Have you ever thought about buying all the gifts mentioned in the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas?” This year the cost will top $100K according to PNC Wealth Management that calculates the cost each year. They also produce an annual Christmas Price Index. Here’s the findings (pdf) this year:

A sluggish economy coupled with weak demand has kept the 2011 PNC Christmas Price Index® (PNC CPI) to a moderate gain of 3.5 percent in the whimsical economic analysis by PNC Wealth Management based on the gifts in the holiday classic, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

As part of its annual tradition, PNC Wealth Management also tabulates the “True Cost of Christmas,” which is the total cost of items gifted by a True Love who repeats all of the song’s verses. This holiday season is the most expensive year ever: very generous True Loves have to fork over $101,119.84 for all 364 gifts, a 4.4 percent increase compared to last year.

You can find a handy table with costs listed and compared to 2010 here (pdf). Only the three French Hens, Eight Maids-a-Milking, Nine Ladies Dancing, and 10 Lords-a-Leaping were the same price as last year. Need the lyrics? Try here.

Happy Thanksgiving from the ZimmComm Team.

We like Thanksgiving cards so I thought I’d share this one from the National Association of Farm Broadcasting.

We’ve got a lot to be thankful for today.

For starters, we can’t say enough how much we appreciate our clients and sponsors. Your support means more than we can say. We also thank everyone in the ZimmComm community. We’ll continue to strive to bring you our best. We’re also thankful to America’s farmers and everyone involved in the production/processing/distribution of food.

For that we give #FoodThanks!

I’m not sure if you’d rather see one of the deer we harvested or not. This is my deer hunting team as things started to wind down on the 2011 hunt yesterday. We had a great time and reduced the over population of deer in Missouri I can tell you. Fresh venison on the grill is a good thing!

So, I’m back at ZimmComm World Headquarters getting back into civilization and agriblogging mode. The woods are a wonderful and peaceful place to get away from it all. However, I’ve got numerous interviews to share with you from the NAMA Trends in Agriculture Conference as well as the NAFB Convention.

So there will be quite a bit of activity on AgWired prior to the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

The ZimmComm team is gearing up for a busy week in Kansas City. There’s a lot going on. First up will be the annual meeting of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance followed by the NAMA Trends in Agriculture conference. Then it’s on to the NAFB convention. We’ll have full coverage on AgWired. To make it easy to see our coverage any time you want, get the AgWired smartphone app (iPhone and Android)!

You can find the NAMA Trends in Agriculture Agenda here.
Follow on Twitter – #NAMATrends

The NAFB Convention agenda here (pdf).
Follow on Twitter – #NAFB

Also, if you are attending the NAFB convention and want to know more about using your smartphone for broadcasting purposes, plan to sit in on Chuck’s session on Wednesday at 3:15pm.

We’ll be seeing you from Kansas City!

Hello from beautiful South Dakota. It’s pheasant hunting time for the AgriBlogger and a small group of guys.

We’ve got very marginal internet access so I’ll be a little “quiet” over the weekend. But things will ramp back up after getting home on Monday.

Right now it’s time to start getting ready for another day of exercise and good fellowship!

I have to take time to add my voice to all the folks who are talking about the passing of Steve Jobs. This is not an attempt to chronicle his life or achievements. It’s more to say how much I appreciate them. The iPod, followed by podcasting was a huge driver for our business. We affectionately call it farm podcasting. For that I am very grateful. I’m sure he never thought that his devices would be used to deliver farm news and information. At least I don’t think he did.

I never studied Steve’s life but I’ve been fascinated by his business and the products it produces. I have an iPhone/iPad/Macbook Air/iMac. I use them every day and they just plain work. As many of us Mac addicts like to say, “You can do everything on a PC that you can do on a Mac. It’s just more fun on a Mac!” I’m sure it’s more fun because Steve took risks and put his customer first, deciding to make something they want, not what he thought they wanted. That’s a lesson for all of us. So, that’s it I guess. We’ll miss you Steve but I’ve got a feeling that Apple will live on and continue your legacy.

We were shocked to hear that our friend Shannon Schaffer passed away suddenly over the weekend while on a bicycle ride.

We got to know Shannon when he was with the U.S. Grains Council. In fact, I traveled with him on a trip to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan. You really get to know people when you travel like that. I didn’t have a room for a night at our hotel in Egypt and Shannon immediately offered to let me share his which I did. He was our main guide throughout that trip and kept us all together and on time. He is already missed.

Shannon left USGC to serve as Director of Membership for the National Farmers Union for the past year or so.

