Being sick is miserable
I hate being sick. I don’t know anyone who actually likes coughing, hacking, sneezing and wheezing, but I’m a miserable sick person.
I left work a little early on Friday, stocked up on oranges and tissue with lotion and headed home to an awaiting couch.
Two days later, I’d say the oranges and herbal tea have only soothed me briefly, the lotiony tissue isn’t lotiony enough, and I’ve watched enough sappy chick flicks on TV to make my eyes water. Oh wait ... maybe that’s just another symptom of my cold!
Sometimes I appreciate the solitude of my home, but after a couple of days of couch living, I’m feeling a little stir-crazy. At least there were some phone calls from my mom a few times each day. She just wanted to make sure I was still alive.
Well, maybe that’s exaggerating a bit ... I did say I’m a miserable sick person.
What is it about being sick that just makes you want to be at home with Mom taking care of you?
My mom would most likely be better prepared than me. She’d have the 7-Up on hand, make me some homemade chicken soup, tell me to stay in bed and then take my temperature.
I have no 7-Up in the house, I wouldn’t attempt to make homemade chicken soup even if I was healthy, and I’m too tired and lazy to look for that darn thermometer I bought a few years ago. Besides, does it really matter if I have a temperature? It would just be one more thing to complain about!
After several days, my illness has run the gamut from coughing and wheezing to scratchy throat, sore throat, swollen glands, ear ache, sneezing and watery eyes. Meanwhile, my friends tell me to drink herbal tea, Dad suggested I smear on the Vicks VapoRub and Mom told me to put a clove of garlic in my ear to ease the ear ache. She heard it on Dr. Oz.
Well, the herbal tea hasn’t seemed to help, and the VapoRub didn’t do the trick either. As for the garlic clove, well, I didn’t have one in the house. Even if I did, I don’t think I would be so desperate as to stick one in my ear. Smelling like VapoRub is bad enough.
Posted by: Julie Buntjer on 2/08/2010 at 5:15 AM | Comments (3) | Permalink
Tired of the S word
It's been a really long week at the office, and I think I've been ready for the weekend since Tuesday. Not that I have anything special planned ... it's just the usual laundry, dishes and decluttering ... but I am looking forward to getting reacquainted with my comfy couch.
Last week's travels, the late nights and early mornings, have plagued me all this week. While I haven't nodded off in front of my work computer, the one evening I did get to spend at home this week was cut short by a beckoning feather pillow and Grandma's handmade quilt. I was in bed by 8:20, and slept until about 8:30 the next morning ... certainly a rarity for me.
With that dreaded "S" word in the forecast through the weekend, I told my mom this morning that I was going to make a batch of beef stew in the Crock-Pot and settle in for a weekend of solitude and sleep. I'll probably dig out my DVD of "Grumpy Old Men," and "Grumpier Old Men," for a little Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau movie marathon (these are my two must-watch movies every winter) and just avoid looking out the window as the snow piles up.
Like pretty much everyone else I know who lives in the region, I am sick and tired of the snow. I feel like a caged rabbit ... I just want to run and play outside (all right, I want to walk around the lake and see the kids playing in the park ... an activity that doesn't cost me anything!) I want the sun to shine and the temps to be right in that 68- to 75-degree neighborhood ... not too warm, not too humid, but just right!
I should be grateful that I spent a week in the south last week and missed all the bad weather in southwest Minnesota, but all it really did was make me question why I live here, make me wish I lived somewhere else or, at the very least, that I had a job that would allow me to be a snowbird.
I'll get off my whiner's box now ... finish writing my story for Saturday's paper and head home a little early. I hear that couch a'beckoning.
Posted by: Julie Buntjer on 2/05/2010 at 11:31 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: home, movies, weather, work
Just doing my job
If it were possible to bottle up kindness, excitement and surprise, I think my bottle would be overflowing after this past week.
What would I do with that bottle?
Well, I'd wait until I had one of those awful days, where nothing seems to go right and no one seems to be happy ... we all have those, I know ... and then I would take the lid off and soak up the sunshine.
My faithful Farm Bleat readers are aware that I spent last week in New Orleans and Atlanta on a Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council-sponsored See For Yourself mission trip. My trip was completely funded by the state's soybean association in exchange for writing stories about the places we saw, the people we met and the fellow SFY participants' experiences.
It was a wonderful journey, and I had a great time getting to know nearly two dozen farmers and agribusiness professionals from all across the state.
