Farming in the shade

Agricultural land provides food and habitat for 75% of the nation's wildlife. Deer, moose, fowl and other species have shown significant population increases in the past several years.

Yes, I realize that Day Three was actually yesterday. I plead exhaustion--up at 5:00 a.m., out the door at 6:00 a.m., back home for 30 minutes or so in the mid-afternoon, and then home for good about 11:00 p.m.). And actually, you'll only get the first half of Day Three in this post. Stay tuned... Daughter # 3 showed in her first 4H horse show yesterday (her second show ever). She cleaned her horse up the day before and blanketed her so that she would stay tidy. She did stay clean, mostly, but we did need to do some last minute touch-up once we got to the show. Doesn't she look nice? There is a lot of waiting at horse shows, in my very limited experience. Good thing we brought chairs and food and water. Too bad we didn't bring sunblock. Oh-oh! Daughter showed in halter class: Western horsemanship: And trail class (which is like an obstacle course): Lots of fun, and they both did fabulously. We don't think the horse has ever been shown before, and daughter is a beginner,...

Yes, I know that today's photos are pixelated. I want to share pictures of my kids, but then again, I don't want to share pictures of my kids. But I wanted to show you what we dealt with today. The calf show was funny in a way. Our daughter's calf is so well behaved. Normally. He leads well. Normally. He does what she asks. Normally. But not so much today. Today he was stubborn and a big lethargic. Notice the helper to the left. There were a couple of people pushing that calf around the ring pretty much the whole time. He just didn't want to move! Despite the lack of cooperation on the calf's part, there must have been something that the judge liked. In the lightweight class, that silly stubborn calf got second place! Gotta scoot off to bed. Tomorrow starts early...

Whew! Lamb show is over, and the kids did very well. The Farmer thinks he saw the biggest smile ever on the trophy winner's face... Tomorrow is feeder calf show.

Today is the first day of the county fair! Between them, our youngest two kids will show six different animals in at least 10 different classes. In the first three days of the fair. Fairs are a dying breed. And with Michigan's deficit, fair budgets are being cut, which will quickly hasten the death of the county fair. But that's a post for another time or another blogger. I've got lunches to make.

I lost the first half of my heart a couple of years ago. Now it's being halved again. Tomorrow we will send off daughter number 2 to a far away nanny position and college in the fall. This is our job--to raise them up and send them off. So why is it so hard? Her creativity and business sense will be missed (especially on those open-to-the-public days). We'll miss her wonky sense of humor and light-heartedness, her cleaning binges and sudden inspiration to cook a wonderful supper. She's grown up into a lovely, self-confident young woman. She'll do well. But boy, are we gonna miss her. God be with you, my dear.

Today's American farmers and ranchers receive an average of 19 cents for every retail dollar spent on food. In 1980 it was 31 cents .