2012: A Photographic Review

{2012 In Review | January 2012 - Upper Left; December 2012 - Lower Right}

2012 has come & gone, but before it's forgotten I wanted to put together a post with some of my favorite photos from the year. Above is photo collage featuring a favorite memory/event/highlight from each month starting with January in the upper left and reading left to right from top to bottom ending with December in the lower right.

Here's a little key:

Jan: Mexico!
Feb: Back To NDSU  
Mar: Little Bro's Big Win  
April: First 5k
May: Eric Church  
June: Cattle Shows
July: MJP Lut Wins!
Aug: Mashed Potatoes On A Stick & Fairs  
Sept: Blakeman Turns 1
Oct: Harvest
Nov: Breaking Cattle  
Dec: Homemade Christmas

Did you catch all that?

If not, here's a really quick month-by-month breakdown:

January: January brought my first every warm weather vacation and I loved every second of it. Free drinks, beach reading & a tan? Can a girl ask for anything better? I will take one every January.

{Perfect trip to Riveria Maya. You can read about it here.}

February: The highlight of February was that it was simply normal. Despite a quick work trip to the Gaylord Opryland hotel (which I will admit is completely ridiculous in its own right) in Nashville, I did a lot of relaxing, a little bit of crocheting and wasted a lot of hours watching Gossip Girl. Plus, we made a super fun trip back to our alma matter and I watched one of my favorites win Little I champion.

March: March brought amazingly warm weather so I decided to train for that what seemed like a marathon 5K I vowed to run. I also spent a lot of hours in the barn with my husband and we made a trip to SDSU to watch my little brother dominate the Little I sho.

April: A lot of things happened in April but none of them hold a candle to my first 5k. I was the girl who hated, maybe even despised, running and I did it. 3.1 miles conquered. It was a great feeling.

May: May is my birthday month so it was bound to be fabulous. We celebrated with an awesome trip to Church on a Thursday (Eric Church, friends!), a few trips to Twins game, a weekend trip to the lake and a lot of family time.

June: I could describe June with two words. Cattle. Shows. Luckily I got to spend a lot of time with the four people below and good cattle which made all of the sweat & disgustingness worth it. Another highlight? I donated my hair to someone who needed it more than me. Check that one off my 101 in 1001 list.

{Maynard, Jason, Matt & Mark - my summer travel companions.}

July: Would you even be surprised if I said July brought even more cattle shows? This resulted in NO blogging and a lot of road time, but the purple banner from Louisville and a new maroon jacket for my little brother made the road trips completely worth it.

{MJP Lut & the Purfeerst family}

 August: August was a bittersweet month for the May family. We had a lot of lasts. The last 4-H steer in the cooler, the last Dakota County 4-H beef show, the last championship drive as a nervous sibling and the last Minnesota State Fair auction. It was a fun run and we came a long way from that skinny dairy steer Andy May showed nearly 20 years ago. August was also the month we packed Jason up and sent him off to Kansas...and didn't anything hear from him for 2 and a half weeks.

By the way, the picture in the center square of the collage at the top of the page is my favorite photo of the year. I am so lucky to have all of them.

September: September flew by. We spent the month breaking calves and harvesting corn - a definite snapshot of the rest of my life. It was also a learning month for me. I learned how to rip (think tractor & field work), how to weigh corn and what it meant to officially be a farm wife. (You can read more about that here.)

October:  October 2012 will forever go down in the record books. Last year I was worried that everyone would be harvesting corn on my wedding day; in 2012, our last kernel was tucked safely in the bin on October 7th. Regardless of how unheard of it was, it meant I got my husband back, which was a definitely plus.

November: November marked one year as husband and wife for Mark & I. Our first year made me a firm believer in the power of marriage - you may have the very best relationship, but I promise, it will even get better when you say "I do" and I love that.

{christmas favorites | tree, skiing & mittens}

December: And then there was December. Could you agree that December was a completely exhausting month? Maybe we should blame it on my Type A personality that vowed to make everyone I know a homemade Christmas gift (there will definitely be a blog about how this might not have been the best idea) or that my kitchen became a mitten-making factory for a few weeks or that I am obsessive-compulsive when it comes to wrapping paper?

