Jimmy's Lesson - A Steady Hand and A Patient Mind

     Okay people. Blog post time. And it is late. Again. Apologies. Okay, I'm over it. 

     Like everyone else, I am SO looking forward to Moscow and I cannot wait to see all of my readers and not to mention all my other FFA peeps. Don’t be afraid to come up to me and ask me questions or say hi. We might even take a selfie or two that could possibly go up on the blog! Super exciting.

     Anywhoo…

     A couple of days ago, while home for just a few days between trips, my dad and I decided to pull the horses out and go for a ride. Mind you, since I have been gone and he has been travelling with his new job, my ponies haven’t been out of the barn much. And to top it off, one of my boys is a Thoroughbred/ Quarter Horse mix.  With his blood always boiling and high strung attitude of a barrel horse, he has continued to get more and more barn sour. Being a horse that requires a lot of constant riding and a rider who is experienced enough to keep him entertained, the combination of not being rode and being rode by people who don’t know how to control him, his attitude took a turn for the worst. With his head high and nostrils flared, we began to trot around our usual loop. Soon enough he began to crow hop, toss his head, stomp his back feet, and paw ferociously at the ground with his front feet. Equipped with a thin leather strap, I brought my arm back, connecting the strap to Jimmy’s rump, trying to correct his behavior. He swerved, hopped, and snorted. Bringing my arm behind my hip, he began to turn tight circles in one direction and then I would direct him to do circles in the other direction. Soon he would give up his fight and stand. And we could continue on. But it we wouldn’t have traveled much farther than a few lengths when he would break out into another juvenile fit and we would repeat the process over and over. It took almost 45 min of this repeating process for Jimmy to figure out that I was his rider and he would behave how I expected him to behave. After that, we rode peacefully and romantically watched the sunset together.

     Awe, how cute.

     Now I didn’t just want to tell you some useless story from my life that cannot possibly connect to all of y’all.

     Pretty soon, upperclassman and older chapter officers, are going to be encountering a new crop of Freshman FFA Members. Now I am not saying that these newcomers are wild, flared nostriled, barn sour horses. But how we handle situations are similar. No we aren’t going to be using a leather strap or making them do tight circles to help them either learn to love FFA as much as you or learn how to act while in the blue jacket. 

     On many occasions, you will come across new members that want to just soak it all up and love it instantly. You will also see those that have friends who tell them that it “isn’t cool to wear that corduroy jacket”. You will also pass along kids who have a personality that loves to pester, break the rules, or just have a bad attitude against everything. Each person is their own person and will do as they like. But as an older chapter member, you have to set an example and help them learn the ropes.

By you not complaining about Official Dress, they learn that it 1) isn’t that bad to wear it 2) wearing it right is better than not 3) that it is not okay to bash on wearing it. It is as simple as that. These kids are looking up to you. You don’t have to sit and lecture and “freak out” on them when they do something wrong. Help them, show them.  I know that there are those members who will give your grief and you feel like they do things just to make you mad and that they don’t like you. I have felt this way often when I was in high school. It wasn’t until I had gone back to my home chapter to do a workshop that those kids who I thought hated me and did things out of spite, actually looked up to me and what I had done for the chapter. They missed how I was obsessive about their “tally-wackers” and straight ties and how I was always brisk and direct and gave succinct marching orders. 

For most who are reading this, this who shpiel will make absolutely no sense. It isn’t until you have experienced being an officer, older member, or just someone that people look up to, that this advice will come in handy.

     Now back to my Jimmy Dean. Today we rode again. He was calm and willing to do as I asked. He was the horse that I know and love and the night was pleasant as we bounced (aka Jimmy’s trot) down the road next to my dad riding my Missouri Fox Trotter (who is gaited and my dad’s butt never left the saddle while I looked like a Jack Rabbit bounding over sage brush). Because of my steady hand the other day and my patience to teach him patience and all the stuff he thought he had forgotten, there was a world of difference today. If you are willing to take the time and have patience, you will create a great “crop” of Freshman who will become a great new generation of FFA members.

See you in Moscow!

Peace, Love, and FFA!

McKenzie

P.S. I was serious about the selfies. I love selfies. And I would love to post them on my blog. If you see me, come on up and introduce yourself (if I don’t know you that is) and ask for a selfie. And if you don’t know what I look like, I will probably be the one taking selfies of my own face. 

Pack It On Up

     If there is one thing that I truly pride myself on is my ability to pack a week and a half's worth of clothing in a very small bag. Now I know that when it comes to Twin Falls, packing is pretty easy because y'all spend a lot of time in official dress, but when it comes to Moscow, there is a lot of down time that is going on. With down time comes regular clothes, and with regular clothes comes more stuff to pack. So today I am going to lay some knowledge on ya and show all of you how I make it happen.
      So there are a few essentials that I insist on being on my packing list every time I go anywhere:

• one new pair of jeans
• tops for each day
• underwear
• socks
• sweats (aka pajamas)
• tank tops/ undershirts 
• sweatshirt
• jacket
• Official Dress....... DUH!
• outfit for the dance

     Of course there are some other important things, but these are my main needs. Now notice that I am only packing one pair of jeans. See, I believe that jeans are the best on the second day or so this new pair is for the dance or to bust out as needed.

