Time to Catch Up :)

The end of this summer is coming much too quickly! I've been very busy lately: so busy that it's been a month since I've last posted!  In the past month, I've had a lot of good changes happen in my life, so let's back track to the end of June.

The past few weeks have been packed with lots of different things! The end of June and beginning of July began with spending time at United Dairymen of Arizona, Paloma Dairy, Kuiper Dairy, and Form-A-Feed. At UDA I will be doing office work and seeing the second half of milk production (the processing of liquid milk into different products and seeing how those are marketed. I've been doing research for FAF and have gone out to different dairies in the area a few times with one of the salesmen. At Paloma Dairy I recorded weights in of the silage and green chop trucks for a day and a half during corn silage harvest. While I was there I experienced my first real dust storm! It took about 5 minutes for it to go from a beautiful blue-sky day to what you see below. It got so dark after I stopped taking pictures that the trucks had to use their headlights and I couldn't see the truck numbers when they pulled up to the scale, and it was only around 7pm. After the dust storm we got a bunch of rain (well, a bunch for down here) and had to quit for the night.

My work space while I was in the scale house! The first day I was in there for 7 hours and the
second day I was in there for 13 hours! 

I also picked up some work at a dairy called Mt. Shadow. My time there is spent working with the calves and breeding cows and heifers. I work with 2 of the daughters of the owner. It has been so much fun! I definitely have the most fun while I am there :) I also really like working there because of the hours. I start at 4:30am (and it takes 20 minutes to get there!) and work until around 8:30am. I go home and head back to work at 1:30 and work until around 4:00. If I'm lucky I get invited over to the family's house to swim in their pool! I love being able to work with them and hang out with them after!

Breeding cows!

"Look! It's a hat!" Priceless moments with Anneke :)

While out at Mt. Shadow I've also done random things like even out roads with a grader, I learned how to change my oil, and I helped with cutting and raking alfalfa. The family was gone when the alfalfa needed to be harvested and baled so one night after work I went out to the dairy and the mechanic gave me a crash course in running a tractor and rake because he was going to run the baler behind me. 

Aside from working, my roommates and a few friends and I went to San Diego for a weekend to see the beach and have a relaxing weekend : ) It was foggy when we got there but Sunday was gorgeous and sunny!

Marbe, Dana, Heidi, (me), and Dakota!! Such great friends :)

In my book, this summer has been a huge success! This week I'm spending time at UDA and I'm not sure what I'm doing next week. I'll probably work more at Mt. Shadow, but we will see. My sister is coming to visit for the weekend! I'm so excited to see her! We are going to have a blast for the short amount of time that she is here! Hope you enjoyed the quick update!

New Friends, Fun Times

I can't believe that another week has already passed! June is coming to an end so quickly; I'm not sure that I like the summer going so swiftly. This past week was a lot like the past few weeks. I spent a few days at Kuipers, a few days at Paloma, and one day at Form-A-Feed/TechMix. Tuesday nights I go to Bible Study with my roommates and the youth group from their church and the surrounding community. This week will be the same but I have to finalize my schedule for next week.

July's schedule will be put together week-by-week. It's slowly coming together, but I am finding that  it isn't easy to decide where I want to spend my time. I have to decide how to best allot my time between 5 places! I have learned in the past how important it is to be able to prioritize what I do, but that doesn't always make the decision-making process easy. If I put too much on my schedule, I end up with a lot of experiences but not enough time to do anything to the best of my abilities. I want to be able to show the people that I'm working for what I am capable of. That's what I'm dealing with for July and into August.

This past weekend was so much fun! Late Friday night I got a phone call from my friend Anneke. I met her at one of the churches that I have been attending here in Phoenix. I'll also be working with her in July on her family's dairy. She called me and invited me to go tubing on the Salt River with a group of the young people from church. Our ages ranged from freshmen in high school to 22 years old. It was so much fun! I had a blast hanging out with these people who have welcomed me to the area so well. Moving somewhere becomes much easier when there are people to welcome you and include you in activities, and that's exactly what they have done with me. I am so blessed!

After tubing we had pizza and headed home. Saturday night one of my roommates and I headed to Wal-Mart for groceries and then crashed in front of the TV. Our other roommate had just gotten back from a mission trip so we spent the night hearing about that. We also found out that there had been a mountain lion sighting less than a mile from our house in the middle of Verrado (the community we live in in Buckeye)! News travels fast around here; people are always watching out for each other, which is really great. Sunday I went to church with the Kuipers. I've only been there 2 times prior to this past Sunday but I was fine mingling by myself if someone happened to grab someone I was talking to.

I am having a blast out here. It's hard to believe that a year ago I was living in California and a year from now I'll hopefully be working at a more permanent job following graduation! I cannot wait to see what God has planned for my future, because right now, I only have a slight idea of where He wants me. The possibilities are endless and very exciting!

Week Number Two: Success!

