Three years ago when we moved from Denver back to my rural hometown in Nebraska, I had driven to town to go to the bank and on my way out, noticed that the clock read 5:00 p.m. I immediately thought, “Oh no, leaving town right during rush hour.” Then I laughed out loud. Rush hour in a town of 3,500 …

After listening to hours worth of stories from my grandfather about old farm machinery, hand tools and butchering livestock, it dawned on me I’d never asked the most generic question of the farmer sitting in front of me: What was it like to be a farmer back in the 30s and 40s? And by that I mean, describe a typical …

I’ve seen a few of these around but you have to look closer to see what they’re really made of. My in-laws have a windmill and tractor; my grandparents have a bird. Here’s what Sam is made of (or Fred because I’m not sure he’s a toucan): Rebar, rake, dust pan, marbles (eyes), mower sickle guard (beak) and a grease …

It was another one of those days today – I was staring at my computer wondering what to write about for AgWalk. As I walked upstairs, an idea just came to me. Or you can say an idea was sitting right in front of me. This is an old school desk my grandpa saved and refurbished from a one-room schoolhouse. …

I dug back through some of my old pictures this weekend and found one of the creek just ¼ mile up the road from our house. It reminded me of all the scavenger hunts my brother and I went on when we were young(er) and stayed with my grandparents. Maybe that was just Grandma’s ploy to get us out of …

Summer is coming, I can feel it. That may be wishful thinking, but a person can dream, right? A few warmer afternoons has me itching to be outside prepping my garden, dragging a hose around to water plants and mowing the yard. This time last year, I think I WAS mowing. Spring weather beckons us outside and I don’t think …

In the agricultural world, we oftentimes talk about farm to fork, farm to plate, gate to plate, you get the idea. I think it’s imperative that we educate folks who live in the city where their food comes from and about the people who work hard to grow safe, wholesome food for our dinner tables. But as a mom, I …

This was a picture of the weather radar this morning … can you see the pin? That’s us. And by the time I sat down to write this post, it had started snowing and it’s really coming down. From what I’ve been hearing, it’s a slow-moving storm that dumps anywhere from 8-20 inches, but we’re ready. The horse has a …

I have a neighbor up the road who has a giving heart. When we first moved in and got a stand of grass established, she’s the one who added color by bringing down about 15 5-gallon buckets full of a variety of flowers she’d dug up and transplanted from around their farm. When we added the landscaping around the front …

To this day, my grandpa reads a lot of ag magazines. He’s been retired for about 25 years but still enjoys staying up-to-date on the latest trends and news. But he also has what I refer to as “institutional knowledge” – meaning years of experience that he can draw upon. I recently mailed off a letter to a woman in …