      But as you can see, the basics alone is a hefty amount of clothing. Not to mention we haven't added O.D. and bathroom toiletries. So the trick is to roll all of the items up into little rolls. Now ladies, if you have a certain undershirt/tanktop that goes with a certain shirt, go ahead and roll those together, just makes it all easier.

     As you can see above, all the essentials are neatly rolled and can be placed gently into the bottom of the bag that you wish to take. I always use a small duffle back. And once I place those in a nice layer on the bottom of the bag, I usually create a layer of shoes. A lot of times I wear boots, so I will pack my tennis shoes, my official shoes, and my Sperry's (I honestly cannot live without those things). The shoes can also be switched with the clothing layer, as long as it is relatively flat. Since I carefully arrange the shoes so it is nice and even, I am able to place my toiletry bag and make up back right on top. And with enough luck, I will have enough room to place my official dress over the top of those two bags and very gently tucked into the sides of the bag. This not only makes it easy to unpack what you need to along the way or for bag checks. 

     Up next, my toiletry bag. Being away for a week means that there a lot of things that we need. 

     Now I will say, that this bag is nowhere near the capacity that I have had it at. This bag is one that I acquired at Ulta and I love it. I have my travel shampoo and conditioner, bath soap, shaving supplies, deodorant, toothbrush and paste, and other misc stuff that I have decided to put in it. I also like to put any of my jewelry in here. Both sides zip so I know that nothing will get lost. This bag then folds up and zips altogether. I will also place one of my make up pallets with all of my different eye shadows in there. I fits right nicely inside and then I don't have to worry about any of the shadows cracked or it getting lost in my unpacking. 

       Girls, if you are as into not rocking the natural look as I am, your make up bag is very important. My make up bag is one of my most packed thing that goes into my bag. I am a huge fan of contouring and layered eye shadows and all that jazz, and with that there are a lot of different products and brushes that are needed to pull off my look. 

     Again I bought this bag at Ulta. I know that there are ones similar at Target and Walmart. I just like this one because the top and bottom pocket zip and there is ample amount of space to put all my brushes. It is only a bonus that it matches my other one. If you are a make up nut like I am, I would so suggest getting one of these! The whole nonsense of digging through one black pit of make up supplies is complete insanity. 

     Well there you go people! All my packing tips are all exposed. I cannot wait to see all y'all up at Moscow. Good luck on all the packing that I know FFA has out there for everyone! 

Peace, Love, and FFA!

McKenzie

When Life Give You Lemons

     Okay people, so I know that I am an AWFUL blogger. But life happened. Last week, I was working. I have been helping on my aunt and uncle's dairy, Heart-O-Rose Dairy. I was all pumped and ready to go and talk to all y'all about facing adversity straight in the face, when an emergency wandered its way onto the farm. One the Mont Billiard cross cows, was beginning to calve. In the past, she had no issues with the process, having healthy calves while being able to be integrated into the rest of the herd with no issues. But that day, I could tell that something was wrong. Seeing that she was having trouble, my uncle assisted in the delivery. Dairy calves, even half beef calves, are usually 50-60 pounds, but this was not a regular calf. This one, was more Mont Billiard than dairy breed, having the characteristic large head and broad shoulders, and on top of that, it was a bull calf. A 130 pound bull calf. By having a calf that big, two major things can happen to the mother, milk fever and/or nerve damage. Milk fever is when the mother is depleted of calcium, this causes temporary paralysis and without the right amount of calcium in the right amount of time, it can have lasting effects on her. Nerve damage is when a calf as large as the one she had pinches and smashes nerves, also temporarily paralyzing the back legs. This condition has no treatment other than steroids, which an organic cow like her cannot have, but with time the body with heal itself. It may take days, weeks, months, and could possibly never heal.
      So we could better take care of her, we had to move her to a clean area, out of the maternity pen. Using the assistance of hip lifters and equipment to lift her back legs so she could walk on her front feet to the hospital barn. Needing her colostrum to feed her newborn calf, my uncle and I milked her by hand and then gave her the necessary amount of calcium to help her if that was the issue at hand.
    As soon as she was administered the medications permitted, we waited. Soon the time zone for the calcium to kick in came and went, ruling out milk fever. And then the real wait game continued. Bringing her water, plenty of feed, and lifting her occasionally to milk her, all we could do was wait. For the next few days, she stayed where she was. It took almost a week before she was able to stand by herself without crumpling to the ground. Because of her not being able to move very far, we moved her calf to stay with her.
     She continues to do better day by day, but the unknown is still in the horizon. But in the end, that is farming.
      So that concludes why I am such a terrible and very inconsistent blogger. But the story came out to show that without farmers that are willing to make the sacrifices that are needed to keep feeding the world, the world would starve. Although my uncle is serving a niche market, he is still working day in and day out and going the extra mile to making sure that the cows in his herd are cared for. And in between all that, he was racing Mother Nature to get his seed in the ground before the heavens opened up and the rain came down on the drought ridden soil. Thank God for farmers.

Stay tuned next week for an ON TIME blog post (I promise) about how to pack for a week long trip in a small bag.
Peace, Love, and FFA!
McKenzie