Creating Awareness

Guess what?  It's that time of year again!  Yep, passive breast cancer awareness status month!  Whoo hoo!  Aren't you excited?  I thought we all learned our lesson with the faux pregnancy statuses, but apparently, it's back.  Yes, it's something different this time, but really?  When you fake leaving the country for months, how does that raise awareness again?  I'm just not getting the connection.  So you want breast cancer awareness, let me introduce you to my fraternity mate, Maryn.

Maryn is in her late 20s, married, and has 2 small children.  She is preparing to say goodbye to them any day now.  She fought the good fight.  She never gave up.  She always has positive thoughts, prayers to God, and thankfulness for each day she wakes up.  Her strength and courage amazes me.  This disease may claim her body, but not her spirit.  If you want to create awareness of breast cancer, share her story and the stories of thousands of women whose families are robbed of wife, mother, sister, daughter, niece, cousin, and friend.

What the HSUS Is Good At

A friend of mine recently forwarded this interview to me. If you don't have time to watch it, the article is most of what goes on. The interview itself is fine. The president of HSUS is very good at his job, which is to be a smooth talker. He really doesn't say anything of substance other than he wants to sit down with the agriculture community and talk. You see, that's worked really well for them in Ohio.

When I think Ohio and the agriculture community, my mind immediately goes to the Ohio dairy abuse video that perused the web last year. Now, the HSUS wasn't behind that video, but like-minded individuals were. I'm not about to sit down and have a calm conversation with anyone who treats their animals like that, or stands by and watches it. After negative media what choice do you have but to sit down with the most notorious group and try to redeem yourself? To me, it feels like blackmail.

There's been a big push for the agriculture community, particularly the dairy industry to fight back, promote ourselves, and assure consumers that our animals are well cared for, and our products are safe and healthy. That's easier said than done. We aren't just selling a product, we are selling ourselves. Our product is our life. It's what we do from sunup until sundown and beyond. We don't leave the office at 5 or take Sundays off. Most of us prefer to mind our own business and keep doing what we've been doing, but suddenly we are pushed into the lime light and have to answer to people who have no idea what a farm looks like, let alone the work it takes to run one. The industry hasn't had to defend itself before and isn't quite sure how to react. I'm not saying people don't have a right to question where their food comes from. Everyone has that right, and should question it, but you should also think for yourself.

I don't think we should have to sit down and have a conversation with the HSUS. If legislation on animal and food safety is going to be made, it should be made by the people who know what it takes on a daily basis. That process is happening. The CEO of our milk cooperative is currently sitting on a board in Washington, D.C., that is trying to figure out what is best for the dairy industry and our consumers.

So to the HSUS, we don't need to sit down with you because we don't answer to you. You are not the one who should decide what is best for our animals and our products. That is our job and I think we do it pretty well.

A Letter to Your Legislature

So if you've read my blog at all, you know I feel very strongly about a few issues; organics, car seats, and breastfeeding. So today I will once again be standing on my breast feeding soap box. So Michelle Obama is trying to promote women to breast feed as part of her health initiative.

I have never had an issue with weight. I've never been past 34 weeks of pregnancy, so I never gained a ton of weight with either of my boys. What I can tell you is that my oldest child is now 4 1/2 and has been to the doctor for illness maybe 5 times. My youngest has been once, that I can recall. During their first year of life, while they were being breastfed, Cole went to the doctor once and Tate never went. I firmly believe that was because I breastfed them.

Michele Bachmann, who I'm ashamed to say is from the same state, thinks that providing support, and tax cuts for breast pumps to women who want to breastfeed, would create a nanny state. Wait, what? Heaven forbid breastfeeding become the norm. I mean, that wouldn't be fair to people who choose to formula feed. Only, isn't the government currently the largest buyer of infant formula? It's called the WIC program, Michele! Yes, they "try" to promote breastfeeding, but giving a voucher for cereal, juice, and carrots, isn't exactly the best promotion. Can our politicians get any dumber? Let's use just a wee bit of common sense before we open our mouth next time, ok?

