Small School Big Opportunities

I’m sure some of you have heard me say that I thought I grew up in a small town until I met My Cowboy.  He came from a town of 600 people I had more then that in my high school. Cowboy had 14 people he graduated with, I had nearly 180. 

When we chose to return back to My Cowboy’s small town, I have to admit I had my concerns about the school experience for our children.  My perception was that in small schools you don’t have as many opportunities for a well rounded education.  I soon learned there are plenty of  opportunities, they’re just different.  Turns out, small schools are better then I could have ever imagined. 

In a small town school the first day jitters are not the same.  After all, by about 4th grade, everyone knows you and you know them- really well.  At least that’s what Miss O told me.  She didn’t need to worrying about who will be in your class those things are not a surprise. So, it’s not a big deal to have a new outfit the first day of school. 

In a small school you certainly already know your teacher, there isn’t a concern about which teacher you will get. One teacher per grade or class. We’re extremely fortunate to have amazing teachers in our school who care and go the extra mile to help the kids. I know that not all teachers are created equal and that’s not as easy to pass over in a small school. 

In a small school we may not have a full time art teacher. But our community knows the importance of creativity and we have an amazing arts council. In the coming weeks our school has an artist in residence that will work with our youth to help paint a mural downtown.  I will share that progress in a blog soon. 

In a small town the Senior boys drive their semi and stock trucks to the first day of school.  Yes, the lot has enough space for truck parking. I’m so proud of those boys and their clever showing of agriculture pride. 

In a small town school when your team makes it to the playoffs, the entire town attends the event not just the sport families! The team pride is felt throughout the community and everyone is included. 

I will be honest and say there are times I think my kids would enjoy some of the things a big school has to offer.  But then I think of the benefits we've experienced and those are important to making them who they are. So, yes it’s different then what our friends who go to big schools experience but different isn’t bad it’s just different. 

I'm NOT one of those Crazy 4-H Moms

"I'm not one of those crazy 4-H moms"  I repeat that to myself many times a day as I look at this mess....

9 Days.. County Fair Crunch time has began at the Hadrick House! As you can tell by this picture there is still a lot to do.

There are 2 'Rules" I have when making 4-H projects. My kids like to create, they come from a long line of creators and I'm always looking for ways they can create.  So, I leave a lot up to them on what they want to make and that means picking their own colors, embellishments and encouraging them to make what they see in their mind.

My other 4-H project rule is that it has to be useful. I don't need junk around my house.  Let's face it, I don't spend a lot of time dusting and I don't need more stuff to collect it.

So, we make useful & creative things, can you find them in the picture...
Recycled cookie sheets- new chore charts painted with chalkboard paint.  Kids picked their colors and from the many old cookie sheets I've collected make their chore charts.

Deer head is being mounted on a recycled board from the old wood pile to display the boys last season kills.  T and I spent an hour a few weeks ago scavenging through the huge farm wood pile.  He took the old planks into our cabinet maker and asked him to plane them.  They turned out amazing and we're also hoping to get the end table done he has started...

The huge pickle jar I picked up from the church give away last fall- our new Fun Money jar. Miss O is going to stencil on it. She's picking the colors and letter stencils.

Oh see the candle holders- one cream and one teal... I got those from our on-line rummage site. I have to admit the teal one isn't what I had planned, but Miss O has a vision and I'm letting her run with it.  After all I can just paint it again when she's done with it.  Actually she can repaint it and use it in the recycled project area in if the future... Always thinking

See the copper dear head- Zulily find, the boy love hunting and this is a easy paintable item that adds to his room decor.  I typically have him spray paint, because who doesn't like to spray paint??  But for this item he is using some really cool metallic paint that we sell at my store.  I may have to find somewhere else to display it, because it is turning out really cool!

Don't forget the galvanized bucket at the end of the table...that's our new entertaining bucket for drinks or it might be the new towel holder for the basement bathroom guest towels.  Whatever the case, a stencil is being added in the color of Miss O's choice

Now we do have some projects complete... We don't save everything for the final week. The tubs and boxes hold the things we've worked on all year long. The painted frames we did at a fun paint class, pottery we did with the cousins in the big town, Tye Dye from bible school and the extension cords we did with the club.

Plus we have these cool boards with knobs on them for each child done.  Thanks in most part to my mother who came with her power tools.  I had the supplies, again a trip to the farm wood pile and the big town where each child picked the knobs that spoke to them.  These will be displayed in their room to hang important things on.

