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Category: Life

Published on Leave a comment on This Old Dog’s Learned a New Trick

Studies show that learning something new or having new experiences helps exercise our brains. Also, the benefits of a healthy diet keep our brains functioning in peak condition. New research published in Neurology (click the link) has found that elderly people with higher levels of several vitamins and Omega-3 fatty acids, like those found in grass fed meat and eggs, have better performance on mental acuity tests. They also exhibit less brain shrinkage typical in Alzheimer's disease. "Junk food" diets produce the opposite results.

Every year I try to learn something new, this year it was WordPress.  I took a class and revamped the website. Some areas still need tweaking, but I hope you'll enjoy the new look.  If you've been a subscriber to the old website's RSS feed you'll have to subscribe again in your web browser bar. In the last couple of years I've learned to paint with water colors and make mosaic fountains. This year's goal was conquering WordPress. This old dog is learning new tricks!  I am increasing my brain function. Next winter it will be photography and bee keeping. I am also going to learn patience, better listening skills, and work on increasing my attention span but... Oh, look, a butterfly...there it goes. Look how pretty! what was I saying, again?

 Humor

An older gentleman was shopping the other day, pushing his cart around the store, when he collided with a young guy, "Sorry about that. I'm looking for my wife and I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

The younger man says, "That's OK. What a coincidence. I'm looking for my wife, too. I can't find her and I'm getting a little desperate."

The older guy adds, "Well, maybe we can help each other. What does your wife look like?"

The young guy says, "Well, she's 24 years old, tall, with blonde hair, green eyes, long legs, buxom figure, and she's wearing tight white shorts and a halter top. What does your wife look like?"
The older guy replied, "Doesn't matter. Let's look for yours."

Have Fun!  Enjoy Yourselves!

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

 

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Published on 1 Comment on Starting Gardens Early

On Good Friday potatoes are planted, St Patrick's day is for peas. This year I jumped ahead on planting a few other things, too.

I’ve been using Wall-o-water’s for years, but never set tomatoes out this early. Given the mild weather I was willing to experiment. Plus, I started two trays of tomatoes, which all germinated. I was running out of room under the grow lights so  the Black Krim and Roma’s are already in the garden. Cherry tomatoes will wait until there’s no danger of frost.  With luck the chickens will stay away from the broccoli and spinach.

The new transplants are surrounded by a single strand of electric fence, set close to the ground so the dogs will stay out of the garden.  The dogs love rolling in the freshly tilled ground.

It’s always entertaining the first time the electric fence is turned on. I love our dogs but they ignore my pleads to stay out of the garden. They chase each other through it, roll around, and dig up the new transplants. When the fence is plugged in it only takes one shock to keep them out for the season. After a week, or so, the fence charger isn’t necessary.

Our Great Dane, Nukem was a slow thinker. He was the gentle giant, but DUMB. Every summer, he’d lift his leg on the electrified garden fence. That shock wave traveled into delicate territory sending him running and whining. It worked, though. He avoided the garden for the rest of the season.

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Are you only looking forward?

Are You Only Looking Forward?

I was on my daily walk to the mailbox yesterday when I spotted this calf. He was "stuck" between two trees.  He wasn't in distress, he hadn't been there long. He could only look forward, to where he wanted to go.  If he'd taken a step back he could have freed himself.  However, the herd was in front of him, that's all he could see. He wanted to rejoin the herd, he wanted to go forward.

I have been stuck many times.  Not between trees, but stuck just the same.  It's hard to gain perspective when you can only focus on your wants. Looking ahead is always a promising perspective but you also need to remember where you came from and how you ended up, stuck.

Freeing this calf was easy.  I just walked straight at him and he backed right up.  Once free, he kicked at me, which must be a sign of gratitude. Off he ran.  If getting yourself out of a tight spot was always this easy we'd all take more risks, wouldn't we?

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Hair Color and Spanx, A girl’s best friends

I went "home" last weekend for my high school reunion. It was wonderful to see my childhood friends again.  Truth be told, all the girls looked pretty much the same. The guys weren't as recognizable, they had either grey hair or no hair.  It dawned on me; hair color and Spanx are a girls best friend.

"Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you didn't commit." Kit Pharo

I was a little concerned when the invitation included the instruction "Business Casual Attire."  Does  your business make a difference in selecting casual attire?  Manure free shoes and a clean shirt are usually fine for any business we conduct.  I was the only farmer in my graduating class, which isn't surprising,  Barrington High School is in a suburb of Chicago. It's not known as an agricultural community.
Being away for a couple days reminded me that I have a great life.  It's not surprising, but sometimes it's nice to be reminded.  When the grass appears greener, it's not. Forest Hill Farm grass is as green as it gets.  If you've ever thought about starting a small farm or agricultural enterprise, I'd highly recommend it.    Years ago we were given very practical advice, allow me to share:

If you'd like to become a millionaire and dream of farming here are two rules you'll need to follow:

1.  Start out with a billion dollars

2.  Buy a farm

If you start with a billion dollars and buy a farm, you'll end up a millionaire.  This rule also applies to most hobbies; boating, airplane ownership, horse ownership, quilting, scrap booking, etc...

There's a misconception about farming that was prevalent this weekend; farm ownership equates to an independent lifestyle where you work for yourself and have complete freedom.   Yes, we're fortunate, but our work load is hardly independent.  We are dependent on the weather, field conditions, farm implements, good mechanics, animals, fencing, and most of all our fabulous customers.  We are extremely grateful to all of you.  We truly hope we've expressed our sincere thanks to each and every one of you.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

"If you're doing what everyone else is doing, you will never be better than average."

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Reaching The Top

“Achievement  consists of doing useful things that most people say cannot be done.”  Waite Phillips

They climbed Mt Baldy in a day.  The peak is 12,441 feet. The vertical rise is 3640 feet in three miles. How did they do it? One step at a time.  Standing at the base the climb seemed impossible so the trek was broken into smaller, more achievable steps.  Instead of standing at the base and looking staight up the scouts stood at the base and looked ahead on the trail. Then they set realistic increments to make reaching the top achievable. They hiked from the base to a large rock. From the rock they hiked to a group of trees.  Once they reached the trees they decided on the next milestone.  Now, climbing Mt Baldy didn’t seem so daunting.  The climb progressed at a steady pace.  Each step progressed in a reasonable amount of time.  In a few hours they were celebrating at the summit. One step at a time is exactly how we’ve been farming for 21 years.

We didn’t start out with a farm.  We started with the dream of owning a farm.  Our first step was three acres in the country.  We planted fruit trees and a large garden. Chickens, dairy goats, and pigs came in the second year. A baby the third year. Ten additional acres the fourth year along with additional livestock. Another baby the seventh year. Hay equipment, tractor, and skid steer were added with more acreage.  Each goal was broken into smaller, achievable increments.  Currently we have eighty-three acres and a list of goals. One is to improve our pond. Drain tile would carry the runoff  from the shed roof and barn into the pond, this water reclamation project is near top of the goals list.  The water could then be filtered and used for livestock or crops, increasing the surface area of the pond for fish, wildlife, and recreation.

This picture is of our “yacht” in the farm pond.  We always called this raft our yacht.  It went on vacation with us to Florida every year when we’d visit family. On summer weekends it accompanied us to Lake Geneva or Lake Mills in Wisconsin.    One day a strong wind blew the inflatable rubber raft out of the pond where it snagged on the barbed wire fence and popped.  Dragging the deflated shreds to the house our son announced, “The yacht popped!”  We’ve since replace it with an aluminum boat. Our “yachting days are over. Now we’re boaters.

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on What’s In Your Wallet?

What's in your wallet?

Garrett, Spike, and Sammy
Garrett, Spike, and Sammy

I’m going to miss the 4-H fair this summer. This year Boy Scout summer camp is the same week as the Clayton County 4-H fair. The Boy Scout troop is going to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico for two weeks.  Making a choice between camping in the mountains and the local fair, camping won.   I love the fair.  We’ve had so much fun with 4H every summer.
A couple of years ago Garrett signed up for dog training classes through 4-H.  He and Spike went every week and learned to communicate and work together.  Spike loved the attention, the other dogs, and getting off the farm.  Every afternoon they practiced their obedience commands.  On the day of the dog show we packed Spike’s water bowl, snacks, leash, and collar.  He was bathed, brushed and cleaned up pretty good.  The 4-H dog show is an all day event.  On show day Just about every dog in the county gets dragged to the fair.

