Okay readers, normally I can baffle this heat but I tell ya! Coming from Minnesota, I had to take on the brutal humidity and now, living in South Dakota I don't have that problem...BUT still its hot! I don't think Mother Nature should be allowed to reach 99 degrees!

Well, I'll get off my soapbox now and inform you that everything has been going well. Last next weekend, I got to experience the Haakon/Jackson County Fair. Sort of. It's nothing like the fairs back in Minnesota. There were probably a minimum of 3 head of cattle and a hand full of horses, if that. The fair only lasted for 2 days, where in MN they last for 4-5 days and they have a carnival! Out here, they have a bull riding event and a band!

I have wonderful news about the garden! We have picked and used some tomatoes already but soon I think I'm going to have tomatoes coming out of my ears. Also, those beans are tough buggers after getting hit with grasshoppers but I think they are making a come-back because they are starting to flower again. And, when I lost all hope on my cucumbers because they haven't produced anything yet, they are alive! After watering, I was searching around and there laid a little cuke! I'm pretty excited but one isn't going to be enough to make pickles like we hoped!

I know this is short but I just wanted to pop in and say hi! This weekend, I believe Dustin and I are going to head towards Rapid City as his family is in Sturgis for the weekend at the Sturgis Bike Rally. This would be my first but I only will be making a short appearance there. I'll let you know how it goes. I hope you stay somewhere cool, however they are forecasting cooler weather for next week! Thank goodness!

Have a splendid weekend and enjoy the last couple weeks of summer! Don't worry, I'll be back before then!

It's a new month and two-weeks since I last posted something. I have gotten an e-mail from my grandparents with concern. No lie, there is over 7,500 miles on our car now. I've earned a new name, The State-Wide Traveler. That is my reason for my lack of dedication to keep you inform about my life happenings.

Well let's start back two weeks ago. I promise I won't bore you a lot of information. My main crisis are the grasshoppers. How can they be so insincere? They took over my garden and is very depressing. The only thing they have really ate are the beans. We have used Tempo and Seven to get rid of those pestie buggers! Below is a photo of the devastation that they have done.

Now onto my glory, we have tomatoes! We haven't picked them yet. Just waiting for them to get a little more red. It has been exciting to see our fruits of labor come to work!


Dustin and I would like to share something interesting with all of you. This past Saturday we attend a friend's wedding in Lake Preston. It was a beautiful day! On our way home, outside of Pierre we passed this operation.


Out here in South Dakota, farmers tend to take on so much land that during harvest, many custom harvesters from all over come to assist. It's amazing how many acres of wheat just one farmer could possibly have. Dustin and I figured that there was almost $3 million of equipment sitting in that field. It was a sight!

Next on the agenda for us, nothing! We are going to be staying in Philip for awhile. Next time we are on the road, Labor Day weekend to MN! At that time, the sunflowers should be a full bloom out here. I hope to grab a few photos of them on our way to MN.

Until next time, I hope we aren't in a drought! Just kidding! But it would be nice to get a little more rain that what we have had.

Hello everyone! I know, I know, it's been some time! I just got back from a road trip, a rather long one! I was in Iowa, and I know why they call it the corn capital of the world! I attended the National Junior Simmental Classic in Des Monies. It was a lot of fun being their and capturing moments for work. I was able to reunite with old cattle friends that I haven't seen in five years. While I was down there working, I did a few assignments. One consisted of going to a restaurant and eating. Don't you love your job when you can do that? I wrote a review for the Cattle Business Weekly on Rube's Steaks...look for it in the Aug. 4 issue! It was mighty delicious!

So after my couple of days in Iowa, I headed north to my home state, Minnesota. It was a good feeling being back. I saw the lambs, pigs, and calves! An important detail that I took care of while being at home was my mom and I conquered dress shopping once again. Let's just say, we had a successful day! It was fun to have some girls time! Besides that, I got to see friends and experience a storm, well not really but rain for the first time since a month!

While being at home, I got to see my grandparents, you know them, the garden wizards! Right before church I made a visit and my grandpa had to show me his garden, while in the back of mine I was thinking what mine looked like. I'm so jealous of my grandpa. He even has WATERMELON growing out of a pot! I did learn something from him though...ever heard of potting everything? Well that's what I'm going to do next year...no more weeds! But I'm impressed with my grandpa's achievements!

Now that leads me to my own garden! Since I've been gone for five days, my wonderful love, Dustin took care of everything, even weeded a section! Anyways, I mentioned about the grasshoppers last time...I was crushed when I visited my garden this morning and I have nothing left of my bean plants. :( However, Dustin sprinkled this "Seven" stuff on the garden and I didn't see anything so maybe with a little MircleGro they'll come back! Fingers crossed!

Well, that's my update for now. I'm back on the road tomorrow for a work field trip and then onto Sioux Falls on Sunday. Doesn't my schedule sound like May? I think so! I'll be back to update again...hopefully soon again!

Greetings fellow readers! I have probably lost all of you now. I know its been over a week since my last post. Don't worry, I've gotten harassing phone calls from my family wondering about my existence! The reason: at work they tell me that this is the slow time of the year. I think filled me with a lot of nonsense...I'm extremely busy! So here is my load-down, brace yourself with a lot of ramblings!

Since my last post, Dustin and I were debating on what to do over the 4th of July weekend. Well we made an appearance at his hometown, in small town Bristol. A couple of his buddies were home that he hasn't seen for awhile, so it was just a given we would drive there. Funny thing, since we haven't been on the road for about a month, it was weird getting into our new car again and taking off! It was a fun time like usual and being with family was a blast!

