Happy Earth Day

Farmers don't just think about Earth Day once a year. For us Earth day is Everyday! That means taking care of the land that in turn takes care of us, our farm and our Ladies! My hope as a farmer is to leave the Earth better for future generations! Proud to part of the industry that is the original caretakers of this amazing planet!

Dairy Farmers visit the Capital

Democracy only succeeds with engaged citizens.

I'm excited to have begun my journey with the Oregon Young Dairy Leaders class of 2015/16. The first session certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone as we headed to Oregons Captial. We spent the day behind the scenes and met with 12 representatives. Truly interesting to see the inner working of our state government and those that govern us. I honestly have never been a very " political person", but I know if we don't make our voice heard, then someone else will tell our story for us. Especially in this legislative session there are several bills that would be extremely harmful to the whole of agriculture in Oregon. I was really impressed with the openness of those we met with and their encouragement to truly feel that the Captial is our building. They really want us telling our stories and how pieces of legislation will impact us so that they can make informed votes for the betterment of their constituents. 

Really a great kick off to becoming a better voice for the dairy industry. Looking forward to the next year with this great group of young adults from the Oregon dairy industry! 

Rep Mike McLane is an FFA & 4H supporter

Enjoyed our time with Senator Betsey Johnson

OYDL with Rep Greg Barreto

A big thank you to all the representatives that took the time to accept appointments with our class. Great introductions with them and I look forward to building on those relationships.

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P.S. if you get a chance to visit Oregon's stunningly beautiful capital, seriously an amazing building! Make sure to check out the carpet on both the house and senate sides. More than certain it gives the PDX carpet a run for it's money! ;-) It also fun to wear non barn clothes for the day! 

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Cows on Pasture

My favorite day of the year has arrived! And a whole month earlier than last year. Today we let the Ladies back out onto the pasture! It is always so much fun to watch them return back outside to the lush green grass. After a little bit of fun and kicking up their heels they got right down to business grazing and then taking a snooze in the warm sunshine!
We do everything we can to make their winter care the best that it can be. The reason we pull the Ladies into confinement for the winter to protect our ground. The pacific northwest just gets too wet in winter, and if we allowed the cows to stay outside they would make a complete mucky mess of the pasture. This break throughout the winter not only protects the grass, but also allows it to get a wonderful healthy growing start. This in turn helps to provide feed for our cows.
It's all one big circle that dairy farmers care greatly for; we care for the land so it can in turn help care for our Ladies. It is definitely my favorite view to see those gorgeous brown and whites on the lush green Spring grass!

Freckles leads the herd

Bette takes off running!

Bookie and Ramira butting heads

Notice Jolanda jumping for joy in the background?!?

Muzzle deep the grass is lush! Jesusita and Anna are enjoying!

All settled down for a nap!

Brooklyn soaking up the sunshine!

Seriously my favorite day! And it was so warm here today, the sunshine felt amazing! I hope you had an equally great day! Happy Thursday!

First Birthday Pirate Party

My second baby is fast approaching his first birthday, and with the holidays in between (I started this post before Thanksgiving!) I figured I had better get with it on getting some planning done! While I got started on that I realized I never did share all the details on my oldest boys first birthday. So without any more ado, I give you Mason's first birthday bash!

In another life I would love to be an event planner, so much fun! I enjoy getting to be crafty and am all about the details and with a first birthday I knew I could get away with it. We chose the pirate theme because ARRGH was the first thing we could get our grumpy and opinionated baby to say that he actually enjoyed. I thought it would be fun theme that reflected him for who he was! He looked great in red, so I knew the typical pirate colors, red, black, brown would work well. I there in aqua as an extra fun pop of color.

First up were the invitations. I had happened to find Gwen Marie Designs on Etsy for Mason's birth announcement. I loved how easy she was to work with and created exactly what I wanted, so I was excited to work with her again, and have since used her several more time. I had a design in mind that matched our colors and theme and she created exactly what I was wanting.

 

After scouring pinterest for some fun ideas I complied my own touches to make it truly reflect us and the little boy we were celebrating!

A Pirtae flag greets guests!

 I made triangle fabric banners in five different prints that fit the color scheme. For an added touch I strung them on baling twine, know there is plenty of that around here! Made enough to hand in several locations for fun pops of color. Also one of my favorite accessories I picked up from the dollar store was the nets. I used them to hang with tiny clothes pins favorite pictures of Mason's first year. It worked out really well as an easy way to fill space on the walls in several spots with photos!

