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Question and Answer Period: Part Two

October 13, 2010 By 2 Comments

1. Have you always been able to “say goodbye” to the animals you raise without any guilt or hesitation?  What it’s like to have your own farm? What do you grow/raise/produce on your farm and is there anything you’d like try farming eventually? merci! -from paiiige

Being guilty about saying goodbye to our animals is not something we have ever had trouble with. Our parents have a 300 sow farrow (babies being born) to finish (off to market you go) operation. Our parents try to ship over 6000 pigs a year which would be a lot of animals to say goodbye to, and a lot of names to remember! (No, we do not actually give our pigs names.)  Scott and I ship a little over 10,000 pigs a year, so we definitely do not get attached.

I guess I wouldn’t be the best person to ask about how it feels to own my own farm. What I mean is that yes, I own the farm, but this year I have not done very much work on it because I’m home all day with Hailey.  I do go on weekends to help Scott sort pigs for shipping.  Scott is the main decision-maker on our farm, and though someday I would love to help out full-time with it, right now I’m normally busy with Hailey and will be going back to work in January.

We have two pig finishing barns, and grow different crops such as winter wheat, corn, sweet corn, peas and soybeans.  I see horses and sheep in our future, mostly because Scott is obsessed with both and we have a nice area at home that I could see raising a few of each.  Right now we farm 440 acres (some rented, some owned) and Scott has dreams to work and own many more acres. I guess we’ll have to see where the future takes us.

Watch out Hailey!
(Visiting some cows down the road)

EDIT: I was thinking about my answer and realized I didn’t express how I feel about farming.  I love being able to call my family farmers, it makes me proud.  Growing up on a farm has made me hard working and strong. I feel lucky to live on a farm.

Filed Under: farming, question, Question & Answer

Life on the Farm

March 5, 2010 By 13 Comments

Did you know that us blondes grew up on a farm? A pig farm to be exact. I (who currently resides in Calgary) am home in Ontario for a week and promised my parents, who are on a cruise celebrating this girl getting married, that I would help Scottie in the barn. (Scottie McHottie is our farmhand, who rocked the traditional story of farmhand-marrying-farmer’s-daughter when he asked our Kate to marry him years ago).

My best friend is in broadcast journalism school and asked if she could make a video of me doing chores in the morning for a project and of course I agreed. Hello, what great blog fodder and who doesn’t love a vlog? HUGE thanks to my bff Leah – yes, we have the same name – for doing this!

So enjoy taking a peek into my current life, and also what life was like when we were kids and had to go to the barn when we misbehaved.

Filed Under: agriculture, Calgary, farming, life, pigs

Unintentional Rednecks

February 16, 2009 By 7 Comments

Recently I’ve grown fond of the blog Attack of the Reneck Mommy.  Tanis (YES, ladies that were at Ladies Night on Friday, her name is Tanis!) recently adopted a little boy, there’s a whole backstory, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, there’s a Dragonlady (our Mom’s nickname).

Anyway, Tanis is well-loved across the mommy-blogosphere – so much so that a Redneck Shower was thrown.  Technically this post is up too late to participate, but that’s never stopped us before!

Here are a few anecdotes about growing up as the children of a redneck parents (in the best way possible):

  • Until shortly after Lauren was born, we lived in a house trailer.  Two parents, five children, one bathroom. Yowza.
  • Micaela was born on a waterbed in said trailer, delivered by our dad and our aunt Rosie.  Dad kept the placenta in a tupperware container in the fridge for a week.
  • We often spent time in a playpen…in the barn.
  • Dad built us a pool out of aluminum siding – the kind normally used for grain bins.
  • When I was little I apparently liked to grab on to the electric fence for fun.  This explains a lot.

Being a farm kid is awesome.  That’s all I can think of right now…sisters, any more to add?  Anyone else have any funny, redneck-esque moments?

Filed Under: Family, farming, humour Tagged With: , ,

A Royal Weekend

November 11, 2008 By

All five of us girls have been in a youth program called 4-H.  This is a program for kids in rural areas, and are interested in things from livestock to crafts.  Being from a pig farm, we blondes were involved in swine 4-H!  Our parents are the leaders of the club, and we’ve all been in it at one time or another.  We learn about different areas of pig farming, as well as go to fairs and “show our pigs”.  I know, I know.  You’re looking at the computer screen going “What? How would you “show” your pig?”.  Don’t worry, we’ve all gotten it before.

