The Scoop on COOL

Today I have a special guest blog post from my husband Jeff! As I've mentioned in my weekly reviews, he is now on the Board of Directors for Montana Farmers Union, and is working on MFU's legislative efforts for the current Montana session. One of the issues he's become particularly endeared to is Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL, especially as it pertains to beef. Jeff is actually headed to Helena today to lobby and testify on behalf of Montana ranchers, in favor of better labeling for our beef. Please read on for more information!

Hi folks, this will be either a rare treat or a fiasco, as I attempt a guest blog for the first time. I know Katie has built a substantial and discerning readership, so I’ll do my best to live up to that!

As you no doubt know from reading this blog over the years, we’re cattle producers in addition to being grain farmers. We are proud of the way our animals are raised, and proud of the product they ultimately turn out to be: US Beef. Born, Raised, and Processed in the United States.

As you also may remember, Katie and I have been active members of Montana Farmers Union for the last 7 or 8 years. One of the issues we became most engaged with, due to our pride as Montana cattle producers, is Country-Of-Origin Labeling of meat products. National Farmers Union fought alongside several other industry groups for years to label meat, both to give consumers a choice in what they purchased at the meat counter, and to aid US producers, because when given the choice, consumers in this country will buy US Beef and not think twice. 

However, the meat packing industry has always fought against COOL, stating basically that consumers didn’t really NEED to know what country their meat came from, and that it was just too hard to keep all those animals separate anyway, and we should just forget the whole thing. Quite a bunch of nonsense, but nonsense backed by a ton of lobbying clout and $$$$. We finally prevailed, and we had national COOL as law in 2013, 2014, and 2015, but other countries were battling the law at the World Trade Organization (WTO), on the grounds that our product being labeled and differentiated from theirs was negatively impacting their producers, violating the provisions of various free trade agreements. The law was tweaked twice and re-submitted to the WTO, but in 2015 Congress decided to give up on that fight and repealed COOL.

Here’s the thing, though: Those meat packing companies, the ones who always said COOL was an impossible, over-bearing regulation, never stopped labeling meat when the law was repealed! But, the law was gone, and replaced by a Food Safety Information Service rule. That rule says basically: Any meat product that comes into a USDA-inspected processing facility and undergoes a change in its structure can be labeled “Product of the USA.” Key word: any. A box of side of beef cutouts from Brazil, Australia, Mexico, or anywhere else can come into the country, be processed into your chuck roasts, rib steaks, sirloins, etc., and be labeled “Product of the USA.” They’ve taken all the work that those of us in the industry did on behalf of US producers and consumers, and basically turned it into a method to mislead consumers. Why? $$$.

So, you ask, what can be done? Several states have tried to create state-level COOL, by passing laws that require a placard in the grocery store to accurately describe a meat product’s origin, either by saying Product of the USA, or Country of Origin Unknown, processed in the USA (or some variation of that language). This year, there are a couple of attempts to create a law like this in Montana, and MFU is monitoring them closely, so stay tuned.

So why is it important? Well, for one, consumers want to know what they’re buying and eating, and the current rule is an active impediment to that pursuit. Certainly most beef consumed in this country is domestically produced, but that’s the point, isn’t it? You, Joe and Jane Consumer, want to know what you’re getting, and you currently don’t know. 

Second, the beef industry is consolidating and globalizing to the point where producers are at risk of losing their independence, and their ability to discover a fair price for their product. The US hog and chicken industries are basically run by the meat-packing industry, with no competitive marketing available to producers even if they want any. The largest meat company in the world, JBS, is now Brazilian-owned. You can see how this system could lead both to producers being squeezed into a system of dependence on the packers, and to consumers being sold product which has no verifiable information about where it may have come from.

Whew, that was long. I guess that’s why she keeps me away from here most of the time! I hope you learned a little something, anyway, and that it kept your interest. Thanks for reading, talk to you again sometime!

Wow! Thanks Jeff for that super informative post! I hope everyone learned something. What can you do as an individual consumer who cares about where their meat and food comes from? 

• Buy and eat locally, especially in places that work with local and small scale producers.
• Get to know some farmers. You may be able to purchase beef or other food directly from them. If nothing else, you'll learn a whole lot more about food production!
• Join farm/food advocacy groups, such as Montana Farmers Union. You don't have to be a farmer to care about where your food comes from and groups like MFU are working to keep farmers on the farm and keep good information in the hands of consumers.
• Contact your local representative and let them know your thoughts on COOL or any other issues you may have a "beef" with! (See what I did there?!?! haha!)

Product of the USA! (Or should we say Siberia?!?!)

Weekly Review May 8-14

No intro today- just diving right into the week that was: May 8-14. Fitness, farm, and life!

Fitness

Rainy, cool weather and a busy schedule with track and field activities really put the damper on my fitness. It was definitely a slow week in terms of running and fitness. But honestly, I think I needed it. I was just really tired and it felt good to do a bit less. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body and do what feels right. 

Weekly Roundup:

Sunday- Spartan Race (I spectated, did not race) with track kids, and driving home from Spartan.

We had five track athletes from North Star who competed in the Spartan Race.
They each did a fantastic job!

Monday- Rest day. I was really pooped from the Spartan weekend!

