't an interview winner but I did get a free polo out of the deal, one which i will never wear and that can hang in the closet next to the other 5 i have. I then watched the beef show and a kid from our county recieve reserve champion cow/calf pair. (i showed that cow at the county fair so it was definitely me that helped him win at state fair). Friday night was kind of boring after that. I did manage to actually walk up to the 4-H building which I don't think i've done for 2years and that was only because i was sleeping up there. It's quite the hike and exactly what i remember.

Saturday: show time! after i slept in a half hour after my alarm i go downstairs to find out that so have the boys and it's ok that i'm only a half hour late since they didn't get there until 6:15 and i was there at 5:30. We washed and bedded and then waited for their hair to dry so that we could do their toplines. My lovely sister grace helped me with mine and i might add that it looked extra good. I got in the show ring and was pulled into 2nd. Then we did a few more laps and i was pulled into first. This is exciting since there were 17 animals in the class and i was definitely just hoping for a blue since i had seen quite a few animals that I liked better than mine. But hey! who's to complain when you're heifer is first out of 17 and wins the class. not me! :) Then I had to go back into the ring for junior champ. which is just the champion of all the calves and heifers that aren't cows. I wasn't pulled out for that but that's alright because I was still really happy with 1st in my class. Then I had to do net merit, which i was excited about because grace or i have every plaque for this section from the time she started showing until now. Well, I did win again and the judge really liked my heifer once again. and reserver champion went to another kid in our county who i just happened to beat last year and he was all about how it was deja vu. Then came showmanship. I was really hoping to be a finalist in that as well but as it turns out my heifer didn't look relaxed in the ring. (whatever that means, what animals looks relaxed when you have a rope tied to their face and walk them around?)
After the show I stood in line to eat cookies for probably 20 minutes and had a few australian potatoes with my favorite national dairy conference people. We had to check the list for dairy showcase and there was my name for top 10! i was really excited since that meant that i got to get my heifer all looking good again and I only been in the top 25 before.
Now saturday night our plan was not to go to bed until like 4 in the morning because the herdsmen from every county don't have a curfew jsut have to check in every hour to say that they're there. So we made until like 2 because the lady checking us in told us that 'you should go to bed since you've had a long day.' this made me a little angry but i obliged.

Sunday: I do chores and get myself ready for the showcase. We get over there and i'm eating my cookies and milk and talking with my favorite people once again. They announce the top 25 through 11 and i'm thinking okay, i'll be number 10 so get ready. Well it turns out I wasn't 10, 9, 8, 7, or 6. They lined the remaining 5 up and I am number 5. Which doesn't really sound very exciting but this is a big deal for me! I ended up making $1,000 for the efforts I put into showing dairy and quiz bowl and judging. Thanks to sysco, MN Farm Bureau, and MN Soybean growers for sponsoring that amount of money. I'm still working on figuring out what I shall do with it. Probably save it for college. Animals were released at 3 and we didn't end up getting out of the state fair grounds until 6:15. But oh well, i like to soak it all in until next year. Oh wait, i'm going back for ffa next weekend. Stop by the cattle barns for a visit if you're there!

one for the record books

the rice 2011 county fair had to be the hottest and most humid fair on record in all of it's 100 and some years that it has been around.

We brought animals in at 8:45 to try to avoid it getting any hotter while they had to be on the trailer. I got them washed, fed and settled in by 11. I had a beef and dairy interview to go to and then worked in the food stand for an hour. Beef weigh-in was at 4 and get this! my dairy steer weighed 1500 pounds!! and they claim that the scale was light! that's a big boy! he gained an average of 3.5 pounds a day since february til now. I tried to keep them cool by spraying them down and watering every hour.