Anyway, besides the stress, December was the best. I learned how to ski, spent a lot of time with friends, was able to see my crazy family a lot and had a really gorgeous red & green house for a few weeks. There is nothing better in my opinion.

And now it's  January 10th. If the last 10 days are any indication of what's to come in 2013, it will be full of both challenges and blessings. And hopefully a lot more photos that capture more fantastic memories. :)

XoXo,

H54F - Harvest 2012 Style

It's Friday, so why not celebrate?

I am linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for this week's H54F, but I decided to add a little twist and celebrate all the little things that I am learning to appreciate as a new farm wife.

Numero Uno? Mark Purfeerst. (and every other farmer!)

This farming job is hard work and he is such a trooper, even though I am pretty sure he is completely, and overwhelmingly, exhausted.

Let me paint the picture. This week we are setting up a cow to flush (so we can collect embryos from her), so even though he may not roll in to bed until 2 in the morning after trucking grain all night, he still is up and out the door by 6:00 (in the morning, mind you) so he can make it back to the farm to give shots (just shots of hormones to convince her body to cycle -- pretty much like how it works in humans). After shots and feeding, he drives back to our house, showers, gets ready for work where he puts in 8 hours, runs home, changes clothes and heads back out to the farm.

And his schedule has been dauntingly similar for the last four weeks. But I couldn't be more impressed with how he is handling it. Now, I won't hold back the reality. Has he been a little crabby every once & awhile? Yes. Have I been a occasionally annoyed (even though I am trying desperately not to be. Cut me slack please, I am still learning.) that I have been momentarily put in charge of every single chore in our life like bills, laundry, groceries, food, cleaning, ect.? Yes. Do I miss having someone at home with me to go check on random noises and fix the light bulb that has been out in our garage for two weeks (I can't reach it!). Yes. 

{isn't he cute? BTW, don't mind his ugly shirt. It goes with his ugly hat & ugly pants.}

Nonetheless, all those things are to be expected and little things when we look at the big picture. The important thing is that we have 3,000+ acres of crop to get out and they need every able helping hand to do it. So Mark is doing whatever he can. Plus, a small percentage of that crop is ours and it's so exciting to see our year of planning and work pay off. 

I am proud of him. And, I can't forget to mention Jim, Jimmy, Ramone, Rosie and the rest of the guys at the farm and the thousands of other men & women out there doing the same thing. It takes long hours, but it's a rewarding job in the end.

Number Two | Going off the above, I am doubly thankful that harvest is almost over.

It's typically unheard of that we would have all the crop out of the field by the end of October, let alone October 10th, but rumor at the elevator is that we might be done as early as the middle of next week. 2012 has been such a crazy year.

{A load from from this week. Each semi holds 900-1000 bu.}

Now, by no means is the work over when the last kernel of corn is put in the bin. There is still grain to haul, fields to be dug and plenty of bookwork catch up on. However, we will be back to "normal" hours, where six hours of sleep and supper at the dinner table are possible.

Three? Huband/Wife Time.

Last Saturday, I got really lucky. I won free Twins tickets AND we weren't super busy at the farm, so my husband got to come with me. It was so fun to just hang out and enjoy one of the last beautiful fall days. Plus, we thought Mark would have to head back to the farm after the game, but they shut down early, so we got the rest of the night to just enjoy. We stopped at a pumpkin patch and picked out two BIG, beautiful pumpkins (plus a few white ones for inside decor), enjoyed a treat at the new frozen yogurt shop in town and then plopped our butts on the couch and relaxed. It was heavenly.

4. A New Barn Coat (I need to add a little fashion in here!)

Yesterday, Mother Nature decided to let loose the chilly weather. 80 and sunny on Wednesday -- cloudy, windy and 40 on Thursday. It was enough to make any girl crabby, but I like to make the best out of all situations and decided it was the PERFECT time to pull out my new cute barn coat.

