While I haven’t been busy blogging the past few months….life as you can imagine is always busy busy busy!
Got our Christmas Lights put up, which made our 2 year old ecstatic! I can’t even begin to tell you how excited it makes us for Christmas when we see how excited our little man is!
Auggie on the other hand will know what all this hubbub is about next year, so far he’s just annoyed that I dont let him crawl in the wet lawn.
Only 22 days until Christmas!!!
Receiving to AgLink award Friday evening was truly incredible! Thank you again for all those who supported me, and continue to cheer me on! It’s appreciated more than you will ever know.
Here is the video that was presented along with the award on Friday night. It turned out great thanks to some big efforts from a lot of folks! Enjoy!
Also for those of you who could not attend, here is my thank you speech…I know that it goes without saying for many people, but it truly takes a village to accomplish what we have in our industry, and the work isn’t over yet!
I started my blog nuttygrass.com 5 years ago. It was never meant to go far, it was truly meant to share good farming stories that I told all my friends. Mostly funny things like what I broke around the farm that day, or about how I regularly dunk my head in hydraulic oil, because if you don’t know me, I’m a huge klutz!
But those stories have transformed into a glimpse into my life as a farmer, one story at a time, and that’s vitally important for our industry in an environment where people don’t understand what we do or why we do it.
My stories put a face on farming and provide an opportunity for consumers to feel like they know me and can ask the hard questions. The stories on my blog have evolved into conversations and moments of true honesty with urban neighbors about the very real demands of being a farmer and how we are at times unsuccessful. It presents an honest dialogue where people get to hear that sometimes we spray pesticides, and here’s why.
It’s transparency at a level that I believe in many ways is demanded by anyone who happens to have a computer, a laptop or smartphone because that transparency leads to trust. It is our responsibility to educate the consumer, because no one else will do it for us – no one else can tell our story but us. If we don’t tell our story, those who try to do it for us, they’ll get it wrong.
We are under a microscope in many ways and usually the burden of proof is on us. Not just to tell them why, but to beat them to the punch and get our voice out there. While we all sit here tonight supporting a cause such as adopt a farmer, I know I’m preaching to most of the choir here. But I also believe that our ability and willingness to engage is always changing.
They are hungry for our stories, and we as farmers, as only 2% of the population, should answer back. Which may mean something as small as sharing a blog post on Facebook, or something more challenging like having a real conversation at the grocery store about the safe food that we grow, or speaking up to your representative about policy issues that impact our way of life. Join a commission, participate in your industry!
However you do it, have your voice heard.
Truly thank you to everyone in this room for your involvement in promoting our industry, including tonight’s other honoree Sharon Livingston.
Thank you to my husband Matt, my parents, my whole family, my great friends, all who have supported me and will continue to work as a team with me to connect agriculture across the rural and urban divide, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, for this recognition!
We did have some small amount of excitement this year while harvesting wheat. It was the perfect storm in many ways, mostly in good ways thankfully!
It was on one of those really super hot days we have been having here at the tail end of summer. Probably in the high 90’s and we were two rounds into a field of standing wheat. Hoot had just climbed in the cab with Matt and I to make a few rounds (to make sure we are doing it right of course!) and as we turn the corner in the combine he starts to yell and point, “Burning Mommy!” And sure enough I looked to where he was pointing and saw flames 15 feet in the air….chaos quickly ensued. “Fire!” over the radio, meanwhile one of our guys saw the flames and was running to his rig to get extinguishers. Equipment driving out of the field as fast as possible, a call to 911…it was all very crazy!
Here are the things that went wrong…our best guess is that the sickle bar hit a rock and caused a spark, which caused the field to start on fire very quickly. The wheat is incredibly dry when we are harvesting so it doesn’t take much for fire to start and spread very rapidly.
But here’s what went right. Firefighter Hoot was on scene and spotted the blaze quickly! We had everyone there! Both truck drivers, my dad, Matt and myself were all miraculously in the field at that moment. 90% of the time it’s just the combine driver and maybe a truck driver, not much for manpower. The wind was blowing away from the standing wheat so it spread the fire as far as the headland and then stopped. We had plenty of fire extinguishers and the guys moved fast to wet the standing wheat and put out small spot fires. It was a great job done by everyone!
We were lucky that day, this whole thing could have been a very different story if the wind had shifted, if it had happened just 30 minutes before…really the what-ifs are endless. I have never harvested looking back in my mirrors so much in my life! It was also a little nerve wracking harvesting next to the burned area on the next round, I am pretty sure I was holding my breath! 
I can honestly say this year I was glad to put the combine away on the hottest days that were yet to hit a few weeks ago. Here’s to hoping that never happens again, and if it does, we get all the things that “went right” again!
NuttyGrass 