Why hello there

It's been awhile...to say the least. So thanks for sticking with me!

Things have been humming right along since last spring and here were are mid March of 2014 already! Uffda!

I just returned from a week long trip to Washington, D.C. for Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE).  Every March our organization travels to D.C. for our Legislative Conference, where we meet with leaders in government agencies, Congressional men, women, and staff, and industry partners.  You can find out more about my trip to D.C. on the Montana WIFE Facebook page and website.

Linda Newman, National WIFE VP and Montana WIFE Pres., Me! Whitney Klasna, National WIFE Beef Committee Chair and Montana WIFE VP, and new WIFE Member Maggie Nutter in Washington, D.C.

After wearing business suits and dress shoes all last week (and having to wear makeup and curl my hair...), my jeans, insulated Carharrt bibs, and Muck boots felt heavenly! Montana also welcomed me home with a few inches of heavy wet snow!

From business suits in D.C. to Muck boots in Montana.

Right now I'm in the middle of washing and repacking all of my business suits as I get ready to fly back to Washington, D.C. for another 5 day adventure! This trip will be with a new and exciting two year long leadership class focusing on agriculture and natural resources called REAL Montana! I along with 19 other leaders from Montana were selected this last summer to be a part of this program.  We meet every other month for 3 days at different locations across Montana.  Our program also includes this trip to Washington, D.C. and an international trip next January! The purpose of this program is to build a network of informed and engaged leaders to advance the agriculture and natural resource industries in Montana.  You can follow along on our adventures via our REAL Montana Facebook page!

But that's not my last trip to D.C. this spring either! Come mid-April the Wankel-clan (that's my family) will be gearing up for a big ol' Griswold style vacation back to our nation's capitol via Bozeman, MT!  I'll give you a hint...it has something to do with this guy...

"Big Mike" bronze replica of the Wankel T. Rex located at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT.

If you don't already know, my awesome mama, Kathy Wankel, discovered this giant Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1988 on the CMR surrounding Fort Peck reservoir in Montana.  After being on display at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT, the T. Rex has gotten called up to big leagues and is heading to be put on display at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. this April! I promise I will tell you all about how my mom came to discover this amazing creature and more in a later post...

Springtime and baby calves



This first day of spring came with a lovely snow storm last week.  My husband and his dad had to make a trip to Wolf Point (about a 120 miles round trip from our farm) to do some paperwork, meet with our accountant, and...look at a new rifle. Boys...

 

But they also stopped by the greenhouse in Wolf Point and picked up some tulips and hyacinths (my favorite flowers)!  It definitely helped brighten my day with the dreary snowstorm going on outside!  I potted them in this cool old pot that used to be the 'random bolt holder' in the shop. And of course...it's turquoise. I also added some cool ceramic eggs to give my house a lil' Easter decor. 

 

 

Then on Saturday, the whole fam damily (including Annie the corgi) braved the bad roads as a result of the snow storm and made our way back to Wolf Point.  My mother-in-law and I had our Bountiful Baskets to pick up and Dylan decided he wanted to buy the rifle that he looked at earlier in the week.  Here's what the roads were like most of the way to and fro...not ideal...but not horrible. :)

 

 

 

And here's what the wheels of one our pickups looked like after a trip into Lambert last Monday.

 

 

 

Our cows just started calving this past week and it's always fun to capture moments of the new little calves and the momma cows. I'm very thankful to have my iPhone along with me during these times to capture these moments, because well...quite frankly things can get a lil' western in a hurry!  It's much easier to run from an overprotective momma cow with an iPhone than a big fancy camera! That and...well there is a lot of icky, gooey, and smelly stuff during calving!

 

These are just some of the images from around our farm this last week.  We still have quite a bit of snow, but it has gradually been getting a little bit warmer during the day and has now began melting off.

 

Annie drift busting.

Traffic jam on the farm at feeding time.

The photo below was taken about three weeks ago.  This momma and baby jumped the gun on 'calving season' and this baby arrived extra early!  She was healthy and alive, but a tiny calf!  This lil' calf needed some help nursing on her momma, so we had to do a lil' coaching!  But after a few days of help, this baby calf got the hang of it and no longer needed us!

 

My father-in-law, Tim, helping the new baby calf learn how to nurse.

