Sporadica

My posts have been a little sporadic lately; mostly because we're getting ready to debut a new North Dakota Farm Bureau website, and I have had to take some time to not only learn the system but post content on two sites not to mention organize a bunch of new details.

I really wish, right now, that I had my 7-year-old daughter's ability to organize on my side.

Don't laugh. She is truly amazing. And she's thoughtful, too. And crafty. She must have made about 10 Valentines for each of us -- she even made one for the dog -- not to mention plastered every window in the living room, dining room and kitchen with Valentine's artwork. Did I mention she already has St. Patrick's day artwork ready, too?

I, on the other hand, have still not managed to put the vacuum cleaner away that I keep tripping on as I exit the laundry room. I haven't used the vacuum since Saturday and today is Thursday.

So, you can see why I'm struggling a little to keep all the balls in the air. I love doing new stuff, but getting this new website ready for North Dakota Farm Bureau Week, March 7-13, has been a real eye-opener for me. Some days, I feel pretty smart. Other days, I could pull out my hair for all the things I forgot or didn't think about.

But it's all coming together and soon, the launch will have occurred and I won't know what to do with all my extra time.

Ha! Maybe for starters, I could put away the vacuum, eh?

Dawn

Critically thinking about critical thinking

I just attended my son's parent-teacher conference last week and will be attending my daughter's this week. So naturally, education is on my mind. And I started thinking that teaching critical thinking in schools these days must be tough.

I like to think I'm a fairly level-headed person, but even I get overwhelmed by all the conflicting information being trotted out as fact. In many cases, it turns out that the "facts" are opinion with a few numbers thrown in to legitimize the opinion. But it seems like once it's in print, it is repeatedly endlessly as fact, no matter how superficial the "science" behind it may be. You know, "Don't bother me with the facts, just tell me what I want to hear."

So every once in awhile I pull out my American Farm Bureau Federation's "Addressing Misconceptions About Agriculture" teacher's guide because I think it makes very good points about critical thinking as it pertains to agriculture:

"As technology used in producing, processing and distributing our food has become more complex, the gap in understanding those technologies has widened. Organizations and industries take advantage of this knowledge gap to foster social change and influence consumer choices with appeals to the emotions of individuals, rather than their intellect. This disconnect leads us to believe we understand subjects more than we do. Fears are blown out of proportion to actual risk. We make unwise assumptions about our ability to control nature using simplistic solutions."

Let's just hope the spirit of critical thinking -- as tough as it is to sell -- is still alive and well.

Dawn

The Swede makes Polenta

My heritage is largely Swedish. All Scanda-hoov-ee-in, as we like to say up nort! (and "nort" was not a typo.)I don't make lefse and I am never going to touch lutefisk, but when it comes to experimenting with Italian foods, I'll give stuff that looks a little out of the ordinary a try.

Once, at a local big-box store, I found this interesting-looking stuff called polenta right there on the shelf in a handy-dandy little package. I had no idea what it was, but I figured I'd experiment and see what the family thought.

To my amazement, they were very fond of fried polenta. The next time I went back to the aforementioned store, however, they didn't have it. And they haven't had it since.

After being asked several times to make polenta again -- and never finding it in the store -- I decided to check out an ethnic cookbook I had not looked at in a long time. By golly, there was the polenta recipe. Recipe is kind of an overstatement. Polenta is simply corn meal boiled in water -- and stirred A LOT -- until the wooden spoon stands up on its own. It can take up to an hour, but thankfully, my spoon did it in half an hour!

After spreading it in a cake pan and letting it "set up" for several hours, you cut it up and fry it and serve it with your other Italian fixings. (Depending on your taste buds, a red sauce or a white sauce with some type of meat in either one is not a bad idea.)

It was a hit, except I did get asked why my polenta was not round, similar to the stuff I bought that one time from the big-box store. "Hey," I replied. "Quit 'yer complainin' and be thankful this Swede makes polenta!" (Sounds like the name of a good book, doesn't it?)

