Beauty Swap, purple-style!

I participated again in the #ccbeautyswap with Crystal Cattle and got paired up with the lovely Anna Wastell. She is a born & raised Kansas girl, but is now a Nebraskan lifer and ag gal so we had a lot to chat about. Regardless of her love for Nebraska and all things red, she sent me some awesome beauty products in the purple-theme!

I’ve already dug into my fun stuff, using the hairbands, loofa and eye shadow. Oh and she had some awesome grape-lemonade gum that I took with me on travel last week and it’s pretty much gone. :) I also received some flat iron spray, plum lip gloss and sparkly purple nail polish that will be great for summer (and footballs season!). Thanks, Anna!

This was my second beauty swap and I’ve really enjoyed the friendships and connections I’ve been able to share with these ladies. Since Anna lives so close, hopefully we can meet in person sometime soon!

Read about my winter beauty swap and go check out Crystal Cattle’s blog and Twitter {@crystalcattle} to find out about the next beauty swap.

Cattlemen’s Ball

This past weekend I helped coordinate the “Raising Nebraska” tent at the Cattlemen’s Ball of Nebraska, and got to join in the fun festivities that come along with it. Cattlemen’s Ball is an event that moves around to different ranches each year and raises funds solely for cancer research in Nebraska.

The “Raising Nebraska” tent was all about the “raising” of corn and cattle, and the effect that cattle/feed/fuel have on Nebraska’s vitality and economy. It also tied into our attraction of having a hot air balloon.

So, speaking of the hot air balloon – it was awesome! The weather was rainy all morning so we weren’t sure that we’d even be able to get it aired up. But by dusk, the wind settled down and it turned out to be a beautiful evening! We set this up as an opportunity for Ball goers to go through our tent to learn about Nebraska agriculture, then receive a free tethered, hot air balloon ride.


I did get to go up in the balloon – even though I wasn’t planning on it and really didn’t want to. {Not a fan of heights}. But they insisted that I jump in, so I did.

I tried to take some pictures from the air, but with the darkness (and my shaky knees) they didn’t turn out. It was an amazing view being up in the balloon and something to cross of the bucket list! I even felt Baby Pope kicking, like “wheeee”! Ronny got to go up as well with another group. It was a pretty great night!

“So God Made a Farmer”

I posted this over on my Ag on the Forefront blog, but I wanted to share with my little birdie readers, too. Please help by giving back and voting for this great Super Bowl commercial!

If you didn’t see or hear about the Dodge Ram “So God Made a Farmer” Super Bowl commercial, it is creating quite the conversation. The video features Paul Harvey’s voice sharing the poem with “tear-jerking with pride” images of the people across our country who raise our food. A great tribute to the “the farmer in all of us.”

When you watch the video on Ram’s website, the Ram Brand will make a donation to National FFA Organization (up to $1 million) and assist in local hunger and educational programs.

There is also a poll taking place over the next week for the best commercial, so vote it up on YouTube here.

If you are considering buying a Dodge vehicle, make sure your dealership knows that you appreciate their ad!

Please pass this along and God Bless farmers.

Michigan Part 4 | Somerset, the family farm & wineries

On Saturday, Billy first gave us a tour of the Michigan State farms and the dairy where he conducted research. We first visited the horse unit – beautiful barns and adorable babies!

One of Billy’s role with his research and work at the dairy was to help create the ration for the cows. I was happy to hear that around 30% of the ration was corn co-products. :)

Gotta love the Sparty-Cow!

We also checked out the beef cow-calf unit and feedlot.

Next we headed to Somerset – south of Lansing about an hour. Somerset is where the farm that Grandpa Pope grew up on for most of his childhood. We first visited Joyce Foster, Grandpa’s neighbor that knew him very well. When Ronny visited Michigan as a child, he slept on Joyce’s screened-in porch on this swing. He wouldn’t fit on it too well today!

Here is the farm house that Grandpa lived in. There was a big windstorm a few days prior that knocked down some trees.

We drove past the house down this lane that Great Grandpa Pope would take with his horses and plow to work the ground on the back of the property.

