Midnight Ride to the E.R.

I knew that Cowboy wasn't waking me up at 4:30 am to visit about my day.  This time of year I don't get to see Cowboy much, he's night calving so when he's in the house during the day- he sleeps.

Nope at 4:30 am the conversation will start like this: "Can You Come Help Me?"  Which can mean one of two things:
1) I need help outside with a cow calving
2) I'm bleeding

Unfortunately for me it was #2 last night.

Cowboy had went out to night check around 3:30 am and was helping a new mom 'with the finer points of motherhood' as he put it. Somehow in the process of holding the calf up close to her for it to nurse she showed him.  He got kicked in the head and tore his lip open.

Now a conversation I've had many times in my tenure with Cowboy is the "Should I go to the Emergency Room?" Which usually means if we are having that conversation the answer is YES! But second and third opinions are always welcomed.

Cowboy had woke me up for that opinion.  Now something you need to know about me is that I don't like blood.  Up until I met Cowboy I had only been to the emergency room once in my life- and it was to take some people who wreaked a pickup down the road from the ranch.  In the first two years I was dating Cowboy I went to the emergency room 3 times! Once right before we got married (that's another post).

Although I don't like blood I can usually hold myself together until we make it to the Emergency Room. Each time I have taken him in the staff and Doctor always ask me if I'm ok before tending to him! I must be a sight because he is the one usually bleeding.

It only took one glance with sleep still in my eyes at the cut for me to know an Emergency Room visit was his next stop.  We're so fortunate in our little community on the prairie to have an amazing hospital with staff that stitched him right up! He was in and out in a little over an hour.

He was home and dressed to go back outside to try again with the new mother before 6 am.  No rest for the tired or hurt when baby calves need to eat.

Let's hope that's our only visit to the E.R. this calving season. But, I fear we are just getting started...

NASCAR Made My Marriage Stronger

NASCAR has made my marriage stronger...
There's a statement that millions of rednecks wish their wives would say... but in our case it is true.

My Cowboy Loves Sports.  He knows all the players names, stats, and can spot an athlete in an airport 5 gates away.

I Enjoy Sports- I know most of the rules to football, baseball, basketball and like to watch them.
But never could get into it like Cowboy.  I never see myself having a fantasy football team.

NASCAR changed the sport demographic in our house.  A few years ago we stated working with a NASCAR team.  Up until then we were what I call casual fans. We would sometimes watch the race on Sunday's.  And I knew who Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Let's face it- growing up in South Dakota the closest race track is Kansas City-573 miles away. There's just not a lot of talk about the Sprint Cup up north here.

Working with Furniture Row Racing opened our eyes to world of motor sports- mostly mine.   Finally I could talk intelligently about a driver, car, sponsor, etc with Cowboy. The piece of our relationship that had been missing, sports conversation! Who knew, that was one thing all these years that could add a little spice to our relationship.

Me & My Cowboy at the 2012 Daytona 500

So, we sat yesterday watching the Daytona 500 all a buzz about drivers, who's working with who and wondering when Danica would take out the front runners.

When Cowboy comes in for lunch today I'm sure we will have some recap of the big events and what we've heard.

Yep I'm proud to say I'm a NASCAR fan!

Soul Tour

I'm a girl that loves the praire.  I think one of the most beautiful things is looking out over a pasture of and seeing black cattle grazing in belly deep green grass. This time of year on the priarie can be brown and cold and I long to see some green and water in its liquid form.

Cowboy surprised me about a month ago staying that on our trip home from Memphis we could swing through California. No, our map isn't broke, in fact we've found that when you add more stops to your trip the tickets get cheeper.  So to save the group money we were working with we decided to stay a few nights in California visiting friends.

For this Great Plains Girl, seeing the ocean is always a treat. Growing up I didn't see the ocean until I was 19 and at the time I didn't think it was actually the ocean, just a body of water that maybe touched the ocean.  The west coast is one of my favorite places to visit because the rocks and views of the water are just amazing.


I call this trip the soul tour because it does my soul good to spend time with our friends and the ocean.
Cowboy took this picture of me watching the waves coming in.  We also took a lot of video, that I watch on my Apple TV so it feels like I'm still there! That should get me through the rest of the winter...


We also did some fun stuff.  There is nothing like crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.  Honest- I've crossed many a bridges.  I cross the Missouri River every time I go to see my parents and that bridge doesn't hold a candle to the Golden Gate!

