The Blogs I Never Wrote

I am sure it would be 100% appropriate to start this post with an introduction.

It could go something like, "Hi. My name is Jamie and I used to blog."

Or "Hey, I am that person who writes that blog that you stop by to read just to continously be disappointed that there is nothing new."

Or better yet, "Hi. I'm Jamie. I want to blog. I think in blogs. My mind has lists of things to blog about. I take pictures of random things to post on my blog. And then I never blog."

Yep, any of them would work.

HOWEVER, I am not posting any of that. 

I am just here to say that I solemnly swear that I am really going to give this 110% this time. Please hold me accountable.

Because here is the thing, I really honestly want to blog.

I wasn't kidding, my mind actually functions in 400-word blog posts. I drive home (on my ridiculously long drive) and write a post in my head summarizing my day. I see something at the mall and I draft up a mini-post ranting about the ridiculousness. I photograph everything I experience because I know how a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

It's how I function. I don't know if it's my education, my profession or just a weird quirk. Regardless, the result is that I have a whole library of blogs in my head that I didn't get to writing this summer.

Prime example, how did I manage not to write about the MN State Fair? I purposely took pictures of all the different food that I ate so I could share it with you. Case in point, the best food on a stick you will ever eat is below. I don't even want to know how many calories is in it. This was probably one of eight or ten servings I bought at the Great MN Get Together. And I wondered where my money went....

deep fried mashed potatoes.

Or, I don't know, maybe I should posted about the time my husband and I got to pose with a really big check and purple banner that we just won? That was a fun day. MJP Purfeerst Lut 104 (our Angus bull we have been showing this summer) had another great day in Minnesota and won Supreme Champion Bull at the Minnesota State Fair. Plus, added bonus, next year when we walk into the MN State Fair Cattle Barn we will be hanging from a HUGE banner with the rest of the Supreme Champions. Pretty darn cool.

we even had to drive to Wisconsin (no beer off sale in MN on Sunday) to get some celebratory beer!

I definitely should have wrote about our trip to Milwaukee, our week at the lake, or the Twins game we unsuccessfully scalped tickets at. And I wanted to rant for two weeks straight about how much I hated inserting my butt into my car seat just to sit in traffic for an hour and a half each way. But let's be real, there are a lot of things I could rant about, however they are probably better left unposted.

random date night at Target Field. Note to self: Don't let Mark be in charge of tickets.

Oh and don't even get me started on the P. Farms Corn Reports I missed. In short: It rained A LOT, it didn't rain for almost too long, then we got blessed and it rained again finally, but unfortunately the rest of corn country wasn't so lucky, so prices shot through the roof. This resulted in me checking corn prices every two hours so I could call my husband and convince him to sell some corn. In fact, I almost had Mark convinced that I should quit my day job and become a grain marketer. Then we remembered I have no idea how to do that. He went to school for that, not me. Fast forward a month, and now I never see my husband because we are trying to get that crop out of the field. I am officially a harvest widow.

Say hello to my husbands new home.

Lucky for you, my life as a new farm wife is something I definitely still have time to blog about. In fact, it's penciled in for this week.

And potentially the most important blog I missed is the exciting news about the new camera in my life that should make this blog 7,000 times better.

Yes, I fell victim to the beautiful things at National Camera Exchange. I am not ashamed.

However, that post is for Thursday.

And that's where I sign off.  See you tomorrow, same place, same time, for some inspiration. Lately, I have been lacking it.

Glad to be friends again!

Are You A No-Reply Blogger?

Easy Steps To Being Email Friendly

One of my favorite things about being a blogger is connecting with other bloggers and I love taking the conversations "offline" via an email conversation. However, lately I have been sending a lot of emails to my "no-reply" friends, to realize that whole conversation just got lost in no-reply cyberspace. Note to self - check email address before replying!

The fact of the matter is that if you don't know what a "no-reply" blogger is, you probably are one. Let's fix that ASAP. I put together some pictures to make this super quick fix even easier!

 Step 1. Go to your blogger home page and in the upper right hand corner click on the dial under your name. You need to go back to the Old Blogger interface to make the fix.

Step 2. Once in the old blogger platform (aren't you glad it got an update!?), click on "edit profile" next to your profile picture. BTW, I need a new one...I know everyone is sick of my feet.

 Step 3. It will bring you to this fun page where the last steps are super easy. Make sure you have "show my email address" clicked and that there is an email address in the box. I made an email address specifically for my blog so it's easier to keep everything separate. Press save & you are DONE.

Easy peasy. So quick, go make the fix. I am not naming names, but I would really love to email chat with some certain bloggers soon! :)

XoXo,

Why This Blogger Has Been MIA

Blogger MIA Alert!

I know I have been missing for nearly a week. So sorry friends, but life all of sudden got really busy.

And I am still running short on time, so here's your super quick review brought to you by our friend, Instagram.

