I am super excited to be partnering with Indiana Pork to talk about raising hogs here on our farm. I love sharing time-tested farmhouse kitchen recipes here on my site but my full-time gig is being a farmer. A job I love to do and love to share

We are a grain and livestock farm in Central Indiana. On our farm, we raise corn, soybeans, winter wheat and have a hobby herd of beef cattle. We also raise nursery to finish hogs.

My husband and I have been raising hogs for 30 years and have experienced the highs and lows. From owning our own hogs, farrowing to finishing, sows on outdoor lots to gestation crates, finishing pigs outside to confinement buildings.

We are a contract hog farm now – we own the buildings but not the pigs. This has given us the opportunity to still be involved in animal agriculture with the ability to invest more in our crop farm.

Either way, we care for the livestock daily. We continually invest time and care into the animals and their buildings.

Good Pork Chops

As I reviewed and contemplated the Pork Cares website and read the sentence:

Six ethical principles guide the We Care Commitment, enabling us to create advancements beyond our barn doors that positively impact our animals, our farms, our food, our people, our communities, and the environment.

I won’t lie I got a little overwhelmed until I broke them down and realized they are simply what we do every day, we just don’t think of them in these terms.

I can’t wait to share with you how these play out day to day on our farm. They come second nature as we work because our job daily is to provide the best care we can while the livestock is in our charge.

Pork Chop Recipes:

• Sheet Pan Pork Chop Dinner
• Simple Grilled Pork Chop Sandwich Meal
• Fried Smothered Pork Chops
• BBQ Smoked Pork Chops

Post is sponsored by Indiana Pork

Follow along here and on Indiana Pork Farmer’s Facebook page

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For me, it’s extremely intimidating to ask for someone to take a picture of me. Why can’t people just read my mind? The Mother’s Day I learned to just ask for the pictures might be my favorite.

That year we were about to finish up corn planting, we had one farm left, it was right around 100 acres. Chris was determined to get it done even if it meant working on what I consider a great holiday! He had asked me earlier in the week what I wanted and I had told him what I really wanted more than anything was for him to take more pictures of me and Casey.

So Sunday morning he asked me to pack a lunch for all 3 of us and handed me my gift – a couple of frames and a disposable camera. We all 3 loaded up in the pick-up truck and headed to the field to work, just the 3 of us working together. I ran the finisher all day while Chris planted corn. Casey took turns riding with us, when she got bored in one tractor we switched her to the other one. And every switch we made he would whip out the disposable camera and snap a picture.

A Mothers Day Picture

He took more pictures of me that day than the first 7 years we were married combined. It was a perfect day and we got the corn all planted. They aren’t photographs they are true pictures of life which have always been my favorite.

Did I mention that Casey was 3 and a half at the time? She was full of energy, questions and liked to sing the same song repeatedly.

Did I mention I was 7 months pregnant that day?

Did I mention I wouldn’t trade this Mother’s Day for diamonds, ruby’s, or pearls, not even for a million and one pictures! It truly is one of my all-time favorite memories. Maybe because I like to hold it over Chris’ head that I was 7 months pregnant and working with a 3-year-old the pictures of that day are tangible evidence that ours is a way of life, not just a job.

Together we can accomplish anything.

My favorite letterboard from Amazon

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A new soon-to-be trucking warehouse seemed to appear overnight not 3 miles from my home. It crossed the line, the imaginary line I didn’t realize I had in my head, maybe more specifically in my heart.

That line was apparently State Road 44 running east to west and Interstate 65 in the north-south direction. There is a warehouse right across the road, but it hadn’t crossed the line, the line I had drawn in the sand. This new one had, it took my breath away and I have no shame in sharing that I cried.

I’ve lived on 2 farms my entire life, both of which have been 20-25 minutes from downtown Indianapolis. How did development and urbanization hit me so hard this time? Did I miss the city for the buildings? Eventually, this building will just be part of the landscape I have become used to like all the other ones.

Progress will always involve growing pains for someone. In this case, it’s the American Farmer. Fighting progress seldom works and in all reality, we {farmers} can’t afford this particular fight.

They keep telling us we, the farmers, feed the world, when do we decide “feeding the world” isn’t our job any longer. It’s gut-wrenching watching prime farmland being developed from my perspective.

How do you know when to give up, when to throw in the towel?

How do you decide you’re fighting a losing battle?

How do you decide it’s even your battle?

The realization that we, as Americans, spend more time and money protecting swamps than we do the land that feeds us is shocking. I wish I had the answer, an answer that works for everyone.

I know I’m not the first person to ponder this or even the first generation. Every industry in every generation faces “progress”, both good and bad/for or against. I have no desire to tell others what to do with their land, in the not so near future that decision will be upon us. It’s heavy enough without the weight of others’ opinions bearing down as well.

Change is inevitable.

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I grew up with my Mom making us playdough, I was the Mom who made playdough! Don’t get me wrong I bought my fair share of play dough for my kids but it was a fun activity to make with the kids as well!

