Getting the Good

     Okay people, I am so very sorry it has been a while since I have put a new post up. Life has hit me square in the face. I am currently taking an online course that has required me to stay shackled to a desk. When I wasn't working on that I have been helping my parents with the odds and ends things like spraying weeds or pruning rose bushes. But here I am now.
       And to my pleasant surprise I have over 994 pageviews! Thank you so much to all of my readers, even if it is just my mom checking the blog three times a day. Just kidding, y'all are great.
      Well to start off today's epic post, I want to wish you guys a Happy National Dairy Month. Being someone who is very involved in the dairy industry and loves everything about it, I love to tell anyone who will listen about it. Milk production is one of Idaho's top commodities and the state ranks number 3 in milk production in pounds. That is a big deal.
      Although the month is in celebration of the industry and its prosperity, but also in celebration of those farmers who have been able to survive the hard times and have kept the industry alive. My grandpa, a member of the United Dairymen of Idaho, has always been a dairy farmer. I can tell you first hand, I have seen his heartbreak as milk prices have plummeted and there is no money to make payments and the bank is threatening to shut down the operation and sell it all bit by bit. I have watches as he sat in meeting after meeting with different investors and banks to try and receive the loans and financing that he needs to continue on for just a while longer. The not knowing of whethere the family dairy would stay in the family for one more day was excruciating to all those involved, but especially for my grandfather, who has put his heart, mind, and soul.
      Now, it isn't just my grandfather who has had to think about how much feed is left or what milk price futures look like. It is all of the dairy farmers in Idaho and all over the country. So on behalf of myself, Thank you to all those dairy farmers. I know I wouldn't be able to live without my milk or icecream. Thank you to all those who work so hard, so that I can Get the Good.
      So for all those who may not know me, I am quite the cheesy person (haha see what I did there). I love lame jokes, especially the ones with a nerdy undertone. So in celebration of National Dairy Month, I hope I can provide you with a little laughter with my top dairy jokes!
      Enjoy!

Why I do quite agree with you Ron Swanson.

This one is totally my favorite

Story. Of. My. Life.

      And what would be National Dairy Month without a few pictures of my favorite bovine friends.

During the summer, my uncle allows his Organic herd to go to his little ranch a few miles from the dairy farm. Everyday they happily walk to their access to green grass. And when it is time for milking time we saddle up the ponies and take the cow dogs to get the reluctant cows back in time for milking. My cousin Thomas, on his pony Marchessa, usually goes down and gets them by himself. But that day my boyfriend, Keith (on Jordan), and myself (on my white pony Baby Spam) helped him out. 

Selfies with bottle babies never disappoint.

So I preg check and run the dairy records as a job. I go to my aunt and uncle's dairy and help them out once a month. On this day we had a lot of cows to get done and instead of my aunt helping me pull 2 cc's of injection out, she kept snapping pictures. 

Quinn and I preg checking

So these two babies are twins from my aunt's prize show cow. This particular cow is also the daughter of my aunt's first and most award wining show cow. These genetics have been on their diary for generations and are continuing on. Usually I have my little helper and favorite cousin, Andrew (5) to help me feed babies. But on this particular night he decided to climb on top of hutches to "make sure you have enough light." 

Obviously we want the milk in the big tank, but this is what we call the "Can". It is where we put the Colostrum (new momma milk that has to be fed to their baby) or sick cow milk that is fed to the calves. Because milk checks are based on quality and we don't want our consumers to drink milk not right for humans, this is a good way to not only make sure the calves are fed the milk they need and ensure the quality of our milk. 

The last time I worked, these hoodlums were causing havoc. Having five babies born in two days caused quite the backup in the calf hutch situation. And to make matters worse, they are big enough to recognize a bottle and that they want it and they will mow over and maul any person or thing that walks into the calf barn. The only way to make sure that I didn't end up with bruises was to feed one calf with one hand, use the other as a pacifier for another calf, and attempt to body block the third. Again, Jennifer (aunt) was so helpful. She refused to go into the barn for fear of being attacked. So she took pictures herself. 

      So people, I hope that you make the most of the rest of this great month and remember that there is someone out there who has to make the good, so you can get the good. No matter how picky you are about your dairy products (like I am) or if you are just a lover off all things milk products, that is something everyone can appreciate.

Happy National Dairy Month!
Peace, Love, and FFA!

McKenzie
"Cheese-Whiz"
"Dairy-Queen"
"Cheese-Snob"
"Ice Cream- Fanatic"
"Lover of cows with black and white spots"
"Dairy girl, through and through"

When I Went to the Deep South

     Today I am writing to y’all while being my mother’s shotgun rider following a long train of school buses through Rattle Snake Pass going to Moscow from Wallowa Lake, Oregon. By doing so I am hoping that I will be able to type this out without getting car sick. Hopefully my “methodical” picking and eating of only one color at a time of M&Ms will help keep my nauseous tendencies to a minimum.