No pirate party is complete without a parrot aboard your ship!

 

 Using "pirate language" I worded his birthday banner I be 1. Also added fun textures and dimensions with the scrapbook paper. My favorite part was the shell string I added and pops of color with aqua ribbon.

And the masterpiece, or honestly biggest pain of the party, pirate ship cake! I was honestly impressed with my freelance design and how it all came together, I definitely had my doubts on this one. I mushed it together with cuttings from two separate sheet cakes. I actually ended up having to use a third cause one fell apart on me, that was about the moment I was seriously disagreeing with my attempt to pull this off. But I'm glad I stuck it out,  not bad for somebody who is not an unusual cake maker! It looks like a ship, right? Finished off with blue ocean cupcakes, can't have a ship without the ocean!

Final decoration touches included pirate tattoos for fun and a treasure chest full of yummy and wearable booty! Our pirate party was all ready for the birthday boy who had a custom shirt waiting for him. Party Time!

Unfortunately our little guy woke up with a horrid fever the morning of the party. But he was a true pirate and pulled through to celebrate in style. We enjoyed an amazingly warm day in April and ended up moving our bbq outside! I had so much fun putting together all the details of his party, first birthdays truly are special!

Capturing our Family in Photos

We just finished another amazing shoot tonight with the talented Heidi Helser Photograghy. I am so happy and excited to have found her and to have her capturing our family. When our first little farmer was born we captured pictures of him every 3 months. I loved having those pictures and seeing the changes as the first year goes by SO quickly. So I was determined to make that happen for our second little farmer. So after maternity, newborn, 3 months and now 6 months, I am so thrilled to continue to work with Heidi. If your in the Northwest and looking for a good photographer, I can' recommend her enough!!

I really love spending time with a photographer and the images they can capture. Those moments, those smiles are so precious! Usually being behind the lens, it's nice to enjoy someone with a professional eye. I encourage you all to find someone to work with. I promise you won't regret capturing your family in photos! Now to get some of these printed and on our walls! So sharing our pictures from this Spring with you all in anticipation of the shots we got tonight!

 This was such a special shoot full of so much celebration. Mason turning 3, Nolan 3 months, Ben and I being together for 10 years as well as our birthdays. April is just a big celebration and I am loving looking back at this special session tonight! Thanks again Heidi!

Did I forget Mother's Day?

No posts about Mother's Day were found here on Sunday, I was busy enjoying my little farmers as well as caring for the other Mothers that call our herd home. I had to chuckle as my newsfeed overflowed with the breakfasts in bed, spa days and  flowers.

You see every day is Mother's Day here. 

Ahhh, this is how a cow enjoys a relaxing day!

My entire livelihood and the whole dairy industry is reliant on the bovine mothers that help to foster the human race. In order to make milk, like virtually all mammals including humans, a cow must first have a calf.  So we celebrate birth, and cows becoming Mothers every day. Our cows are spoiled with the best treatment we can provide every day.  Every gallon of milk or dairy product (have any ice cream today? Yum!) that you consume is thanks to a mother cow! 

 So join us in celebrating Mothers Day, everyday! All the moms out there deserve more then one day right?!

 We did have a bit of an extra special celebration as we welcomed this beautiful little heifer to first time Mama Spiffy on Mother's Day! Welcome sweet baby and congratulations new Mom!

So hard to get a non blurry picture of a bouncing baby!

What is in a Dairy Farmer's Day?

I often get asked: "Well what do you do all day? ". So I thought it was over due that I laid out what HAS to be done EVERYDAY on our farm. Dairy Farming is a 365 day a year job, we don't get to take sick days or vacations and some jobs have to be done everyday. So here is a look at what our day really looks like.

4:00 am: The alarm clock goes off and the two people doing morning chores are getting ready to head out to the barn. Usually a quick breakfast and throw on some clothes through blurry eyes! 

4:30 am: While one person is rinsing the milker and getting the parlor set up, the other is "waking" up the cows and getting them into the holding pen. 

4:45 am: Milking Starts. While all the cows are in the holding pen all the alleys are scraped clean. 

5:00 am: After scraping, all the feeding for the cows is done; alfalfa hay at the stanchions and corn silage from the silo pack. Feeding is also done at the special care pen and the bedded area is also cleaned for that pen. 