It so simple and most likely you have the ingredients in your pantry!

If you don’t I assure you the cost is minimal. For all the ingredients and be able to make several batches it cost me under $10! And trust me you will have the majority of ingredients in your pantry and not much is needed. The most expensive ingredient and one not in all pantries is the Cream of Tarter at just under $3.

I called in the big guns, my playdough expert to help me create my livestock herd!

I laughed because my middle was my playdough queen. She would spend hours playing with it, but her hard and fast rule was no mixing colors. With homemade, it doesn’t matter because it’s so inexpensive that you can just make new!

But she still cringed!

Homemade Playdough

I’ll be honest, I am most excited about this because of those adorable farm animal cutters! They are made by the same farm boy who makes my cookie cutters, they are exactly the same just smaller for kids! Or adults – no judgment here.

I’m super excited because these cute farm animal cutters are now in the perfect little gift set with my children’s book Meet Pete. The gift set is available in my FarmLife X’s & O’s shop!

Print

Homemade Playdough

A super easy, fun, inexpensive activity that will keep kids busy for hours!

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• food coloring

Instructions

• In a medium size pan add the flour, salt and cream of tartar and give a quick stir to mix together
• Add the water and oil to the sauce pan and stir continuously while on low to medium heat until the ingredients start to pull together
  
• Once the liquid is gone and the dough pulls together into a ball remove from the heat
  
• Remove the dough from the pan and place on a cutting board or piece of wax paper - allow to sit just until cool enough to work with.
  
• Divide the dough to color - I divided mine into four equal parts - color as you want - simply add drops of food color and work into the dough until desired color and shade are reached
  

Notes

• Store in airtight containers and should stay fresh for several weeks.
• I used Wilton coloring because that's what I had on hand, use whatever you like to color the playdough!

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There is science involved so this is way above my pay grade but it’s freaking fascinating.

These are “CORNTASTIC”!

BAHAHAHA see what I did there? It’s corn and it’s plastic – ok so I actually didn’t come up with that Maddix’s Mom did. Maddix is my cookie cutter supplier and the creator!

What’s the first thing a farm kid from Kansas prints with corn by-product filament on his 3D printer, well all things farm of course!

We grow a lot of corn in the US so being innovative with it is always a priority. Most of the corn grown in the US is used for livestock feed but new uses are literally happening daily! The more uses we can come up with domestically makes us that much more self-reliant and eco-friendly.

Science is amazing!

The 3D printer filament is made from PLA or polylactic acid. A plastic substitute made from fermented plant starch – in this case, corn or corn starch. It is a popular alternative to traditional plastics which are petroleum-based.

3D Printing With Corn

Maddix spent the majority of time during COVID 19 printing and donating ear savers to medical staff in his area. Plastic printed devices that doctors and nurses could use in place of wearing their mask strings or elastic around their ears.

There are so many amazing uses for this product. We have the ability to grow corn, use it as a food source, and make amazing things from the by-products.

You can read more about our farm in these posts:

• The Corn and Soybeans We Grow
• Farm Technology: Corn Drying

These fun cookie cutters come in 2 sets: crop and livestock. They are available in my on-line store Farm Life X’s and O’s!

And if you want to make these amazing cookies in the pictures you have to use my good friend Liz’s recipe over on Farmwife Cooks!

This post is sponsored by The Indiana Corn Marketing Council, to learn more visit The Glass Barn

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Not less than 6 times a day to dirty work boots cross the threshold, on into the kitchen, across the carpet in the living room and into the farm office. Our house is over 200 years old; open floor plan and logical layout is not its forte at all {insert eye roll}!

I’ve kind of given up on asking Chris and the kids to remove their boots. Just don’t tell my family because sometimes I still nag, you know for fun and appearances. And let’s be honest I’m not the best at it either.

I hate to clean, I would rather pressure wash a hog barn than clean a bathroom. But sometimes in life you have no choice, like when you’re afraid the health department might actually have the right to condemn your home!

A Socially Acceptable Working Farmhouse

So while cleaning I made a “wish list” of 5 things I think should be socially acceptable in a working farmhouse:

1. A time lapsed fly spray bomb on the outside and the inside of every single entry door.
2. Grated kitchen floor with a flushable pit.
3. Central pressure washing system, particularly in the kitchen and bathrooms.
4. A manure spreader and dumpster place strategically next to the house for disposal without going outside.
5. To find livestock in the kitchen……or on the couch watching cartoons with your children. I once came home to find a kid and a baby pig curled up on the couch watching cartoons because and I quote “it was making the piglet feel better”!

My home isn’t always the cleanest place on the block but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

My letter board that I love from Amazon!

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Before my 40th birthday I suddenly felt the need to ‘do something’so I hiked from Crested Butte to Aspen. Eleven miles through the mountains, reaching 12,500 feet above sea level over West Maroon Pass…..believe me I can’t believe I did that either. So it’s alright for you to be shocked.