Tuesday- 3 miles on treadmill. Roads too muddy to run outside most of the week. Pasture walk in the evening with Jeff and dogs.

Wednesday- 20 minutes of light yoga.

Thursday- 2.4 mile run before school. Short, but hilly.

Friday- High School District Track Meet.

Saturday- Junior High District Track Meet. 

YTD

Didn't really add much to the stats this week, with only 5.4 miles of running, and 20 min of yoga. 

Running: 206.9 miles (16.4 miles last week! For me, that's more than normal)
Walking/Hiking: 65.7 miles 
Yoga: 950 min 
CC-Ski: 500 min / 14.1 miles *Done for the season
Alpine Ski: 3 days *Done for the season
Mountain bike: 38 miles

Farm

It was a rainy and cool week this past week, which meant the fields were too muddy to work in. Thankfully, we had most all of our seeding already complete. Read THIS POST for more info about that. We did finish one of our "fat beef" this past week and took her to the butcher.  We finish our own beef for our own consumption and we sell/share some of it with family and friends. We finish ours on grain. This year, we mixed our own feed ration using barley. In the past, we've purchased ration, but I think it's neat that we mixed our own. We went in together in the ration-mixing with our neighbors, and used their barley. The animals also have as much hay as they want to eat. In a few weeks, our cut order will be fulfilled. Soon our freezers will be replenished with tasty, tasty beef items! I really like knowing that the beef I am eating has never left my own yard.

Life

The biggest news for me this past week was simply the District track meets. Both our High School Boys and Girls teams won their District meet, which is really cool. It was a great lesson for the kids, I think, in how to contribute your efforts to a greater goal and learn what it feels like to be part of a team, something bigger than yourself. The boys had a commanding win by over 60 points. The girls scraped and clawed their way to an unexpected win by a mere 2.5 points. For them, it literally took every single person's best effort throughout the day to earn that trophy. Many people stepped up and did more than they knew they were capable of to achieve that. 

As a Coach, I work primarily with our hurdlers. All of the hurdlers I work with advanced to the Divisional Meet (this Thursday) where they will have a chance to qualify for State. Many of them had significant time-drops in their races. I am very proud of their efforts and improvement and very excited that each of them will be moving on for another week of Track and Field. They have worked hard and earned it! 

Boys and Girls North Star Track and Field teams- both are District Champions!

How was your week, everyone? 

Twins

Have you been hankering for a glimpse into the life of the rancher during calving!? This time of year, we are quite the bovine maternity ward round here! In this post, you'll learn all about the extra special circumstances of when cows have twins. Special thanks to Jeff for helping me write this post and making sure I had my facts correct. Enjoy!

As I mentioned in my previous post, overall, everything is going very smoothly with the calving operation this year. The weather has been agreeable to late-night and early-morning walk-throughs, and we've had relatively few issues with the birthing process in our cows. Sure, we've had to assist in a few births by helping turn a calf who was coming backwards or even "pulling" a few to help the cow. That's pretty typical.

We've only had a few calves die, which is also good. Each year there are a few who get sick or are born with some sort of issue and just don't make it. Obviously, we do everything we can to help the calves and their mamas, but sometimes there's just nothing left to do.

And then there are the twins. We can usually count on one or two sets of twins born every year. While it is a good thing to have twins in a sense because, hey, we just got two-for-the-price-of-one, it can also place added stress on the mama cow. Typically, a cow produces enough milk to raise one calf, so twins can really put a strain on her ability to give the best nutrition to both calves. Also, sometimes the births themselves are much higher stress and almost always require assistance, or even a trip to the vet.

This year, we had three sets of twins. Sort of.

Our most recent set of twins. Keep reading to find out how they're doing!

When Jeff and I were gone to Minneapolis a few weeks ago, Jeff received a call from those manning the calving operation - Tom and our friend Jim - that we had lost a calf. It had been born dead. Not to worry, however, because the very next animal that calved had twins. They were able to "graft" one of the twin calves onto the cow who had lost her calf. Very serendipitous. Because the twins were born so soon after the other calf had died, the grafting took easily-- the mama who had lost her calf accepted one of the twins as her own calf, after a brief "warming-up" period.

A few weeks later, there was a cow who started acting really funny in the pen. She would stomp around, act a little territorial, and then began trying to claim the newborn calves of other cows. It's not unusual for a cow to have the first pangs of contractions, and look around, finding another cow's newborn calf, and confuse it for her own, thinking she had given birth. This cow did that with several others' calves. She showed signs of nearing calving, but hadn't given birth yet.  For a whole day, she could consistently be found causing a ruckus. We knew she was close to calving but something just wasn't right about her.

Finally, she started the actual calving process. Only, it was taking her quite some time and she was making very little progress. Jeff eventually went in to investigate, you know, going shoulder deep to feel around inside the animal. What he felt was what he thought were twins, but who were tangled up together inside. He and Tom attempted to sort them out but couldn't make progress at it. They called the vet, who instructed them to load up the cow and take her to town to be checked out. The vet ended up doing a C-section to get the calves out, but they both were dead. The vet's opinion was that one of the calves had probably died a week ago or more, and the other one may have been fine but it was tangled up with its dead twin, so the cow couldn't birth him correctly. Ultimately, there was nothing we could have done. Jeff loaded up the cow and took her home, stitches up the side of her belly.