     On that note, we are going to do a little Toss-back Tuesday.

      A year ago today, I was visiting the great state of Mississippi as they kicked off their State Conference. That is definitely an experience that I will never forget.

     How did I get to go to Mississippi you may be asking. Well one, FFA takes you places, duh! And two, I met the two coolest people ever at the Utah State Leadership Conference.  Hayden and Drew are seriously the two coolest and most genuine people that you will meet. And from the moment we shook hands and introduced ourselves that first day at convention and jammed in my car as I drove them around Logan, I knew that we were going to be close. And with that came an invitation to go to their state and see how the South does things.  

     Funny enough, I wasn’t the only North-Westerner going. And it wasn’t until I had landed and been in the state for a few hours that they told me that Washington’s Micheal Heitstuman was also attending the convention. I couldn’t have asked for a better person to have to hang out and do pre-session with than him.

• All in all I learned a handful of things:
• Alligator is actually pretty good. I would totally eat it again.
• You haven’t ate fried chicken till you eat it in the deep South.
•  There is such things as getting sick of fried chicken.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE fried chicken and eat it all the time and a lot of it, but I swear that is the only thing they like to eat. I am not kidding you when I say that for one day’s meals it was chicken and a biscuit for breakfast, fried chicken sandwich for lunch, and fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy for dinner.
•    Mississippi has a Junior Association. This is for middle school members and they are able to participate during those years in Junior Association CDE’s and they even have their own Junior State Officers and a day of just their sessions during the week. It was different for me to see such young of people wearing the FFA jacket, but cool for me to see how passionate these young people are and continue to be as they go through “Senior” FFA.
•   Not all people who live in Dixie has a thick southern accent. The more Northern chapters has mild accents, whereas the more South you get the thicker and more slurred the speech gets. I also heard my accent get thicker and thicker every day I was there. Although I have lived in Idaho my entire life, I apparently have a slight southern drawl. Even all the FFA members in Mississippi asked me if I was sure I wasn’t from Texas or something.

     But my one of my all-time favorite stories from the South is from their dance. Now if you don’t know either me or my mother, you cannot possibly imagine our love for dancing. Furthermore, you cannot fathom our ability to “drop it low.” Needless to say we are the whitest black girls you will ever meet. And there is not a song that I love more to drop it to than the “Wobble”.  When that song came over the loud speakers, I put my hands in the air and started to drop it like its hot. After completing that song and continuing on into the next one, I had a girl come up to me, grab both my arms in her hands, stare me square in the face, and say, “Honey, I heard you were a hooker. Is that true?” People, I ASSURE you that I am NOT a hooker. For the rest of the trip that became the joke.         Needless to say, I think I left my mark on Mississippi.

     While I was there, I was able to meet with one of the main officials of the Veterinary Program. He was able to take me on a private tour of the facilities and sit down with me and talk with me about my future. I can honestly say that if I hadn’t have met him and gone on that tour, I wouldn’t have known what opportunities that Mississippi State University could hold for me. I can most definitely say that going back to Mississippi for Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine school wouldn’t have even been an option that I would have known to consider.

     Honestly I cannot wait to go back.

     And a quick trip down memory lane... 

Hayden and me after Utah State Convention. 

My alligator Po-Boy (what this sandwich is referred to). Delicious. 

This was a reflections that they did before session one time. It was way cool that they painted the black in the top picture and then on the flip side was the Ignite.

Pre-session fun. 

More pre-session fun. Interestingly enough, the girls were the best at shaving. Who knew?!

While sitting behind the backstage curtain watching a session, Mr. Micheal leaned over and placed his head on my shoulder and was looking at his phone. Soon enough he was sound asleep. It was honestly a great thing that he was there with me. It totally made my trip great. 

     It is an experience like this that I can only attribute to my involvement in FFA. That is what I love about FFA. As a State Officer, we always tell our members that being involved can take them places like Washington D.C. and Indianapolis, but at the time I was telling them that, I didn’t imagine that FFA would take me to Starkville, Mississippi.

     I am super excited to be back in Moscow and see all of my peeps’ shining faces. It has been a great and very rainy trip thus far, and I can’t wait for the rest of the week. It is slightly weird because I am a chaperone and not a student and I am now old enough that I don’t know all of these kids anymore, but I am, nonetheless, loving every minute of it.  Like I said in my post last week, I do love to take selfies and want to meet more of my readers in person. Come on up and say hello and ask for a picture and I will be so tickled!

     After several stops, the bus driver skillfully missing a rouge deer in the road, and my pausing to let my car sickness subside, we are finally in Moscow! Let the fun continue on and on!

Peace, Love, and FFA!

McKenzie 

Vallivue FFA Chapter