I can't believe I've been here for 2 weeks and heading into the third! This past week was spent at Paloma Dairy in Gila Bend, AZ, and at Form-A-Feed in Deer Valley/Phoenix. 


Paloma Dairy has been fantastic! They have been teaching me so much, including how to drive a water truck, which is a shorter version of a semi. I am slowly getting the hang of it. I've never driven a stick shift before so it was quite a day. I had a lot of fun and it was even more fun telling my brothers, haha. I've been able to see nearly every side of their vertically integrated operation. It's a really neat setup and takes a lot to manage. I was down there 4 of my 5 work days, and it is about a 40 mile drive one-way, through the desert. Because Arizona is 2 hours behind the time at home, those miles are often spent calling home and catching up with friends. 


Some of the other things I've done while at Paloma have been learning to read an ultrasound during vet checks, how to enter cow data with a new program, and helping with office work. I also helped attach a pipe to the water tank so that it was easier to fill up the water truck. We cut a 6 ft pipe from a scrap pile and attached it to the tank with brass screws. We used brass screws because brass is soft and will easily break if something would happen to run into the pipe while driving under it or past it. The screws would crack before the tank broke, thus preventing water from spraying everywhere with no way to stop it. 


I'm getting confident driving tractors; it's really nice to be able to hop on a tractor and know what I'm doing. I've also been learning to back things with trailers up (like the water truck and a tractor with something attached to it.) At one point I was backing up the water truck, and Allan looked at me and said, "Have you ever backed a trailer up before?" My answer was, "Um, kinda.... no, not really, no..." His reply, "Really? 'Cause you look like you know what you're doing." I laughed and admitted to giving myself a crash course in backing up a gooseneck trailer last month but I wasn't sure it worked the same way. I guess experience is experience? It was funny!

You can't see it, but that's me! Thanks, Allan, for the pictures!

I spend one day a week working for a company called Form-A-Feed/TechMix. The past 2 times I've been with them we've been at the warehouse/office in Deer Valley. This week we will going to some dairies in the area to see how the products are working and make sure that everything is being used correctly. 


Outside of work, I've been pretty busy. I went to church with some of my friends from work and met a lot of great people. I ended up hanging out with them after night church. It was a lot of fun! My roommates are great, too! They include me in so much that they do and have made me feel so welcome! My roommate Heidi leads a smallgroup on Tuesdays and I went to that with her last week. We had a really great talk on the way there and some great worship time while we were there. We have had visitors for the past two weekends, and it's been fun having them around. People will randomly show up at night to hang out and quite often it turns into praise and worship times. It is so much fun! 


I'm loving it down here and looking forward to the possibilities that the next weeks bring! 
                                                                                                                                   
This past week it was kinda hard to be away from home because I missed both my dad's birthday and Father's Day. Let's just say I called home quite a bit, lol. On top of that, I wanted to find something that I could send my dad so show him how much I love him. I came across this song by Teresa James, called "You're My Hero."

Love you, Daddy!

A Successful Week

My first week is done! It went by really quickly but I am already getting accustomed to my odd schedule. This week I had a training day with Form-A-Feed, a feed supply company, and I worked on Kuiper Dairy for 2 days. 

When I work with Form-A-Feed my days won't be excessively early. I will have to be across town and start work at 8am and the drive takes about an hour. On the days that I am at Kuiper Dairy, I have to be there at 4:45am and that drive takes 20 minutes, so I'm up at 3:45! However, I have really enjoyed learning how to run the feed equipment at Kuiper Dairy. Cal, the guy teaching me, is pretty understanding when I mess up. 

I learned how to run the equipment on Thursday. It was pretty basic but I was having a particularly hard time making sure that the feed came out of the wagon at the correct rate. I had at down all right on Thursday so on Friday Cal a few times. The 1st time was okay; the second time, not so much... In the second pen that I had to feed, the feed wasn't coming out fast enough so I adjusted the door. I didn't realize that the door control got stuck in the "Open" position and before I knew it, I had 600lbs (of 2000lbs total for that pen) of feed in one spot. (The feed is supposed to be distributed over 500 feet, or something like that.) I was not impressed with myself and I was ready to fix it myself with a shovel once I finished feeding out the rest of the wagon. However, Cal had one of the outside guys fix it with the payloader. They feed 2 loads in the morning and 3 loads in the afternoon so Cal took the next load to even out my patchy job. This time he told me to really only watch how he was working the door. I did that and then he told me that I was going to feed the last load of the afternoon. That load went MUCH better! Each pen got really close to the amount that they were supposed to and the door didn't get stuck open or closed, so I felt better by the time that I headed home.

Friday night was spent with my roommate Heidi and her friend Venka, who is visiting from Nebraska. We watched Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids, told stories about friends' weddings, they told stories about their weddings, and we had a really fun time. 