I also got to wake up and spend my morning coffee time in a vineyard.  We're very fortunate to have great fiends in California that we love to visit and they take such good care of us.  There was plenty of laughter and WINE! Which is as you know another thing that makes me really happy.

I tossed this last picture in as a rare glimpse of Cowboy without his black hat. We look like locals here...

Thanks to our wonderful friends who made this trip so much fun for us.  We really appreciate it and can't wait for you to visit us!!

Hadrick Christmas Letter

This has been another busy year for the Hadricks! We started off our year like everyone should, taking a family trip to Disney World.  We had an amazing family trip and it really is a great place to spend a family vacation.

Cowboy & I are in the process of taking over the farm with our cousins. We have been dry, but harvest went well and actually turned out better then we thought it would. This winter has been fairly mild, so the cattle are looking well. We have a little snow on the ground so it helps hide the ugly brown of winter.

I continue to work for SDSU. I'm currently administering a grant, that I helped write. It was an idea that I had to take beginning beef producers through an intensive experience of looking at the industry.  I love the work I'm doing and it's been fun to see a dream come true.

We continued to travel the world with our speaking. This year we have been to 14 states (some more then once), 3 Canadian providences and Australia. It's been great to meet new friends and connect with old ones as we travel.

Teigen reached a decade this year. He loves to hunt, fish and help his dad on the farm. A highlight of the year including showing his 4-H heifer at the Western Jr. Livestock Show. Teigen is the 5th generation to show at WJLS and we love attending the show.  He plays sports, this year he started football, is in his second year of basketball and of course plays baseball.

Miss O is a first grader and loves school. She is a reader and a crafter. She is an active 4-H Cloverbud and asks almost once a month when she can be a full blow 4-Her.  She keeps us all in line and is always reminding me of thing I forget.

Miss R started her first year of school and our bouncy curly haired girl has grown into a great young lady. She is very creative and her favorite thing to do is make us all laugh.

We have been very blessed and I am very grateful for all that we have. My hope that for all my friends and family who read this post know that Cowboy and I wish you all the best.

Celebrating National School Lunch Week

To celebrate National School Lunch week, I had school lunch with the girls.

Waiting in Line

I've talked about school lunch before and my concerns about the lack of protein and calories that our children are getting.  Since my last post (School Lunch Changes...) I've talked to many people in our school system, other parents and the kids who eat the lunch. For this post I am going to break down my lunch observations for this day. I plan to share the information I've gathered from my discussions in a different post soon.

The girls were thrilled I was joining them again for lunch. I picked a random day that worked for my schedule last week- Wednesday. The younger kids start lunch at 11:15. The menu: popcorn chicken, broccoli, fruit, milk & juice. Bread was also served with the meal.   Each child was asked if they would like broccoli and bread with their meal. They were not given a choice if they wanted fruit but what fruit they wanted: apricots or pineapple both from a can.  Observing the 8 kids in front of me none of them knew what apricots were- all took pineapple. They also could have juice and milk, that must be to get the full servings of fruit.

My Trey

I counted that 4 out of 25 in Miss O's class took broccoli and 5 out of 21 in Miss R's class tried the vegetable.  My girls didn't take the vegetable, at home they always eat broccoli. (In fact last year Miss R identified broccoli as her favorite food on her pre-school questionnaire- I achieved a Mom of the Year star). As you can see from my trey- I took the broccoli.  I love broccoli and there was cheese on it- bonus! Except there was no taste to the vegetable.  The girls informed me that they had tried the broccoli in the past and that is why they wouldn't make the mistake of taking it again.  As I forced myself to eat it, I kept thinking this would taste better if I had salt.  I had remembered one student I talked to being upset about not having salt to put on things anymore. She was going to start bringing her own to school to use.  Salt is the new bootleg item at school?

My Trey....Miss O's Trey

This picture gives you the comparison of my trey and Miss O's. She did take the bread, which according to the teacher is very popular item with the kids.

As I look at these treys, I don't see how this is promoting kids to eat more fruit and vegetables.  Miss O's trey was very representative of the others on her table. So, the kids are not getting filled on protein and are simply not taking all the fruits and vegetables offered so bottom line is they are going hungry.

Miss O ate all her food.  I could not choke down all of my broccoli but did eat the rest. By the time the kids got out of school that day I was starving. I now understand how come my kids come through the door ready to have a snack before we have our evening meal.

