Monday, March 30, 2009

a bittersweet weekend…

This weekend hit both ends of the spectrum for me. The “sweet” part was getting to do hair for my friend, Brandi’s wedding. Playing with hair and doing up-do’s is a fun hobby of mine, and this is the second wedding I’ve done. The wedding was very nice, and despite all the snow and ice, around 400 people showed up!! It was a fun reunion of friends I haven’t seen in a while.

DSC00069

Ronny and I at the reception.

I also have been playing around with  my camera and made this panoramic picture with Ronny and his new grill-guard!

Ronny truck panoramic

The “bitter” part of the weekend was 3 deaths that occurred back home in Colorado. On Friday, my Pastor and his daughter passed away after a car accident because of the blizzard. Rick had just gotten well after being in the hospital for over a month with an infection in his foot while battling with his diabetes and kidney failure. What a glorious day it was when he came home from the hospital, especially with his foot still attached! It is just such a sad thing that he battled so hard to get well, then his life, along with his daughter Bethany’s, were so quickly taken from them. They were such great people and it makes us wonder why God takes good people from us, but we must live on the reality that God has a plan for all of us and we must trust Him. Rick was going to marry Ronny and I in September.

The other death is of a friend’s dad. I co-coach Andrea to be a National FFA Officer in the fall and got to know her very well. She is a Colorado native, but make an excellent decision to come to K-State. :) I also got to meet her parents, who were such inspirations to her. Unfortunately, Andrea didn’t get a national office, but we all ensured her that God had a plan for her life, and this was not it. But we didn’t see this coming either. Saturday, I got a call from my co-coach, Sharita, that Andrea’s dad, Steve, had a heartattack and had been flight-for-life’d to Denver, but didn’t make it through the flight.

My heart really aches for the family of Rick & Bethany and Steve. Please keep Melanie, Amanda, Bo & Heather, Lucas, Susan, Andrea & Tucker and Angela in your prayers.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

the rest of the story…

Today at church, the retired pastor came back to preach and I just love listening to him. He has one of those voices that almost mesmerizes you, but not put you to sleep. He talked about some of his favorite actors and voices on the radio and one of them was Paul Harvey, and his famous line, “and that is the rest of the story.” With this line, he was referring to one of the Bible’s most popular verses, John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

But then he went on to talk about how this verse is not the rest of the story. The rest of the story is that there are millions of people living in darkness and it is our job as Christians to help show them the light so that they might not perish but also have eternal life. This just inspired me to thank God for my break week and to tell you the rest of the story on my week and the blessings God has given me in my life. I pray that God can use me to lead others out of darkness.

So I thank God for…

DSC00040…the beautiful purple flowers budding next to my house, and for God providing new life.

DSC00051 … for great friendships and fun, relaxing times.

DSC00044 … for keeping those special people in my life safe throughout car accidents and in the sale ring.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

National Agriculture Day…

 

AgDay_logo

This is National Ag Week - March 15-21, 2009! Tomorrow is actually National Ag Day - March 20, 2009, but we might as well celebrate today since all week as been ag week.

 

Here are a few Fun Facts about Agriculture, but the list is a lot longer!

  • Today's beef is leaner than ever before and fits within the guidelines for a healthy diet that is low in saturated fat. Beef is 20 percent leaner than USDA indicated just 14 years ago, and there are at least 29 cuts of beef , including many favorites, that meet government guidelines for lean. Thirteen of the 29 lean beef cuts have, on average, only one more gram of saturated fat than a skinless chicken breast per 3-ounce serving. Yet, beef's leanest cuts have eight times more vitamin B12, six times more zinc and three times more iron than a skinless chicken breast.
  • Americans today consume 17.3 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year! The average American eats about 68 quarts!
  • In the United States, lettuce is the second most popular fresh vegetable.
  • Blueberries are the second most popular berry in the United States. (it didn’t say what the  most popular one was!!)
  • Occasionally, a hen will produce double-yolked eggs throughout her egg-laying career. It is rare, but not unusual, for a young hen to produce an egg with no yolk at all.  (last semester I had one with 2 yolks! made for some yummy scrambled eggs.)
  • Asparagus is a member of the Lily family and is related to onions, leeks, and garlic. (i love asparagus.)