Who's Paying For This?

Have you seen this add? So there has been a lot of media attention lately, because apparently these ads are paid for by you! Did you know? Only here's the thing, you aren't paying for it, I am. You see, while Dairy Management, who partnered with Domino's to promote cheese, does receive funding from the USDA, that money does not go to domestic marketing campaigns. The USDA does oversee how Dairy Management spends their money, and the money from the USDA goes toward promoting dairy products oversees. So don't fear, we dairy farmers are paying to promote our own products. Ironically, it's the government that decided that a certain amount be deducted from our paycheck to fund our own promotions. So go and eat cheese!

IUD Follow-Up

I had my second and final follow-up appointment with my OB this week. It went well. I am usually pretty gutless when it comes to asking challenging questions to a professional. I did ask why Mirenas are being put in so soon. My doctor is pretty conservative when it comes to things like that and she was pretty up front with me. Basically, I was, wait for it, the possible side-effects or complications side of things. Imagine that! She's been putting in IUDs since 1979 and I am the first patient she has perforated. Fantastic! People are human. Crap happens. I still like my doctor and I will continue to see her. She screwed up. It wasn't malicious. It was an accident. The breastfeeding thing didn't get mentioned at the initial appointment, which would have delayed my decision, and probably played a part into the perforation. She doesn't like putting them in breastfeeding women. She isn't just leaving it at "oops, sorry" though. She is going to talk to someone at the hospital to review my case and see if they can help out financially. Yes, it's a listed complication, but it certainly wasn't what I expected, or what she expected. We'll see if it pans out, but I'm glad she isn't just forgetting it and moving on. For those of you with Mirenas, I hope they work out well. My advice, if you can't find the strings, get it out!

Why Mirena Isn't For Me

First, for any male readers out there, this post is mostly about my lady parts. If you would rather not read about my lady parts, then this post is not for you. This post will contain details that my husband would consider "yucky" and he would rather not know, but I tell him anyway.

Anywhoodle,

The last few months I have turned into this horrific monster about 2 days before my cycle. It's awful when you blow up at your 4 year old, knowing he isn't purposely trying to annoy you, but you can't stop. You know it's wrong, but you do it anyway. That's what made the decision for me to get my Mirena removed.

I didn't really like it from the beginning. I had it put in about 2 months after Tate was born and regretted it the day I had it done. The regret came from my doctor, choosing to tell me that day, that IUDs have a tendency to migrate more in breastfeeding women because their uterus hasn't thickened up yet. Hmm, that information would have been helpful 2 weeks prior. I would have gladly waited until my uterus thickened up properly. At any rate, I had a friend that had had problems, so she was the 1 in 1000 right? It works for most women, so I should be fine. Boy was I wrong. When I went in for the followup, they couldn't find the removal strings. So I went to my first non-pregnancy ultrasound. It took 2 techs and the lovely vaginal ultrasound to find what they are pretty sure is the IUD. Ok, no pregnancies, so it's got to be in there, no problems. My lady check up this winter was fine, no worries.

At my lady check up I was going to bring up the irregularity, heaviness, and length of my cycle, but it had actually been pretty good 2 months prior to my appointment. So I thought it had finally straightened out. I was wrong. The whole first year of irregularity I blamed on breastfeeding hormones. I kept telling myself to give it time, it would get better. It didn't. In fact, it has actually gotten worse. My average cycle is 21 days, I spend 10 days with cotton shoved up my whooha and then spot in between. For those of you doing the math, that's 11 cotton free days sprinkled (cuz we all know periods are filled with sunshine and rainbows) with intermittent panty liners.

Yesterday I went to have an ultrasound to find the IUD so I could get it out. After about 20 minutes the tech looked at me and says "I can't find it." Lovely. So she calls the Dr. who says to just come in for my appointment tomorrow. I went in today and they sent me for an x-ray right away. Luckily the x-ray found the IUD, but they aren't sure if it's actually in my uterus or behind it. So my option involves surgery to find and remove the stupid thing. I've lived 30 years, given birth twice, and have never had a broken bone, stitches, or been hospitalized for any major illness. I have to have surgery to remove a little piece of plastic that got lost.