This is the view to the south of the farm.

This area is very wooded and the “tunnel” that we drove through was pretty narrow! In the wooded area is a small grave of one of Grandpa Pope’s dogs.

The field beyond Billy and Ronny is where the Pope’s would farm or keep livestock on.

We stopped in Somerset to look at the beautiful church that Grandpa went to. We also saw where Great Grandpa and Grandpa Pope were buried.

 

We left the farm and found a great restaurant in Manitou Beach near Devil’s Lake. I loved the ceiling of doors!

On the way back to Lansing, we checked out two wineries. One was in an old schoolhouse and the other was owned by a small plane enthusiast.

That evening, we got back and hung out by the pool and ate pizza. It was really a great trip and we thank Billy for taking the time to host us! We drove the 12 hours back on Sunday and made it back with a new friend!

Nicknames

Some may know this, but the title of my blog was inspired from my nickname, Bird.

Over on my “agvocacy” blog, Ag on the Forefront, I posted yesterday about how I got my nickname and the nicknames that agriculture, food and health issues are sometimes associated with.

I even have a crazy picture. Go check it out here!

Charlotte and NASCAR

Right after the CommonGround Conference in Charleston, I flew up one state to North Carolina to the city of Charlotte – home of ALL things racing – for the NASCAR Communicators meeting with nine other corn state and national communicators.

In preparation for the upcoming NASCAR season, I represented the Nebraska Corn Board to discuss the National Corn GrowersAssociation's (NCGA) partnership with American Ethanol.

 

The purpose for meeting in North Carolina was for us to to learn more about NASCAR, the RAB Racing and Richard Childress Racing teams, and to discuss activation events promoting American Ethanol and E15 to consumers.

What is exciting for the 2012 racing season is that American Ethanol will be sponsoring two drivers - Kenny Wallace (@Kenny_Wallace) with RAB Racing and Austin Dillon (@AustinDillon3) of RCR Racing. Dillon will be racing the black No. 3 car in the Nationwide series and Kenny will be hoping to qualify in the upcoming Daytona 500 to race in the Sprint Cup series in the No. 33 car.

And yes, I got to meet Austin Dillon and Richard Childress both at the Richard Childress Winery. Austin graciously let me take a picture with him. :)

As part of the tour in Charlotte, we got to tour both RAB and RCR racing shops where the cars are made, and learn more about what it takes to be a driver and part of the crew. The in's and out's of racing are amazing! Here are just a few of the pictures:

More of my photos are on my online photo album.

 

If you want to know more about the NASCAR/American Ethanol partnership with NCGA and Nebraska Corn, check out these blogs:

• Corn farmers, American Ethanol gearing up for NASCAR season, Daytona
• Proving ethanol and E15 at 200 mph
• First-time NASCAR experience? Awesome!
• Off to the Races….Running on American Ethanol
• NASCAR partnership means deals for corn farmers

Charleston

I was in Charleston, SC the end of last week and this weekend for the Shared Voices Conference for the CommonGround movement. I am a co-coordinator of CommonGround Nebraska, and my mom is a new volunteer for CommonGround Colorado.

CommonGround is a movement of a group of farm women to get the conversation started about where food is coming from. Consumers aren't getting the real story about American agriculture and the volunteer farm & ranch women plan to change that by starting a conversation between women who grow food, and the women who buy it. It really was a great conference to give the volunteer women the tools and resources they need to talk to consumers.

But while we were there, we had some free time to get a feel for the city.

While strolling by the College of Charleston, we found the Kappa Alpha Theta fraternity house – I was a Theta at K-State, so it was so fun to see this house, especially since it was painted up in Theta colors!

You can see all of my pictures on my online album.

We also learned some neat things about South Carolina agriculture (like about tobacco and indigo!), and my fellow corn-colleague, Megan, from Indiana, summed it up great in her blog that you can read here.

Now I’m headed out to Charlotte, NC for some work meetings with NASCAR/American Ethanol, then  home for a day before I head to Panama City, Panama for the U.S. Grains Council International Marketing Conference.