Wednesday morning was the open class youth dairy show. I was 7th with my fall calf, 1st with my summer yearling and reserve champion overall cow. Pretty good for a show on such a hot day. Wednesday afternoon was the 4-H beef show, i did work up the courage to show another cow/calf pair only this time i took the cow. I made it out of the ring with no mishaps. The Purfeersts even asked me to show one of their cow/calf pairs with their nephew kyle, and it didn't even do anything wrong. I got 3rd out of 5 with my dairy steer.

Thursday morning was the 4-H dairy show. I got reserve champion showmanship and 1st in all my classes. A turn around from the day before though with my fall calf going from 7th to 1st and my cow didn't make it back for state fair line up. My summer jr. yearling was reserve champion yearling and 6th in state fair line up. I will be taking her to the state fair after some much needed weight loss.

Friday morning was the FFA beef show, very few people came because of the heat. I was even first with my dairy steer (out of 1) which never happens because the Otte's usually clean house there, but unfortunately they couldn't make it. Friday night I was graced with the presence of 2 of my people in the whole wide world. Annie and Devin! We watched Annie's show then were walking around the fair and all of a sudden Devin is freaking out about losing her phone. After looking we decide it's a lost cause and she'll jsut have to find a new phone to use. We go home facebook creep and we get a call from kailey who informs us that some people called her off of devin's phone and say that they have devin's phone. After much conversation about meeting at the zipper to get the phone of going to their house in burnsville we finally make a plan to get the phone. I got it saturday night after a little sketchy thing. We finally went to bed at 2 am. bad choice.

Saturday morning we got up at 5:30 to get to the fair to get chores done before working on the clover for the auction. I went to breakfast and the auction and nothing productive happened after that for the day besides a nice nap.

Sunday I did chores and visited with people, ate my last pork burger :( and sat around for the whole day basically.

While at the fair I met new people, learned more about old friends and attempted to learn how to judge general livestock. Now let me tell you, this was a whole completely different concept than dairy judging. Mark did an all right job explaining it in the beef cattle but the second derek started explaining sheep to me my brain was fried. We'll how I progress as the summer goes on.

That's basically all I have on the fair for this year. It was an awesome time and only 365 until next years (it's a leap year next year).

Hope everyone kept cool and is having a good summer!

it's here, it's here, it's here!

So in case you haven't guessed what I'm talking about yet it's the Rice County Fair!! Tomorrow begins general project judging and tuesday animals go in and the fun begins!
So in case anyone wanted to visit me here's my schedule:
Wednesday morning is the open class dairy show at 9.
Wednesday afternoon is 4-H beef show starting around 2 (this will be very interesting considering what happened last year and my steer is crazier than ever this year).
Thursday morning is the 4-H dairy show (let's hope I can get a state fair trip)
Friday morning is FFA beef show at 10. (i'll probably lose to the otte's anyways so that probably won't be worth watching)
Friday night I fully plan on watching the open class beef show with the one and only DEVIN COOPER!! :)
Saturday morning is the auction.
After that I am fully available. Until the ever embarrassing fashion revue. (I won't tell you when that is cause it's embarrassing and just plain awful).
Hope to see everyone there! Unless of course I die of heat exhausting. (this is actually a possibility if you know me at all.)

Amazing Race - 4-H Camp Style

Where to begin? I haven't done this is probably over a month and that's only because I have been so busy with so many trips and such.


Let's start with the perfect way to begin summer. 4-H camp!


Now for those of you who aren't aware, i am completely obsessed with 4-H and 4-H camp. So of course this is the best possible way to get me into the 4-H mood for the 4-H season (summer).
After far too many trainings (like 4) we finally got to go to camp patterson in madison lake for 3 days. On Sunday night we got there had some bonding time and finally went to bed at a far too late of time. We got up at 8 and got ready for the day. When campers got there we played various games and what not to keep them occupied. There favorite part was probably swimming and canoeing which is fun for us counselors as well. Especially when I have to kayak a little girl back to shore in a very small kayak because she's afraid to swim back to shore. We learned about some cool exotic animals from a guest speaker, watched a movie, had a campfire and went to bed. The next day we did sessions where we actually have to teach the little tikes something. I was in charge of tye dye. It was a little interesting to say the least with 20 kids in a group and bottles full of stuff that can dye your clothes for good. We had camp counselor dress up where 10 little boys got to put some clothes on me and dress me up. I ended up with mud all over my face and being called a wicked fat housemaid. Then we watched another movie and had another campfire and learned how to zumba dance. I spent the movie trying to rinse out tie dyed pillow cases for kids to take home. After that adventure my hands ended up looking like the inside of an egg when you dye it at easter time and there's a crack in the shell. On Wednesday morning we cleaned cabins and sent the little tikes home.

