Category: Lessons

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!

The Views from My Office

I always enjoy when people post photos with the caption, “A view from my office today…” And many times it’s of someone with their feet in the sand, looking out over some beautiful scenery, etc.  I got to thinking today how much my office view has changed since I started farming full time 9 years ago.

When I started my view from my “office” was a lot of the back of my dad’s head.  I followed him around a lot those first few years.  Farming isn’t an easy or quick endeavor, it’s years of experience and knowledge.  Experience and knowledge that even while retired, I still hunt him down for often.

558458_10151088232780795_1040423726_nThen as he slowly took steps back my office view became a lot more of fields while on a sprayer or fertilizer buggy.  And a lot of the real office…because even farmers have to do paperwork!

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Office Work

And as such, life progressed for me personally, adding a husband to the mix, who became a part of the farm a few years after he officially become a part of my forever story.

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Then as luck would have it, my little farmers were born.  My office view became a lot of days out in the fields with a little man named Hoot.

IMG_4421And about a year and a half later, our farm boy number two showed up.  As of late my office view is me, taking care of  business, many times (I’ll be honest here) in my pajama like attire, on my cell phone, while at home with my arms full of this sweet new to the world face.

IMG_5567It’s not easy all this “view from my office” changing that has been going on.  There are many days when I see Matt drive off in the sprayer or take the fertilizer truck in to get filled that I do miss that time of farming.  But some days I’m reminded that I have to cherish the time that I’m in.  Because soon, probably before I know it, the view from my office will change again, and maybe I’ll miss those pajama days (just a little!).

 

How do you do it?

I hear myself ask the question of many women in agriculture, “How do you do it?”  We are all so busy, at times overwhelmed, running around like chickens with our heads cut off, but meanwhile still getting things done and succeeding.  So how, truly how do you do it?

As a new mom, a farmer, and generally someone who always volunteers for everything, I am always a bit surprised when someone asks me this question.  Because inside most of the time I feel like I am constantly screwing up.  Let me set the scene,  it’s 6 am on Monday, the house is…well we are all tired.  It seems like the last 10 months of life have flown by in some respects and have crawled in others.  The nights are still quite restless with our little man.  I remember the night at four months old that he slept for 8 hours, my husband and I high fived, we thought we had won the battle.  Turns out it was just that, a battle and the war with sleeping through the night has continued.  Every night in a way feels like a failure, that might be too strong of word, but it doesn’t feel like success.

All of this meanwhile we are running a farm.  I’m the manager, making all decisions from day to day and year to year.  Where there are mistakes to be made every single day.  There are so many situations that you can’t control, the rain and wind to just name my usual arch enemies.  Continuing to blog three times a week (which doesn’t always happen), keep up with friends (who I miss and don’t call enough), hit a meeting or two each week, let’s just say that just writing this all down makes me feel very overwhelmed.

So here is what I have learned and here is what I feel when I get asked, “How do you do it?”  You just do, everyday you wake up and realize that today you don’t get a day off.  That no matter what you have to get things done, take lots of deep breaths, and then find joy in what you are up to that day.  I have found that just smiling at my son when I get home from a long day, makes a lot of things better.  I have also realized that if I just take 15 minutes to finish the dishes, it makes a world of difference in my life the next day.  Try as hard as I can to not feel guilty for making decisions to do something.  Because a decision to do something inevitably is a decision to not do something else, and that isn’t easy.  And at the end of the day, no matter how long or tiresome or successful you tell yourself that tomorrow is a new chance to work at it all again.

Living the life that farmers do, where our jobs are also our way of life, is a tough position.  So you prioritize, you again take a deep breath and you move forward.  My answer then, the short of the answer anyway, is just give yourself a break, work hard and remind yourself that you’re working hard for a good reason.  Life is meant to be enjoyed and if you can find that joy in the small everydays of life, you have it figured out.  Good luck out there, it isn’t easy, but once you resign to that, it becomes easier. (if that makes any sense at all!)  In the end everyone has their battles to be fought everyday, those who are successful though don’t give up, they learn from themselves and from others.  They just keep chugging along.