Let me preface this by saying, I know barn coats don't normally get to be NEW or CUTE. But, I scored this one at Gap last year for $6.97 (and that was before my super crazy discount) for this sole purpose. Just because you're doing cattle chores, doesn't mean you can't be cute. And at less 10 bucks, who cares if it gets dirty?!

{Looking back, I should have bought 3 of them. Definitely. Maybe even 4?}

 A little fake fur helps class up any night at the barn, don't you agree?

#5 -- Lots of Learning
I've said it before and I will say it again. I am not an expert at farming. Give me cows and I could go on forever, but corn & soybeans? I am a little lost.

However, after a bit of a rude harvest awakening, I love every nugget of information that I am learning. 

By the way, I know what you are thinking. Rude awakening? You have been with Mark for 8 years. And you are right. But two of those years I was in high school, five of them I was gone in Fargo, and last year I was freaking out about a wedding. I was more concerned about invitations and flowers than if Mark was gone at the farm. I didn't quite know everything that went into it.

Back to the point, it's been great to actually understand what's going on and feel like I can help. I have been learning how to run the scale, what moisture we need to be at, why you can't harvest soybeans when it gets too cold, how the books work, what a bill of lading is, my husbands signal for when to stop the truck when loading roundbales, where certain corn gets delivered, how basis/puts/ect. work and so on. Next year, mark my words, I am even learning how to run the digger! :)

Am I an expert? No. Do I know more than I did four weeks ago. 1,000 times more. And that is a good feeling.

And because this is getting to be an extremely long H54F, I am ending it at that. :)

Have a great weekend, friends! And if you are in the same shoes as me, I would love to hear from you! What are you thankful for this week?

XoXo,

Cattle Show Marathon

Where the heck have I been? 

Good question, friends, good question.

Tonight, is not the night to go into details. I just did a Jillian Micheals' tape and my worn out legs are making my think funny. However, it's not fair to keep everything a secret forever.

So, follow closely...

Basically, since my last post (over a month ago), I went to Grand Island, NE, to watch my little bro get a maroon jacket, hopped in the car and celebrated a wedding, hopped back in the car and went to Milwaukee to drink bad Miller Light and be spoiled by my favorite company, sent my husband road tripping to Kentucky, somehow managed to do enough laundry in the two short days he was gone to pack for my trip to Louisville for the NJAS, got distracted from any type of work once our bull won grand champion, drove 13 long hours home to get back in the car to go to a county fair (we are die-hards), got overly obsessed with decorating for a baby shower the next week, then had a "normal" week that involved breaking calves, judging practices and clipping cattle, which brings us to the best week of the summer, AKA the Dakota County Fair and lake week where I watched my baby brother show at his last county fair, drank too much of that darn beer garden beer and got necessary sun on my shoulders from a day of REAL vacation in the water.

Hello, longest run on sentence in the world.

And now I am here, catching up on life in general and savoring a #singlegirl night as April at A.Liz Adventures calls it. Mine included the Kardashians, working out and Reeses Pieces cereal.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow, I will be crossing my fingers & toes and waiting for a call from my husband about the Iowa State Fair Angus Bull Show.

Short & sweet: We have been all about #bannerchasing lately.

By the way, just in case you aren't on Twitter (follow me: @jamielmay) #bannerchasing is my new favorite hashtag. It's total Twitter lingo for the show jocks, sorry if you aren't on that bandwagon and sorry if I am inappropriately using hash tags in normal writing. Like I said, Jillian is making me loopy.

And if isn't over yet. 

Last week, was week 1 of 4 of our month-long fair stunt. This week is Iowa State Fair and Steele County Fair, next week is MN 4-H Show and the following is MN Open Class. 

Life is good? Yes.

By the way, before I leave you, one small request. Go check out the video my little brother put together about why he shows cattle and vote for it to help him win a $500 scholarship. Click here to watch the video and vote. 

