Child Labor

Yesterday, I was paging through the the Farm Journal and I came across an article about proposed changes to Child Labor laws. This is what I read.

"The proposed changes prohitibt children under the age of 18 from working with animals in pesticide handling, timber operations, manure pits, and storage bins. They also prohibit youths at grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feedlots, stockyards, livestock exchanges, and livestock auctions.

Children under the age of 16 would be prohibited from operating most power-driven equipment as well as connecting or disconnecting an implement or any part of the machine. All youths would be prohibited from using electronic devices while operating equipment as well."

Now, I agree that revisions probably need to be made. The last revisions were done in 1970 and the world has changed just a bit since then. Here's my major problem: our country depends on agriculture, yet these labor laws leave us no way to draw interest from a younger generation.

In high school, our youth are encouraged to try out careers of interest. Want to go into the medical field? Intern at a hospital for a summer. Want to be a journalist? Work for the local newspaper. Want to try farming? Sorry, you have to be 18.

In our area, non-agriculture jobs for high-schoolers is pretty limited. Without being able to work with animals or at the local elevator, they are limited to the gas station and hardware store or having to commute to work in retail.

Agriculture can be a dangerous place to be. Large machinery + large animals + teenagers can be a recipe for disaster. However, if taught and supervised properly, it can be a very rewarding job for a high school kid. We've employed high school kids on our farm for years, long before I came into the picture. We have never advertised for help, taken applications, or conducted interviews. We have always had kids approach us about milking cows. Some are better at it than others, and some enjoy it more than others, but every single one of them has stuck with it until they graduated. Maybe they learned that dairy farming isn't for them, but they all learn the value of hard work and the time and effort we put in to caring for our animals and producing a quality and safe product.

My question is this: is 18 that much different than 16? So they have 2 more years of growing, but are they as easily taught as a 16 year old? The older they get, the more they know, and the less they have to take instruction from others. It's really not about 2 years as much as it is about common sense. You have to know the kids working for you and what they are capable of. In this day and age everything is about time, but if we slow down just a bit to teach proper safety, to show the proper way to do things, and explain the dangers, maybe we can avoid some of the tragic accidents that happen. Changing the law to 18 is really just about changing statistics. Now the kids getting hurt fall into the adult category and that's not really changing anything.

These laws don't apply to farm owners' children, which is probably where the majority of farm accidents happen. Having 2 young boys, 1 of which would live in the tractor if I let him, safety is very important to us. Our boys have been around cows and machinery since the day they came home from the hospital. That doesn't mean we get lax on safety. Our boys don't go into the cow yard alone. They know to stop and look whenever they hear machinery on the move. Most importantly, we created a safe place for them to play. Our backyard is fenced and they know that they can go play in there whenever they want. We are very lucky. Our oldest child is very cautious and is teaching his less than cautious brother good safety habits. We still try to be vigilant. The moment you aren't is when accidents happen.

I encourage you to comment on the proposed changes. Go to www.regulations.gov and identify your comments as RIN 1235-AA06. You have until November 1st. The whole article is linked at the beginning of my post.

Shocking!

It's very dry here. We've gotten a few sprinkles this morning so I left my car outside hoping for rain. The dryness has been great for getting the crops out of the field, although they are much drier than is optimal. This is the first year that anyone in the area can remember harvesting all of their soybeans without being interrupted by rain. We finished up our soybean crop on Tuesday and started taking out corn Wednesday afternoon. The combine broke down yesterday afternoon, so they spent that time fixing and headed back out this morning. We're hoping to get our corn out before the wind knocks it all down.

One of the biggest issues here has been fire. In the past week nearly every fire department in the area has been called out for a field or combine fire at least once. The process of combining builds up a lot of static electricity. Throw in heat, dry air, and wind, and you have a recipe for fire. In fact one area dealership called all their customers and told them to start dragging chains behind the combine to dispel some of the static electricity.

A few months ago, I would have laughed if someone suggested we'd be praying for rain this year. Now, we are doing everything we can to get it to rain. We've left equipment and bales in the field. About the only thing we haven't done is wash the car!

What Happened to Friday?

Oops, so much for my Fridays on the Farm goal. In my defense, it was a very busy day. So busy, I didn't even get a nap. Ya, I know!

So your farm update. This past week brought the start of soybean harvest. With the heat, wind, and no rain, things are drying down very quickly, almost too quickly. When harvesting crops, they allow for a certain percentage of moisture. Too wet, they dock points, too dry, they dock points. Usually too dry is not much of an issue, this year it is. The crop isn't great due to the early September frost and the super dry weather. It is what it is, that's farming!

