As a writer and a farmer, there are some stories that will just never make it to print. Some are too personal; others can't be told without offending someone. If you farm with family, you surely know just what I mean about either case! Others would raise the ire of the farm safety folks, who do good work every single day but who would be astounded that some of us ever made it through our childhoods. Still others, I just never thought I would tell. That's the case with my…

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Yesterday, I was in hammer-down mode to get my flower beds cleaned off, ornamental grasses cut down, roses, trimmed, etc., etc., before the impending cold and rain set in (again). After the kids got home from school, eight-year-old Nathan assessed the situation and sensed an opportunity. "Mom. Do you want me to hook up my wagon to my four-wheeler and haul this stuff off?" And just like that, it was as if eight years of food, water and shelter had finally paid off. I…

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Last month, I was asked to speak at the Women in Agriculture conference, held in the Quad Cities, and organized by several Illinois Farm Bureaus. It was a fun and fabulous day. We learned about marketing, legislation and accounting software, just to name a few topics. And then I got to wrap up the day with a few thoughts on agriculture and farm life. As part of the presentation, my fabulous friend and local Fulton County Farm Bureau manager, Elaine Stone, asked me to create a handout for…

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A year ago Sunday, we made a flying trip south. A year ago Monday, I turned 36, and had my last conversation with my mother. A year ago today, she slipped peacefully from the earth. And a week from today, she would've been 66. In honor of anniversaries and memories that seem like yesterday and yet as if they occurred 10 years ago, I'm sharing the thoughts I gathered together last year, after reality had begun to settle. Titled, The End of a Long Road, this first appeared March…

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Twenty years ago, I was a high school kid. I showed cows at the fair. I participated in 4-H. I have fabulous memories of it all. What's more, those memories include one of this year's Master Farmers, smack in the center of much of it. I'm kinda proud of that. Indeed, my earliest memory of Neil Fearn is of him leaning on the tailgate of his truck on Monday morning of the Edwards County Fair, as the beef superintendent of the open show: "OK boys, let's get this…

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Oh, calving season. It's off to a roaring start. John and I had a faint discussion about going out for dinner Saturday night and then we were tired and we decided not to, which turned out well since we wound up pulling a calf at 9:30 instead. Which was really almost as romantic. And speaking of romance, it's March, which in cat world apparently means it's time for things to start happening. Which is all to say, the entire time we were pulling this calf, the barn cats were…

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Just one week from today, a road trip will commence to one of my favorite places on earth: the University of Illinois. That's right; maybe I just don't get out much but the University of Illinois campus will always be one of my favorites. It's beautiful, it's historic, there's lots of agriculture, it's home to some of the best soil in the entire world. And it's the place where fabulous things happened for me. Indeed, I sat in Bob Hays' office in the…

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I have, occasionally and lately, seen those Internet memes floating around with quotes and such and my favorite lately says, "Don't compare someone else's highlights reel with your behind-the-scenes footage." And to that I say, amen. {The farm version of that quote would be, "Everybody has a junk pile. Somewhere." Believe it; I've been on a lot of farms in my career. It may be discreet and it may be tucked away…but there's always a junk…

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Last week was a little nuts around the Spangler ranch. We had returned home from a family vacation on Saturday, then launched into a week of catching up on all we'd missed. Which was sort of like cramming three weeks of work into one, even though we'd only been gone a week. Never mind the math, just trust me. By Thursday, I'd driven 260 miles, done one Master Farmer photoshoot, written a blog, written a column, written a story, edited another column and written two Master…

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You may remember Granite. She made a rather auspicious debut at the Cuba livestock show last year. By summer's end, she'd proven herself worthy of the title, "Showmanship Heifer." In show-cattle-speak, that means she went from a head-tossing, let-me-try-and-kick-you attitude to one of general obedience and tolerance of her show ring surroundings. Really, that's a pretty massive turnaround. In a little girl's world, it's enough to endear an animal…

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