I'm sure there is more then that...

You know what I don't see in this box- the rockets, where Dear Lord did I put the rockets???

As a side note, Miss R is still a clover bud and with that comes freedom to create like no other! The State Fair 4-H rules do not apply to her and so her creations are a whole different blog post.  I may not get to it until after fair, but I promise to take pictures and have her commentary. 

Wish us Luck!  I didn't even get to the livestock... 2 pigs raised like cows and 2 heifers that are being pampered like I can only dream of. 

When I Grow Up...

Last week Miss R graduated from Kindergarden.

It's a big event in a young person's life and marking it with a party is very appropriate.

Something weird with my computer- but you get the picture

In our small community there is only one class of Kindergarden but Miss R's is a healthy size of 22 busy little people.  Miss Hammond & Miss Ogle have done an amazing job of keeping everyone moving in the same direction and everyone is moving onto 1st grade!

Let me just start off by saying Miss R wore an amazing outfit- I personally think it made it in the TOP 5 on her Kindergarden fashionista list. It had sparkles, flounce and matching flip flops. Plus it was a good hair day.

What really caught my attention at the event was this simple display of each child in Miss R's class holding a sign to complete this sentence:

7 out of the 10 boys in her class want to be farmers.  Wow, I'd say that is a pretty good percentage of future farmers in our community! I was a little surprised at that many kids who see their future in farming but on the other hand -- Proud that so many of our kids see themselves walking in their mom and dad's footsteps to carry on the tradition of raising food.  It would have been fun to dream about being a baseball player,  race car driver, police man, hunter-- all popular boy jobs.  But no, instead they want to be FARMERS! 

I can't wait to see how these kids grow and become their dream. 

Now for Miss R- the sign she is holding-  Ballerina. 

I was surprised by this, since for over a year now she has talked about being a Doctor. She goes into complete detail every time she talks about it; explaining that she wants to help people and make them better. When I questioned her about her profession change she said that she'll "make her final decision when she's 18"

...stay tuned, it could get interesting.

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...

August Was For Australia

August was the month that My Cowboy and I were visited by our Australian friends. As we've traveled in Australia the past year we have always said to people if you get to the states we would love to host you.  Who knew they would actually take us up on it! Let's face it South Dakota is not on the beaten path. Just by pure coincidence, the ones wanting to come see us, all wanted to come in August.

We should have known some crazy Aussies would make the journey.  The one thing we learned while traveling in Australia is that many of the Aussie's have seen more of the states then most Americans.

David with my dad

David Maconochie is a great friend we met on our last trip down under.  David and his family run Hopkins River Beef in Victoria.  David had won the Young Feedlot producer award and was given a trip to America to tour feedlots. It just so happened he picked the exact time I was planning a feedlot tour for my job so he was able to influence lots of South Dakotan's with his Aussie views.  David's blog, Aussie Beef Boy details his trip to America and his views of the beef industry.

David and I spent a memorable trip driving across Kansas and he even made it up to South Dakota to do a little R&R in the before moving on. There are so many memorable things about David's trip that we continue to laugh and can't wait to see him again.

While out on the road David and I were able to meet up with two very special friends.  Angus Street & Elly Daley. Angus and Elly served as our tour guides while in Australia and we love them. They were both mixing business with pleasure on their US trip and were unable to get up to South Dakota to spend time at the Hadrick place but were able to meet up for supper in Denver one night. You may notice that My Cowboy was not in the picture.  He was home working while I was out having fun.

Angus, Me, Elly, and David

August finished out with our last visit from Ray & Leah Vella. Ray is a Nuffield scholar and is spent 6 weeks in North America learning more about land and farm management. Ray has a great blog about his travels and life in Australia.

We had visited Ray & Leah at their place in Queensland on our last trip. We were able to spend a short day with them and their wonderful family at their house.  These crabs are from the ocean that their land touches. They were amazing! Leah and I hit it off right away.  I really admire her for the rural life she leads and homeschooling her oldest child while balancing the two younger children.  Leah has to homeschool her son because of how far they live from town.

Vella's had been on the road for almost a month when they arrived in South Dakota. We were so excited that they were able to spend a few days with us.  I paraded Leah through the schools for show and tell and Ray helped install a new fence at the feedlot. It was great to catch up with them and look forward to the time when we can get back to their place and spend some time.

Me, Leah, Ray, My Cowboy

So, to all our Aussie friends that have not been here- the spare room is ready! Fall is coming on- so you might want to wait until spring it's a much better experience when it's not cold. Can't wait to see you!