For my Kansas Friends, here are some Kansas Ag Facts:

  • Principal crops grown in Kansas are wheat, sorghum (milo), hay and corn. Approximately 10 million bushels of wheat are harvested each year in Kansas. Reno, Sumner and Thomas counties lead the state in wheat production. At least 90% of the land area in Kansas (47 million acres) is devoted to agriculture production. Kansas ranks first in the number of commercial cattle processed with 8.03 million head (1999). Buffalo have made a comeback in Kansas with more than 6,000 head raised on ranches and refuges. 
    CDH

                                    KSU Experiment station hay making.

And here are Colorado Ag Facts:

  • Today, there are more than 2.70 million head of cattle and calves and 12,900 beef producers
    throughout Colorado. Colorado ranks:
    • 10th in overall cattle numbers nationwide
    • 4th in cattle on feed
    • 4th in fed cattle marketings
  • Dairy farm production is Colorado’s second largest agricultural business.
  • Colorado plants approximately 1.3 million acres of corn and

    2.4 million acres of wheat.

    CSUarch_AG6-plowing


 

 

 

 

 

 

 



CSU student farming.

And for Cortney, here are some Wisconsin Ag Facts:

  • The #2 dairy state
  • Genex headquarters (and those other ones…i think they are called ABS & Accelerated Genetics, is that right Cort?)
  • Wisconsin top commodities:
    (by dollar value) Source: 2006, Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service
    1. Milk: $3.53 billion
    2. Cattle & calves: $877 million
    3. Corn: $589 million
    4. Greenhouse & nursery: $237 million
    5. Soybeans: $240 million
    6. Potatoes: $162 million
    7. Cranberries: $124 million
    8. Hogs: $120 million
    9. Hay: $90 million
    10. Broilers: $70 million

Monday, March 16, 2009

start of calving season…

This was my first little calfie born on Feb 17. I named him Korbin b/c he was born the same day as a friend’s baby, Corbin Michael was born. HOWEVER, ever since I was 8, I have named all my cattle that I raised “K” names. Korbin was born to Klo (after my micro theory teacher, Flo, but again…it had to be a “K” name) weighing in at 72 lbs.

Mushrush Korbin 2

My next baby calfie (or I should say “our” baby b/c Ronny and I own four head that we purchased together) is this cute little heifer calf. She doesn’t have a name yet, but she was born on March 4 weighing in at 81 pounds to BDEE Delight. Don’t you like her K-State purple tag!!

DSC02708 I am expecting 11 more, so I will be sure to update you on their arrivals! I am quite proud.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

spring break

Well, thanks to my sister-in-law and Mandy, I've decided to start a blog. I always told myself that I would NEVER blog b/c people don't need to know what I'm doing. Then I decided Big Brother wasn't out to get me, and I will keep this simple. But I look almost daily at my friends' blogs, so why not start one so I can maybe put a smile on someone else's face like they do mine?!
A little about me:
The title of my blog stems from my childhood-present nickname, Bird or Birdie. I was a very picky eater, so Grandma said I ate like a bird...and it stuck. Even family friends call me Bird, and sometimes if my family calls me Kelsey, I don't answer b/c I'm so used to them calling me Bird!
I'm a graduate student at Kansas State University in the Agricultural Economics department. I will be done with class in May (thank goodness!) and will finish my thesis, cow-calf production risk, by August (fingers crossed!). I heart economics...mostly b/c I didn't even understand it before coming to college, and I wanted to challenge myself, learn something new, and thus I stepped into some of the hardest theoretical curriculum ever! But I've learned so much and that makes it worth it.

Then, what I'm looking forward to the most....is getting married SEPTEMBER 19, 2009!! My fiance', Ronny, and I met at school. He was an AGR, I was Theta, and we saw eachother at a AGR/Theta wedding, but didn't meet until the next week at a homecoming party. We've been together ever since....3 1/2 years! We've been engaged for over a year...not really by choice (don't be engaged over 1 year and 8 months girls....its way too long!!) but I wanted to finish school, and he has a job in NE, so it wasn't feasible to get married sooner.

It's now spring break and I need to get to grading papers. Since grad students have to work over break, I'm here in Manhappiness to work on my thesis, grade papers, write a lit review, & study for ag marketing test. I'm also hoping to do some fun stuff too...pedicure, wedding stuff, new running shoes, buying a new flat iron and seeing Ronny this weekend! Also, my friend is staying with me this week as she is down from IL for the MAB program at K-State....so I'm excited to have company!!

Oh, I've also discovered Microsoft Live Photo Gallery and you can do lots of fun stuff with it! Like make panoramic pictures! I made one of my living room last night...


I need to work on it...but I will post later on when I perfect the panoramic-madness!