Dawn

Heifer and cow

I was reading something today that said it's time for farms and ranches in this country to have public relations plans. As a former farm kid, I was just a little bummed that it has come to this. I mean, I don't know everything about farming and ranching. In fact, there is a lot that I don't know, but I do know I trust our farmers and ranchers and have absolutely no concerns with their production methods.

But I also understand there are a lot of other people who don't know enough about what our farmers and ranchers do to make educated choices and form balanced opinions. For instance, I was reading Cows_Life on Twitter this morning and the heifer, who is now actually a cow, was "hoofing" that the difference between a heifer and a cow is that a heifer has not had a calf yet. (Cows_Life had a very cute little bull calf on February 7!)

It's good to see Cows_Life explaining the basics, because too often, when you don't do the explaining for yourself, someone else will do it, and there is a very good chance that they'll get it wrong.

Here's a link to the entire article: PR plan needed for every farm.

With all the opportunities online these days, it's not really that difficult to make a positive impact. I would love to see a lot more North Dakota ag bloggers and tweeters explaining the basics of why they do what they do.

I'll follow you!

Dawn

I'm a sucker for strings

I didn't realize how much I enjoy an orchestra filled with string instruments until last night. My son played in a 7-9 grade string program and it was so cool. I know I have my mom ears on when I listen to them playing, but I am completely in awe of how good they sounded. When they played the finale, Variations on a Sea Shanty, I literally got shivers (not to be confused with shiver me timbers!) up my spine.

Strings are so versatile. They can sound dramatic, flowing, edgy, sweet and peaceful. And I heard all of the above last night. It was like riding a string roller coaster!

So, good job you 7-9 grade string students! You have a big fan in me!

Dawn

Thinking bigger, thinking spring

I'm thinking, today, that spring should actually come on the first day of spring. Up here in the North County, spring really doesn't show up until May. Oh yes, we can start our plants inside and all that, but it's just not the same as digging in the dirt and swatting bugs and all that outdoorsy stuff.

We bought an old red pump last summer so we could get a "water feature" in the yard. So far, we don't have a clue how that whole deal is going to pan out, but I'm hoping for something really fun and, dare I say it, big!

See, we tend to think small in our big yard, and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because we are conservative by nature and don't go for the grand gesture in anything. But we're learning. Our play-structure/wildflower/bush-feature was innovative and actually pretty big, for us. I'm hoping for something just as grand for the old red pump.

But, I'm just going to have to cool my jets for a few months. And make some big plans! : )

Dawn

A random thought

Remember last year, when volunteers helped save Fargo from being flooded? Conventional wisdom says that, without all those volunteers, the city would have been inundated.

And who did that, again?

Paid sandbaggers? Nope. Volunteers.

We always tell ourselves we are just too busy, but I would hope that, when I need help, everyone isn't looking the other way, telling themselves they're just too busy.

Case in point: My son grumbled as he accompanied me to help out at a church function last month. As we walked out of the church, we noticed a lady who couldn't get out of her parking spot because the wheels on her vehicle kept spinning. So we went over and gave her a push. She was very grateful and I could tell that he was feeling pretty good about it, too.

In fact, as we were driving home, he said, "That was fun! I'm glad I came."

Helping others, and expecting nothing in return, really does make you feel good. Truth be told, there are probably a lot of us who could benefit from doing a little more volunteering.

Dawn

Online activists

You know I realized something this morning. There are a lot of people who are online activists. And I realized that because I was invited to join a Facebook group called That the World May Know - A Fight Against HSUS.

I joined.

As I write this, there are 12,669 other people who have joined. And I am pleasantly surprised. These people are willing to voice their opinions and share their concerns about how HSUS is working against those involved in animal agriculture.

I'm no expert, but I encourage you to read for yourselves. Here are a couple of links:

Consumerfreedom.com PDF about HSUS

Activistcash.com

And there are now 12,684 members of That the World May Know - A Fight Against HSUS.

Dawn

Too many the same

I changed the look of my blog, today. And for no other good reason than I felt like I had seen one too many other bloggers using the same template as me.