5:30 am: The springers get fed and their bedded area is also cleaned. Also take a few minutes just to observe everyone for calving. 

5:45 am: Whoever was feeding and doing the outside chores is usually done by now and joins whoever is milking in the parlor. We milk in a double three side open. So each cow comes in and leaves individually. They each are thoroughly cleaned, the milker is attached and it takes on average about 6 minutes each. While they are milking we ration a custom mix grain for each cow. Once the milker comes off they are dipped with a post dip to protect their teats during the day and let out for breakfast. We are milking at about our maximum capacity of over 95 cows and milking alone is taking a solid 3 hours.

7:45 am: Milking is finished up. The machines are rinsed and hung up to wash. While one person is washing the milker the other shuts up the parlor and pitches the hay back into the cows . Then goes to feed the calves. Milk to the youngest babies in bottles and buckets to the older ones on milk. Grain and hay is fed to the older calves in the calf barn, up to about 14 months old. **I had to update this because somehow I forgot my "favorite" chore. Washing calf buckets, pretty much doing the dishes for over a dozen people every day, twice a day. Ugh, yea it's my excuse for the dirty dishes in my sink!** The horses, chickens and cats are also fed. 

8:15 am: The parlor is picked up and scooped out, 95 cows make quite a mess in 3 hours with manure and grain. Then we wash the whole parlor with a pressure washer so it's ready for milking in the afternoon. 

8:45 am: After the parlor is clean and most of the cows seem to be done with their breakfast they are let out to the pasture. We are completely done with morning chores and back in the house for second breakfast. The towels we use to clean the cows during milking have to go into the washing machine. 

So by 9 am we've put in a solid 4 hours (at least) of work and most people are just starting their day! So the first shift is done and usually whoever milked in the morning can sneak in a little nap, but not always. So from 9am to 3:30pm we have to feed the heifers and dry cows, rotate fences for grazing, manage the manure, catch any cows to breed and finish washing the milk towels.  This is also "free time",  where we work on weekly projects and things that have to be done at least once a week: completely cleaning the calf barns, striping out the springer pen, deep cleaning the parlor. Of course we have no problem filling this time; there's always repairs to be made, cows or heifers that get out, cows that need assistance calving or doctored. Which of course any of that can occurred during chore time as well! 

12:30 pm: We sneak in time for lunch together as a family. Usually the only time of the day we are all in one spot at the same time. 

After lunch it's back to our "free time" work. 

3:30 pm: We try to finish whatever we were working on and grab a little break, for a quick snack and refuel. 

4:00 pm: at least two, but usually all four of us (or at least three, I am usually a little slower out with the little farmers) are headed back out to the barn for evening chores. The cows are brought into the holding pen to wait their turn to be milked. The milker is rinsed and the parlor is again set up for milking. 

4:15pm: While the cows are in the holding pen the alleys are scraped again and the free stalls are bedded with sawdust. The special care pen is cleaned and bedded with fresh sawdust. The springers are fed, their bedded area is pitched clean and bedded with fresh straw. 

4:30 pm: Milking has begun. And we are again feeding alfalfa and corn silage. This also seems to be the time we try to finish anything that didn't get done during the day. 

5:00 pm: By now we've usually finished on the Ladies side and head to take care of the calves. They get fed milk, grain and hay according to their age. We calve year round, so the number varies but there is usually about 60 calves to care for in this age range. With about 6-10 on milk. The littlest ones in the nursery get a fresh bed of straw.

6:00 pm: We are usually finished with all the "extra" chores and milking is all that is left to complete. Two people usually finish, but some nights, like Wednesday when the guys have fire drill, one of us finishes. 

7:30 pm: We are done milking. The machines are again rinsed and hung up to wash. The parlor is closed up and tidied up. Feed is pushed back in to the cows and the springer barn is double checked for any action. The milker is then washed and turned off. 

8:00 pm: The drive way gate is closed in case of any late night escapees. And we take our short commute (walk) back home. 

So with morning and evening chores and what has to be done during the day there is a solid 9 hours of work that HAS to be done everyday. The cows don't take a day off from milking and everybody has to be fed. As a family farm we have no employees, so all the day's work is accomplished by the four of us. It can and has been done by one when situations arise, because it HAS to get done. So that's a look at our typical day. 

So what did you do today?