Now after writing this I'm guessing that none of this sounds like as much fun as I think it is but you have to experience it to understand. My favorite part of course is the counselor meetings we have at night and have ice cream and pizza. And of course hanging out with my favorite counselors. :)

I'll update soon about my wonderful trip to guatemala.

moving the boys

As promised, here it is:
This past wednesday we moved our little steers down to the shed by the big steers and kicked Agnes and Tim and Jim out to pasture. We had to put a halter on each boy and walk them to the trailer lift them on the trailer and repeat 5 more times. Then we had to take the trailer down to the shed which we left for dad because apparently we can't even manage to not run him into the headlocks directing traffic much less driving the tractor and unloaded them. Then we had to let them get out some of their energy and rounded them up in their new pen, it's kinda like a rodeo.
We then cleaned out their little hutches so we can replace them with four more bull calves which will join the 4 other babies for show steers next year. The boys seem a little happier being together and having more space to run around. They are quite the rowdy bunch. They have a fresh water barrel and a mixture of 18% protein calf feed and corn. Now we begin changing them over from calf feed to corn. They are 3 months old now!
have a wonderful day! :)

They're Here!!!

well, after a very long 9 months 3 healthy beef babies have joined the G & M cattle co. scene. Agnes is the proud mother of twin bull calves and sophie had a healthy baby girl! and because these are half dairy beef cows sophie simply has just too much milk for just one baby so we had to make her adopt another baby which is a six day old free martin.



The twin bulls are appropriately named Jim and Tim after the ever helpful Jim Purfeerst and Tim Hoover. These two have been very involved in the beef project since way before we started with our dairy steers and now that we have two bull calves that of course need rhyming names thus we have Jim and Tim.




The heifers on the other hand are still awaiting names. Grace thinks Shanequa and LaQuis
ha. I on the other hand was thinking a bit more normal like Sheryl and Carol but dad doesn't sound too enthused about either of these options. Either way we are definitiely not naming them Shanequa and LaQuisha (who spells it that way anyway?) I'll keep you posted on this as we name them.
Sorry no picture here i forgot to get one before we released them to pasture. which reminds me...
we gave the cows and their babies a couple days of good old fashion bonding where they were confined to a pen to make sure that their babies were eating, etc. we then released them into the wild. well not exactly the wild but the pasture that's almost like the wild for the calves because they're so little. they seem to enjoy it much more out there where the can escape from us when we invade their space. Jim and Tim have even figured out to be free rangers much like herman and sherman and hank and frank were last year. grace by the way HATES free rangers because they're a 'nuisance'.
Well, that's all I have for today, I'll update you soon on moving the other boys that I said i would update you on as we raised them and haven't done a blog since so hopefully tomorrow or saturday.
Have a lovely day! :)