So, this is what a post- C-section cow looks like. 

Again, serendipity would have it, that very shortly after this incident, another cow, actually a heifer, gave birth to twins. They are the two tiniest calves I have ever seen! One of them was quite weak, and was definitely not acting as lively as a calf should when it is first born. We thought for sure we'd lose him. Jeff and Tom piped some colostrum down him since he wasn't able to stand and suck on his own, and hoped for the best, but didn't really think he'd make it through the night, he was so weak. We all sort of agreed that with the teeny tiny size of these two calves and the way the one was sort of developmentally lagging, it seemed like they had maybe been born prematurely.

The next morning, on my early morning check, I couldn't bring myself to look in the barn to check on these twins. I just didn't want to start my day by finding a dead calf. But, fortune was on our side. Jeff called me later and said the calf was acting a bit more perky. The colostrum had done it's job and really seemed to be helping. The calf would make it after all! Both twin calves now seemed to be doing fine.

One of the twins with their birth mama.

She gives him a sniff...

...and lets him suck.
She's a heifer, so she's not quite all the way to being a full-sized cow. The calf could fit completely under her belly.
Gives you an idea of how small they were.

Only problem with these twins is that, having been born to a heifer, she has a very small bag (udder). In other words, she does not have much milk, even for two tiny calves. So, the idea light bulb struck that we could try to make a pair out of one of these twin calves and the c-section mama who had lost both of hers. We'd have our work cut out for us, though, as it had been two days since she had given birth via c-section to the dead calves. The longer you wait, the harder it can be to graft a calf. Add to the mix that she had become very nervous around humans and in enclosed spaces. I chalked this up to her having the traumatic experience of the entire c-section ordeal, but opinions are mixed on this. She also could just be a nervous sort of cow.

It took several days of locking her in a feeding chute in the calving barn and bringing the twin calf up to suck while she was penned in. Jeff and Tom tried everything they could think of to try to get her to claim him. She would let the twin nurse, but would never act like she had any interest in actually raising him. At times, she'd kick at him to keep him from nursing, but mostly the calf was getting fed. It just didn't seem like she would accept and raise him as her own, although the fact that he was able to nurse gave us some hope. Tom has always said in the past that if a calf can nurse enough from a cow so her milk passes all the way through him, and her scent/hormones are on his "hind end," the cow will then almost always take the calf. In this case, she'd sniff the calf, but never had any inkling of wanting to actually mother it, and always just escaped the barn immediately rather than trying to keep the calf with her.

Here's the c-section cow locked in the feeding chute so that the calf could nurse.

We had talked about different options. He could be a bottle calf that *guess who* would probably get to feed every day. Or, he could go to the neighbor's herd, who had just lost a calf of their own. Without settling on anything, we just kept trying to make it a pair with what we had, as futile as it felt at times.

Then one morning, probably fed up with the battle of wills between himself and the cow, Jeff just decided to go for it. He pushed the young, tiny calf out of the barn and into one of the larger pens. The cow immediately walked up to the calf and began licking him off and mooing at him-- as if she had just birthed him right then and there. Like, "Hey! I've been looking for you for over a week! Where have you been?!" Just like that, in spite of all of our best efforts, the pair was made.

Here's a short video Jeff took of the cow and calf-

https://youtu.be/VZy7tFTHND8

Now, every time I go out to do my walk-throughs, I check in on this man-made pair. Pretty much without fail, that cow is within two feet of the calf. She does not let him get away and appears to be very doting. Who knew!

So, that gives a glimpse into what goes on during calving, and especially the drama that can come with twins. I am proud of the attention and care given to our animals. Also, I think there's a lesson in there somewhere about an animal's will and instinct. People can try to influence their behaviors, but animals gonna be animals in the end. They'll do it their own way.

And just for fun... A friend of mine tagged me on Facebook with this cartoon. What do you think?!

Weekly Review January 31 - February 6

A little belated, but here's my Weekly Review for last week. It was a busy week, especially the weekend, but I still got in a lot of fitness, farming, and life!

Beautiful golden light on a recent pasture hike.

Fitness

The #RunLoveChallenge continues! Last week my long run was to be 5 miles and I had done this on Friday morning with Jeff on the trails. That was a really great run, but I wanted to do 5 again on the road and try to push it a bit to see how I'd fare and to check in on what my pace is right now. So, Sunday I did just that and went for a 5 mile straight-line run from our house to Goldstone Church, and then had Jeff pick me up. The last mile especially I really felt like I was pushing hard, but I also surprised myself with my speed and ability to maintain a higher speed than I thought I could sustain. I'm really encouraged by this run and will use it as a reminder of my abilities and confidence-builder as I continue to work toward my 2016 goal of breaking under 25 minutes in a 5K. (My current PR is 26:10.)

Speaking of 5Ks, I stumbled across this article on the internet about why 5Ks are awesome and I agree with SO MUCH of what it says. I am impressed by athletes who train and compete for longer-distance races, but my body is just definitely built for shorter, faster races, and it's just more what I love. It was great to see the 5K get some love! If you like to run, definitely check out this article: 

10 Reasons the 5K is Freaking Awesome. 

My long run for the week was planned to be 5.5 miles, and I knew I'd be busy over the weekend so I did it on Wednesday. It went pretty well. I took a slower pace and enjoyed the scenery on a new route. There was as big group of mule deer at my turnaround point which was really cool to see, too. It was a nice run.