Go have school lunch and see what our kids are eating. We've got to stand up for them and let the ones who are making these rules in Washington DC know that their meals are leaving our kids short and being full is the cornerstone to learning.

Where I Come From We Rode In Trucks

It’s no secret that I have a crush on Luke Bryan but I also relate with this song. Pickup’s have been an important role in my life. 

I learned to drive on an old Blue Chevy ranch pickup. My dad felt it was absolute must that all ranch girls learn to drive ‘stick’ before leaning automatic. I had to put my foot under the clutch peddle to lift it off the floor and shift with two hands all at the same time.  Oh, and the shifter knob had long been replaced with a cue ball so I really had concentrate to remember what gear I was in. 

Certainly I think my dad did have an alternative motive for teaching me to drive the ranch pickup. There were plenty of times he would make me drive the 1 ton dully with glass packs and sometimes a trailer to high school to run errands for him after school. There was nothing more embarrassing to a girl hiding from her cowgirl legacy then driving that thing to school. Letting off the gas and hearing that BROOOM, BROOOM, BROOOM noise always made me just cringe. 

When I got to college, my sorority sister drove a little pregnant roller skate manual car, I was the only other sister who knew how to drive it and at times when she had too much at the bar and I didn’t, I would drive us home. I was amazed at how much fun it could be to drive a manual...this was not the ranch pickup!   I impressed by many a boy at college with my driving abilities. 

I have to tell you that when I met my Cowboy it was probably his cool pickup that may have sealed the deal with us. I had never dated a boy who drove a pickup and although he didn’t let me drive it, I was still impressed. 

The pickup tradition continues with my children. This spring during breading season the kids spent many an hours entertaining themselves in the back of the truck. This particular day the girls with their cousins were pretending they were in a pirate ship sailing the 7 seas...

Young Mr. Hadrick has the farmer drive already down. He is allowed to move the pickup around the yard from time to time. Look at the casual arm out the window and one hand on the wheel. Must be a dominate gene in the male farmer, this can’t be taught, its natural ability. 

Sometimes we clean our pickups up and take them to town. It’s a common occurrence to see a ranch pickup pulling a float in the 4th of July parade.

We also use the pickup for our office on any given day and sometimes I feel we live in it. Here I’m using it as a prep station for breeding cattle this spring. We are out on the prairire, It may be crude but it gets the work done. 

To this day some of my favorite memories as a child is in that old blue Chevy pickup and there is always a smile on my face when I’m driving my Cowboys 1 ton Dodge pickup and I hear that turbo windup...

Fall on the Farm

I took a moment to regroup this weekend and it occurred to me this weekend that fall has arrived.  Although the 90+ degree temps are odd for fall, the trees in the creek below my house have changed and that is certainly a big indicator.

The creek below our house

Other indicators that fall has arrived at the Hadrick House:

Corn Harvest has started. For this cowgirl, it's still a challenge to embrace the cropping side of the operation. To let you in on a little secret; seeing brown cornstalks in the field does not evoke happiness or excitement for me.  I know, can I really call myself a farmer?   This cowgirl, did offer to drive grain cart if needed- I'm not sure they will get that desperate. My Cowboy took a picture the other night. I had to text him to send this to me.  We don't see each other much this time of year...

Me with the weaned calves in the background

Weaning is done! I love to work cattle and to see calves adjusted well is a good feeling.  This morning I heard the tractor running outside of my office window. My Cowboy was busy doing chores. Although I have to say I hate how having chores everyday ties us down I do love seeing the calves grow.

We've also ultrasound the first group of cows. My Cowboy does all the ultrasounding for the farm. Using this technology helps us to determine what cows are pregnant and which ones are open (not pregnant).  In years like these where grass is short because of the drought.  We are able to sell those animals and stretch our feed resources a little further.

I'm excited to report that Morgan (T's heifer from last year) is pregnant! So, we will have another calf expected from her in the spring.

Young Mr. Hadrick has started football. He loves it! We went to his first game last night and he played some and he did really well for only a bit of football knowledge. He has practice twice a week and it's an indicator of what I have to look forward to as my children's schedule takes over mine.  Keep in mind that in our very rural community, there are not a lot of choices for youth activities. So I've been able to put off running the mom taxi like many of my friends in populated areas do all the time.

Fall is my favorite time of year and I'm excited it is here. I'm not excited about the snow flying yet- but I'm mentally preparing.