i'm kind of a big deal

you will not guess what happened last week to me!
So, monday i didn't go to school and instead got up at 5 am to go to the state FFA convention at the state fairgrounds and u of m. We had practice a little bit sunday night just to get our head in the games because this was gonna be the year that randolph ffa made the leap and won. There I was judging me some oh so fine u of m cows and was just thinking i hope i'm even remotely close to my teammates on this one cause with those cows and calves you can never be too sure. So I finished judging gave a very crappy set of reasons and went to get me some bbq for lunch. I got the officials placings from another chapter and it turns out I had gotten 4 50's out of a possible 8 classes. I got on the bus to go home and was home by 4.
Monday night, I get a call from the ever lovely Bret Otte saying "Hey! we're in the top 5 teams so we're going back up tomorrow morning at 10:30 don't be late."
I go to class in Randolph. Everyone else skips 2nd hour so i'm stuck doing what? well, it ended up that the ever lovely Jason brought me to the office to hang with mary kay. Well, it's not very often that peopel in randolph don't know who is sitting at the desk behind mary kay so i got quite a few weird looks. i then changed into the ever sexy official dress and got on a bus to go to the awards ceremony.
We got 5th place which was really what we thought we had gotten but it was alright cause we made our break into the top 5 and next year we're gonna get 1st. After a long drawn out ceremony we had to wait for the general livestock team to go through and they ended up getting 4th. We got on the bus and went home.
We were almost to randolph and another dairy judger from a different chapter and says 'they majorly screwed up the scores! you got first' of course i was like that has to be a lie because those were crappy reasons and i suck at linear. i proceded to get about 10 other messages saying that i was first. so of course i checked online multiple times and it wasn't on there for awhile. in the end there was a 1 next to my name. so there apparently i had a way on day of judging. hopefully it will last through 4h judging this summer.
i do find it a bit ironic that i was just complaining to Bret and Michael about never winning anything because people like them were out there to make people like me feel like crap. they proceded to tell me that it was because people like me couldn't handle winning because i would be way too full of myself. well, i guess i do because here i am writing a blog about it. but if it's any consolation to you all, it's only because grace told me i had to so blame her.
Have a lovely day! :)

One of the best seasons of the year...

SUMMER is right around the corner! Woohoo! I can not wait, the only thing that stands between me and summer is a dairy microbiology final, a statistics final, packing my clothes, and a 200 mile drive. I can NOT wait! I have a full summer planned including working for a 400 cow dairy down the road from my house with their herdsman and calf chores. I also plan to fully utilize the boat, my swimsuit, the tube, and sunblock while enjoying a few weekends on the lake with friends. I am also planning on enjoying my cousin Jessie and Grants wedding in August, the Rice County Fair in July, and numerous parades as a dairy princess. Along with all those oh so fun things are some not so fun things like summer classes yes classES I have to take Legal Law Environment and Intermediate Microeconomics over my wonderful summer break to ensure my graduating in not 4 years but 5. But I also plan to plant a vegetable garden starting this weekend when I get home. I also plan to enjoy numerous bonfires and eventually festivities that go along with a major age change in July. So in summary here is my summer plan in short:


May:
Plant garden Princess Kay training Revisit my artificial insemination skills Start summer job Mow lots of lawn Bonfires Parades

June:
Baby shower for Willard and Jack Daniels Bridal shower for Jessie Work LAKE! more bonfires more lawn mowing help Mary train fair heifers / cows (hopefully I have a better record then last year)

July:
4th of July
Cannon Falls Fair 11th of July more LAKE! Rice County Fair more lawn mowing more work parades
Willard and Jack Daniels due!

August:
Jessie and Grants wedding
Lake
Vacation to Northern Minnesota
LeSueur County Fair
Steele County Fair
Dakota County Fair
More lawn mowing
STATE FAIR!


I am sure there will be a few trips to Becker, MN and that these lists are bound to grow and will be a great summer... and don't worry Mary I am only getting out of school a full month before you I will still save you some summer :)

OMG!!!! THE ROYAL WEDDING!