I picked the blog scheme I had because I thought it was distinctive. Apparently, it was so distinctive that a lot of OTHER people also thought the same thing. And because we were all trying to be distinctive, we all really ended up looking the same. And that just made me feel, well, too middle-of-the-road.

And that in itself is kind of funny, because I am the poster child for middle-of-the-road. I'm middle-aged. Middle income. I was a middle child (#2 of 4). We have the very common two-child family. We live in and have middle-America values. Oh, the list could go on and on....

Basically, I'm an average schmuck, worrying about being too much of an average schmuck! But I'm comfortable in my schmuckness. I just wasn't comfortable with my blog looking like a bunch of other people's blogs.

So now the "look" of this blog is so entirely non-distinctive that the distinctiveness will HAVE to be what I put in it....or not!

Happy Monday, y'all!!

Dawn

Frogs

I have shared my daughter's artwork before, and to be fair, my son, who is now twelve, is quite an artist too.

These frogs were drawn when he was four. Aren't they just the happiest pair of frogs you've ever seen?


















Hope you are just as happy whether you are in or out of the water!

Dawn

The debt clock

Have you seen this? It's the U.S. Debt Clock and the way I figure it, if every man, woman and child in this country, (who is a U.S. citizen, anyway) could just pay the government $40,067, we'd be out of debt.

Takers, anyone?

I don't think I will say any more. I'll just let the numbers speak for themselves.

Dawn

Fall in love with beef this February

As I mentioned briefly yesterday, I just got some major dental work done. It has greatly curtailed my eating ability. My family got corned beef last night. I ate yogurt, a banana and some blueberries. I tried eating a slice of bread and basically had to mash it around with my tongue until it was easily swallowed. While I'm not dissing any of the aforementioned food items I ate, I really, really, really wanted to eat some of that corned beef.

You don't realize how much you like beef, until you just don't have the choppers to chew it. Then, that's all you want. Oh, I suppose I could have sucked on the beef too, but somehow, the experience just would not have been very satisfying.

If you aren't already a beef lover, maybe it's time you started. February is "I 'heart' beef" month. February is also Heart Health Month, and believe me the two are not mutually exclusive. While some will try to convince you that eating beef is bad for your health and bad for the environment, they are just wrong.

So, as soon as my choppers are feeling a little better, I'm planning to show just how much I "heart beef."

Dawn

This frosts my bananas

I was going to wax on (wax off) about my experience in the dentist's chair this morning, but I just happened to catch a headline from fellow blogger Troy Hadrick and now I'm in a twit.

Maybe I'm a little cranky because I spent more time and more money than I was prepared for this morning, but when an animal rights group makes generalizations like "Most farmers abuse their animals," I get a little more cranky than usual. And really, I'm not a cranky person by nature. Really!

Check out Troy's blog and all I can say is I hope you get a little cranky too!

Advocates for Agriculture blog.

Dawn

My little popcorn habit

I told myself I wasn't going to do it. I even tried setting it well out of reach. But that didn't stop me from snarfing down a whole bag of microwaved popcorn all by myself this afternoon.

I should just buy the really small bags, because even though I try very hard not to pig out on the stuff, I just can't seem to step away from the bag.

My popcorn habit goes way back. I remember as a kid, watching the Carol Burnett show on Saturday night with the family, eating popcorn. We laughed. We chowed. So popcorn is not only tasty to me, it's kind of a warm fuzzy remembrance of my childhood.

So naturally, when I ran across some popcorn facts on the Ag Day website, I felt compelled to share.

According to the site, the first breakfast cereal was made by adding sugar and milk to popped popcorn. Now that one doesn't seem very good to me, but then again, I've never actually tried it!

A shortage of baking flours after World War II forced breadmakers to substitute up to 25 percent of wheat flour with ground popped popcorn.

Over the years, popcorn also has been used as an ingredient in pudding, candy, soup, salad and entrees.

Americans today consume 17.3 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year! The average American eats about 68 quarts.

Hmmm! The "average American" eats 68 quarts? For once, I think I can honestly say that I'm above average!

Dawn