In about March a baby pig is born, and believe me.  It’s SUPER cute!  My favourites are the spotted ones and the brown ones.  In November-just this past weekend actually, we take these pigs to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.  There are people from all different counties around us, and there are different 4-H clubs in these counties.  When showing a pig there is a judge, and about 10 other people in a big pen with you.  This big rectangle shaped pen has little pens surrounding three out of the four sides of it.  These little pens have gates going into the big pen, and are usually only big enough to fit you and your pig, with just enough room for the pig to turn around.  At the Royal, there are three different age groups- senior, junior and novice.  Senior is ages 16-21, junior is ages 12-16, and novice is ages 10-11, and also, this group is for people who have never shown at the Royal.  To actually “show” the pig, you and the people in your class have canes, which you hold with the curved part down.  This helps direct your pig, and keep it under control.  Your job while in the ring is to give the judge a good view of the pig you are presenting, to always keep the pig between you and the judge, and to always be looking at the judge, and know where he/she is.  Also, to always SMILE!

This past weekend I showed my pig at the Royal in Toronto.  All the other five blondes are too old now, so the only ones from our 4H club there were me and two others.  I actually met my pig the day before the show, but sometimes people meet their pigs and work with their pigs for a couple of weeks before the show, just so their pig gets used to walking with them, and being in an open space with other people and pigs.  I was incredibly lucky though, since I had a GREAT pig!  She was very affectionate towards me, and was great at walking and being directed.  I was in the senior group, and placed second!

There is also a “conformation class”, where the judge is only judging your pig, and not your showmanship.  My pig did not do very well in this class.  There is then an auction for the pigs, and the top 30 pigs in the show get auctioned off, and the price is per pound that the pig weights-mine weighed 262lbs.  My pig was 23rd in the auction, which means I was the 23rd person to auction my pig off.

All in all it was a VERY successful day, and since my mom didn’t even think I would make the auction, I’d say luck was on my side!  Here are some pictures from the day taken by our mom:

Toronto

CN Tower after leaving the Royal on Thursday night!

Me and Pancake

Me and my pig Pancake

Group photo

Group photo

In the pen with Pancake

Showing

Showing

Ribbons

Ribbons

Pancake resting after her big show

Pancake resting after her big show

Sleeping while trying to study

Sleeping while trying to study

Filed Under: agriculture, animals, farming, pigs Tagged With: , , ,

What country kids do for fun!

July 15, 2008 By 8 Comments

Our family has always been obsessed with taking pictures, one or more of us always has a camera handy to take pictures of anything that strikes our fancy! One of our fun summer activities has always been taking jumping pictures! Check out these jumping sites: livejournal, and flickr. I remember taking jumping pictures in my room in university, on the trampoline and our recent favourite in the wheat!

A few weekends ago we decided to do an impromptu photoshoot in the wheat.. so please pardon my baseball attire (Re: Short shorts) as I had just finished practice! Lauren, our married friends Laura & Matt, Scott and myself all took part (we may have had to force the guys). Here are some of my favourite pictures (not all jumping ones), stolen from Lauren’s facebook page.

MORE BEHIND THE CUT

[Read more...]

Filed Under: farming, friends, photoshop, summer Tagged With: , ,

At least I'm a cute raccoon.

July 14, 2008 By 5 Comments

Mr. X and I had a very busy weekend. He had an urge to rearrange all of our furniture so that we could fit his New Bike! inside the house when we pick it up on Tuesday.

Did I mention he bought a bike?

So now our apartment is rearranged, providing Max with lots of stimulation for his little kitty-brain. Seriously, if you ever think your cat is getting bored with his life of being trapped in your home (especially when said home consists of 6 small rooms), just move things around. It’s like Disneyworld for cats.

Speaking of animals, Mr X finally ventured into our barn for the first time! Although we’ve been together over 5 years, up until now the barn has been one place he has adamantly refused to go. We were at the farm trading vehicles and talking to Dad when Dad suggested that we see where they will soon be building the new office and washroom (the barn has been recently majorly renovated. You might say, torn down and re-built). I immediately said YES! and we didn’t give Mr X a choice. Off we went! He wouldn’t touch any of the pigs (not even the day-old piglets), but I feel it was a major step in our relationship. I can scratch that marriage ultimatum off the list (I told him that the wedding would not go down unless he had gone into the barn. I don’t think he realized how serious I was).