Mule deer!

Otherwise, I got in a lot of yoga and stretching. Great week for yoga this past week.

Last week was also the start of Shape Up Montana, which I'm doing with my family again this year for the fourth year in a row. It lasts from February 1 - April 30. I'm also coordinating three teams at the school where I work. I'm not on any of their teams, but I'm helping their Captains out and helping with overall motivation and troubleshooting. They are off to a really great start and their enthusiasm is inspiring!

This is a sample workout we had as a Weekly Challenge for Shape Up Montana.
Not too shabby! Turns out I need to work on my ability to complete a pushup.

Here's the Week Stats-

Sunday- 5 Mile run to IronMan statue. Hard effort.

Monday- 15 minutes core exercises, 30 minutes yoga.

Tuesday- 30 minutes yoga.

Wednesday- 5.6 mile run.

Thursday- 3 mile pasture hike with Jeff.

Yes, this is a cow skull.  We found it on our hike.
I find old, weathered skulls and bones to be strangely fascinating.

Friday- 10 min core, 30 minutes (3 miles) interval run on treadmill.

Saturday- 30 minutes yoga.

Here's my week last week, and the start of this week!

...and YTD- 

2016 Year to Date, through 2/6/16
Running: 58.95
Walking: 11.3
Yoga: 255 min 
CC-Ski: 380 min / 10.8 miles (since I started tracking mileage on 1/17) **No skiing this week.
Alpine Ski: 2 days

Farm

Not a ton going on on our farm right now. We continue to feed cows daily and work on bookwork. The biggest farm-related event that occurred this week was my attendance at the Montana Farmers Union Women's Conference. This was the fourth time I have attended. The past few years, I've even participated on the MFU Women's Committee, which helps plan the annual conference, among other things. The Conference was a great way to connect with other women from around Montana, whether they farm or not, do some networking, learn some skills, and communicate about strengthening our voice and our communities. Lots to say about this. I'll save it for its own individual blog post, I think. Watch for that, soon. 

Hello!

Life

I've been reflecting a lot lately on leadership, aspirations, and sort of a vague idea of what my role and identity is in this life. I'm not sure I have any concrete answers or clear-cut plans, but I recognize that I have leadership capacity and I'd like to continue to embrace that. 

Someone I really admire and look up to, Kriss, emailed me this citation from a book she is reading (Canoeing the Mountains, Tod Bolsinger)--

The person who takes personal responsibility to live into the new future in a transformative way, in relationship to the others in the system, is the leader. If someone is not functioning as a leader, the system will always default to the status quo.

We need leaders to step up and make change happen. I can be that. I'm figuring out in what ways I can actualize this.

I also saw this on one of my social media outlets this week:

Image source: www.inspirably.com

Have a great week, everyone! Be LEADERS!

Weekly Review January 10-16

Time for my second Weekly Review of the year! In case you missed the first one, you can check it out here: Weekly Review January 1-10.

Our "fat beef" started on their rations this week!

So, let's find out what happened this week in the realms of Fitness, Farm, and Life!

Fitness
Despite having some hip and knee pain this week, I still managed to stay on track with my #RunLoveChallenge. Wendie, my partner, nailed it this week, too! She really impresses me and motivates me. I mean, balancing two young children with a job and building up running distance... killer. I have no reason not to get my workouts in! Also, regarding the hip/knee pain, I really think it's just resulting from tightness, perhaps in the IT band. When I stretch it feels much, much better.

Oiselle sends out weekly challenges for everyone who's participating in the #RunLoveChallenge and this week it was to complete this Tough Love Challenge-- a core strength workout. I got that in on Monday. Exercises that focused on leg strength were much easier for me than those that worked on upper body and especially arms. I have a lot of room for improvement in the pushups department...but, oddly, I can plank like no problem. Static vs. dynamic movements perhaps? Either way, despite being good at planking and doing yoga several times a week, I think I'm going to try to work on getting better at simple pushups. Your job is to hold me to it! :)

Anyway, here's the breakdown for the week:
Sunday Run 3.75 miles on Dreadmill
Monday 20 min Tough Love Challenge core routine, plus 30 min yoga

I didn't have the medicine ball that the workout called for, so I used a water jug. 

Tuesday Complete rest. (busy day!)
Wednesday Run 2.7 miles-- ran "The Loop" after my haircut in town. 20 min stretching.
Thursday Walk 1.7 miles. 20 min stretching.
Friday Run 4.1 Miles (I met my weekly "long run" goal for #RunLoveChallenge today!) and 20 min stretching.

Victory photo after finishing my 4-miler.

The route for the 4-mile run wasn't challenging at all, but what made the run pretty tough was that it was cold, windy, and snowing.  The plan was to run out four miles and Jeff would pick me up on his way back from doing chores at another farm yard. I misjudged the wind when we made our plan, so I was running into it the whole time. I finished the run before Jeff was back, so I ended up walking almost another half-mile, too. I was so, so glad to see the pickup! I joked with my #RunLoveChallenge partner, Wendie, that I really wished someone had surprise-installed a hot tub at my house when I got home. Alas, no such luck! A hot shower did the trick, though. :)

Saturday 30 min walk (1 mile), 30 min yoga

I downloaded the Strava app this week and I'm really loving it. If you're on Strava, hit me up or let me know so I can find you!