The video with the most votes win, so we need your help -- plus, I think you will really like it. It helps explain our crazy life and why we turn on the cooler for our cattle before the air conditioner in our house in the summer. :)

Until next time (which will hopefully be sooner than later),

High Five For Friday | June 15

I'm welcoming Friday with open arms this week.

Let's get real -- I welcome it every week with open arms -- I may or may not live for my weekends in the summer. Doesn't everyone?

My crazy, busy schedule has forced me to miss a few High Five For Fridays, but that just means I have a lot of stuff to celebrate this week. I am once again linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for her H54F.

So in no particular order, here's my favorite things from the past week!

1. I got my second Birchbox in the mail and this time, I was completely impressed. I have a few more things to try before I give a review, but from my tests so far, I am back on the Birchbox bandwagon.

{are you a Birchbox subscriber? What did you get?}

2. I also discovered a FABULOUS iPhone app that can make a blah picture amazing in just seconds like below. I am working on a post for you on Tuesday that explains everything you need to know it, so make sure to stop back & visit. Really, how did people live without smart phones?

{slightly off subject, but I absolutely love a perfectly wrapped present & that adorable tape is my new BFF. Best part? I got it at Target.}

 

3. It's my last weekend with long hair! I can't wait to chop off these locks and hand them off to someone who needs them much more to me. I'll admit, I am a little nervous and wish I could keep my hair long for a little bit longer, but it always grows back, right? And, worst of all I have no idea what I am going to do. Any suggestions? I think I am going to try to go back to something similar to this picture, but I don't know how much hair I get to keep it, so we might be playing it by ear... :)

{I randomly went to a beauty school for this haircut. She easily cut off 10 inches, it took her 2 hours and she cut herself twice...it has to turn out better this time! :)}

4. We have another road trip planned for cattle shows this weekend - this time to northern Minnesota on Saturday and south to Iowa on Sunday. Oh the things we do...

{the second heifer in the lineup is my younger brother with my "wedding present." We call her Scarface.}

Make sure to check out yesterday's post for a review of last weekend's show. Plus, if you are new to agriculture, let alone crazy people who show cattle, I answered some of Katie's questions in the comments that might help clear things up for you!

5. And last but not least, I am excited that I finally washed my dry-clean only pile. H54F is about celebrating the little things, right? Well, I just added 10 super cute items back to my closet that have been MIA for months and for a girl who is trying to avoid the mall this month, it's the best I can do. :)

And one last shout out to Whitney @ The Observant Turtle - I am a featured sponsor today! Yeah! Stop over and give her some blogging love. She's great.

Happy Friday Friends!

Summer = Cattle Shows

For most people, summer means relaxing at the lake, barbequing with friends, ect. You know...activities that involve a cold beverage and a potential suntan. Bliss, right?

But for Marko & I, summer equals cattle shows. It kind of makes me laugh how accustomed our friends our to us being MIA nearly every Saturday from June to August.

OK, I'll admit, it's not every Saturday. In fact, I have an empty Saturday in my planner as early as next week, but I promise you, this summer I will be spending a lot of time on the wash rack and a lot of quality time with my husband behind the wheel of a truck hauling a trailer. But really, we don't mind. This is our thing.

Do I have to get sappy and remind you that our love story started at a cattle show?

We kicked off our "show season" last weekend at a two-day show in Preston, MN. Two days means double the work and double the fun. :)

Saturday morning started at 4 am. Besides a quick freakout when a classic case of miscommunication resulted in us almost losing the back end of the Jeep (not a scratch, thank goodness) and a mild setback waking up our third wheel, the commute went pretty well.

 As soon as we got there, though, it was go, go, go, go, go, go...do I need to continue? The point is, we were busy. And I was a sweaty, hot mess, but folks, you don't go to a cattle show to look pretty.

Meet our little brothers - Jason & Matt. Jason had the Reserve Champion Angus Heifer on Day 2; Matt had the Reserve Champion Angus Heifer on Day 1. They are old pros at this showing thing.