I realize that I am not in the majority, and that IUDs work wonders for most women. My recommendation is this: if you want to get an IUD, wait until you are done breastfeeding. Your success rate is much higher. If you are unsure if you want an IUD, don't get one and don't let your doctor convince you to get one. My doctor is fantastic, except for that little bit of info she left out and I couldn't find in the information packet. I was convinced that I wanted an IUD. It's easy and I know lots of people that it works well for. Unfortunately, I'm now that "rare" case that's becoming more and more common.

I Got A New Car! Whoohoo!

Isn't it pretty? I really didn't want gray, but our options were pretty limited. They had a very nice blue one, but it had 11,000 miles on it and to me that's not really considered new anymore. If I'm going to pay the price of a new vehicle, I want a new vehicle. But that's really here nor there. I got a new car!

We had been talking about getting rid of the van for a while. Pat absolutely hated it. I liked it, but there were things I really didn't like and I'm willing to bet that by the end of the summer we would have had to put a new motor in our power doors. That was our main reason for sending the van down the road. Power doors and gravel roads don't mix.

We did a little shopping around, online and at the lot. For us it has to be a short process. We are limited to Chrysler and GM dealerships anywhere close and those vehicles are not an option for me. So we have to drive 2 hours to get a decent selection. I know, I know, "buy American!" I'll buy "American" when I can buy a vehicle and not have it depreciate faster than I can pay it off. I'll buy "American" when after a year or two it doesn't sound like I'm driving a convertible when I'm not. I say "American" because what does that really mean anyway? I don't think 100% American really exists.

So here you are, my car reviews.
What I didn't like about my 2007 Honda Odyssey EX minivan:

• no auto headlights or DRLs
• The second row middle seat was pointless unless you know someone who is only 6 inches wide.
  
• Only 3 latch plates - in a minivan! Aren't those supposed to be geared toward families?
• No MP3 port

What I will miss:

• The storage! I was packing the Pilot and I miss the center floor storage, the second glove box, and the middle dash storage.
  
• the radio controls on the steering wheel. ( We got the bare bones model Pilot)
• the window shades for the kids.
• My kids being able to climb into the van and their seats on their own
• Being able to open the doors with the push of a button
  

What I love about the Pilot:

• The auto headlights
• The 4 latch plates
• The evenly split 2nd and 3rd row seat. No 6 inch humans required!
• The MP3 port! I'm so excited to listen to my music without static from the radio!
• Not worrying about dust in the doors
• It looks a whole lot cooler than the minivan, and I'm all about appearances! :)

We also test drove a Toyota Highlander. I really liked it, but there were a few things I didn't like. It had the mini seat like my van had. The 3rd row didn't have a split so it was all up or all down which left no room for storage. If we have a 3rd kid, family vacations would be interesting trying to cram 3 kids across the 2nd row so we could have room for luggage. It only had 2 latch plates which I just don't understand. Everything else we loved so we were nearly sold on the Highlander but needed to go try out the Pilot first. I'm glad we did. The Pilot is bigger than the Highlander but not huge. Price-wise they were about the same. The Pilot isn't terribly powerful, but I don't plan on towing much more than a paddle boat, if that. Our other vehicle is an F350, so it's not like I need a towing vehicle. Although, Cole keeps saying now we need to get a boat. At any rate, I'm glad we went with the Pilot, cuz it would have been stupid to buy something we didn't like. I'm hoping we'll keep this more than 3 years. My van was just starting to get good gas mileage...

The Ohio Dairy Abuse

I'm sure some of you have seen the latest dairy cow abuse video. If you haven't, I don't recommend it. It's not pleasant to say the least. I finally watched it and it made me want to cry.