Here is the official obituary and details:

Shannon R. Schaffer, age 41, died on Saturday, September 17, 2011. He was the beloved husband of Sheri Schaffer; father of Ashton Schaffer; son of Ronald and Fae Schaffer and brother of Meredith Gulseth (Mark) and Emily Fisher (Alex). In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to an education fund being established for his son, Ashton at T. D. Bank, 308 Maple Avenue, East, Vienna, Virginia 22180.

Funeral services will be held Friday September 23 at 3:00 pm at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Vienna, VA. You can share memories of Shannon on the Tributes.com website.

Here’s the media tent maestro, Gene Hemphill, New Holland Agriculture. He’s making sure we’re all being taken care of.

The weather here on the final day of set up is beautiful. Let’s hope it stays that way although the forecast is for it to turn much warmer by Thursday. The ZimmComm team is on location and Cindy’s off getting our first interview with the Illinois Corn Growers.

I’ve got a photo album in the beginning stages but you can bet it will be full by the end of the show. 2011 Farm Progress Show Photo Album

After taking care of business at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference a few of us had to get a little R&R. So we followed Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet, to his place at Cedar Island at Keaton Beach. Tagging along are Mike Deering, NCBA and Evan Slack, the Evan Slack Radio Network. Today’s Evan’s birthday so make sure you wish him a happy one.

We have had two days of scorching heat but we did get some fish to bite. Our cooler had more in it yesterday but for the dog days of summer we felt pretty good about it. This afternoon we’re switching gears and going out scalloping before calling it quits. If you’re interested we’ve got some photos online here.

If you’re ever over this way and need a good guide then call Captain Edward Thomas, T.G.I.F. Charters. Cappy knows where to go and when. We highly recommend him.

It’s nice to have a couple days away from the agriblogging highway. Tomorrow we’ll be homeward bound and then off to another adventure on Monday.

The Salute to America celebration in Jefferson City included a bird show. The star was this bald eagle. They made their appearance before the evening concert series. We heard all about hawks, owls and eagles with this one being last on the program.

“This program features our country’s symbol – the bald eagle,” said Walt Crawford, Director of the World Bird Sanctuary, based in St. Louis. “We salute our country, our veterans and the eagle as a living emblem of the beauty and vitality of Missouri’s natural resources.”

The main entertainment on the stage in front of the Missouri Capitol Building was the Little River Band. Cindy and I saw them in Tampa at Commodity Classic. The band still plays their classics like The Other Guy, etc. I think they appeal to a wide audience and especially age range.

The big star of the show on Independence Day is the fireworks and they did not disappoint us in Jefferson City. The fireworks are set off across the Missouri River from the state capitol building and there are people in pretty much every square inch of ground you can watch from on both sides of the river.

The Capitol City boasts one of the largest fireworks displays in the State! Plan to bring the entire family to watch the spectacular from the north lawn of the State Capitol. Be sure to tune in your radio to listen to the choreographed music accompanying the display on Jeff 104. This is the highlight of the Salute to America Festival and you won’t want to miss it!

Here are some photos from this evenings activities: 2011 Salute To America Celebration

When we got married, my mother thought it was odd that I wasn’t putting china and crystal glassware on our registry. Gone are the days of formal dining rooms, china hutches, “good” dishes and expensive glassware. At least at my house anyway.

If you peer inside our kitchen cabinets, you’ll instead see plastic cups with lids, plastic plates and refillable cups from a gas station. Yes, we have ceramic place-settings and glass drinkware, but since we have an almost 3-year-old, the dinner table is usually adorned with non-breakable items.

This is a cut-glass condiment set, made for vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. I can picture this as the centerpiece on a beautiful table with a hand-made lace tablecloth, where the silver has been polished, the butter is neatly placed on its own silver platter, and the girls wear dresses to dinner.

Definitely not the dinner scene at my house.

Don’t get me wrong – we sit down and eat dinner as a family, we enforce table manners, and if I’m at home, the TV isn’t allowed to be on while we eat. We just have wooden salt and pepper shakers and the butter comes in a plastic tub.

This condiment set reminds me of a more formal time, where prim and proper were the foundational manners of every good girl. I guess if I preserve some of that mindset, it’s that we sit down as a family and have meaningful conversation. That’s what will stand the test of time in my mind, not the container the salt and pepper were in.

Until we walk again …

Today we honor, remember and pray for the souls of our deceased men and women who have died in service to our country. At 3pm today you may want to take a moment to say a prayer and remember these heroes. You can turn your lights on if you’re driving.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”

You can find a lot more good information about the meaning of today on this website or on this one.