My hip/knee tightness seems to be greatly alleviated with lots of dedicated stretching, so I'll be spending a lot of my free time while watching TV doing extra stretching. I need to be better about post-workout stretching anyway, so this will definitely provide more impetus for that!

I had a question recently on Instagram (@katie.r.bangs) about how I dress for cold weather running. For my 4-miler, when I left the house it was 25, windy, and snowing. I wore thick tights, knee-high ski socks, a thermal turtleneck, yellow medium-weight shirt over that, and a fleece jacket. I also had my earband, fleece hat, and gloves and ran with my hood up. I'll admit that I tend to layer way more than many runners, though, so you may not need as much as I wore.

2016 Year to Date, through 1/16/16
Walking: 110 min/5.1 miles
Yoga: 135 min
CC-Ski: 220 min 
Alpine Ski: 1 day
Running: 17.25 miles

Farm
Again, not a ton going on right now other than feeding cows daily, tax prep, and 2016 crop season planning. The highlight of the week was that we started feeding our "fat beef," which is the animals we finish ourselves for our own beef consumption. Right now, we have one and our neighbors have one and they're both housed in our corrals. They get all the hay they want plus a ration of chopped up feed barley. In the past, we've purchased feed, but this year Jeff and our neighbor DIYed it using barley that our neighbor grew. Once the cows reach the appropriate weight, they'll be butchered and our freezers will be full. This is local food, folks!

I had just fed them their evening ration. 

Life
At school we're reading a book called Mindset by Carol Dweck as a staff. It's about having a "fixed" mindset vs. having a "growth" mindset. It's sort of interesting. A person with a fixed mindset believes that they are what they are and they can't change. This person is constantly working to prove their abilities, and struggles when setbacks occurs. Someone with a growth mindset believes that they can constantly grow, change, and learn. They see "failure" as opportunity for growth. Think about people in your life-- which type of mindset do they have? What about you? Can you change your mindset? How does confidence work with both fixed and a growth mindset?

This was a graphic someone at school photocopied and shared with everyone. 

I liked this quote: ...believe that a person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable); that it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training. (p.21) I think that can be applied to just about any realm of life.

How was your week?! 

That's Abby and Bella in the back, after our run, and Princess Harvey rode in the cab.

Weekly Review January 1-10

One of my "New Years Resolutions" for the blog this year is to do a weekly recap that will come out on Sunday or Monday each week, reviewing the previous week. This is the first installment of that. I didn't do one for the first Monday of January because there we were only three days into the new year. So, in this post, I'm basically reviewing the first nine days of 2016. Each post will review three things: my fitness for the week, what's going on on the farm, and life in general. I hope you enjoy!

First, up...

Fitness January 1-9
The first ten days of January have been very solid, fitness-wise. Jeff and I kicked off the new year with a day of skiing at Whitefish, and I've done quite a bit of Nordic ski around home on the farm. We are SO LUCKY this year to have had great snow for such an extended period of time! Typically, our snow is very dry and blows away. It's been wonderful to be able to ski right out my front door! The dogs love it, too!

Slightly blurry, but this is a photo Jeff took of Harvey, who caught (and ate) a Sharptail Grouse when they were out for a ski.
He's vicious! Prey drive is real.

I also kicked off the #RunLoveChallenge from Oiselle with my partner Wendie. Our goal is to build mileage each week until we can complete 10K distance. The challenge runs through February 14. This week, my "long run" was to do 3.5 miles. I knocked that out on the treadmill on Friday and plan to hit the same distance today. My partner, Wendie, crushed it this week, too! I am so impressed with her. She had a baby about two months ago and is already killing it on the runs!! Amazing. :)

Filling in my #RunLoveChallenge calendar!
Extra hearts on days when I meet or exceed my goal mileage for long run..

Here's the fitness stats for the week:
Fri, 1/1: Resort skiing at Whitefish
Sat, 1/2: 2.2 mile run outside
Sun, 1/3: 160 minutes of cc-ski on the creek on our farm
Mon, 1/4: Rest/30 min yoga
Tues, 1/5: Run 3.2 miles
Wed, 1/6: 20 min walk (1 mile), 30 min core routine
Thurs, 1/7: Complete rest
Fri, 1/8: 30 min walk, 30 min shoveling snow (it counts!!), 3.5 mile treadmill run!
Sat, 1/9: 40 min yoga, 60 min cc-ski through the pasture

2016 Totals:
Walking: 50 min/2.4 miles
Yoga: 70 min
CC-Ski: 220 min (??? miles--need a way to record distance while skiing)
Alpine Ski: 1 day
Running: 6.7 miles

Making tracks in the pasture.
The sun and snow was so beautiful yesterday when I snapped this on my phone!

Not sure if my skiing is my cross-training for running, or the other way around, but either way, I'm going to ski as much as I can while the snow is good! We don't get this kind of snow year very often.

Farming Jan 1-9
This time of year, we're taking it pretty easy. We feed our cows hay bales daily because the snowcover keeps them from foraging. They also get some straw to bed down in. Jeff also has been doing some odds and ends around the farm and organizing things. This is also the time for book work and preparing taxes, and we have many discussions this time of year about what we will plant this spring. It's a constantly evolving plan, factoring in crop prices, availability of contracts, and opportunities that may arise.