That is right folks... we got up to watch the royal wedding at 4:30 AM! yes AM! Now I have no problem waking up at 4:30 AM for something useful but the royal wedding does not quite fall into that category. Katie, Amelia, Megan and I got up to watch all the hullaballoo about who wore what and what they rode in on and blah blah blah blah blah. Normally I LOVE weddings! I don't really know anyone who doesn't love jamming out to sweet caroline on the dance floor and eating cake, but I prefer to know the person getting married. And to top it all off the royal wedding was out of control! Her dress alone cost $400,000!!!!!!! The cake cost $80,000!!!! and security... a couple million dollars!!! NOW THAT IS JUST INSANE! but we were up with the other 2 billion people in the world watching the royal wedding... Not to worry though we all went back to bed at 6:00 for a couple hours before class. The only downside to this royal wedding business is that that is all that is on tv today... we could have gotten up at 11:00 in the afternoon and still be able to watch it not to mention that is all that is on the internet gossip sites (not that I visit them them that often :)) With that being all that is on besides role models Katie, Matt and I are forced to watch role models.... it is teaching us many valuable life lessons, mainly that we have a rocking good halloween costume planned for next october 31! hopefully we remember it when the time comes.

Tomorrow we have a full day planned as well
1. Maurices
2. JcPenny
3. homework... maybe
4. other fun activities like creeping on our teachers

#4 reminds me of a story.... yesterday Katie and I were on our way home from the grocery store when we happened to see our old chemistry teacher biking on by. He was definitely not one of our favorite teachers and we definitely were not one of his favorite classes to teach, so the feeling was probably mutual. So anyway, Katie and I had the bright idea to follow him for a while to see where he was going. So we whipped the car around in the street and sneakily followed him through a neighborhood until he got to his apartment and rode down into the parking garage. We were being so sneaky he probably didn't even notice us following him particularly since we even turned off the music and made sure to stay at least one stop sign behind him so we didn't blow our cover. Needless to say we now know where he lives... yeah we know we are creeps, we might even do some more creeping this weekend, our last weekend in the great town of Brookings, SD for 4 months...


HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE! (hopefully we don't get the snow they are projecting for tomorrow)

(who couldn't love that loveable bunny E.B.?)

P.S.If you are looking for a good movie to go see we all recommend the movie Hop!

P.S.S. thank you for bearing through with this extremely long and random blog

A Day to Remember...

So, I told Eric that I was writing this blog about how excited I am to see him, so ERIC!!! I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE YOU!

Anyways, I just thought it was time to update you all on the busy day that was April 16 for me, mary liebenstein. Let's start at the beginning shall we?
5:30 am: wake up feed calves and make myself all beautiful, but then again i'm always beautiful so it didn't take long.
6:30 am: leave home to meet the dairy quiz bowl team at the big steer and leave for Foley, MN for the competition
8:45 am: arrive in Foley at the high school for dairy quiz bowl competition
9:00 am - 1:30 pm: sit and study and go to competitions. we lost our first round to Wright county, good thing it was double elimination
2:00 pm: go against wright county again for the championship round, we lost by about 115 but we still get to go to world dairy expo in october for that competition.
2:25 pm: run to the car, jump in and we're set for home.
4:00 pm arrive at home
4:07 pm: leave home for town to meet the group at the high school
4:30 pm: arrive at the high school
So, as you can see it was quite a jam packed and a bit stressful for me. Freak out mode didn't start until I plugged in my straightener into my adapter in the car and apparently its only a 75 watt converter and my straightener needs 100 watts. But I calmed down and got over it. I got ready in 7 minutes and was at the high school just in time to take a few pictures and get on the party bus. Now let me tell you, this was very sketchy, especially with the stripper pole (pretty sure it was a safety pole but we treated it as a stripper pole) and when we stopped at a stop light and heard a big crash, and thought we had been jumped. luckily the bus driver responded with 'i'm still here.' We then went on a side trip to kmart because we had a little extra time and one boy wanted a toy gun. We then went to Bucca's for supper which was delicious. then made our way back to northfield for the dance with johnny holm's which was awesome!! then we proceeded to the bowling alley, bowled, ate some food, and then came home where my mom made us some breakfast. We played 3 songs on guitar hero, put in Toystory 3 and were all passed out. The inner farmer kicked in at about 8 am and I was up! I was the only high schooler at church on palm sunday.
Needless to say it was a very stressful day but completely worth it! hopefully next year the same conflict won't occur, but when i can get in the top ten at the state fair for dairy showcase it will all pay off (literally when I earn some money).
have a lovely day. :)

