Greetings everyone. Now that I have my podcast up and running somewhat smoothly, I’m going to try and make it a point to write a blog at least once a week. Writing has long been a passion of mine and I want to make sure to keep that edge sharp. With that being said, please go check out our latest episode featuring Dr. Val Farmer . I speak with Val about his recent trip to Israel as well as what we as farmers and ranchers can do to insulate ourselves to times of crisis. Val has been an incredible friend of mine over the last few months and I’m happy he has been so willing to share his knowledge with me and the audience of the podcast! Next week on the podcast, I have my first international guests. I’m super excited for this so please stay tuned for more details.
This has been an incredible, rollercoaster week for me. I’ll break it down by the days of the week, starting with Sunday.
Sunday afternoon after church, we made it a goal to finish a swingset/playhouse for our kids that Santa brought them for Christmas 2018. Yes you read that right. I’ve been joking that their present last year was the swingset and their present this year is getting it put together. Maybe I wasn’t joking. This swingset was no joke. It came in no less than 1000 pieces and were all bunched together… but hey, at least the directions were IMPOSSIBLE TO READ!!!! We had the majority of it put together, but we knew that Sunday was going to be the last nice day for awhile, so we took full advantage and completed the project as the last little bit of daylight was leaving Sunday evening.
Monday, I was fortunate enough to be a guest on Shark Farmer Radio on Siruis XM radio. I discussed my background, my family, and my podcast. It was such a cool experience to talk to Rob and Emily as I have been following and listening to their show for quite awhile now.
Monday also gave us an early winter snow/ice storm and unseasonably frigid temperatures. So after work, we had to feed hay to the cows. That is something that I typically try to wait until after the first of the year for. But this nasty weather thwarted my plans a bit. It wasn’t all bad though. I had a set of pairs on the backside of the farm that had no intention of joining the rest of the herd. However, this snow and cold weather made them want some dry, warm hay so they came running as soon as they saw the hay truck. Now, I have the herd altogether and ready for weaning and processing in a couple weeks.
Monday night after all my work, I was able to sit down and record another podcast with Holly Spangler, editor for Prairie Farmer, a Farm Progress publication. Holly has done some great work in writing about mental health and agriculture and she was very gracious with her time to sit down and record a conversation with me. I’m very happy to have gotten to know her better.
Tuesday was more feeding cows. In place of my typical morning run/gym session, I stayed at home and fed cows. I wanted them to have warm bellies for the frigid day to come. I went to work per usual, fed cows again when I came home and then sat down to relax for what I thought was going to be an easy evening. Well I was wrong. All of a sudden I got very dizzy and nauseous. That was followed by what typically follows dizziness and nausea.
Tuesday night and all day Wednesday saw me laying on the couch and sleeping trying to recover from whatever this bug is that has hit me like a ton of bricks. I sit here in my dining room at my laptop on Thursday morning still recovering. I just hope that I’m the only one in my family to get this wretched virus because I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.
So here’s to hoping that I have a stable rest of my week and weekend. This weekend, we celebrate Cooper and Carter turning 9 years old. It’s hard to believe that it has been 9 years since that midnight drive to the hospital, followed by several months of sleepless nights for both Keri and I. Life with twins has never once been easy, but it has been worth it. They have been a blessing to our lives and made us stronger.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my crazy life. I dont really have a call to action this week other than to be thankful for the times you do feel good, because there are times that you will long for it. I do ask you to please head on over to iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google play and leave a review for our podcast, Ag State of Mind. Reviews help us reach a wider audience. Thanks again and see you next time.
Jason