Midway through the trip, I received a call from my publisher, Joni Harms, who was at the Minnesota Newspaper Association's annual convention in Bloomington. She called to say I'd earned first place on a human interest feature story I'd written about a family of Sudanese refugees. The article about Abang Ojullo and her children was published in the Daily Globe last June.
Joni's call came as I was perusing trinkets in the gift shop at the New Orleans Airport with three other women on the SFY trip. Well, it didn't take long before they spread the news to the entire contingent and I was inundated with congratulations. Being recognized for an award is humbling enough, but when nearly two dozen people began referring to me as an award-winning reporter, it became rather embarrassing.
Just as I was coming down off my SFY high, I was presented with the Rock-Nobles Cattlemen's Association Service Award at the RNCA's annual banquet Monday night in Luverne.
Now, as Matt Widboom told the nearly 250 people in attendance, it took some wrangling on his part to get me to the banquet.
I'd like to explain why.
When Matt invited me to attend, he said he was working on getting an important speaker to talk during the evening. Despite my request for the speaker information, I never heard back from him. So when Monday afternoon rolled around, I'd essentially decided not to go ... after all, the weather was rather nasty.
Enter my boss, Ryan, who basically told me I had to attend. Well, there was another call to Matt on Monday afternoon ... I still wanted to know who the speaker was ... and he still wouldn't tell me.
Bottom line, there was no speaker. I found that out after being called to the podium, where Matt presented me with an award in recognition of my years of reporting the agricultural issues of southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa. Yep, he had me fooled and shocked all at once ... and again, I felt very humbled.
Being recognized for one's work is always nice, but I want people to know that I'm just doing my job ... some days better than others. I feel like there are never enough hours in the day to get done what needs to get done. News never quits, and sometimes, it feels like I can't either.
Last week, one of the SFY participants asked me if I liked my job. I looked him in the eye and said, "Yes. Most days." It's like any job ... highs and lows, peaks and valleys.
It's true that the profession doesn't pay well. Yes, I put in far more time than what I ever get paid for. Absolutely, I deal with constant deadlines. Yet, at the same time, there are so many perks ... like meeting new people and chatting with long-time sources, sleeping in on days when I have to work late, free trips from Minnesota Farm Bureau and MSR&PC and, on occasion, an appreciative phone call, a thank-you note, a box of chocolates or even a bouquet of flowers from people I've interviewed.
There's a saying I keep on my computer desk at home ... "We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds."
It keeps me grounded.
While the words in the stories I write are read by thousands each day, in the end, they are just words. Most end up lining a pet cage or getting stuffed in the recycling bin. My hope is that somewhere in between reading the stories and tossing them away, people will learn something ... perhaps be called to act, or even just appreciate life a little more.
Thank-you to the RNCA for the beautiful plaque ... it will be a constant reminder that our region's farmers not only need, but deserve, to be heard on the issues important in agriculture today and for years to come.
Posted by: Julie Buntjer on 2/02/2010 at 9:25 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Tags: agriculture, farm, minnesota farm bureau, minnesota soybean growers, newspapers, work
A candid conversation
I was sitting in the Atlanta, Ga., airport on Friday afternoon, sharing lunch with a Minnesota Soybean Growers Association staff member, an MSGA board member, a member of the Midwest Shippers Association and one of the ad agency representatives that accompanied the See For Yourself International Marketing trip.
We were talking about the places we visited, the people we met and the things we learned. And then the conversation turned to the media ... and the four guys turned to me.
I fielded questions on how we develop stories, how we select our sources, who decides what is newsworthy and how Minnesota farmers can get their voices heard on issues ranging from animal agriculture to the environment.
I've been a newspaper reporter for 16 years, so to hear some of them talk about being afraid to talk to the media came as a surprise to me. Perhaps it shouldn't, considering some of the tough questions farmers get asked these days.
From fears of being misquoted to having quotes taken out of context, they would rather remain in the silent majority ... doing their work from day to day and not speaking out when they agree or disagree with something they read in the newspaper, hear on the radio or watch on television.
As they all heard during a presentation on Thursday at the International Poultry Expo, remaining in the silent majority could lead to the downfall of animal agriculture in America. That, of course, is the ultimate goal of animal activist groups like PETA and the Humane Society of the United States.
As a farm reporter, there's nothing I would like more than to have a farmer call me up and give me an idea for a story. I can't possibly know everything that's going on in the industry, so I rely on phone calls and e-mails just like everyone else who works in the newsroom.
On Friday, I offered the guys a bit of insight in the world of agriculture journalism, based only on my experiences.
I told them that while I grew up on the family farm, my parents are retired from farming and I've lived in town for several years. As such, I feel a certain disconnect with agriculture. I've written stories about yield monitors and auto-drive tractors, but I've never seen them in operation.