Jason is showing a Style daughter this summer for Mark & I. You might have seen some pictures of her on the blog before – she's my wedding present from Mark. Yes, my husband gave me a heifer for a wedding present. Yes, I gave him a decanter. Yes, it wasn't a fair gift exchange. Don't remind me.

Matt is showing a Saugahatchee heifer our of our donor cow Molly. Jason & Matt's heifers are half-sisters and I promise you they couldn't be more different. Scarface (notice the birthmark on her face) is tiny, big-bodied, and a baby to work with. #1 (creative name huh?) is maternal, extended and crrrazzy. But in the end, we are pretty confident they are going to be really good cows and that is what matters. They are also both half-sibs to these calves I posted about before.

{Jason}

{Matt}

Saturday took forever. Let me slow it down and say it in Sandlot style...FOORREEVVERR.

I snapped this picture at 9:30 pm when the kids were just finishing up the judging contest portion of the show. At 10 pm when it finally wrapped up, we piled in the truck to grab some food...to find the only place open in town was the Casey's gas station. Jackpot!

 And then, we got up at 6 am and started it again all over again on Sunday.

And of course, we are doing it all again this Saturday and Sunday. :)

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

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,

Cheers To Hyvee

If you don't know, May is my favorite month.

First and foremost, it's my birthday month.

It's also my family's month (get it, May?).

And now, it's my 6-month-wedding-anniversary month.

And maybe a little less know, it's also National Beef Month. :)

Kidding. It's a national holiday, I hope you all knew about it first.

Anyways, I don't have to continue to profess my love for beef on this blog. I think you get from the title, cattle are important part of my life and in turn, so is everything about the beef industry.


So in honor of beef month, I am giving a shout-out to my friends behind the meat counter at Hyvee.

Like most girls who grew up on a farm, I have never bought meat from the grocery store, except hot dogs and chicken breast. Why buy beef when I can get it from my parent's freezer? I think have cooked with store-bought hamburger maybe once in my life.

You don't tell me how blessed I am. I love eating our farm-raised beef...and our pork and usually, even our chicken.

This week, I made my first trip to the Hyvee grocery store in Faribault and was completely impressed with their meat counter. I honestly couldn't walk away without buying something. And I have a freezer full of meat...imagine how a normal consumer would be? I came home with twice-baked potatoes, cheddar & bacon brats and some barbeque pork chops – my husband is going to be a happy camper when I make all that for supper!

I loved that the guy behind the counter was super friendly, their prices were reasonable and they literally had endless options. Plus, everything was presented so well. I give them an A+. We need more meat counters like that in our grocery stores.

And another plus, Hyvee was one of the reasonable retailers out there during the unwarranted media attack on BPI's lean, finely textured beef. Instead of pulling all #LFTB from their shelves, they decided to label it and give their consumers a choice, and in turn, they provided a leaner, cheaper safe meat choice for consumers on a budget.

So cheers to Hyvee. Thanks for making my first meat counter experience a good one. You can bet I will be back!

What about you? Do you have a good local grocery store that you love to buy your meat from? Or are you a Hyvee fan? And what makes one better than the other? I think as producers we need to continue to make the meat counter experience better for consumers, because face it, we need to continue to improve beef demand for so many reasons.


And by the way, if you are a food blogger -- or just a really good cook -- I know of certain magazine hosting an awesome recipe contest this month with a new contest each week. (Find all the info here.) The prize? Some cash money for a new pair of boots from Stetson. Here's their site -- I'm sure you will be drooling shortly.

Happy Beef Month!

Thursday Thoughts

Way to make the title as general as possible, right?

I just wrapped up a fantastic not-as-productive-as-I-wanted day. Don't get me wrong, it was supposed to be productive, but I spent the whole day working on video and let's just say a slow computer and lots of videos to upload equal a lot of down time. Good thing I am an excellent multitasker.

 

Anyway, it left me with plenty of thinking time where I made lists of stuff that annoy me.

Starting with waiting for video to upload...

But, no reason to get overly negative on this blog.

So instead let's talk about what I am loving.

