Happy Birthday!

Today is my sons 5th birthday. It is incredibly hard to believe that he is turning five, but I'm sure that he will keep reminding me all day long (he is pretty excited about the day). One thing that I do know though is that I am very blessed to have him in my life and can't imagine life any other way. In fact one major part of our move to the farm and the idea behind building a farm is because we want our family to experience all that the farm has to offer (everything from work to play).

My son is already a great helper around the farm. He helps water the livestock by turning on the hydrant, he helps feed the calves hay with me, he loves to carry wood, and he is the best buddy a dad could have when out doing chores.

With all of that in mind ... I'm off to spend the day with my little guy ... I'm sure he won't be little for much longer!

Things on the Way Out...

I don't have much time today, but thanks to a blog that I follow quite a bit (Take Your Vitamin Z) I have a neat little link for you ... "24 Things About to Disappear in America"

Here is the most interesting thing that they say is on the way out,
1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930s, the number of family farms has been declining
rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in
1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm
census (data from the 2007 census hasn't yet been published).
Ninety-one percent of the U.S. farms are small family farms.

There are still a lot of family farms percentage wise, they are just bigger. At least that is what I get out of this. One other thing though ... I think they just released the census data. I may even have a link if I dig around.

Happy Birthday Little Girl...

Deciding to farm for us was about more than just food and land, it was also about our family and the life we want them to have. So, today I just wanted to take a second and say "Happy Birthday" to my little girl who is turning three! In fact I can really see the farm starting to grow on her because for quite awhile now she has emphatically said that she wants her cake to have a cow, a pig, and a chicken ... so that is what she is going to have.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I will share a more about what I'm thankful for then. But, today I am thankful for my little girl. For the joy she brings my heart as she bounces around like only a little girl can. For the smile she has as she sits on the tractor and pretends to drive. For the funny faces that she makes. For you cute little size that just makes you want to pick her up and give her a hug. And, for the way that she shows the love of God to our family every day.

So, there you go ... Happy Birthday Little Girl!

P.S. I do realize this picture has nothing to do with my daughters birthday, but I really liked it so I thought I would throw it up. You can check out my Epi-Log later today for a little more back story.

Lester F. Rittgers (1912-2008)

For the past few days I have been blogging about some of the details of our journey towards farming. I am going to continue with that theme, but today I would like to take a moment to remember a great family farmer, Lester F. Rittgers, my wife's grandfather. He spent his life farming some of the greatest black dirt in the whole Midwest and worked with his family on a truly diversified family farm for much of that time.

Grandpa Rittgers and his wife, Alice, raised their five children on their farm in rural Iowa and raised everything from dairy cattle, hogs, and chickens to hay, corn, and beans ... along with everything in between. As their children grew up they were all instilled with a wonderful work ethic and all five of them have continued in their agricultural heritage in some way or another.

From the short amount of time that I got to know Grandpa Rittgers and through the legacy he has left in his children I can tell that he was a great farmer that took pride and joy in the work that he was able to do. Even when I met him in his late 80's he was still helping the boys with farm work as often as possible and loved every minute of it.

I am very thankful for farmers like him and the families that they brought up. It is my prayer that their dedication, knowledge, and love for all things farming will be passed on to future generations of small family farms in our country. They are not just a quaint image of our country, but rather a very important part of our ideals and values!

"Only 2 Percent..."

It seems like lately I have been coming across a lot of quotes that have really made me think about agriculture in America these days. The latest quote that got me thinking was from an odd source, "AAA Living Magazine". In an article about the Living History Farms here in Iowa (great place) the author wrote, "Now in the United States, only 2 percent of people work in an industry related to agriculture. Even in heavily agricultural Iowa, only 9 percent of people work in that industry."

That really got me thinking ... especially since I had recently come across this quote from Thomas Jefferson, "I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural." When you put two and two together you realize that since only 2 percent of our nation is involved in agricultural pursuits our government is not virtuous. Wow, did I just say that out loud!

In my recent post, "Hog Farmers Feeling the Pinch" there was some good discussion in the comments about going back to more family farms instead of our reliance on the industrial farm model. If you take a look at the comments you will see that the feeling was that it could be done, but that we just had to want to do it.

Wanting to ... that has been something that has been coming up a lot in my ministry work with students. And, the conclusion that I have come to and that we have been discussing a lot is that we just need to begin the change. Instead of waiting for hundreds or thousands to join together in the change we just need to make the change now and then help encourage others to come along with us ... it's applicable in politics, it's applicable in faith, and I believe it is applicable in agriculture.