Once I got over the different air quality that made me feel really sick on Wednesday morning, I am coming to really like Arizona. I like not having to worry about being cold when I leave for work at 4:15am. I like sitting outside on the porch writing my blog pieces and doing other various paperwork for my internship. Arizona is really brown. I am truly in the desert. However, the area where I live is really nice and so there is grass and flowers all around the neighborhood. My roommates and the people I've met so far are great! I look forward to getting to know them better. 

Let the Summer Adventures Begin!

Travelling to Arizona was a long trip, mostly because I got over driving across the country last summer. The appeal is somewhat lost to me now, but regardless, I am very excited to be in Buckeye, AZ! It’s going to be a wonderful summer with lots of new experiences and lots of new people.

My parents and I arrived yesterday (Monday) around noon. They checked into their hotel before we drove to the Kuiper’s house for a barbeque welcome supper. I met most of the people that I’ll mainly be working with that night. It was a good night of laughter and introductions. When the night was through I said good-bye to my parents and went to the home I’ll be living in this summer. My roommates, Heidi and Dana, were at the supper and they generously helped me move my stuff into my bedroom. I don’t know how I ended up with the coolest bedroom in the house, but they tell me it’ll be nice once the heat really hits. According to my computer, it’s 93F outside right now. Yesterday it was over 100F. It’s a good thing I like dry heat, because that’s what I got!

Today I had a late start to my morning, though I was up at 5:30 because of the time difference. I met up with Darrel Kuiper at 10:00 and we headed over to the new freight train station that just opened as a venture between a few different people and coops. The open house was today and I met so many more people! I’ve never been good at remembering names but it looks like I get to practice J We were done there shortly after lunch and I headed back to Verrado before the Diamondback game tonight. There will be lots of producers there again, so I’m really excited. It amazes me how close this community of dairy people is. Because there are so few of them, they have been able to form those close family-like connections. It makes meeting everyone a lot of fun because there are always stories to be told.

“This is the day that the LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalms 118:24

This is Verrado, the division of Buckeye that I'm living in this summer.
The house I'm in is pretty much at the center of the picture, though you
can't see it. The white building with the tower-thing just off the right of the
center of the picture is just a couple of blocks away. 

Endings Bring New Beginnings

So the crazy spring semester is coming to a close. I decided to update my blog rather than study : )

My class schedule was crazy and I missed a few days of classes for other events, but in the end it has been totally worth it! I've learned a lot throughout the semester, too. So, a quick re-hash of what I've been up to and then on to what I'll be doing this summer!

Most of my busy schedule can be credited to taking all science courses, working, and having my senior research project going on at once! Despite the business, I am glad to have my senior project done before my senior year. It's one less thing to worry about.

My friend Rachel and I studied the effects of different colostrum management methods on bacterial levels in colostrum fed to dairy calves. Basically, we wanted to find out what was the best thing to give calves following birth. We spent over 100 hours each working on this around our class schedule, but it was a lot of fun. It gave us a chance to get away from school for an afternoon a week and work with livestock. I really wish I had been updating throughout the semester, because trying to sum up the fun we had in one paragraph doesn't do it justice.

Thanks, Ashley, for being so willing to help us each week : )

Along with that, the Central Plains Dairy Expo came around again in March! It was my 4th year working for the expo, and Rachel and Abigail's 3rd year. We also brought 4 more Dordt students with us to help out. We had a lot of fun! Abigail, Rachel, and I put the decorations together for the Welcome Reception and then manned the Registration Table throughout the expo.

Front Row: Rachel, Erin, Abigail
Back Row: Parker, Brock, Drew, Even

Cheese Judging Contest Winners with CPDE Chairperson
(We had no idea what we were doing but we took 1st, 2nd, & 3rd)

I was also involved with Ag. Club this semester. Although I didn't hold an officer position because I had chosen not to run again, I was still involved in what went on. The Ag. Club recently became part of a national group, the PAS Organization. We competed at both State and National Levels. Dordt did really well at State, and we were able to take a quiz bowl team to Nationals! Against all odds and with a very mismatched team, we took 3rd!

Somehow I survived 3.5 days with these guys! JK, it was a lot of fun!!

We also had the most beautiful Ag. Day we could have asked for. 65F and no wind in Iowa! It was amazing and we all came out of it with sunburns. We fed nearly 400 people, had tons of machinery, lots of animal judging teams, and lots of little kids around. My uncle and aunt brought my 2 little cousins to see everything, and Nora (2 yrs) was so excited by everything she saw. She climbed in all of the combines except for the green one. They are raising that little girl right : )

I missed so much in this brief update, but I'm going to move on to what I'll be doing this summer. I am participating in the Ag Deparment's Internship Program, which means I'll get credit for this summer! I'll be working for a dairy in Arizona and working at various other places. I got A.I. certified through Select Sires last week, so I'll be practicing that, too. I'll be doing some things with Form-A-Feed and possibly United Dairymen of Arizona. I'll be super busy but I'm looking forward to it and I'll make sure to keep this updated as much as possible! I'm also on Twitter now (@SDakotaSunshine) so watch that for more updates! God bless!