We crop farm with Pat's dad and his uncle. Last night I was helping them move equipment from one field to the next. We're starting to look like big time farmers with 2 combines, semis, and a grain cart. It sure gets the job done faster.

Weekend Warriors

We had a busy weekend. We had been talking for months about taking the boys to Chuck E. Cheese. The closest one is in Sioux Falls. So Friday night we headed out, stayed in a hotel and spent Saturday shopping. We don't really need to do an overnight to Sioux Falls, but it's a nice way to get away. Saturday morning we got up. My husband, who apparently was on a strict time schedule, decided we needed breakfast by 7:30. Luckily that's what time the hotel's breakfast opened. My plan was to plug the kids in to some cartoons and sleep in. I figured we'd swim and hang out and check out around 11. Then head to Chuck E. Cheese for an early lunch and do our shopping. That way we could still hang around and have supper at some place decent before heading home. Apparently, Pat was not thinking so leisurely. We did do some swimming and hang out, but I think we were out of the hotel by 9ish.

Our first stop was Target, where we bought $100 worth of stuff that fit into one bag. Talk about depressing. After that, the hunt for clothing was on. Tate has outgrown nearly everything in his drawers and since he and Cole are the exact opposite body type, a lot of Cole's hand me downs don't fit. He also outgrew his shoes, again. Cole was a little upset that he didn't get new shoes, but he survived.

My big search was for a baby book. I got both boys's books from Walmart, but can't find them anymore. I checked everywhere, nothing. We stopped at Hallmark but I wasn't about to pay $50 for something that wasn't exactly what I wanted. Finally at the second Hallmark, I found this...

It's a little more boyish than Pat would like (he's threatening divorce if it's another boy. He's kidding of course, I hope:). I think it's cute. It was a little more expensive than I would have liked, but it's basically the same as the boys's baby books, just a different style. This one is an actual Carter's brand, where the boys's are the Walmart Carter's.

Anywhoodle, that was our shopping excursion. We did look at new computers, and DIDN'T buy one! That's a miracle in itself.

So on to Chuck E. Cheese. The boys were super excited. I think they watch a bit much PBS, but I suppose there are worse things in the world. We ordered our pizza, got our tokens, found one of a handful of tables not reserved for birthday parties (I think there were 6 or 7 that day), and headed off to play some games. Cole wanted to try a game where you pop balls into a red bulldogs mouth. Tate wanted nothing to do with it, so he tried something else. As we were sitting, attempting to eat the most disgusting pizza and breadsticks ever, Tate was freaking out over something. We thought it was the robotic Chuck E. or the noise. Finally we got out of him that it was the red dog. He was absolutely terrified of the game that Cole had played.

It looked something like this, only red and with it's mouth open, but it was terrifying to my 3 year old. We finished up our tokens on games far away from the red dog and left. On the plus side, Tate keeps reminding me that we don't need to go to Chuck E. Cheese.

We managed to kill enough time shopping that we headed for an early supper at Red Lobster. I don't like fish that much, or even shrimp, but I love crab legs and I've been craving them since I saw a commercial for Red Lobster this summer. It was delicious!

Bear with me, one last story. While we were at the mall, we stopped to let the kids play. A woman came up to me and goes "you were in the NICU." I remembered her instantly. She had twin boys about a month after Cole was born. It was kind of neat. Pat didn't really get it, but there were a group of us that were there for about a solid week together, right before Cole was discharged. I spent a week with these women who were going through the exact same thing I was. We all had babies at different stages, but we shared our stories and understood what it was like. I often wonder how their stories turned out and it was really neat to see a couple of the other 5 year olds who were a part of that journey.

Fridays on the Farm

I realize my posts have been very few and far between. I am determined to do better (at least for today:). In an effort to keep my blog slightly more organized, I am going to try a feature I call:

Wait for it...

Fridays on the Farm.

Bet you didn't guess that!

So every Friday (or at least every Friday that I get to it) I will post a bit of an update on our farm or tackle some agricultural issue that puts me on my soap box. Aren't you excited? Are there any of you left anyway?

For today, I'll give you an update of what we've been doing the last month around the farm. August and September are always busy months for us. August brings the 4th and final crop of hay for the year. We do 2 things with our hay. We chop it and bag it to make haylage. Haylage is fermented alfalfa. Due to the cows multiple stomachs and complicated digestive system, they like fermented food. That's keeping it overly simple. We bag as much of the first and second crops of hay that we can. We use the third crop of hay to fill our quota for the year and usually bale dry hay from the 4th crop and whatever doesn't fill a bag from the previous 3. The hay is sealed in the bags and needs at least 6 weeks to ferment before we can use it.