I think the hectic schedule started when Mark convinced me to buy an old, crappy coffee table to refinish for him. And then it continued with a meeting up with friends, farmer's markets, graduation parties, family get-togethers, lots of cattle clipping, an overwhelming amount of stripping & sanding on a table that actually looks like it might have a future, volleyball games, judging practice, more cattle, running, lots of working and not enough sleep.

And now I am here. It's Friday afternoon, I am at my favorite (and best) mall in America enjoying a smoothie from Caribou, a tomato & cumumber salad from Noodles and finally catching up over lunch hour. Thank goodness for 60 minutes of rest. :)

Enjoy your weekend friends! I am off to a cattle show with my Marko & brothers, like I most likely will be every weekend until September! :)

XOXO,

Jamie

We Have A Winner!

Today couldn't be a better day.

1. It's Friday and I have a High-Five For Friday post to put up momentarily. 2. It's a gorgeous day and I have date with my hubby for lunch and with my girlfriends for supper. 3. I have one of those weekends ahead that offers flexibility, which I absolutely love. 4. I get to announce the winner of my first CCC giveaway.

First and foremost, a big thank you to everyone who entered. This week was one of my favorite weeks on the blog – so many new faces and better yet, so many sweet comments. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I headed over to the famous random number generator website and had my husband to press the "generate" button this AM. Drumroll please......

Who was lucky number 11 you ask!?

Yeah! I am excited to send a little homemade goodness off to my fellow #agblog friend! Please email me at cowscorncountryblog(at)gmail(dot)com with your mailing address and I will get it sent off tommorow! By the way, you must check out Coolidge Life On The Farm - they grow grapes & sheep, so it's a little twist on your corn & cattle chat you get here!

Also, just a little house work, but if anyone is ever interested in sponsoring a giveaway on the blog, I'd love to chat! Just shoot me an email and we can work out the details!

Happy Friday Friends! 

Hey Pretty Ladies! | Photos From The Pasture

This last weekend Mark and I spent our Saturday afternoon at the farm, like we do almost every weekend. Mark does not do townhome life well and every single chance he gets, he scoots away to the farm to the walk the pigs, wash heifers or spend some time in the tractor. And our weekends, usually always involve a trip to both of our parents to check on calves and help around the farm.

So, while Mark worked on breaking a new heifer, I grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures of the cows out on pasture. Because a majority of these cows spent their younger life in the show ring, they are super laid back and they easily let me wander around and take pictures. Plus, if a show heifer ever does get aggressive and protective after she has her first calf, she usually doesn't stick around in the herd for long. It's just not safe.

As a result, I was able to get a lot of fun pictures. In fact, I think it was more like 100+ fun pictures, but in our house, a certain someone could look at pictures of cattle for hours......so it worked out okay.

Some of my favorites are below and I added captions with some basic explanations. I know a lot of you who read my blog come from an ag background, but as Kate from At Home When I'm With You reminded me this week, not everybody does, so I tried to keep it simple! Let me know if you have any questions!

{In my opinion, beef cows have the good life. Give them sunshine, green grass and some water and they will happily lounge the day away. Check out the baby calf between the cows -- doesn't that look like bliss?!?}

{The front two are my favorite calves out of Molly this year. Molly is our donor cow who consistently produces great offspring, so we collect her embryos to put into other cows so they can raise a calf for her. It's kind of like a surrogate mother and it's an extremely efficient & quick way to improve our herd's genetics. These two calves are full sisters out of the bull, Silveira Style, and they're also full sisters to the heifer Mark gave me for our wedding. I can't wait to see how they are looking in the fall!}

{the calves were so curious about my camera and kept striking poses for me. Must mean a show career ahead?}

{"Hey, wait, I am not finished!" -- After spending about an hour out in the pasture, I decided these calves are spoiled rotten. They never get denied supper and you should she see how aggressive they are when they are nursing. Gentle isn't in their vocabulary when they are hungry. I hope it's not like that when I become a mom! This heifer calf was born in late February and she will nurse off her mother until she is "weaned" in September or early October.}

{can you tell she's one of my favorites!? Mark's family raises Angus (a breed of cattle that are normally all black), so when we get any color in the herd from our crossbred cows, we have a soft spot for them. I've labeled her our red-headed step child!}

{Eli is another favorite. Eli is a bull calf out of Matt's show heifer last year. We always breed our heifers to calving-ease bulls so they don't have any problems having their first calf, but Eli redefined calving ease. He was TINY. Luckily he is growing fast and Eli will either eventually be sold as a bull so he can breed other cows or he will become a steer (a castrated male) and we will either A. show him or B. raise him for meat.}

{Here's the Style calf that I mentioned above getting her supper. A good productive cow has one calf each year. Typically, she will have her calf in the early spring, nurse the calf all summer on pasture and then we wean her in the early fall and the whole process will happen again the next year. A cow's gestation cycle is just like a human - nine months!}

So the day in a life of cow-calf pair at Purfeerst Farms is pretty cushy, huh? 

