Committed to Agriculture while Respecting the Earth
This is the second year that we have not had a daughter in 4-H. It still seems weird not being at the county fairgrounds every day, all day, while taking care of their goats and horses. Parts of me is thankful we don’t have the stress of show day, but part of me misses it as well. Showing animals at the county fair teaches kids so many things about life…and about agvocating.
Here is a photo from one of the last years that all three girls showed goats.
This is from a couple of summers ago…it’s nice to think warm, happy thoughts on a day when we have yet another Winter Weather Advisory!
Our oldest daughter became engaged on December 31st. We are so excited for her and her fiance! Texting with her about wedding plans made me think of this photo. She was the flower girl in a friend’s wedding, and was so happy to dance with her daddy at the reception. The next time these two dance, it will be a part of the father/daughter dance.
Okay, I am needing Kleenex now. Is it a thing to have a Kleenex box bearer for the mother of the bride? I may need one!
When we lived in our little one story house, we had a few winters with a lot of snow. The winter of 1996-1997 had record snows. There were many days when we would be completely snowed in. The gravel road we lived on was not a priority, so it wasn’t plowed out right away.
After one particularly bad storm that brought a lot of wind, we were looking out of our huge living room windows at the dog…standing at roof level. The whole house was surrounded up the to roof by snow! Christina thought it was pretty funny when Jonathan and Anna (who was properly dressed for playing in the snow) walked over the drift and looked in the window. We opened it, and I handed Christina to Jonathan out the window. This is my favorite winter snow photo!
We are very thankful that field work was pretty much all wrapped up by this time last year. Jonathan and Laura were busy preparing to leave for a mission trip to Tanzania six days after this photo was taken.
This year, we are counting our blessings. We are thankful for each successful day – no one hurt, and corn coming out of the fields. The farmers and ranchers who have been impacted by early snows are on our minds and in our hearts.
If you would like to learn more about the plight of our neighbors to the west, head on over to the AgChat Foundation’s Razoo page.
I’m pretty thankful for the humor that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Olson family. I came from a long line of pun loving people, and married into a family that enjoys laughter as much as I. It makes life a lot more pleasant when you can laugh at your mistakes, or just simply enjoy a good joke.
This photo is of Jonathan’s Uncle Bob, Aunt Fern, and his dad, Kenny. Kenny is the little one in the bicycle basket. I love this photo. The look of joy on all the faces, and the fact that the baby brother is in the basket is not at all surprising if you had the privilege to know their mom, Jonathan’s Grandma Myrtle. She was a fun loving, spunky lady.
So, if you get tired of us having a Pollyanna attitude, or of us joking around, I’m not totally sorry. I invite you to join in on the fun! Life if much better when you can laugh.
I am so thankful for tractors with cabs and climate control systems! Not to mention the GPS system and autosteer.
A few posts ago, I shared a photo of my second day of kindergarten. I think it’s only fair that I share a photo of Jonathan and his sisters on their first day of school.
I just love looking back at photos from our school days. It reminds me of a simpler time of life when the biggest thing we had to worry about was what to wear on the first day of school, and who we were going to sit with at lunch. Sometimes I wish for simpler days, but then I sit back and take a look at all the blessings in my life. Life is good.
All three of our daughters are in college, so the rush to buy school supplies has ended for us. That doesn’t mean I don’t like shopping for notebooks, folders, pens, and pencils. Truth is, I love when stores set out their school supplies! Running errands this week made me very happy, and reminded me of going school shopping with my mom when I was little.
This photo is from my second day of kindergarten. The bus forgot to pick up the kids in our neighborhood on the first day, so my mom had to drive us to school! I miss the days of eating Spagettios and watching Captain Kangaroo before getting on the bus for afternoon kindergarten. Life was so much simpler then.
This weekend we’ll be officially celebrating our farm’s 100th Anniversary. We’ve learned more about the family that moved here in 1913 through their photos and diaries. One of the photos that took our breath away is of Daniel Olson, who moved his family from Iowa to Minnesota in 1913. This photo had to have been taken around the time they moved to our farm, or not long before they left Iowa, based on the age of the boy (Silas Olson) in the photo…which makes this particular photo over 100 years old. We are super thankful that someone labeled the back of this photo, or we would have never known who it was!
It has been an awesome journey to learn more about the family that I married into. There is a definite humor gene that has been passed down from generation to generation! There are also traits that have been passed down, such as hospitality, compassion, a good work ethic, to name a few. My digging into the Olson family history will not be done once the last guest leaves on Saturday. There are too many questions that need to be answered!
So, my public service announcement, once again, is to take tons of photos of you family…and don’t forget to label them for future generations!
