As we move into late spring, many 4-H and FFA youth are picking out which livestock born in the past few months they will be taking to fair. When choosing the animals for their projects, the youth have much to consider with their selection, including an animal’s size, conformation, and breed characteristics. After their selection is made, each student’s work has just begun! Much preparation goes into every selected animal before county fair. In beef and dairy projects, a lot of time is spent teaching the animal to lead. At the fair, the animal will need to walk nicely on the halter with its head up. By fair time, the animal may weigh more than four times that of the kid leading it! Starting the training when the animal is younger and smaller is vitally important.
     While I was growing up, animals occasionally got big without undergoing leading training. Whether it was procrastination or just busyness as we got older, my brothers and I sometimes found ourselves a few weeks from the fair with a difficult-to-control animal or two. We had a few tried and true techniques to get them sorted out before the fair. First, we would tie the heifer to a sturdy post and keep an eye on her for a few hours. For a while she would pull and pull against the post, but eventually she would learn to stand nicely without pulling. Next, we’d tie her (and other calves that were needing lessons) to a hayrack and while my brother would drive the tractor pulling the hayrack slowly, I’d walk alongside to make sure all the heifers were walking nicely. One year we were so short on time that we baled a few rounds of hay with the heifers walking behind the hayrack as I stacked the bales! It usually only took a few turns on the hayrack to have the animals show-ring ready.
     Another method of teaching a large, stubborn animal to lead is to tie it to another large, stubborn animal – a donkey!! My brothers and I never tried this, but we had some friends with beef steers who found it very effective, and we loved to hear their stories. While beef steers aren’t known for being naturally docile, the donkey is very much the dominant of the two. He uses all sorts of techniques to help the steer learn to walk wherever the donkey wants to go. Biting, head butting, kicking and pulling are all in the donkey’s arsenal. Within a day or two, the steer does whatever the donkey wants. To get his point across, when the donkey eats, the steer watches and when the donkey is done, then the steer eats. One rainy day a friend’s donkey was standing in the shed, and the steer was standing outside in the rain with the lead rope taut! The donkey seemed content to let the steer stand in the rain and continue to pull while the donkey stayed dry. Soon the steer gets the idea, never let the rope get tight, or something bad is going to happen. Once the steer is set free of the donkey, he still does not want that rope to get tight. So, anyone can lead the steer around without a problem. The steer will be ready for the fair.
     Preparing an animal to be ready for the fair will make any youth work up an appetite. With spring in the air, the rest of us look forward to getting outdoors. Warm up your grill because we have our delicious cheese and meats ready for all of your outdoor activities. You can find them at our farm self serve store, located near Donahue. 

     March 2019 marks 50 years ago that our family’s house burned down.

     The day started like any other brisk March school day. The weather was cold and blustery as my mother and I set out for school. My mother was a substitute teacher. That day she was substituting in a home economics class at Walcott Elementary and Intermediate School, where I was in first grade. On the ride in, Mom told me to come to the home economics room at the end of the school day, and we would go home together.
     Back at the farm, my father finished the morning milking and opened the barn door to let the cows outside, just as he did every day. But this fateful day, Dad opened the door to the smell of smoke. His eyes lifted up to see smoke streaming out of the house. He ran to our neighbor’s house to call the fire department, who soon arrived. The firefighters almost had the fire out, but then their water ran out. By the time they returned with more, the fire had fought back to the point that our house was fully engulfed in flames. The firefighters were able to save the summer kitchen attached to the house. They also were able to pull a few pieces of furniture out through the windows, but that day the fire robbed us of almost all our possessions.
     At the end of the school day, unsuspectingly I went to the home economics room, and my mother told me what had happened to our home. She explained all my toys were gone and asked if I wanted to take some fabric scraps out of the waste basket to play with.
     When we arrived, the house was still burning. I will never forget seeing the ivory keys of our player piano burning. Nearly everything I had thought was important was being consumed. The fire left us with only the clothes on our backs. I cannot describe how devastating it was to lose so much. Yet, thankfully we still had each other. Because the house was empty during the fire, no one had been injured or killed. We also still had our dairy farm. We acquired a mobile home, and for about ten months slept there and ate in the summer kitchen while we built a new house.
     The fire stole so much from our family, but because of it, we got to see what an amazing community we live in. As much as the fire took, our community gave back, surrounding us with love and support. Our minister came to our house and prayed with us. My great aunt and uncle, who lived down the road from us, took us into their home while we were getting back on our feet. From the day of the fire until months afterward, we received generous gift after gift of clothing, food, furniture, and toys from so many gracious people in our Eastern Iowa community. Those people—YOU—made our tragic time bearable. To this day I’m grateful for the wonderful community who came together to help our family in our time of great need.
     Fifty years after that horrible fire, we’re proud to still farm in this great community. We’re thankful to be able to give back to this amazing community of family and friends. We want to provide the very best meats and cheeses to you. Please stop by our self-serve store, the Cinnamon Ridge Country Cupboard, north of Donahue, or pick up our delicious products at the I-80 Truckstop, North Scott Foods, or the Freight House Farmers Market.
 

      As February marks the start of baseball spring training, flipping the calendar over to February always brings back memories of playing baseball each spring and summer—well, come to think of it, every fall and winter too! Though our team practices and games were only held during the summer, baseball was a favorite pastime in our family. From watching nearly every Cubbies’ games on our small black-and-white TV to analyzing my Little League games play-by-play over dinner, my family was steeped in baseball. Throughout the year, I was practicing. In between chores, I would throw up rocks and try to bat them over the corn crib. I would hurl a tennis ball against the broad side of our red barn to practice fielding and throwing. Whenever I could talk him into it, my brother and I would play in the cow yard on a modified “field.” There we usually drew a nice crowd of female spectators—though the wrong species to let the attention go to our heads!
     In the summers my father was the coach of our Walcott town team. Although we’d have to scramble a bit to get evening chores done early, each game was worth it—even when we lost. It was great fun to travel throughout Scott and Muscatine counties, playing about 30 games a season. Fortunately, several seasons our hard work paid off, and we ended up winning the county championship twice. At the end of each season—championship or not—our team would celebrate by driving to the Windy City to go to a Chicago Cubs game. Being at Wrigley Field in the flesh was always the highlight of my year. I still remember seeing the Big Red Machine from Cincinnati—it’s something I’ll never forget!
     Once I grew up and had a family of my own, I was glad to share my love of baseball. My daughters also enjoyed America’s pastime. Both played softball for the town team, and I coached my youngest daughter’s teams, winning a few trophies along the way. It is such a fun way to spend time as a family, and we still laugh together about many of those memories.
     So, whether you get excited about baseball spring training or not, be comforted to know that, despite the cold weather, spring is on the way. Whatever pastimes your family enjoys, be sure to talk about them over the dinner table—those memories will last a lifetime. Whether you’re shopping for a meal of soup on a cold evening or have dusted the snow off your grill, our Cinnamon Ridge Farms has you covered. Stop by our self-serve store north of Donahue, or pick up our delicious meats, cheeses, and other products at the I-80 Truckstop, North Scott Foods, or the Freight House Farmers Market.