Like I said, if you have any questions, just let me know. Next time, I will try to get some pictures of our Hereford cows at my parents. I used to be one of those people who would fight that my Hereford cattle were better than Angus any day, but since I married in, I am a lot more open minded! :)

XoXo,

A Birthday Giveaway!

I'm officially 24. Wahhooo!

I have been talking about doing a little giveaway for a few weeks because I finally hit the big 5-0 on followers. And I couldn't think of a better day to do it then today as a birthday celebration.

By the way, if you haven't checked out my almost-too-practical birthday wish list, you can find it here. 

 So what's on the docket for a giveaway? This adorable key fob!

If you didn't know this about me, I am a bit of a crafter ("bit" might be an understatement) and I also have this unhealthy obsession with beautiful fabric. When I found these key fobs on Pinterest before Christmas, I knew they would make the perfect gift for everyone on my gift list. So, I got my bestie on board, we made some adjustments so we had our own pattern and then we whipped up a bunch. Plus, now, every time, either one of us step into a fabric store, we have a perfectly good excuse to buy a few more gorgeous fat quarters. Perfect, right?

The beauty above is up for grabs today in the birthday giveaway! I love throwing it in my work bag so I can easily find my keys when I need them or it's a cute way to just carry your keys solo without a purse! And if anyone is interested in one even if you don't win, just let me know. I have quite a few in my arsenal and I would happily sell a few to happy customers! They are perfect for a little birthday gift (especially a new driver!) or a "just because" gift for a friend.

So, how do you enter!?

 It's super easy. Just become a follower of Cows, Corn & Country Girls via Google Friend Connect or the email subscribe and leave me a comment saying you are. If you already are a follower (thank you, thank you, thank you!), just leave a comment!

You also can receive two extra entries if you blog about this giveaway or if you tweet about it (mention @jamielmay!). Then come back here and leave a separate comment for each entry!

The giveaway will be open until Thursday evening and I will announce a winner on Friday! Make sure you don't comment as "anonymous" and if you don't have an email connected to your profile, make sure to check back Friday AM. Thanks for being such great friends and readers!

**Reminder, you need to leave a comment to be entered!**

Now, I am off to celebrate 24 years of life! :)

XoXo,

Passing On The Liebster Award Love

Paying forward the blog love.

My new friend Kati @ Incorporating Color was sweet enough to nominate me for the Liebster Award, which after a little research, I discovered is a fun pass-along recognition for up&coming blogs. I was honored that little old Cows, Corn & County (which I keep almost abbreviating to CCC -- do you hate it!?) made her list.

Kati's a fellow Minnesotan who's been transplanted a few times and she always surprises me with the nicest comments! It's great to have a supporter that's not my Mom and as an added bonus, she's a fellow Vince Flynn fan. Here's to girls who love boy books! Check out her blog here. If you like consistency in your blog schedule, she's your go-to-girl. I'm trying to become half as good as her!

The rules of the Liebster is that you have to pass it along to five up and coming blogs you love once you receive it and I had no problem picking out some favorites, as I recently added some new blogs to my reader list.

In no particular order, I highly advise you to visit:

Katie @ At Home When I'm With You -- First, you will be impressed with her gorgeous blog design and then you will be blown away by her DIY skills. Plus, her Takin', Fakin' & Makin' posts are super fun.

Nicole @ Nicole.Starr -- Nicole and I have an a ton in common, which means following her blog is a ton of fun. You'll get lots of cattle pictures and a good fill of cowboy boots, plus all the other ins and outs of being a young professional in our field. And if you look today, she's even got a delicious beef recipe. Yum! I got to meet her IRL last week. We definitely didn't get to chat enough, but I'm sure we'll meet again!

Steph @ The Sweet Life -- Plain & simple, The Sweet Life makes me want to be southern belle. Plus, I love her It's Okay posts.

Whitney @ The Observant Turtle -- Whitney keeps it light and fun all the time, which is just my style. Plus, I am motivated by her attempts to take fashion risks and blog about it. It's my next goal in my blog life.

Kate @ The Anniversary Home -- Last, but not least is Kate at The Anniversary Home. I'm now her Instagram friend as well (follow me! @jamielmay) and she just got some new adorable puppies, which might be why she's been MIA lately, but I am expecting a blog about them soon!


And now, according to my research, I am supposed to list 5 random facts about myself. Which, since I am a pretty random person, this is almost too easy. :)

1. I don't think I will ever be satisfied in life. I am one of those people, that while I know I am extremely blessed in so many ways, will always want more. And, I actually think that's a good thing.

2. I once won a thousand dollars because a cow pooped on my square. I swear I can win the most random things, but I couldn't win a blog giveaway for the life of me.

3. I hate hanging up clothes more than anything I know.

4. I am moderately deaf in one ear & I blame my inability to swim on it. Confused? Maybe one day I will explain it.

5. I barely break the 5-foot mark and I hate wearing high-heels. What's my problem?

Thanks for passing on the Liebster love, Kati!