Cows munching on hay in the feeding pasture.

One exciting decision is that we are going to be planting several hundred acres as organic farm land this year. Jeff has been working on the application to get the land certified. It is land that is just coming out of CRP and was tilled last fall in preparation for Spring seeding. We're likely to seed spring wheat on those acres this year. We are both excited about trying something different, and the challenges that come from thinking about farming and production in a different way from what we have known and experienced firsthand.

Life Jan 1-9
So far, so good. Last week was my first week back at school. It was a little tough to reorient my mind to school starting after being off for about three weeks, but I did miss the kids that I work with and was looking forward to seeing them. Overall, the first week went very smooth. The overall mood was pretty subdued. In years past, the first week after break and January in general has seen some pretty crazy things go down in the families that we work with, so I'm really hopeful that the smooth start will sail on into February and through the rest of the year. No reason to think that it won't. A few of my kids gave me hugs and told me they missed me over break on that first Monday back, so that rocked! :)

Also, Jeff and I continue to slowly organize in the new house. We've put up a few more photos on the wall and ordered some furniture pieces. We're also beginning to plan in earnest for our kitchen update. We're planning to do some painting and install new countertops for a minor facelift. I'm sure I'll post more on that as we make progress!

Lastly, I'm working with a dear friend of mine, Joellyn, on a new look for this blog. She's an excellent graphic designer and we've been bouncing ideas back and forth. I'm excited to invest in the aesthetics of the blog, and it may even come with a name change... Stay tuned!

This is a sketch I sent to Joellyn. Can't wait to see how things progress! 

How was your first nine or ten days of January? 

Snow's great for skiing, but not for running outdoors!
The treadmill has been my friend lately.

Open House at Open Gate Ranch

As I've mentioned recently, I've been working on overhauling the look and utility of my blog. It's taking me some time because I'm not great with change, and I'm even worse with computer skills. You'll continue to see changes and tweaks here and there but I'm going to keep writing and updating posts in the meantime, as well. Writing is my creative outlet and one of my own personal forms of "therapy," along with running. Before I get on to the meat of today's post, I just wanted to point out that I've been working on adding some navigation tabs, or pages, that you can find in that green bar just above this text. I've got three done so far with several more in the works. I would love it if you'd take a few minutes to check out those pages and let me know what you think. Keep an eye out for more pages coming soon!

On our drive down to Helena for Governor's Cup, we stopped along the way at Open Gate Ranch near Fairfield, MT for their open house and customer appreciation day. Open Gate Ranch is where we buy our bulls when we need a new bull and we bought two earlier this spring. They are Simmental breeders and a family owned business and our family has buying bulls from them for a number of years. Jeff and I have never gone to one of their customer appreciation day events before, but since it worked so well for us to stop by the ranch on our way to Helena, we made plans to attend this year.

The entire Richert family was present for the event and as soon as we stepped out of the car, Julie, one of the Richert daughters greeted us warmly and thanked us for coming. We made our way to the shop/quonset where they had refreshments and chairs set up for a few speakers. The speakers were relevant to cattle ranching and most were quite interesting. The lineup included:

• Cale Bjornstad--talking about potential changes to animal feed regulations.
• Karnell Perry-- discussing mineral supplements for cattle
• Ty McDonald with Waddell and Reed to talk about investment planning
• Ryan Perry with Northern Livestock Video sale to talk about marketing cattle through video auction
• Dr. Tony--A veterinarian who was there to discuss an injectable dewormer product for cattle called LongRange

Inside the quonset, preparing for speakers at Open Gate Ranch.

I learned something from each speaker (which is especially easy for me because I still have A LOT to learn about farming and ranching!) but the one I learned the most from was Dr. Tony. Yes, he was promoting his product, LongRange, but what I really learned the most from his presentation is how keeping a cow parasite free affects their health. When the cow is healthy and parasite free, she affects the health of her calf and of the fetus inside her (if she's bred). The animals are less stressed, better able to fight other infections that may arise, retain a healthier body weight, produce more/better milk, and calves gain weight better, when free of parasites. It makes sense, of course, and it was just really interesting to me to think about the biology of healthy vs. unhealthy cows. 

While the speakers were presenting, delicious smells of grilled food wafted into the shed. Some of the Richert family were outdoors grilling up steaks for everyone in attendance. That's right, we received a free steak lunch, hot off the grill! After the educational portion of the day, we made our way to the beautiful, shady yard by the house and enjoyed our lunch. As a member of Team Beef, I'm here to tell you that eating that steak definitely powered my 10K run the next day at Governor's Cup! There is seriously nothing quite like a steak right off the grill. So good. 

Lunch is served! They also served Moose Tracks ice cream cones for dessert! I was in heaven!

Their yard was really peaceful and serene with nice green grass and wonderful shady trees. The Richert family was so effusively hospitable and friendly toward us and everyone present. Several of the family members stopped to talk to me and Jeff, and seemed genuinely interested in our responses. They asked after his parents and how we were doing first, before asking how our bulls were. They talked to me just as much as they talked to Jeff, which is typically not the case at farm and ranch events. Everyone present seemed to value not only our business and loyalty, but to value us as people. I just kept thinking throughout the event that this was what Montana hospitality is all about. 