On Sunday, Mr X, myself, Katelyn, Scott, Micaela and Kent went golfing. It was a beautiful day – except for the wind. Our course is often very windy and Sunday was no different. I was stupid and forgot to put on sunscreen. My legs, arms, and face are bright red. BRIGHT red…except where I was wearing my sunglasses, prompting this comment from Mr X later in the evening:

X: “You look cute.”

E: “Do I look like a cute tomato?”

X: “No…a cute raccoon.”

So there you have it. I look like a cute raccoon, slathered in aloe vera gel.

Filed Under: farming, life, relationships, summer

PETA?

April 18, 2008 By 12 Comments

Congratulations all, you have come across a FiveBlondes exclusive post. No one in my crazy family knows about this, only one or two friends. I, Lauren, have decided to (try) to become a vegetarian. I know, I know, I live on a pig farm, but I’ve decided it would be a good challenge for the summer.

Speaking of summer challenges, I’ve come up with a list of things I want to accomplish this summer. Here it is:

  1. Knit socks, slippers, or mitts. With help from Oma of course
  2. Try to eat vegetarian
  3. Exercise more. This going along with numero uno, just trying to make myself healthier.
  4. Bake a themed cake. There is a story along with this one. For Christmas Ericas fiance D got a cookbook, and I was looking through it and saw these awesome cakes shaped as all different things, so I want to bake one of those. Maybe for my birthday…
  5. Learn how to drive “the pig bus”. Long story short, we have a school bus (painted) that we drive the pigs to the end of the driveway to get put on a truck, and I want to learn how to drive it. I don’t know why, I just sort of thought of it one day and decided I wanted to learn. Unfortunately this picture is not ours, but don’t you think we should paint/decorate it like this?

The Pig Bus

Luckily, our cafeteria at school has a great vegetarian/vegan menu, and an all over great cafeteria, so it shouldn’t be too hard…until I get home that is. It’s been two days and I have so far succeeded!

Filed Under: agriculture, farming, food Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

I’m a Winner!

October 10, 2007 By 3 Comments

This morning mom called my office within the first five minutes of me getting at work.

Mom: “I checked my email this morning and there was an email from your prof Owen, want me to read it to you?”

Kate: “Sure, I guess” (thinking that this will be about a course that mom was interested in and wondering why she would want to read the email to me)

Mom reading the email: “I have some good news, and because I don’t have Katelyn’s email address I’m contacting you hoping you will pass this on to her. Katelyn’s
“Dairy Days” video won a bronze award ($100) in the Canadian Farm Writers Federation annual writing and broadcasting awards last weekend”

Kate: “Woo Hoo $100!”

Well I guess the rest of the conversation doesn’t matter because woo hoo I won!

The Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) is a group of ag journalists, which includes reporters, editors and broadcasters in business and government, specializing in agricultural communications. The CFWF represents over 350 members who belong to organizations all over Canada. In conjunction with their daily reporting, they put on a competition annually, which includes categories such as “television, radio, and daily, monthly and weekly press reporting; media release; press column; press editorial and press feature.”

I won the bronze award in Television News Reporting. I made the video in my Agricultural Communications course at Guelph in my last semester there, it was one of the assignments that we had to complete. The topic assigned to me was ‘Dairy Days’, which is a program put on for Oxford County students in grade 4 to get a first hand look at dairy farming. I did research before the event (there was not very much information!), contacted people to interview, attended the event with our production team who get footage of the event and edit the video, interviewed people at the event, put together a script, taped voice overs (my fave part!), and then got to watch the final video.

My prof entered a bunch of videos from the class and amazingly enough our classes work came in 1st 2nd and 3rd! The must make him feel good as the prof.

So I’m guessing you want to see the video now right? Ok no laughing, I do look kind of silly… but here you go! And feel free to take a look around at other videos on Youtube added by “AgriComm” that our class produced, I do have another video on the site, see if you can find my other one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hNbBYT_Oig]

If that does not work please go here DAIRY DAYS

Filed Under: agriculture, farming, life, money, university, writing

Blog Review

October 1, 2007 By 1 Comment

I recently came upon a new blog, that I felt the need to share with the world and express my love for it.