As I hit 50 and on the hunt for something to mark this momentous occasion it occurred to me maybe it didn’t have to be dramatic, maybe it needed to be within. Maybe it was time I owned me.

Age has never bothered me, it’s another year that I got to be me! But I think it’s time to own who and what I am. If I’m asked what I do my natural response is…..

A little of this and a little of that and a whole lot of nothin’

I am very apparent of my flaws. Let’s be honest we all are – we are truly harder on ourselves than any other human could ever be.

But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life dissing me. Because let’s be real-I’m on the downhill slope and I intend to enjoy the ride.

I know I am a wife, a Mom, and a soon-to-be MIL – it’s actually my favorite job!

I always wanted to be a stay at home, work at home Mom and I’m fortunate I was able to be that!

But who else am I, what do I do, what I am capable of.

I’m 50 Years Old

• I am a blogger.

I love having a place for my words, my thoughts, family recipes. And the fact it actually puts a little jingle in my pocket is icing on the cake – and I love cake!!

• I am a children’s book author

I may end up being a one-hit-wonder, but it’s one more hit than I had before! I’ve always dreamed of writing a children’s book and the fact that Meet Pete comes from the heart makes the achievement all that much sweeter for me! The small amount of success the book has seen has reached far beyond what I expected.

• I am a freelance writer. 

Like people pay me to write stuff, I don’t know who is more surprised – me or my English teachers or is it ‘my English teachers or I’?!  This is my November column for DTN, Pause and read please!  HAHAHAH see what I did there!

• I am a farmer.

That is a title that is hardest for me to call myself. This title holds a lot of sentiment and value to me so calling myself a farmer isn’t easy. But I finally feel like I am an asset to this farm. While I’m under no illusion that it couldn’t run without me, but I believe I am added value!

• I am an avid nap taker
• I am a constant unorganized walking disaster
• I am a donut lover
• I am a front porch sitter
• I am a horrible housekeeper
• I am a cancer survivor

Attitude is Everything, Pick a Good One

I’m me, living my life like I always have but now I’m going to own it!

All images by the incredible Emily at Stella Imaging!

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Silently voicing my thankful beyond words feelings that we have farmed for another year together as a family!

It ALWAYS hits me hardest and makes me most thankful when I am decorating the tree. We have always had a live tree, except for one year, 1998. I remember the year clearly but I have no pictures from that Christmas. I have looked and looked, I look every year at this time and I can’t find one picture from that Christmas!

Our oldest from almost 3 and I was pregnant. I have no doubt there were presents for her and that we were not scarred from that year because of the artificial tree. The reason for the artificial tree that year will stay with me forever and is why decorating the tree is my personal thankful tradition.

That year the hog market didn’t just crash it obliterated, there wasn’t one. If you were to ask me I would swear we were paying packers to take our hogs!

They bottomed out for us at $12 per cwt and the cost to produce for us at the time was $29 per cwt-thanks to cheap corn at the time! Cheap corn at least for feeding, but we also raise more than we feed, so while it was cheap feed we weren’t making any selling corn either.

So while every other year we have had a live tree that year it was an artificial tree for us. This seems like a trivial thing to remember about such a rough year. But it is always what comes to mind, makes it real, reminds me to be Thankful and puts things into perspective for me.

We were lucky, Chris’ parents had bought a new artificial tree several years earlier and still had their old one in their basement. They were more than willing to loan us.  We have never spent over $40 on a live tree but that year the $40 was going to be spent on something that would last longer than a Christmas tree, it was never a question.

I don’t recall having to put up an artificial tree being traumatizing, I grew up with artificial trees at Christmas. But what I do remember is that that was the year that decorating the tree became my time. The time that I evaluated my year and no matter how hard it seemed I would be thankful.

And I would look forward to my Christmas Eve in a Barn

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And this is my view…..literally, my view.

Being a female farmer is different than being a male farmer for one major reason, I have to carry toilet paper in the tractor because I can’t carry out all tasks standing up!

Being the only female in the group here I had a hard time establishing how to carry out my business. For a long time every time the tractor would stop and I wasn’t reachable on the 2-way radio tractors and trucks were converging on my parked tractor with me crouching between the wheels seeing if I needed help…….

I finally had to learn to just announce “union break” over the 2 way radio as my signal. So yes I have to announce my restroom break.

I do however have rules:

1. Tractor must be in PARK, I don’t want run over with my pants around my ankles.
2. Take Phone, should Rule 1 be broken and happen I want to call for help.
3. Scan your surroundings, road frontage, houses, other operators in the field, trail cams. Be aware that the view standing up is different than the view at a squat.
4. Face the wind, always face the wind girls!

Night time mission bonus rule:

• Turn off tractor lights, they only act as spot lights! {I might of learned this the hard way}

My View Being A Female Farmer

Eventually you just learn to roll with it!

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One of my favorite calving stories happened years ago but I’m reminded of it every year just before calving starts.

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