There wasn't much shade on the fair grounds so we kept Spike well hydrated; very, very hydrated.  When their class was announced Garrett and Spike headed into the arena.  All the dogs circled to the left, walking at their handlers side.  Over the loud speaker came the command “Reverse your dog, Reverse your dog.” All the dogs circled and walked to the right.  “Sit your dogs, sit your dogs” came the next command.  So far, so good.  After the 'down stay', Garrett picked up Spike’s leash beginning the next command, “walk your dog”.  As I looked across the arena I noticed that Spike wasn't walking, he was three legged. I realized what was happening.  Spike was relieving himself  into a woman’s purse!  Pulling on the leash,  Spike wouldn’t budge.  Being a farm dog, Spike takes care of himself; we don’t walk him. Our farm has 35 acres of timber, that's plenty of trees to accommodate him.  It never occurred to us that Spike might need to visit a tree.

Panicking, I grabbed a water bottle, paper towels, and pushed my way to the bleachers where the woman was seated.  Spewing apologies, I began dabbing and wiping the outside of her purse.  What’s correct etiquette when your dog pee’s in someones purse?  Has Miss Manners ever addressed this issue?

Dear Miss Manners,
My dog relieved himself on a woman’s purse.  What should
I have done?

Signed,

Embarrassed in Iowa

At the time of the fair we'd only lived in Iowa for a few months, we didn’t know too many folks yet.  The next Sunday, during church coffee hour, a woman tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Hi, remember me?” At first I didn’t.  Then it dawned on me, “Were you at the 4-H fair?  Do you have a cloth purse with a floral pattern?”  She had, at one time, she threw it away, though.  I felt my face turned crimson.

Spike was the Reserve Grand Champion of Obedience that year (despite relieving himself ringside). This year I’ll go and watch. It won’t be the same.  The horse show and project displays will bring back a flood of memories as frantic mothers run past me dragging kids, dogs, and food. I’ll breath a nostalgic sigh of relief and enjoy this years reprieve.  Next year the chaotic joy resumes.

The boys in Clover Buds

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Meat Contamination
Forest Hill Farm pasture raised chicken

A nation wide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGEN), drug resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus are present in meat and poultry from United States grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates. Nearly half of the meat and poultry samples (47 percent) were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, more than half of those bacteria (52 percent) were resistant to three classes of antibiotics. This is the first national assessment of antibiotic resistant Staphylococcus aureus in U.S. Food supply.  Researchers collected and analyzed 136 samples (80 brands) of beef, chicken, pork, and turkey from 26 grocery stores in five cities: LosAngeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Flagstaff, and Washington, D.C.Click here for more info

And now a possible solution....

Animal Feed Lawsuit
source:  Iowa Farm Today, June 4, 2011

A New York lawsuit seeks to force the government to reduce the use of antibiotics in animal feed.  The basis of the suit is evidence that antibiotics in animal feed diminished the effectiveness of the drugs to treat people.  The lawsuit was filed in Manhattan Federal Court on May 25, 2011.

The suit accuses the Federal Food and Drug Administration of failing to protect human health.  The FDA, in a 1977 study, concluded that feeding animals low doses of certain antibiotics was potentially harmful to people’s health.

Published on Leave a comment on Pesticide Exposure Lowers I.Q.

Pesticide exposure Lowers I.Q.

This explains it!

When I was a kid growing up in LaGrange Park, Illinois the mosquito abatement truck would drive through our neighborhood on summer nights fogging the area with pesticide. We’d ride our bikes alongside the truck as it sprayed our lawns and yards. Our parents would run through the house shutting windows so we wouldn’t breathe in the fumes.  Eventually, realizing we were still outside, they’d call us in and force us into the tub to wash off the spray.  Kill Joys!

Researchers at the University of California, Berkley’s School of Public Health have found that prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides (widely used in food crops) is related to lower intelligence scores. Researchers found that every tenfold increase in measures of organophosphates detected during a mother’s pregnancy corresponded to a 5.5 point drop in overall IQ scores in 7 year olds.