How to Properly Scrape Out a Moldy Gravity Wagon Filled with Corn

So, this winter we had our feed shed collapse as you may recall. With this came a whole roof full of snow being funneled into our corn bin. Then we moved the wagon into our hay shed, only it wasn't in the shed far enough so when it rained more rain and water got in the wagon. So the other day my dad and I moved it in further into the shed so now all should be good. But before we could put more corn in we had to clean out the almost 6 inch layer of mold that cover the bottom of the wagon. So here's a step by step guide of how to clean this layer of mold out.

• Pick up your dust mask to make sure that you don't inhale any deadly toxins


• Climb into the wagon on the ladder (unless your legs are to short to climb over like mine are then you have to have your dad lift you up in the skid loader bucket to get in


• Have dad position the skid loader bucket under the door of the wagon and hand you the shovel up in the wagon


• Begin chipping away at the corn and push it down into the bucket


• Listen to father's instructions (even if he doesn't understand what you're trying to do or your thinking)


• Have your father dump the bucket and leave you in the bin to continue the laborious drive


• Make sure to fall at least 4 times while in the bin.


• 1 of these times, make sure that you have corn go down your butt crack, it feels real nice!


• Finish scraping off all the edges and such


• Discuss how you will get out of the bin you have two options: 1. try and climb out over the top (since I can't get in with a ladder i probably wouldn't be able to climb out without one so i had to resort to option 2) 2. slide out the bottom as if you were corn yourself, make sure you suck it in or you won't fit

I hope that this can help you in your future endeavours of cleaning out moldy corn wagons. Have a wonderful day! I will update you on our results of dairy quiz bowl in a couple days as well as prom.

completely worthless information

so, in honor of the state dairy quiz bowl competition being this weekend on saturday, i have decided to share with you some completely worthless information about cows and dairy goats that I will never use in my life but it's always good to know random stuff right?

• the third week in June is national dairy goat awareness week


• the three sections of the small intestine are: duodenum, jejunum, and the ileum


• la mancha goats have two types of ears (they don't look like ears to me just flaps but whatever): gopher and elf


• the winner of the Indy 500 drinks a glass of ice cold milk


• fat soluble vitamins: A, D, E, and K


• water soluble vitamins: B and C


• BANGS disease or Brucillosis also known as contagious abortion or undulent fever in humans


• diseases that can be spread between animals and humans are zoonautic diseases


• there are 2 sisterns in a cows udder: the teat sistern and gland sistern


• beta-carotine is a precursor for vitamin A


• an animal that can be tamed is domestic (isn't this obvious)


• an experimental goat is the equivalent of a cross bred in cows (not sure why they would be called experimental...)


• each straw of semen containes 10 to 30 million sperm cells


• optimum manure consistency is given a linear score of 3 on a scale of one to five


• the primary use of cow hide is to hold the cow together

I hope you can find some of this useful but if not it's always fun to have some random facts that no one knows, especially on a really awkward date or something (I wouldn't know in this department but I'm sure that it would work)

So anyways, this weekend is state dairy quiz bowl, hopefully we will be in the top 3 so we can go to nationals. Then in a mad rush I will make my mother drive 100 mph from foley to northfield so that I can go to this highly overrated thing called prom. I'll let you know how that goes.