Don't Know My Round from My Loin

Today I got to do something I have never done before- it involved a hairnet, sharp knives and a trim bin. Any guesses?  Well a few more hints: I was in a lab, it was cold and conversation included terms like loin and round.  As a beef producer I think it is so important that I learn as much about the product I raise. How better to do that then spend the day fabricating a beef carcass. It was an amazing experience to start with the whole product and turn it into smaller cuts of meat- like ribeye steaks.  I now understand what product goes into ground beef and the process of making it leaner.  In fact I believe that all beef producers should be required to do this process. I think that it's provided me more insight into how to raise a better animal for quality meat. My group worked as a team to break down half a carcass and we were fortunate to have a ton of help from the meat scientists at South Dakota State University. They walked us through every step and explained every detail.  

We went from this 

To pieces like this... Cool.

I know I look pretty cool in my fabricating outfit.  My proud moment of the day was when our qualified helper said I did a great job at filleting the connective tissue off a piece of trim. Which means I finally figured out how to use the knife and he wasn't afraid I was going to cut off my fingers or hurt the guy next to me working on a different piece.
I consider myself fortunate to be a part of raising food for people and I'm proud of myself for taking the time to learn more about the food I produce so that I can do it better.

It's January 4th and I can't believe the weather in South Dakota! That's a statement I've said many times in January about our weather but I'm usually talking about how horribly cold it is or how much snow we have. This year I'm in shock because of how warm it has been. The past few days have got into the 50s! That is crazy for this time of year. It really confuses the kids since they are programed that it's winter and in winter you never leave the house without full winter gear. This consists of snow pants, snow boots, stocking hat and gloves. Although I have told the kids they dont need to carry these things with them. My kids are still packing all these things in their backpacks just in case a freak snowstorm hits while they are at school. I've trained them well.

Although I'm enjoying this weather, I'm nervous. As farmers we rely on Mother Nature to provide the moisture needed to grow crops. For us in the Dakota's a chunk of our yearly moisture comes in the form of snow. So when the snow doesn't come we start to get worried. Of course we don't say it out loud for fear that someone else may be thinking the same thing. No, farmers like to pretend that if no one else talks about it then it's not really happening. And what I'm talking about is the D word. D word? Drought. Now for those of you keeping track at home- we did have abundant moisture last year but this fall we dried up. But I'm optomistic Mother Nature will provide. We did get some fog last month so in March we could receive mositure- just in time for calving. That will keep My Cowboy out of trouble.

Connecting Farm & City Kids

My family had the opportunity last year to be adopted by a classroom in Sioux Falls, SD our largest city in SD. They wanted to connect with farmers and we jumped at the opportunity to connect with city youth. We send them monthly videos of what we are doing on the farm and they send us a list of questions as long as my arm back.  It's been a cool experience and when they asked if we would like to do it again, we jumped at the chance.

This past week we traveled to Sioux Falls and were able to meet with the now 3 classrooms that have adopted us. We showed them our video on weaning calves. It's a good video (I took most of the footage) of how we transport the calves, process them by giving shots and weighing them. We also show the calves in our backgrounding lot where they are fed through the winter. The short video sparked a ton of questions about our cattle. Like what we do with them when they get sick? We give them medicine to make them better, just like they would get.  We shared that we spend a lot of our day with the cattle making sure they are not sick so when one is we quickly get them medicine.

Smelling the ground hay

The difference between male and female cattle? This question always comes up with groups of youth and we often explain that all mammals, just like humans have male and female 'parts'. What are the things in the cattle ears? We talk about how all of our calves have individual ear tags that have a number assigned to them, which is like having a name.

We also took feed samples of what the cattle are fed.  Everything from silage to ground hay to ground corn.  The kids were able to touch and smell the samples.  This year Kelly from Ag United joined us and brought cotton seeds too. Many kids had no idea that their jeans were made from cotton that is a plant!

Probably the thing I was most proud of was our middle daughter Miss O and her interaction with a small group of students.  She is very shy and usually does not interact with a group well. She had shared her story about her bucket calf she took care of for the last 7 months in front of the large group.  A few students starting asking her questions and she did amazing with answering with detail and enthusiasm. 

Although we only got to spend 45 minutes with the classrooms we made the most of our time and I'm excited we were able to connect with the students on how their food is made. My Cowboy and I love we we do as farmers and my kids are proud to be farmers and that makes me proud.