Each table had a nice floral centerpiece and vintage salt and pepper shakers.

As Jeff and I left and continued our drive south to Helena, through the beautiful Rocky Mountain Front area, I felt lucky to be part of the ranching lifestyle and to be living in Montana.

And just for kicks, here's a cow joke I saw recently in one of the local farm newspapers...

Beef and Asparagus Stir Fry

You know I love to cook with beef! Today, I'm sharing one of my favorite healthy beef recipes with all of you: Chinese Takeout Style Beef and Asparagus Stir Fry!

Hey! I'm getting a little better at photo editing! Ha.

One thing that I really miss about living in a larger city or town is access to a variety of restaurant food, especially ethnic cuisine. I'll admit that I have a guilty pleasure for Chinese food. I love it. When I lived in Jackson, there was a Chinese restaurant that actually had a drive-through! I didn't know a ton of people when I lived there, so the drive-through was the perfect option for me. Quick service, and I didn't have to awkwardly sit alone in the restaurant and eat by myself. When I lived in Bozeman, the mall that I worked in had the standard Chinese fast food restaurant in the food court that I frequented more often than I probably should have.

Havre does have an assortment of fast food taco joints, so I guess that counts as Mexican, and they have two Chinese buffet restaurants. I'll hit up the buffet once in a while when I'm in town for errands, but I'm not likely to drive an hour just for Chinese takeout, guilty pleasure or not. So, how to please those cravings for Chinese takeout at home? Learn to cook it!

As a follow up to yesterday's Thankful Thursday post where I told you all how thankful I am to be able to eat my own home-raised beef, I thought I'd share with you an easy at-home recipe for Chinese food. This stuff tastes just like the real deal, guys. And, it's a little healthier than the gut-bomb that Chinese takeout can sometimes be. Best of all, you can customize the recipe to use whatever ingredients you have on hand. I used beef (of course!) and some fresh, seasonal veggies. I wrote in detail about the recipe first, then the actual recipe itself is listed all together at the bottom of the post. Let's get started!

First, gather your ingredients. You'll need four cups of vegetables and one pound of beef. For the veggies, you can use whatever you like in a stir fry. I used asparagus as my star because it's in season and we have a big community asparagus patch down the road, so it's also free for the picking. :) I paired the asparagus with some slivered red bell pepper for color, and about 1/4 cup of slivered onion for extra flavor. I recommend checking your garden or local market for whatever veggies are fresh right now. You can also just look in your fridge at what you need to use up, or use a bag of frozen stir fry veggies for an extra convenience factor. 

Before starting any of the actual cooking, I like to prep the sauce. Pour the soy sauce into a glass one-cup measuring cup, then add the rest of your ingredients, brown sugar through garlic, to the soy sauce. No need to pour into another bowl- then you have one more thing to wash. Plus, it's easier to pour out of a measuring cup anyway when you go to pour your sauce on your stir fry later on. So, measure all of the sauce ingredients into the measuring cup, stir with a whisk, and set aside.

Clean your produce and cut your veggies down to bite-size pieces. For the asparagus, that meant each piece was between 1-2 inches long, depending on the thickness of the stalk. You want the pieces to be close to the same size so that they cook evenly. As you're chopping and prepping, preheat a skillet or wok to medium-high and swirl some oil in the pan. I used a mix of chili oil and olive oil. Then drop in your veggies and saute for a few minutes until they are crisp-tender. Remove from skillet into a bowl and set aside. You don't want to completely cook them at this point because they'll get more skillet time later and there's nothing worse than sad, soggy overcooked vegetables, especially asparagus.

You gotta love fresh veggies! There is nothing like home-grown asparagus for freshness and flavor.

Now, let's talk about the beef. I used a round steak which I cut in half length-wise, then cut into strips about 1/4 inch thick , cutting against the grain. You could use about any type of steak--sirloin or flank steak would work well, too, and both are lean cuts. You can also pick up pre-cut stir fry or stew beef at the meat counter of your local store. Again, you want your beef pieces to be close to the same size so they cook evenly, and you want them to be close to bite-size so you don't have to bring a knife into the picture later when you're eating. Let's say you don't want to use beef-- you could use any meat you like in this stir fry, but I personally feel the soy-sauce based sauce lends itself best to beef. (If you want my recipe for Orange-Basil Chicken, I'll gladly share that one sometime, too!)

Anyway, after you've sauteed and then removed your veggies from the skillet, you can add just a bit more oil to the pan and then drop your beef pieces in. Cook until they are browned through and fully cooked. You may have to drain some excess liquid. 

Once the beef is cooked through, add the veggies back to the pan and give everything another minute or two to stir fry all together. Now, remember your sauce you made? Give it another brisk stir with the whisk and then pour it over everything in the pan. Stir it all up so that everything gets coated with the sauce, then let it sit for a few minutes. You want it to come to a simmer because that really helps the sauce thicken and gel together. Once you get to that point, turn off the skillet and give everything another big stir so that the delicious sauce coats into every nook and cranny of food. 

All those tasty veggies and beef playing together so nicely in the skillet! Can't wait to eat it!