1. It's Thursday. That means tomorrow is Friday. Thank goodness. I am ready for some family time, I haven't seen the crazy Purfeerst family in a few months and a low-key Niebur gathering on Sunday sounds perfect.

2. I ran today (I took a few days of vacation) and I went the whole way without stopping. I didn't go very far, but the no stopping thing was huge. Baby steps, people.

3. And now to a very domestic topic, I currently am in love with Downy Unstopables. Have you heard of them? Literally, throw a bit in your wash machine and AMAZING results. Now if you don't like your clothes to smell good (like my mom supposedly), don't invest in them, but it was like heaven to me to throw on an old t-shirt that smells that good.

4. That my hubby and I are spending our night watching Gossip Girl and deciding what to breed our cows to. I'm sure you all have had a night like this is some form right? And I am sure your husband watches Gossip Girl with you too.

5. And finally, that I am a Birchbox subscriber! Don't know what Birchbox is? Don't worry, I don't really either. I will be sure to let you know all the details when I get my first box in the mail! 

Enough randomness for the day.

Happy Thursday!

Why Hello Strangers

No, I didn't completely forget how to blog, I just took a slight hiatus.

Truth of the matter is, I check blogspot.com every day to get my daily reading of Crystal.Cattle, A. Liz Adventures and Craftaholics Anonymous. I just never actually blog.

Basically, I fell off the blogging boat. But, I am jumping back on folks, I promise.

I know what you're saying, "We've all heard that before, Jamie." And you have and you will again. But for now, please accept my begging and pleading for your forgiveness and welcome me back!?

So how 'bout I start you off with a little review of life?

The last few months went a little like this...

Summer came and not only did I get busy at work and start having mild "I am a wedding planning failure" heart attacks, but then we started spending every waking minute at a cattle show and I loved it. Then the State Fair came and if you know ANYTHING about me, you know how much I love the MN State Fair. Honestly, it's 12 days of heavenly bliss and 2011 was no different. In fact, I still owe you a blog post about those amazingly delicious mashed potatoes on a stick. Really, I am craving some this very instant.

family bonding at Dakota County Fair

Then I sent my dear little brother off to college and got to experience the "empty nesting" phenomen with my parents. A positive of the experience? I think I am prepared for what it will be like for Mark and I fourty years from now. Eventually we got over it though and Mama May and I dived in head first to all things wedding. I had two bridal showers, a family fish fry and a five-year class reunion (yes, FIVE already!) all to fit into one weekend. It was overwhelming and fantastic.

Fast forward to the next weekend and I finally bought a car! Allelulia! Amen! Praise the Lord! They even paid me money (a pathetic amount, but it was something) for my old car. So, I am a proud new owner of a navy blue 2010 Nissan Altima. It's not quite what I was thinking of getting, but it's really practical and it might be a good time in my life to be practical. Maybe that Lincoln can be my next car!?

The next week I got to drive that new car to the hospital to visit my baby nephew, Blake Aaron Stark. We all love him a lot. I can't actually confirm that with his big sister yet, but she did stop calling him "that baby" so I think they are progressing.

excuse my messy hair, it was a looonnng day.

Then October came and we became obsessed with sale cattle. Honestly, I know more about Purfeerst's cattle than my family's cattle. But with the Harvest Roundup Sale coming up this weekend, and seven more calves to sell off the farm, we have to be pretty serious I guess.

And to continue the blur of October, I made a quick trip to Fargo last weekend to relive my glory days and celebrate the wedding with besties! Basically my take away from that trip was that I have fantastic girlfriends and my body could still physically handle college. And that's a relief to know.

aren't they gorgeous?

And that brings me to today where I mastered all things wedding. But given that the countdown number is getting scarily small, I better start mastering this thing soon!

Thanks for being patient and waiting for me to come back. I hope to goodness we talk again soon!

Much love,

JLM

Providing Great Beef To Consumers Around The World

"What we do as an industry is really exciting, because what we do is provide great beef to the consumers around the world."

I found this video from U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance this morning & love it. What a great look into the beef industry and the real people behind it! Make sure to check it out!