First, the abuse is horrific. It's sadistic and serves absolutely no purpose other than to smear the dairy industry and make good controversy. I don't know a single dairy farmer that would knowingly allow that type of abuse to happen on his farm, much less contribute to it. I honestly believe that the abuse did happen, but that it was staged and not ongoing abuse. My reasons are this: the cows were clean, healthy, and well fed. Like any being, human or otherwise, enough abuse will cause you to lose hope and stop struggling. Those cows still fought and I was hoping one of them would kick the a-hole in the head. Abused animals are lame. Lame animals don't eat. Those cows were pretty healthy looking.

Second, if an engineer built a building that wasn't structurally sound, he'd be out of a job. If a teacher taught all lies, they'd eventually be found out and fired. The same is true with a dairy. Unfortunately, it may take time to uncover the abuse, but it would be uncovered and the workers would be fired. If an owner treated his cows like that, they wouldn't produce very well and he'd be losing money. It just doesn't make sense to work that way.

There has also been a lot of blame placed on the camera man and here's why. He sat by for weeks without a single word of "why are you doing that?" Some say it was so that the world is aware of how dairy cows are treated. I know animal abusers exist. I don't need to watch it. I know children are abused, but if someone filmed that for weeks they'd be charged as an accomplice.

We as a society are so much more interested in the horrors and the controversy. We want to point fingers and place blame and say "see, you're worse than I am!" Our dairy industry isn't perfect. There are bad dairy farmers that manage to scrape by. There are also bad teachers (we can all think of some) that are still teaching. It happens. It's not right, and just like in education, it's hard to find a way to weed out the bad from the good.

There isn't a single decent dairy farmer out there that would watch that video and think treating animals like that is ok. I realize that I'm preaching to the choir but my hope is that the few people that read my blog that don't have a connection to agriculture have enough common sense to know that our products come from a safe environment. Our cows and calves are fed before my own children are. I've said it before, but dairy farming is so much more than a career. It's a way of life. I'm proud to be a dairy farmer and I'm proud that my children are dairy kids.

I'm just so tired of these videos. It's not like we're big oil and are getting rich anyway. They can handle a little bad publicity, we can't. If the video wasn't upsetting enough, the comments made it even worse. The general public is VERY poorly educated on where our food comes from and how. Do people honestly think we could treat our animals like that and that they would still produce a decent amount of milk. Let's use a little bit of common sense, people.

Dear Ruby Tuesday,

I understand that you do not control who can or cannot buy stock in your company. You do, however, have the ability to listen and agree, or listen and say no to ideas brought forth by those stockholders.

I am all for the ethical treatment of animals, but not the PETA way. They, like the Humane Society of the United States, would like to see an end to animal use. You let PETA in the door, and that was a mistake. By taking their resolution seriously, you have given them permission to spin tales of abuse and doom for animals. What's next? Are you going to become an entirely vegetarian restaurant? Are you going to start serving a nice big glass of breast milk with your meals?

I don't go into your restaurant and tell you how to prepare and serve my food. I'm not in the restaurant business. Why should someone who has never been to my farm, or probably any farm, be able to tell me how I should best raise my animals? We've all seen the videos of workers mistreating animals. Does that mean all dairies abuse animals? We've all heard stories of waiters spitting in food and flies landing in deep fryers. Does that mean all restaurants operate that way? Of course not! What you have done is let PETA convince you that some livestock is abused and given them room to convince you that we are all bad.

I realize that, according to PETA, I am the worst offender. We dairy farmers take innocent calves away from their mothers and proceed to steal their milk. Have you ever taken a minute to wonder why we do things a certain way? Did you know that most dairy calves won't nurse from their mothers? In the 5 years I've been feeding calves only a handful of those calves actually nursed. I've seen more calves killed by their mothers laying on them, than calves that actually figured out how to nurse. I guess shame on me for separating those calves and feeding and caring for them.

Before you let PETA control your decisions any further, take a step back and ask why animals are raised the way they are. If you don't know the answer, find out, but don't ask PETA. Ask those of us who work hard every day to feed the world. As for me, I won't be setting foot in your restaurants any time soon.