Now you're ready to eat! Spoon your stir fry over rice or noodles and top with cashews, peanuts, or toasted sesame seeds, and enjoy! 

 Chinese Takeout Style Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry
All You Need:
4 cups of cleaned, chopped vegetables of your choice
1 lb beef, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
1/3 cup lite, reduced sodium soy sauce
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 Tablespoon corn starch
1 Tablespoon water
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional.
Minced garlic, to taste. (I typically use about 2-3 cloves)

All You Do:

1. Prepare sauce using soy sauce through garlic, stirring with a whisk. Set aside.

2. Preheat a large skillet or wok to medium-high and swirl some oil in pan. Add veggies and stir fry to crisp-tender. Remove from skillet and set aside.

3. Swirl a bit more oil into pan and then saute beef pieces until browned and cooked through. Add veggies back to pan, stir frying for about one minute. Pour sauce into pan. Stir fry to coat and bring to simmer to allow sauce to thicken. Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes before serving. Serve with rice or noodles and top with cashews, peanuts or sesame seeds.

Chinese Takeout Style Beef and Asparagus Stir Fry.
YUM!

This recipe is a little healthier than a typical Chinese takeout recipe. It uses fewer oils. The sauce is packed with flavor, which means you don't need as much of it, too. Really loading up on the veggies, such as high-in-iron and folic acid asparagus, and Vitamin-C packed red bell peppers, give it more of a nutritional punch, too. Add in the lean beef and rice, you've got close to all the food groups covered! Let me know what you think of this recipe if you give it a try! What are some of your favorite beef recipes?

Thankful Thursday ~ Abundance of Beef

Yesterday we received our beef from the butcher. We have a bit of a problem with freezer space. There's still a lot of meat left over from previous years' animals, so it took some problem solving to make room for this year's cut order. As I organized various cuts, trying to make the most room I could, it felt a bit like playing a strange version of Tetris..."I can fit two packages of Sirloin on top of the T-Bones, and fit six bags of ground beef around the perimeter...hooray! I formed a new row!" 

Organizing last year's remaining beef in the freezer.

Then I thought about how it really was a pretty good problem to have. We get to eat our own beef that we raised ourselves on our farm. As my husband so eloquently stated last night, "I know about every bite of grass and feed that animal has eaten and every (poo) it's taken since it was born." He probably watched its birth, too. The only part of the cycle from birth to death to food on our table we miss out on is the actual slaughter and butcher process. For that, we have to outsource.

When I was growing up, my farm experience was pretty limited and our meat came from the meat counter at the grocery store. I can remember watching as my dad approached the meat counter and ordered a few cuts we'd use throughout the next week or so. I knew that beef came from cows, yes, but for me, it came from that meat counter at Fairway. We trusted that the store sourced their meat from reputable places. For most Americans, this is how meat is purchased. In some cases, people struggle to make the connection from living animal to food on their plate and have no idea how that cycle works. I feel pretty lucky and thankful to be integrated into that process, and to get to enjoy the tasty fruits (or meats?) of our labor.

Steak salad I made for lunch yesterday, including spinach from our garden.

My friend Stennie, who has been to our farm for extended visits a few times, has a really nice essay published on the topic of eating animals: Whose Muscle is On My Plate. She goes into the meat-raising and eating cycle in detail as she's experienced it in some of her work. Very interesting ideas, and ties in quite well, I think, with being thankful for one's food source and the methods used to raise and slaughter that food.

The longer I live here, the more I learn about how to prepare and cook with various cuts of beef. We certainly don't eat beef exclusively, but we do eat it more than I probably would if I were not living on a ranch. Jeff and I even had beef served at our wedding. Prime Rib, to be exact. Since I was definitely a newbie to beef cuts at the time, I remember asking during the wedding dinner exactly where on the animal a prime rib cut would come from. This produced lively discussion among my new in-laws, with Jeff and Tom and the rest of us, in our wedding day finery, gesturing and demonstrating on their own bodies where a prime rib would be located.

Because beef cuts are a common topic at our family dinners, my Mother in Law got me this awesome beef-cuts platter a few years ago for Christmas!

Since joining Team Beef Montana a little over a year ago, I now know even more about the health benefits of incorporating beef into a balanced diet. Beef has zinc, iron and protein, among other helpful nutrients, to help fuel your run and your recovery. It's an efficient source of protein, too, meaning that you don't need much to pack a big nutritional punch. And, a recent article in the Washington Post highlighted a study done right here in Montana, that showed that eating a cheeseburger after intense exercise can be just as good as refueling with other options. Check out the article to read more:  Need To Recover After A Workout? Eat A Cheeseburger.  I guess all those post-track meet stops taking the team to fast food weren't such a bad idea after all!

Image from www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com

Yesterday, I actually did get in a short three mile run and then followed it up with a delicious cheeseburger at dinner. There's not much better than a hamburger or cheeseburger fresh off the grill!

Team Beef sent me some cool stickers, right!?

With beef on my mind this week, it was pretty easy to be thankful for the abundance of it that we do have and to be thankful that we are part of the process of bringing quality beef to our own table as well as to those of consumers. Now, I'm off to get my workout in and you know what's for dinner tonight? Beef and asparagus stir fry! 

What are you thankful for this week?  Do you have any favorite beef recipes? What foods fuel your life?