Category: Blog

Advice for a Keynote…And it’s funny!

Today my good friend Shelly and I gave a keynote for Dunn Carney’s Ag Summit. It was such a great opportunity and we both really enjoyed ourselves.

I hope that folks got something from our message. I also have to say that preparing for something like this, as you would imagine includes quite the process. What to speak about, how to speak well together and inevitably how to look good while together up on stage.

So to expand more on the clothes part…we both have a sort of go to outfit that we know we both feel good in. We are farmers, so our business attire is far from vast! So we decided the night before, this is what we were going to look like…This photo was taken a few months ago at a farm bureau event at the same location as today. No big deal right?  Well here’s the kicker folks. We did not realize that this picture, these outfits would be used in the handbook passed out to everyone. So today we look EXACTLY the same as our photo. We are dying!!!! It’s hilarious!!!!!  But maybe it was on purpose, I mean you need to be recognizable and consistent in your story right?! (This was not on purpose hahahaha!)

So my advice…maybe try to mix it up a bit…and if you get caught with…hmm…the same pants on, you might as well own it!

Home…

After 5 days of dressing up, 5 days of heels, 5 days of having to look, well, not like the usual farmer. And I can’t even tell you how happy I am to be in my Tshirt  and jeans hanging with these handsome fellas!


Yay…and a snow day!!! I’ll catch up with updates on how the past wild week went later…until then I’ll be busy with my two wild men who I’ve missed!


One of which is going to turn 1 tomorrow!!!!! Davor “Auggie” is one growing boy!


Happy Friday folks!

Meeting Season

As farmers we work in seasons…and I don’t usually mean the traditional seasons that we all work around.  I mean, harvest season, fertilizer season, rainy season, the all too familiar “it’s way too hot/cold season”…and then there is “meeting season.”

I tell people often that as farmers we rarely slow down.  Yes while harvest might be over, and the 14 hr days seven days a week aren’t our hours for the whole year, our work never seems to end it just changes.  This week for me is no different, this week traditionally marks the start of my meeting season.  Which means that I go to meetings of all kinds…so here is just a taste of the week I have coming up, not much tractor time for me!

  • Yesterday I got to sit in front of a computer for an online meeting to satisfy my pesticide licensing requirements. image1
  • Today I am a speaker talking to those who aren’t in the farming business.  I’ll be speaking at the Oregon Leadership Summit about the future of farming.
  • Tonight is my EMT meeting for our volunteer fire department.
  • Tomorrow I get to learn at a leadership conference of how to be a better farmer and employer.  untitled
  • Wednesday and Thursday I get to participate in the House of Delegates to set policy for our state farm bureau.
  • Not to mention an evening meeting for the Clover Commission Wednesday evening.
  • Friday I get to do some of the fun stuff like be on TV to help people  ear about our great grass seed industry that we have here in Oregon.  Tune in to AM Northwest on Friday December 9th to see me and Jesse Rue!
  • Then next week comes Oregon Seed Growers League Monday and Tuesday….I’m not kidding here folks, it never ends!

So sometimes…I look like this as a farmer, and sometimes I look not too farmer-ish.

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I have to say though that these are great opportunities for us to all learn more about our industry.  Whether it be a presentation on the weather, new crop protection tools, or markets around the world, it all plays into what a farmer plans for and works towards in the year to come.  It’s also very fun to get to see those folks who you don’t run into very often out in a field.  In the end I’m just a farmer, but the hats I wear may vary greatly from season to season, but it’s all for our farm for our land and our legacy!