Once our arrival to home, our yard need desperate help! With our lawnmower being out of commission for awhile, we finally got it back in ship-shape order to create our yard into a masterpiece...well not really! My garden is doing wonderful! I'm not sure if I have told you this already but I finally bucked up and pulled an onion out of the ground. It was just a tiny little thing! The cucumbers and beans should start producing some goodies soon, hopefully!

One thing that is driving me nuts about nature at the moment is....those dang grasshoppers. I didn't know that grasshoppers loved South Dakota so much. They cover the front of the house like crazy. I just got new flowers for my basket and I hope they don't kill them because I hear rumors that's what they do. I'm done ranting about them now!

Before I leave, I should let you beloved readers know that I'll be hitting the road for work now so I'll try to keep up with my blogging. Next week, I'll be driving to the corn country, Iowa to capture the National Junior Simmental Classic moments. I'm excited to see all my Simmental friends again! From there, the company is taking a field trip to visit the companies that print our weekly paper in Watertown and annual magazine in Aberdeen. Then after being home for a couple days, I'll be conquering the big city of Sioux Falls (haha!) for the Young Guns conference that is put on my the American Simmental and Red Angus Associations. I'm stinkin' excited for all this traveling! So if you want me to call you, let me know--I'll be up for a good chat while driving across the state by myself!

Well anyways, I think I've taken up much of your time now! I better get back to fun things, like thinking about what I'm going to cook or bake next! Yay! It's my favorite thing to do! Next time, I won't leave you high and dry so I'll post again sometime soon! Toodles!

Okay readers, I know what's going through your mind! I didn't fall off the face of the earth nor did I drown in a river. I have been really busy over the past couple days and just haven't had time to update on what's been going on.

So let me start you off with the biggest news of all. I traveled to Hermosa, SD yesterday for work to see and listen to Temple Grandin give a presentation on animal handling. Now let me tell you who Temple is. She is a renowned animal handler, author and autism advocate. She is a professor at Colorado State University. She is an amazing figure for the cattle industry. It was huge for me to be there and as well for my company. HBO came out with a movie, Temple Grandin, on Feb. 6 and I haven't seen yet but will soon! My parents caught it on HBO and gave amazing reviews to me! It makes me more excited to watch it after meeting her in person!


Onto other news, my garden! I have tomatoes growing! It's so exciting! I talked to my Grandpa sometime last week and he told me to pull up some onions and see what I have. I'm nervous, so that's why I haven't gotten to it yet. I hope to do that tonight when my plans are to de-weed my garden. Also, I think I may have some beans ready to pop anytime. My produce has sure taken huge turns over the week.

Our 4th of July weekend plans is still a mystery. Dustin and I have a lot of options but just don't know which one to do! So maybe by the end of the week, I'll know which direction we are going. I know this is a short post but just wanted to inform all of you that I'm still here and everything is going well.

I'll let you know how my gardening extravaganza goes tonight later this week! Enjoy the nice and beautiful weather outside, because I am!

Hello readers! After a busy weekend, I thought I would fill you in with my weekend happenings! Brace yourself, it's busy!

This weekend was Philip Days, what a better way for Dustin and I hopefully meeting some people. On Friday, we attended the Matched Bronc Rodeo. It was an awesome event and well attended. My favorite part was able to watch J.J. Elshere, World Champion saddle bronc rider, spur his horse to make it far into the competition. Then we grooved on downtown to listen to Dustin Evens and throw back some drinks with friends.

Saturday was pretty busy. The Cattle Business Weekly sported our stuff in the Philip Days parade. Let's just say, I always knew that I had the 80's spirit in me! And I think I went over the top. We were promoting our marathon rely. Check out pictures below. Besides the parade, we were able to conquer our crazy lawn and spruce the garden up. After a long day of work, we were spectators at the demo derby. It was a great night to relax!


So Sunday leads me to express my greatness of cooking. I made my first apple pie. Let's just say, 4-H has been beneficial in creating me into a Betty Crocker! Since today has been gorgeous, Dustin and I prepared a feast for supper. It was amazing!


Enough with the cooking, I have exciting news. A package from my grandma arrived on Saturday with a rain gauge and a ton of pictures of me from when I was a baby to when I graduated from college. It has been so much fun looking at those. My garden is doing really well. Everything is up from under the ground and growing. We got hit with rain tonight and experience our first tornado siren tonight. However, there was no damage! I'll have to see how much we got tomorrow morning!


I better stop rambling! Just wanted to update!

Until next time...maybe I'll try my hand at making a cherry pie!

Greetings ya'll! So I finally decided to update on some recent happenings!

First happening...rain!
Second happening...rain!
Third happening...rain!
Fourth happening...sunshine! Hooray!

Over the past several days, we have been getting hit with rain like the rest of the state has been. We are not flooding like Mitchell or Aberdeen areas are, thankfully! I just didn't have much to say because rain makes me blah! So on a positive note, the sunshine is out!

It was nice to be home over the weekend with the weather not cooperating. I was able to get some laundry accomplished and clean some areas in the house. Exciting news, I have been getting some well rested nights! We purchased a new mattress and let me tell you...no more 5:30 a.m. wake ups or restless sleep!

I'm not going to discuss my garden today. It just hasn't been good. What I really should do is slap myself on the wrist because I haven't been a great caretaker! Also, our lawn mower is acting up so that doesn't help matters!

The only thing that is getting me through this garden deal is my Grandpa! I talked to him on the phone the other night and he gave me as much of his gardening smarts as possible. It's so nice to have some help tips. What I should do is wait for him to come out here to show me what he is really talking about! I'm thinking a road trip for Grandpa!

Well, I hope the sun is shining in your area and you are able to get out and some something active! I'm going for a bike ride tonight!

I better get to my weed pickin' and bike peddlin'....enjoy the sun!