A picture is worth...well you know the drill

I take pictures.  Ok that's an understatement.  I take tons of pictures.  Everywhere you turn around here there is something worthy of getting a snapshot and I am rarely without my camera.  I believe that pictures speak volumes.  Way more than me rambling along trying to explain something.  So along the way here you will get to see a lot of pictures that I take. Some just gorgeous landscape scenes, some help describe the how's and whys of what we do, all are important to me and my journey here on the farm.  So be ready for some sight seeing!  

No Wonder

It’s really no wonder to me why there is such a big misunderstanding about modern agriculture.  Growing up in a city and then moving to a farm I can tell you that it really is two completely different worlds.  Not much is mirrored in between the two.

I can remember my first night in the dorms at Iowa State University getting to know my roommate.  She was from a cattle operation that she was born and raised on in rural southern Iowa. She gazed out the window with such wonderment and gasped.  I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and said

“Whats up?”

“The lights!  There are so many lights in this city!”

I stared at her for a moment with a confused look. Big city? 

Ames, IA?  This is the most rural place I’ve ever been to in my life!  I looked out that window and thought where the heck all of the lights are and here she is thinking she has been transported into a giant metropolis.  It was only then did I realize what a different world there was out there that I had never even come close to experiencing.

My husband said once in one of our first trips back to my home that where I had lived was so strange because it was like you were always in town.  I didn’t even understand the reference.  Why wouldn’t you be in town?  Where else is there to be?  I get it now, but so many don’t and that is my drive for Agvocating.  Sharing what I already know is so incredibly fascinating and alien to so many.  Farm life.

I write this now while my two boys play out in the yard with the new puppy we brought home today to be part of our farm family.   My two horses out grazing watching them, sun setting in the distance over a bean field, tractors and wagons rolling by; this is what my dreams have been made of I just never knew it at the time.  I am ready to paint my picture for you and let you see into the farm. Learn about how different it is living on a farm.  Learn about our practices as pig farmers and how they are most likely way different than what you thought or heard about. Learn that you don’t need to be scared of progressive agriculture but rather embrace it and celebrate its improvements and innovation over such a short period of time.  This is my life from the bright city lights of my sweet home Chicago, to the starry nights of the southeast Iowa countryside.

The Beginning...

Hello all and welcome to my spot!  I am going to start with introductions and let you know a little bit of my background.  I was born and raised in a suburb of the great city of Chicago in a town called La Grange Park, Illinois.  It was there that I grew my love for my furry friends and began taking horseback riding lessons when I was 8 years old.  I became instantly attached and started working at the barn caring for the lesson horses as soon as I was old enough.  When it came time for me to graduate high school I was faced with the decision of what agriculture school I was going to attend so that I can study Pre-Veterinary Medicine and pursue my love for animals.  I chose Iowa State University and headed off to begin the most wild ride of my life in the year 2000.
It was there at Iowa State that I (unknowingly at the time) met my husband and fell in love.  Every weekend he would head home from school and drive for 2 hours to help on his family farm.  That was such a foreign concept to me.  Why would anyone want to leave college on the weekends?  Isn't that the time you are supposed to stay and get crazy?  With my peaked curiosity I eventually found a time to head back with him and see what all of this fuss was about.
I was amazed.
How could there have been this whole other world of agriculture and farming that I never knew about in my 23 years of existence?  How could I have eaten food from the grocery store this whole time and never asked the question of where it came from?  Of course we all have that mental image of a farmer that pops in our head anytime someone mentions the name.  Old guy, overalls, piece of straw hangin' out of his mouth, sleepin' on the front porch waitin' for the corn to grow...right?  And in some cases even today, that stands true.  But in other cases it has come light-years from what our mental images portray.  And it is those light-years that has some people feeling frightened and out of the loop about their food and understandably so.
I was so intrigued with the farm that when we got married I vowed to immerse myself knee deep in everything that I could, literally and figuratively.  I needed to catch up on the gap in my life and bring it back home to share with everyone that I could.  There isn't too many people from La Grange

Park, IL that wouldn't be intrigued with listening to a day in the life of a pig farmer.  People needed to know, farmers needed to share, and neither was happening at a very fast rate.
So here I stand, 10 years down the road from that day I said "I do." and nothing excites me more than to share my experiences on the farm through the eyes of a girl with city roots. There is so much that goes on, and so much that is misunderstood or misrepresented when it comes to farming.  I am here to serve as a source to seek out your questions about farming and support to help tell your farming story.
I am a firm believer in freedom of choice, but I cannot stress enough how you need to base your choices off of facts that you know to be true.  There is no better way to find facts about farming than from a farmer himself.
Bear with me as I get my basics down and customize a little bit.  Once I get going I am going to dive in so be ready for an amazing ride!  So hold on and feel free to follow as I dig in and dish out everything I can get my hands on to share with you about farming!