Watch for pesticide and herbicide use to grow exponentially in the future.  A recent Global Harvest Initiative (GHI) report suggests that the rate of agricultural productivity must increase at a minimum of 25 percent per year to meet future demand and double agricultural output over the next 40 years.

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on My Magnum Opus
My Magnum Opus

“Are you awake, Charlotte?” He said softly.
“Yes,” came the answer.
“What is that nifty little thing? Did you make it?”
“I did indeed,” replied Charlotte in a weak voice.
“Is it a plaything?”
“Plaything? I should say not.  It is my egg sac, my magnum opus.”
“I don’t know what a magnum opus is,” said Wilbur.
“That’s Latin,” explained Charlotte. “It means ‘great work.’ This egg sac is my great work - the finest thing I have ever made.”  From Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

 

This is my magnum opus (one of two, actually).  He’s turning eighteen this week and graduating in the next couple.  I knew from the time I first read Charlotte’s Web that someday I would have boys and we would live on a farm together.  I also knew that one of those boys would be named Blaze after the pony in C.W. Anderson’s series, Billy and Blaze.  But that’s another story.  My boy, named after a pony, is all grown up.

When our boys were younger we made habitats to learn about life cycles.  We caught tadpoles, hatched chicks, and collected striped monarch caterpillars and placed them in a butterfly habitat with milkweed to feed them.  We watched them consume leaves and build their chrysalis.  Their metamorphosis was amazing.  As the tiny openings first appeared in the cocoons I had to remind the boys that we were not to assist in their emergence.  Their struggle through that small opening was a necessary part of the life cycle.  After several hours of watching the butterflies trying to free themselves the temptation to assist was overwhelming.  However, we knew that the restriction of the cocoon and struggle were part of God’s plan to force fluids from the butterfly’s body into its wings.  Without this struggle the wings would remain shriveled and the butterfly could never take flight.

You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they’ll turn out to be heroes, even if it’s just in your eyes. -Walter Schirra, Sr.

From the very first time I held this baby in my arms I knew his potential was limitless. For what it’s worth, upon his graduation, I offered him the advice;
-You have nothing to prove
-Life’s joy is in the journey
-A tattoo is permanent. Age and gravity will take its toll
-Decisions made by an eighteen year old, with no life experience, should not define you at ages 28, 38, 48…etc
-Search for new ideas.  Let your mind play. Be creative.
-There is no such thing as an overnight success
-Find happiness outside of success or failure
-Life is full of detours; enjoy the scenery
-When credit card offers arrive throw them away. Nothing is free.
-No one can achieved independence while they have debt
-Find what you want for yourself and life will be full of passion and fulfillment
-A job title and salary do not measure human worth
-Create a life that reflects your values and feeds your soul
-“Abandoning” a career to raise a family is an investment in the future.  Take pride in what you have created
-Our actions define us.  Each decision you make tells the world who you are
-You are capable of more than you think

I would also offer an additional piece of advice; show gratitude.  Your family, pastor, teachers, counselors, coaches, and administrators have made your success their priority.  They have set high standards and goals for you to achieve and have expected you to represent yourself, your family, school, and community with pride.
Your achievements are the result of exceptional efforts made by you and made on your behalf.  As your new journey commences remember who you are and in whose image you have been created.  You are the crowning glory of all who love you and have invested in you.

And so, my magnum opus- you have struggled, emerged, and succeeded.  You are capable and prepared; Your wings are strong. You’re ready.  Take flight!

 

©Glenda Plozay, Forest Hill Farm Products,LLC

Published on Leave a comment on Hormones in Meat

Forest Hill Farm does NOT use feed with antibiotics. We don’t use hormones either. The industry practice is to implant hormones behind the ears in cattle.  WE DON”T IMPLANT OUR CATTLE!  We don’t use any hormones.  We started raising our own meat Twenty years ago when we were expecting our first child.  Here's info on hormone implants in beef cattle

Here are our two most important reasons for antibiotic free, hormone free, non-GMO, grass fed, pasture raised meat...