And why don't you pass it along? I bet you have some friends who might need to watch it too.

Happy Thursday!

Jamie

Too Busy To Blog

Well, I am back (for a minute at least).

Remember about a month ago when I told you I was going to revamp this blog? Well, I haven’t.

Part of me feels like a failure, but part of me is thankful that I have life that is interesting enough to keep me too busy to even come near blogspot.com.

And busy I have been.

I pretty much built a shed with my bare hands…ok and with my Dad, brother, fiancé, mother and every single one of my brother’s friends. But anyway, we built a shed, beatified the May ranch and somehow pulled off a graduation party for Jason May a few weeks back.

Then I went to Duluth, courtesy of AgStar and Mark Purfeerst, where I ate some fantastic food, enjoyed some time by the water and simply relaxed. It was perfect.

Upon our return though, we both had some hectic days at work and then I got busy helping my gorgeous friend get married on one of the hottest days of the whole summer. Did I mention that is was an outdoor wedding?!?

Then, I took Sunday to recover and clean a nasty pigpen in 90-degree weather and 70% humidity. And Monday? It was back to hectic work week where we somehow managed to get a huge, but fantastic, August issue out the door.

And now it’s Rice County Fair time and if you know Mark & I at all, you know we are county fair, 4-H, cattle showing junkies. So regardless of the record temperatures, we have been there everyday.  It’s kind of part of the deal though; record temperatures might make it tough for us, but it also makes it even more unbearable for cattle that are used to a 45 degree cooler. So Mark’s little brother washes his steer 6 times a day and we all are doing our best to keep them comfortable.

So that’s my rather length excuse of why I have been missing in action lately. And I come with no promises of getting better anytime soon.  I love my busy hectic life right now and I can find no good reason to sit inside and type, when I could be enjoying summer with my friends and family.

But, I can promise I will be sharing some new wedding news soon and maybe I will find time to upload some pictures from all of this fun stuff I have been doing soon! But don’t count on me please…there is a fair chance I might let you down. :)

Until next time friends,

Jamie

Holy Cows

Out cattle are definitely Catholic. 

Tonight, as I was doing some stuff around the house, I heard the radio blaring in the barn.

And no, it wasn't T. Swift or Adele or Rihanna.

It was the Rosary and Sunday Mass.

And when I checked on the steers in the cooler, I swear they were chanting the Hail Mary.

Kidding. But, jokes aside, I love that every Sunday our cows listen the to Rosary.

I think it's a pretty good tradition that we have going.  I might not have made it to Church today, but I definitely got a little bit of God in my day.

Faith, family and farming; definitely three values everyone should have.

A Wordless Wednesday Mystery

We may have had a furry visitor.

Mamma May and I were picking up sticks last week in our trees and found these.

I am no detective, but I do know that that isn't no cow, pig, cat or dog print and that's usually all we have running around our place. 

Whatever this mystery creature was, it was also pretty heavy. Meaning it's no coyote or raccoon.

 

So, this is when I go all Inspector Gadget on you.

Here are our clues:

1. Whatever it was, it was heavier than me. I wasn't making prints that deep walking around the next day.

2. The paw print was bigger than my hand.

3. It had some serious claws.
4. It looked like it could have crawled up a tree.
5. My parents woke up early Saturday morning to our cows just freaking it out. They were running back and forth in the pasture and my Dad could not get them to calm down and he had no clue why.
6. There has been a bear spotted in our area lately.

Guess, I probably should have told you the last one first?!



Maybe Mark is right and maybe I have a wild imagination, but I am pretty darn sure it was a bear.

But like I said, I am no detective and I am definitely no bear expert. What do you think? Did we have a visit from the roaming mystery bear? Are we lucky it wasn't hungry and didn't eat one of our new baby calves?

Who really knows....I am just hoping it whatever it was, that it roamed itself right out of here.

Part 3: A Country Girl's Wedding Registry

First of all, I am sorry. I am a terrible weekly updater, but I promise when I do make a post to my dream registry, it's going to be a good one and this week is absolutely no exception.

