It is a bright sunny day in Missouri to be “black” Friday. I made the serious mistake of going out early to visit one of my favorite retailers. I had to park in the parking lot of the hotel next door. By 10 minutes after opening time there were people already on their way out the door and on to the next one I guess.

I looked around and decided that I’m going to stick to online purchasing. It’s how I do most of mine anymore. The prices are usually better and the lines are just not much of a problem.

Our cornucopia runneth over with gratitude for our friends this Thanksgiving. We have done business with about 40 different entities this year, including 10 companies, 10 ag-related organizations, 14 agencies and two farm media groups! Not too bad for a little ole new media company. I’m very thankful to everyone we’ve had the honor to work with this year so far.

It’s late in the day and just about everyone I’ve emailed or called today is “out.” I think it’s time to be “out” too.

Best wishes for a glorious and grateful Thanksgiving holiday.

I got this story after the video feed had already been sent out this morning but I doubt I would have been able to receive it anyway. How about a link to it folks?

Anyway, the story is about Christmas. I know it’s not quite Thanksgiving yet. But the National Christmas Tree was cut today in Carbon County, Pennsylvania, and will be delivered to the White House on Nov. 27. That’s according to state Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff.

Maryland’s Best program has a new website. It’s got sections for the consumer and the wholesale buyer.

I’m slowly but surely working on my listing pages here on AgWired and thought I’d solicit your help. Let’s start with the Blogs & Podcasts page.

If you have an ag-related blog or podcast or know of one that’s not listed can you email me a link/description to it? I’d appreciate it. I’d like this to be a constantly updated listing. I’m off to a good start but I know there’s a lot more out there.

The same holds true with my pages for Agencies, Media and Companies & Ag Groups. I’d like them to be website links and haven’t finished them yet. This way you’ll have a quick resource page to find a web link when you need one.

Thanks for your assistance. If you’ll get me your links I promise to have these pages updated by the end of the week.

Proving that there’s no limit to the creative ideas people will come up with and the things people will spend money on . . . it’s The Anit-Shirt. Yes, thanks to AgWired fan Steve, this was brought to my attention. I assume he wants to help all the farmers out there who are agonizing over their tan after a long day in the sun with just a regular shirt on. To learn more you need to watch the video:

I think the fast pace of the last couple weeks finally caught up to me yesterday after the NAFB Trade Talk session. I came down with the cold a bunch of people seemed to have in Kansas City this week. But I’m back in the home office and raring to plow forward. After talking agricultural marketing and communications all week …

My nephew came up with the title for this post.

We’re at our hunting camp and will be here for a few more days until it’s time to head to Kansas City.

For those who are wondering I think this picture speaks for itself.

It’s been a great opening day out here and the weather has been beautiful.

I am getting ready to head to the woods as I warned you about last week. This means very light posting until next Wednesday. Almost a whole week! Whoo hoo.

If you want to learn more about what I’ll be doing please feel free to visit the Missouri Department of Conservation website.

I’ll have my camera and I hope I’ll have something to share with you over the next several days.

Looking ahead to next week, I’ll be posting from the NAMA Agribusiness Forum and the NAFB convention in Kansas City. So until soon . . .

I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to vote today but I am anyway?

Cindy and I have decided not to listen to any more of the rhetoric. We’re going to read about it in the news tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean we don’t care. We’ve done our duty and registered our vote. Now it’s up to the rest of the country to stand up and be counted.

Does your one puny little vote count? You bet it does. What do you think makes up that big number at the end of the day? So, no matter what side you’re on please get out and add your vote. As I heard someone say yesterday, we have the freedom to do this at the cost of many, many lives and they should not be forgotten. I also think our vote is a way to honor those who are still in harm’s way defending our right to do this.