Little I/I'm Too Fat to Workout with a DVD

While I seat here writing this I am currently in South Dakota at SDSU for Little International, which is a livestock showmanship type thing that the university puts on. They have people showing pigs, sheep, beef, dairy, and horses. They have fitting and showmanship competitions. The fitting consists of making the animal look good and showmanship is showing the animal to the best of its ability. Then there's novice and experienced. The novice are the people that haven't shown that animal previously and experienced is well...it kinda speaks for itself. It's quite interesting to watch actually, except the horse part cause no one knows how to judge them in the first place and no one likes horses anyways.
So I have met some of Grace's friends, well only introduced to like 2 but i can just gather from other people who they are.
On a side note, i have been using a workout dvd. It's something like 6 week six-pack or something to that effect with jillian michaels. Which for those of you who don't know who she is, she is one of the trainers on the biggest loser. Now let me tell you it's hard! i have only successfully completed the whole workout once in 4 days because i'm sweating and breathing so hard i can't even do anything else. Then I go to eat and I can't even lifta fork or spoon to my mouth! it's exhausting. it better pay off in the end, although I'm not sure I can do it for 6 weeks everyday. we'll see how it goes and i'll keep you posted.

How to Raise Beef 101

Here it goes. I am successfully going to show you how to raise dairy steers into meat. This will be a step by step process (I'm not sure how many it will take, we'll see how it goes)

So, first you need some bull calves. We usually do 6 at a time but this is completely up to you.



second, you have to put them into their designated hutches, our is in the back row.

Then, you have to start feeding them milk, usually it's a 1/2 gallon of milk in the morning and at night.


The final step in this particular blog is to name them all! you can't not name them that's not exciting, and you have to have something to do while waiting for the babies to finish their milk each morning and evening.

So here are pictures of G & M's bull calves and names. Ten bucks goes to the person who can guess where I got these 6 names from

Meet Benjamin! Huctch # 16.

Next we have Caleb. Hutch # 15.

This here is Daniel. Hutch # 14.
















Then we have Russ. Hutch # 13. (His name should have been Frank, but Frank already exists just for the sake of guessing where names came from)


















The special one this time is Ephraim. Hutch # 12.






















Finally, from Hutch # 11... Gideon!!





















Well, that's all for now folks. When there's anything new to update you on about these lovely boys i'll let you know. In the mean time.







Happy Spring! :)

IGPEH ATINLEH

Yes, that does say igpeh atinleh... in honor of our recent trip to Wisconsin with the dairy club for ADSA, a weekend long dairy conference filled with friends, networking, dairy topics, and good times we have decided that the week after our spring break we will only speak Pig Latin in our apartment. I know it sounds hard and that is what my original thoughts were too but we have a friend that can fluently speak pig latin she is so good she can do it in spanish and I think with some practice we too can do it! The first word the dairy club word learned this weekend was eahyeah... now I know that is not real pig latin we are told it is slang pig latin and we stumbled upon it one night when I was trying to figure out how to say yeah! So it is now a running joke to say eahyeah and throw a high five up in the air whenever we see each other hahaha. Now my roommates Katie, Amelia and I plan to have an informational session the Sunday we come back from spring break, March 13 and then only speak pig latin in the apartment and will not respond to anyone who is not speaking it too. I will update you after the week is over and let you know how it went, whether or not you want to hear about it...



Also next week is spring break woohoo!

aveheh aeh onderfulweh eekweh ndaeh racticepeh upeh oneh youreh igpeh atinleh!

We are also taking applications for a maid for our apartment to clean, cook, do laundry, dishes and to do our homework... pay is minimal since we are college students but we would be great references in the future provided you did a good job. Facebook me if interested or comment on the blog for the application to be sent to you.

woo-hoo!

woo-hoo!

Thursday was a wonderful day... not only did I have a wonderful physical therapy appointment but it was also the HALF WAY POINT! I will hopefully only be on crutches for 6 more weeks! If only mother nature would cooperate with me and not snow anymore at least until this wonderful town cleans up their sidewalks and roads. This week should be interesting with only 3 tests a couple meetings and a presentation.

Hopefully everyone is enjoying superbowl sunday... or in my case the return of glee to tv!