I ran across The Stone Junkie on Facebook during the holidays and I tried to make a purchase that day, but much to my dismay, it was too late notice for Christmas shopping. However, ever since then, I have made a point to check out their page at least once a week and I always find something I love.  The quality in these pieces look amazing and the creativity and design are second to none.

I have been lusting over the frames and crosses for months and I just need to bite the bullet and buy something, but I think it's going to be for a friend before me. I need a gorgeous house to hang something this fabulous in and that just isn't happening quite yet!

Regardless, someday I could totally see this cross being a fabulous decoration in my future red-accented kitchen.

 And this picture frame? Well, I think I have a few pictures that could work in one.

Don't be surprised if someone gets a package with a return address from The Stone Junkie some day soon, I can't resist it much longer and since I know I would absolutely love this present, I am sure one of my lucky friends will as well! Check out their site and their Facebook page. But watch out, you might not be able to resist either!

Happy Ag Week!

A little late, but heck, we might as well stretch this out as long as possible?

In case you didn't know, it was National Ag Week last week. Of course, National Ag Week presents an awfully good time to celebrate National Ag Day, which this year was March 15th.

The Twitter community was absolutely awesome to be a part of on National Ag Day. Agvocates bombarded twitterverse with great and interesting ag facts that even I was in impressed with. So in doing my part to elongate the celebration, I have gathered a list of my favorites #AgDay facts. Make sure to memorize one or two and next time you have to share a random fact at a meeting or meet someone who doesn't know much about our industry, make sure your share!

And mark March 31st down on your calendar as Thank A Farmer Thursday. It's another great holiday you won't want to miss. Without farmers, you would be cold, naked, hungry and probably low on gas.

• There are now 29 USDA lean cuts of beef in contrast to only 7 in 1990.
• Each silk on an ear of corn produces one kernel. An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.
• More than 97 percent of beef cattle farms and ranches are classified as family farms.
•  There are more than 1 mil. beef producers in the U.S. who are responsible for more than 94 mil. head of cattle.  
• The U.S. supplies 25% of the world’s beef with 10% of the world’s cattle 
• Americans consume 17.3 bill quarts of popcorn/year!The average American eats about 68 quarts.
• One American farmer produces enough food to feed 155 people.
• Milk contains 9 essential nutrients including calcium, potassium, and vitamin D.
• Agricultural land provides habitat for 75 percent of the nation's wildlife.
• Today farmers grow 70% more corn with each pound of fertilizer than they did in 1970.
• Americans eat about 30 pounds of lettuce per year, about five times more than early 1900s
• Hamburgers from 1 steer would equal 720 1/4 lb. burgers, enough for a family of 4 to enjoy hamburgers each day for nearly 6 months.
• Almost 80 percent of the total land area in Texas is in some type of agricultural production.

The Tradition

If any of you happen to be followers of some of my dear friends from North Dakota, then this blog is a repeat. However, if you aren't lucky enough to know the secret that the B. Williams has a blog :), I will help you out and show you this gorgeous print.

Now, I understand this picture probably doesn't do the cowhide and barn wood framed picture justice, but I still like the words an awful lot.

"Some folks just don't get it. They think owning cattle makes no sense. It takes too much time, too much equipment, not to mention the expense."

Man, isn't that the truth. But (and that is a big but), it still was the best thing I ever did and you can bet my little kids are going to little cattle-showing, livestock-judging, 4-H junkies, too.

"But, the fondest memories of life-they might think sounds funny-was made possible by Mom and Dad, 'cause they spent the extra money."

And in the far far future, when the little Purfeersts hit the show circuit, you better watch out because if their father has anything to say about it...their going to be darn competitive too. :) 

Mark and I both know that showing cattle brought our families closer together, gave us some of our best friends we could ever have and it taught us the work ethic and values it takes to make it in this world and we want our future kids to have all that as well.

"You see, the most important lessons helping values grow so strong, come from loving cattle...and passing the tradition on."