During 'regular calving season', we have all of our momma cows in a smaller pasture in front of my in-laws' house so we can keep a watchful eye on everyone. We let the cows have their calves out in the pasture so they can roam around a find a 'quiet spot' to have their babies. As soon as we see the cow going to labor, we make sure to check on them often (most of the time with from afar with binoculars) to make sure they're not having any problems while calving. Sometimes with heifers (that is a female cow that had not had a calf yet) and young cows, the calves are sometimes too big and the cows need assistance in having their baby. But most of the time the cow doesn't need our help at all!


Dylan checking on a momma cow and new born calf to make sure everyone is healthy.

After the cows have had their calves in the pasture we go out to them to make sure that the baby is breathing and healthy.  We usually wait until the momma cow has cleaned off her baby and had a chance to get acquainted before we start moving the pair to the barn.  We move the new pairs to the barn so we can get them out of the weather (the wind is always blowing here) and away from the rest of the herd.  This gives the cow and calf time to recoup from everything that has been happening.

 

On our first day of calving (minus our early arrival) we had a busy morning!  We had 3 calves born within an hour or so! Our maternity pens in the barn were getting full with new mommas and babies!  

 

Three new mommas and their babies tucked away in the warm barn.

We've had heavy fog the last two mornings (Remember what I said comes 90 days after fog?) so it has made for some neat pictures!

 

Replacement heifer waiting for her feed.



Dylan and a momma cow walking in a newborn calf born at dawn.



This calf in the picture below was born on Tuesday.  He's a cute lil' bugger! This morning Dylan and I put an ear tag in his ear that matches his momma's number.  We match the numbers so we can make sure everyone has the right calf!  Another thing we use our ear tags for is to 'sex' the calves.  An ear tag in the left ear means it's a steer (male calf with testicles removed) and an ear tag in the right ear means it is a heifer calf.  This helps us especially in the fall when we are sorting calves into steers and heifers in preparation for shipping.



Whitney (that's me!) and baby Hereford.

Speaking of new calves, I've been watching a cow while I was writing this and she just had her calf!  I best be off to go check on her and the new baby!

Happy trails!
Whitney

National Ag Day

Happy National Ag Day everyone!



I posted this photo on the Montana WIFE (Women Involved in Farm Economics) Facebook page. I am a member of this organization and also help manage the social media for Montana WIFE.  I'd love it if you'd stop on over and give us a 'like'! Also check out our ag calendar art contest!

But most of all I just want to say thank you to EVERYONE for supporting America's farm and ranch families! Without you, we couldn't do what we do!

Cheers,
Whitney

Turquoise Tuesday {finally!}

Hello all! 

It's time for a very long overdue TURQUOISE TUESDAY! Yay! But first, a short lil' update on the happenings around the farm...

We've been busy digging out from a lovely March blizzard that came through Sunday and Monday! Which coincidentally is about 90 days after we had fog! Right on time with the ol' wives tales! This also means we should be getting some more precipitation later this week, because we had a long stretch of foggy days in December! Yay for precipitation!

I can't really tell how much snow we got, because the wind blew the snow around quite a bit. But as near as I can tell, we got a little less than a foot of snow! That's a lot of snow for us here on the prairie!

I'm sure glad we bought a snow blower last year (just like every other farmer and rancher in our area). The reason why so many of us bought snow blowers for our tractors is because the winter of 2010-11 was horrid. We smashed previous records for snowfall and low temperatures. There was still snow in the hills here until June, which is absolutely unheard of! This nasty winter just so happened to be happening at the same time that our house was being built! It made the process quite interesting! But more on that later...it's time to talk TURQUOISE!

This Turquoise Tuesday a special one because these beautiful pieces of jewelry are made right here in good ol' Montana!

Kristin and her Etsy shop, Stone Creek Haven is based out of Bozeman, MT.  She learned her metalsmithing trade from a retired professor in Bozeman and I kick myself for not taking classes while I was in Bozeman too! But I digress...