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman

This blog (updated daily) is written by a woman, who in her earlier years was city woman who went to college in Los Angelas. She moved home after college and met a man she calls ” The Marlboro Man” whom she eventually married. Marlboro Man is a cowboy rancher in Oklahoma and Ree always has interesting stories of life on the ranch. Together they have 4 adorable children.

Here’s Ree’s bibliography from her website:

“I’m Ree, a.k.a. Pioneer Woman. Welcome to my frontier!

I’m a thirty-something ranch wife, mother of four, and moderately-agoraphobic middle child who grew up on a golf course in the city. I attended college in Los Angeles and wore black pumps to work every day. I ate sushi and treated myself to pedicures on a semi-regular basis. I even kissed James Garner in an elevator once. Now I live in the middle of nowhere on a working cattle ranch. My days are spent changing diapers, chipping dried manure from boots, washing jeans, and frying calf nuts. I have no idea how I got here, but you know what? I love it. Don’t tell anyone.

I hope you enjoy my website. Here, I write about my decade long transition from spoiled city girl to domestic country wife. I post frequent audio clips of my children mispronouncing simple words and of me doing Ethel Merman impersonations. I also share delightful audio clips of different styles of burps as well as photos of my son picking his nose. I’ve been known to record phone conversations with my retarded brother, Mike. Please don’t be offended; I’m a Middle Child. And I’m just keepin’ it real.

I’ve embarrassed myself a lot. Once, I spilled a pot of hot tea on Gary Coleman’s lap.“

love taking pictures and post frequent photos of my life on a working cattle ranch. And semi-regularly, I hold “Give That Photo a Name” contests, in which my readers enter suggested photo titles for a particular photo I’ve posted. The prizes are fabulous, and I get to swim around in your creativity for a day. Don’t miss ‘em!

In my spare time, I also manage to write, take pictures of nature, and compose ridiculous poetry in an effort to chronicle this bizarre, beautiful, and often hilarious journey I’m on. Thank you for allowing me to share it with you.

Also, check out my separate food blog, The Pioneer Woman Cooks! There, I post step-by-step pictorials of all the cowboy-pleasin’ dishes I’ve had to learn to cook over the years. You’ll love ‘em.”

You gotta check this blog out, it’s official I’m hooked!

Filed Under: agriculture, blogging, farming, review

Look out world here they come!

September 6, 2007 By Leave a Comment

stamp.jpg

Wedding Update: The wedding invitations are in the mail! Last night I sat myself down, printed labels out, stamped (those are our stamps above, so cute right?!) and sealed them! I think the invitations look pretty good and I hope that others agree. I’m very excited to get the reply cards back!

In total we are inviting around 216 people, hoping that only 200 can come, since that is the amount of people who can fit in the hall. We have a great mixture of Scott and my friends, my relatives, Scott’s relatives and a few of our parents friends. Most of the people coming are from Ontario, but we do have family coming from Alberta and hopefully a friend from Vancouver if she can take time off of school and make it down!

On Saturday is our Stag and Doe. A Stag and Doe (aka: Jack and Jill. Buck and Doe) is a party held by the bridal party, which is, I guess, a kind of fund raiser for the bride and groom. But in reality it is an excuse for family and friends to get together before the wedding to have a great big party! Stag and Does are very common in our area, and may sound weird to the rest of the world but they are so fun! Ours will be held in the driveshed on the farm and we are having a live band play and roasting a pig. We have the driveshed all cleaned out, and cemented the last part that needed to be cemented. Scott and his dad are buying beer today and we still need to go out and get all the rest of the alcohol.

Dress Update: Yesterday my Oma and my mom spend some time attaching the lace to my dress. I was excited to see it and even more excited to try it on! Sadly it is a bit short so mom will have to add a few more lace pieces to the top of the dress to lengthen the bottom. But overall it looks great, but wow it is hot! It is a good think the wedding is in October because I don’t think I could stand to be in the dress in the heat. I would be a sweaty mess, yes that is a nice image isn’t it. No dress pictures until October but if you check out my mom’s blog she does updates about the dress once and a while.

Filed Under: Family, farming, friends, life, money, music, Wedding
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