If that's my experience, imagine what it is like for the journalists out there who are assigned to write a story about farming and yet have never had a connection to the farm.
As I told the guys, in order for the story to make sense, the reporter has to understand the issue. Perhaps instead of telling a reporter why something is done a certain way, show them. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words ... and in our case, a visual can go a long way in telling the story accurately.
Last fall, I took a little guff for "interviewing the same farmers" when I do my spring and fall field work stories. Yes, it is true. I have a list of farmers I can call on because they have provided me with their cell phone numbers. When I'm working on a daily deadline, I can't afford to leave a message at the house, when I know the weather is nice and the farmer is going to be outside from sunrise to well past sunset.
There's nothing I would like more than to extend my list of farmers who would be willing to give me a crop report. If you are willing, give me a call or send me an e-mail with your cell phone number and I'll add you to the list.
After my experience last week on the See For Yourself mission, I've come to the realization that we need more, not less, agricultural reporting. We need more farmers willing to talk about their operations ... we need more livestock producers to open up their farms for city folks to tour and ask questions. What we in agriculture need is to connect with the American consumer and not just remind them, but show them, how America's farmers feed the world.
Posted by: Julie Buntjer on 2/01/2010 at 5:00 AM | Comments (5) | Permalink
Tags: agriculture, farm, minnesota soybean growers, work
The debate over animal agriculture
Those of you Farm Bleat readers who also read the Daily Globe will notice a story in today's edition regarding the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and its attack on animal agriculture.
It was the subject of a program offered Thursday morning at the International Poultry Expo here in Atlanta, Ga., and continued to be discussed throughout the day between those of us who attended.
Unfortunately, I couldn't write about everything during the presentation - it lasted for nearly two hours - but I would like to use this blog to talk a little bit more about HSUS and the concerns our Minnesota farmers have regarding their propaganda.
Obviously, for me to use the word propaganda, you must realize that I don't think very highly of the PETA people and other animal activists. My perception of them is that they know absolutely nothing about raising pigs, they can't tell the difference between a dairy cow and a dairy goat and they wouldn't have the slightest idea on how to properly hold a chicken.
Then again, they probably think I'm just a stupid farmer's daughter. Apparently they think that of everyone who choses to live on a farm and work hard for a living.
Dr. Wes Jamison, associate professor of communications for Palm Beach Atlantic University, presented some rather interesting statistics regarding HSUS and the lengths they are going to in order to stop animal agriculture.
State by state, they are spending millions of dollars in lawsuits and lobbying efforts to get propositions passed. In Ohio, they were behind a proposition to end the caging of poultry. In Arizona, they were the instigators in getting farrowing crates banned. And in California, they may single-handedly destroy the poultry industry within a matter of a couple years.
But what about Minnesota? Is HSUS coming here?
The answer is yes. In fact, some of HSUS's top officials have already visited with representation from Minnesota Farm Bureau.
John Zimmerman, a turkey, corn and soybean producer from Northfield and fellow MSR&PC See For Yourself mission trip participant, said it's just a matter of time.
"In the last few years, we've seen more activity on the HSUS front," Zimmerman said. "We know they're going to start coming into Minnesota."
What's their agenda? Well, among the Minnesota farmers on the SFY mission, talk is that they want to end tail docking in the dairy industry. In Minnesota, approximately 80 percent of dairies have implemented tail docking in their cow herds as a means to improve sanitation.
Tails tend to get filled with mud during the spring thaw and summer rains. Cows don't like the way those clumps feel on the end of their tail, so they swing them to knock the dirt loose. Those tails not only hit their hips and their rear udders, they also hit the automatic milkers and other sterile equipment used in milking parlors.
For dairy farmers, tail docking makes economic sense. Without the worry of mud getting into equipment, they have fewer worries about somatic cell counts being impacted, and the price dock that comes with higher bacteria levels.
There are other issues besides tail docking. Minnesota producers also use farrowing crates and poultry cages, both of which could come under attack.
In his presentation, Jamison said farmers need to band together and develop a common message. Whether that's to counter-act HSUS and hand out T-shirts that say "I Love Meat," or to develop a positive media campaign that engages America's consumers in the animal industry, farmers can no longer afford to sit back and stay quiet.
American agriculture ... Minnesota agriculture ... needs a strong voice.
Posted by: Julie Buntjer on 1/29/2010 at 5:00 AM | Comments (10) | Permalink
Tags: farm, minnesota soybean growers, travel, work