Here's a lil' excerpt from Kristin's Etsy shop about her work: 
"I design and fabricate jewelry that is simple, timeless and sturdy. Because it is all hand built, please rejoice in its slight variations, much like life. The jewels can be dressed up or dressed down, complimenting your heart’s desire, as well as, your outfit. All items are handmade by me and I use fine metals and gorgeous gemstones. I really enjoy working with mixed metals! My jewelry has been field tested many times and the designs I craft are durable. I eat, breath, sleep, and exercise in all my jewelry. Because… if you aren’t lookin’ good, how can you be gardenin' good?"
I love the last sentence!  I try to explain this to my husband often because he makes fun of me if I wear some of my jewels while we're out working around the farm. I don't wear jewelry while working too often though because of the big safety hazard that comes with working with machinery and cattle! But if I know that I'm not going to be doing anything where my hand could get smashed, I wear some of my pretty rings! :)

Anyways...time to see some of the pretties!

Here is one of my favorite pieces from her shop (I'd buy it but I have big Norwegian wrists!)



https://www.etsy.com/listing/111247110/sancho-panza?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/111247110/sancho-panza?

I absolutely love the clasp! Don't you?!  And the rich color of that turquoise! Honey hush!

And now onto my next favorites! RINGS! These ones that I'm featuring have already been sold, but she's always adding new pretties to her shop!


https://www.etsy.com/transaction/106964552?



And the back...

https://www.etsy.com/transaction/106964552?

And look at these beauties!  I love the mix of metals. Gold, copper, silver, oh my!

https://www.etsy.com/transaction/30889285?

I hope you'll stop by Kristin's Etsy shop, Stone Creek Haven, and take a gander at all of her pieces! She's a talented artist!

Happy Turquoise Tuesday everyone and always Carpe' Diem!

Whitney

Merry Corgi Christmas!

Hello world!  I survived the end of the world! And if you're reading this...you did too! Yay!

I know I've been absent (for the last...oh six months or so!) but I wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Yule, Festivus, or just another day in December!

I had posted this picture of Annie wearing her reindeer antlers yesterday on my Instagram, but then my brother added the funnies!

Oh my sweet little red-headed fur-child, Annie! She was not impressed at all! My husband and I had just got done wrapping up some peanut butter rawhides and new squeaky toys for Annie and had placed them under the tree.  Annie was so worried about her new treats that she would barely leave the tree! The first thing she did this morning was rush over to the Christmas tree to make sure her presents were still there! What a goof!

Tomorrow, will be traveling to my mother-in-law's hometown for Christmas Eve.  Her family is Danish so we will be spend the evening dancing around the Christmas tree and singing Danish Christmas carols (seriously!)!! On Christmas day, our families will be coming here to the farm! Hopefully the weather isn't too cold and we can take our cousins sledding or drag them behind the four wheeler in the calf sled!

I hope you are amongst family and friends this Christmas, but I know duty calls.  So cheers to all of the dedicated hard workers out there who are working over the holidays! And sending much love to all of our family and friends that we don't get to see over Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Whitney
{Dirt Road Dreamer}



Hotter Than a Furnace Fan

UPDATE: I was in the middle of writing this post when our power went out on June 26.  There was a terrible storm about 20 miles east of us that produced a possible tornado and it ripped several giant power poles and several smaller power poles down.  We were without power for three and a half days!! Luckily no one was injured, but there were grain bins ripped out of the ground and several trees wrecked as well! I'm so very thankful for our workers at our local Rural Electric Association that worked tirelessly to restore power to the countryside!!  I'm also very thankful for my hubby, who took care of the farm, our generators, and our ol' tractors that ran the generators so we could have running water for our home and for our livestock! I've been counting my blessings and saying lots of prayers for our friends and family that have been battling the terrible fires in Montana and across the country.  Please add them and the brave firefighters to your prayers!  We could all use a good rain too, so get out there and wash your car, wash your windows on your house, and do a rain dance!  In my next post I will share pictures that I took of some of the damage in our area as well as what happens on our farm when we are without power! But now back to your regular scheduled programming that was taking place on Tuesday, June 26th...
Hello loyal blog readers...it's me, your unloyal blogger!  Remember me...?? Ha.

Well to quote one of my favorite Robert Earl Keen songs...it's hotter than a furnace fan out in Arizona!

It's currently over a 100 degrees here! Yuck!  The image below was taken from our local county Conservation District website.  They along with our local MSU Extension Office have set up several weather reporting stations around our county.  This weather station is located just up the road from us and this is what it said: HOT!! HOTT!!! HOTTTTT!!!

