The first meeting of the FarmWife Project will be Saturday Jan. 15, 2011 at the Colorado Farm Bureau Center. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. and run to 3 p.m. The workshop-style meeting will focus on writing, becoming an agvocate, and building relationships with women across Colorado agriculture. If mountains stand in your way, [...]
Author Archive
28 Nov
The Real Farmwives of Colorado
The Farmwife Project is beginning to take shape and it may very well be one of the coolest projects around. In the upcoming weeks, a group of agvocates are coming together right here on this site. They raise hogs, cattle, potatoes, bees, and children. They are farmwives, daughters, sisters, and mothers. And they are one [...]
16 Nov
Rental Pigs
As an agriculture teacher, I get a number of requests throughout the course of the day. Last night, I answered a phone call and heard the sweet and slightly desperate voice of Patty. Patty, a middle school teacher in Colorado Springs, organized a food drive at her school and the main attraction at the all-school [...]
11 Jan
AFBF Women’s Luncheon
The women of AFBF gathered Sunday for the Women’s Leadership Recognition Luncheon. AFBF President Stallman was in attendance. He commended the attendees on taking the first steps toward leadership roles and urged them to continue on their paths. Each state was recognized for their work in 2009. Colorado’s Angela Ryden accepted an award for Colorado’s [...]
24 Nov
Me and CFB
My dad, a lifelong businessman, has always said that ‘if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu’. This was part of my opening statement in the Final Four round of the YF&R Discussion Meet and this moment, this entire weekend, marked the beginning of an amazing journey. When I first attended a CFB [...]
30 Sep
The Wheat Farmer’s Wife
Fall is finally here and at our place, that means there’s no rest for the wicked. Not even for the non-wicked. Even the dogs are tired. The past days and weeks have been a dust-filled blur of feed cutting, drilling, baling, chicken butchering and hog synchronization for us as they have been for many producers [...]
9 Sep
An Update from the Field
Things have been busy out here with the beginning of a new school year, late summer farming jobs and other commitments. Our hog operation continues to be busy and we’re so excited to be sending several hogs to the National Western Stock Show. There are also a few other hog-related developments that are exciting. The [...]
11 Aug
Rachel the Showpig
Whew. The county fair season has concluded for us. The ribbons are home, the animals are sold and kids are beginning to look ahead to the start of school. I tend to keep a mighty close eye on the hog show regardless, but this year there was one little girl and her pig I was [...]
5 Aug
Lessons from Mom
It’s County Fair time around these parts and I seem to be up to my ears in Fair time. I’ve been involved in 4-H as a participant, coach and judge for 23 years. Yikes. One of the contests my sister and I always completed in was the Sheep Lead. We always enjoyed fitting our breeding [...]
29 Jul
Of course I’m serious…
My husband is readying his derby car for the County Fair next week. That means I’m spending long hours in the shop with him but please don’t make the mistake in assuming that I’m doing anything constructive. I can typically locate tools, nuts and bolts that are randomly scattered about the shop and that’s about [...]
26 Jul
One Hot Harvest
Here in eastern Colorado, we’re nearing the end of wheat harvest and there is hay laying in windrows all over the place. Yesterday there was some excitement that we certainly could have done without. One of our neighbors was swathing a field of grass when he realized his self propelled swather was in flames around [...]
21 Jul
No Hog Left Behind
My husband and I raise hogs and our herd is steadily growing one litter at a time. I typically take farrowing duties, especially in the summer when I’m not teaching, and serve as his farm hand. I worked on a farrowing floor in college at Fort Hays State, but the main advantage I have is [...]
18 Jul
Farm Wife 101
There is a poem I read a number of years ago that now speaks to me with a great deal of levity. Joan Hoffman, a ranch wife since the 1940s, writes about a ranch wife who walks into her new life “love first,’ and “in the evening listens to unfamiliar talk concerning post-hole diggers, pump-leathers, [...]
15 Jul
The Pulse Welcomes New Contributor
It is probably fair to say that Colorado Farm Bureau is darned important to me. I met my husband through the Extension Office in Lincoln County and our first date was the Colorado Farm Bureau annual meeting. Really. We were married months later and the Lincoln County Farm Bureau Board members made me feel right [...]
Shawn Martini
Chad Vorthmann
Rachel Vermillion
Garin Vorthmann
Crystal Korrey
Troy B
El Sagehorn
Brent Boydston