So, buck the trend and make your small family farm thrive. It will be difficult one all fronts, but it will help lead the change so that we can start inching up that pitiful 2 percent figure!

Family Farming

We have a lot of work to do on the farm. Building, planning, fencing, mowing, and so much more is what will be consuming our time as we press forward. But, in the midst of all of this work I have been thinking a lot about the importance of keeping our children excited and involved. Right now our 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter enjoy their time at the farm, but sometimes we have to do a little convincing to get them excited (especially our son) about going out there. Mostly I think that is because a bare piece of land that will become our farm and home is difficult to wrap a young child's mind around. But, once we are out there they enjoy running around, hitting balls, and jumping in the puddles!

When I did my Q&A Interview with Kelli of Sugar Creek Farm I was inspired by her thoughts in this post about the families role in farming. That is something that we envision for our family. With that in mind we have tried to do a couple of things to keep our children involved in the farming and building process.

One of the simplest things that we have done is talk about farming at the dinner table. Talk about the cows, farming decisions, or general plans. This has lead to some interest by our children in talking about farming. Often when we will ask our son what he would like to talk about at the dinner table we hear, "Dexters!" It is fun to hear a 4-year-olds thoughts on cows, calves, bulls, and steers...

Another thing that we do is take lots of pictures of the kids at the farm and play farm at home as often as they want. By taking pictures at the farm we can look at them whenever we want at home, it kind of brings the farm home with us so there isn't this large separation. And the farm play, well that is just plain fun for me also! Caleb has inherited a lot of my farm toys and is beginning to collect some of his own, so we try to spend some time playing farm whenever he wants (playing as a family).

When it comes to laying out the farm and the house we have also involved the kids. When we were working on our house layout we gave the kids their own copy of the house and let them put in their rooms and the furniture. Even though we did this a couple of months ago they still get our their pictures from time to time and talk about their design (the couch is here, my bed is here, here is the kitchen ... that kind of thing). Also, this past weekend we took the family out to stake out the house and then we measured out so we could find where the kid's bedroom is going to be ... then we explored the ant hills "in" the kid's room!

One last thing that I decided to do is get the kids a toy tractor replica of our new tractor. It just gives them a little connection to the tractor and to the farming. Keeping the family involved in the farm is going to be one of our main goals as we move forward.

Family Farms and John Ikerd

I don't exactly remember how I came across this, but I stumbled on it sometime last week when I was searching. "Family Farms in an Era of Global Uncertainty" was the title of a lecture that John Ikerd gave at Iowa state about one month ago. By clicking on the link you can find audio of the lecture, notes from the lecture, and an interview Mr. Ikerd did on Iowa Public radio. Mr. Ikerd is a retired professor, who still holds a position at the University of Missouri, an author, and of course a lecturer.

I have not had a chance to listen to the entire lecture yet (or read the notes), but I have listened to the radio interview and Mr. Ikerd has quite a few things to say on the issue of family farming. In fact I loved his definition. It basically goes like this ... a family farm is a farm where the family and the farm are an inseperable part of the whole. The farm would be different without the family, and the family would be different without the farm. That is a pretty interesting definition if you take time to really think about it. He also brought out the point that a family farm needs to be an important part of the community and not harm the community. Food for thought in the state of Iowa...

This quote from Mr. Ikerd is a good summary of much of his lecture and the radio interview:

We live times of growing uncertainty regarding the future of our economy, our society, and of humanity. These uncertainties are all symptoms of the same basic cause: our unrealistic demands on an unsustainable economy. Some have suggested biofuels as a solution to the twin challenges of fossil energy depletion and global warming. However, the greatest challenge for agriculture will be to feed more people better with less fossil energy. The food security of any nation depends on the willingness and ability of its farmers to take care of its land and to care for its people. The future of humanity of in these uncertain times depends on the thoughtful, caring, and committed people who choose to live and work on family farms.

The word "sustainable" pops up a lot in his vocabulary, and I think he has a lot of great things to say and things for us to think about. Of course I don't agree with everything, but that is just to be expected! One thing that I took away is the importance of stewardship ... I think stewardship and sustainability go hand in hand and that comes out in his words and works.

If you have the time I encourage you to check out the radio interview or the lecture. Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on his ideas...