We reached a high of just under 105 degrees!!  But my hometown of Miles City has been setting all-time high records...it reached 111 degrees at 2:30 pm today!!  And it could still have gotten hotter!!  Read all about it here!

Anyways, apologies for not keeping you up-to-date on the happenings in my life! 

Spring and summer are busy times here on the farm and ranch!  We have been busy seeding and spraying our crops, vaccinating and branding calves and helping neighbors do the same, vaccinating cows, fixing and building fences, hauling water to our cows, sorting our cows into breeding groups and hauling them to summer range, celebrating 3 birthdays in June (my mother-in-law's, my hubby's, and my own!), getting our bulls tested to make sure they can give our cows proper lovin' (hehe), and then turning the bulls out to let them do this! (Warning...image below might be offensive to some...but it's where BEEF comes from! Oh and never mind the two in the turquoise in the foreground...)

And now that the bulls are turned out, it's time to get our haying equipment ready!  Our hay situation is none-to-promising in our area.  We have been awfully short of rain and have had a warmer than usual year. We're not lucky enough to have irrigation to help our hay and crops along when we're short of precipitation, but we still do alright! We still have to get what hay we can so we don't have to purchase hay this winter!  Luckily we have some left over from last year's hay crop and we are very thankful for that!  How does the hay look where you are? 

I'm also trying to do a good deep clean on my house while there is a little lull in time between major projects, but I find myself dragging my feet a bit!  I have been finding a few good tips on Pinterest to help get my go'er going!

Find it on my Pinterest board!
http://pinterest.com/pin/7599893091785780/

But we all know this is a more accurate description of what my cleaning schedule is like...

How about all of you?? What's going on in your world?  Any big trips planned for the summer?  My husband and I are going to be heading to Medora, North Dakota this next month to celebrate our first year of marriage!  We actually won tickets to the Medora Musical from our local Rural Electric Association! Ha! 

Well I had better get to gettin'! I will try to keep you better posted on the happenings on the dirt roads...but no promises! Ha! But seriously, thanks for sticking with me! 

Cheers,
Whitney

Wednesday and Windmills

I am in love with windmills. And this one just so happens to be right out my front door.

I don't know what it is about windmills that I'm attracted to. 

It might have something to do with their towering presence on the wide open landscapes of endless grass on the prairies. 

It might have to do with their ability to give life to the dry, barren ground as the water they pump from the depths of the earth spills over the edges of the water trough. 

It might have to do with my love of watching animals drink from the water.  Like how a horse's ears pump back and forth while they're sucking in the water as they quench their thirst or how a chicken dips down and gathers water in their beak and tips their head back to let it run down their throat.

Or it might have to do with where the windmills are that I love the most; on the places I call home.

This one is on my family's ranch.  Dylan, my mom, and I were having fun with fall sunset.

My love for windmills spilled over into some of my wedding decor.

My love for windmills has even made it into my home decor.  This windmill is in my concrete shower! 

I will tell you more about my windmill shower in a later post. 

My next windmill home decor addition is going to be this! 

Found on Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/pin/7599893091069172/

What about you?  Do you love windmills or am I just a weirdo? Nevermind...don't answer that! Ha!

Oh and don't forget to get signed up for the fabulous Turquoise Tuesday giveaway! 

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Hump Day! 

Keep dreamin' and Carpe' diem!

Whitney

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone!

My name is Whitney.  I'm a wife, farmer, rancher, and dreamer.  I live along the dirt roads and the rolling hills of Northeastern Montana with my husband. We farm and ranch with my husband's parents.   We raise Hereford cows, winter wheat, spring wheat, feed barley, alfalfa hay, and lots of grass!  We also have a small herd of chickens and barn cats, but our corgi, Annie, keeps them in line! 

Here's a picture of, Annie! 



Annie--our Pembroke Welsh Corgi & Queen of the Farm!



My hubby and I got married this last summer in my hometown! 
Here's one of our favorite photos from it!



American Gothic circa 2011

Well, that's all for now...

I'll be sharing more about my life here on the prairie, as well as lots of funny stories and photos!  You never know what is going to happen down the dirt roads! Thanks for tagging along with me on this journey!

Cheers,
Whitney