These are bags of silage (haylage bags are the same).

We chopped our silage a little over a week ago. Silage is chopped corn, stalk, husk, cob, and all. Silage time is much busier than hay. We get 4 crops of hay to make enough feed for our cows for a year, but silage is done in one shot. It took us about 3-4 12 hour days to get the silage put up for the year. (When I say us, what I mean is 6 guys chopping, hauling, and bagging, and my MIL and me making dinner).

Now that all the hay and silage is put up for the year, the wagons are cleaned, greased, and put away, it's time to focus on corn and soybeans. Pat has been busy working on his new grain storage bin.

A crew of guys came and put it up in about a day and a half. Pat has been busy working on the augers to put the corn in and to take it out. The corn stored in the bin will be used throughout the year for feeding. They will auger it out, run it through a roller mill to break up the corn, and use it for feed along with ground corn, dry hay, haylage, and silage. The goal is to harvest the corn for the bin, starting Sunday.

After that we may get a bit of a break while the soybeans die off and dry down. Of course, that break will be used to haul manure and catch up on maintenance of everything else that's been neglected for the last month.

In the meantime, the 4 1/3 of us will be heading out tonight for a much needed trip out of town. The boys and I are in desperate need of some better fitting clothes. I'm already wearing my one pair of "fat" pants and I think I only have 2 pairs of maternity jeans. Well, I'm off to pack!

A Little Bit of Big News

I've been exhausted lately, and feeling poopy, but I've got a good reason.

Yep, Baby 3! I'm officially due April 8, so we are expecting the little one sometime in March.

Cole is super excited. I had an appointment yesterday, along with ultrasound, so Pat brought the boys to the ultrasound. Cole was so excited we thought he was going to cry. The tech printed pictures for each of the boys to have. Cole wanted to take his in to Pizza Hut so he could tell the lady at Pizza Hut. He tells just about everyone he sees. He's so funny! Tate is excited, but mostly because Cole is excited. I think it will be a rude awakening for him, but he'll survive. He's definitely got the middle child gene.

We are going to do things a little differently this time. Hopefully the end result will be a full term baby. My next appointment is with a high risk Dr. More than likely that consultation will result with me being put on progesterone shots starting as early as 17 weeks. I'm not excited about that, but I would love a full term baby. (I may regret that when it comes time to deliver a 9 lb baby). I'm not really excited about the high risk Dr. I've met her before, post partum with Cole, and she's very matter of fact. My regular doc is very easy to talk to and to ask questions, and this one is very my way or the high way, this is the way it is, type. Not my favorite.

As for the inevitable question? Yes, we are going to find out the sex this time. We didn't with either of the boys because I didn't want to know. Pat has always wanted to know and he's always wanted a girl. I figure this time he can get his way (finding out, I can't make it a girl :). We are obviously ok with a healthy baby of either sex, but a girl would be nice. A boy would be easier, but a girl would be a nice change! Don't worry, we won't keep it a secret. If Cole found out the secret is blown anyway! As for the name, that we may keep quiet. We've got a girl name picked out, which is odd because we could never agree on a girl's name for either of the boys. We had a boy's name set, but never a girl's. Maybe that's a good sign?

Would You Do It?

Before I started cloth diapering Tate, I bought my diapers online. I got large quantities and I didn't have to go to the store to get them. It was great. Now I'm just plain lazy and wait until the last minute hoping I won't really need to buy more diapers, but alas the second child is very stubborn.

Anyway, that's not what this post is about. So I "liked" my online supplier (diapers.com) on Facebook. They post a question of the day. About a week ago, the question was "when did you tell everyone you were expecting?" What cracked me up were the posts of "I'm so many weeks but we haven't told anyone yet." Um, you just announced it on facebook, idiot.

That isn't what this post is about either. Yesterday, the question was "If you could buy your child anything, what would it be?" I was surprised that the top answers were a big swing set/playhouse, a house remodel so the kids could have their own rooms, and a college education. Now, I'm not opposed to any of those things, completely, just partially.

The swing set/playhouse I have no issues with. Who wouldn't love a playground conveniently located in their back yard?

My boys share a room. They probably will for the rest of their lives in this house. Our house is set up so that even if they had separate rooms, one of them is far from private. I'm ok with that. My sisters and I shared (rotated every year, so one year alone, 2 years sharing), but only until I was 7. I think there are many benefits to sharing rooms, especially when the kids are young. Privacy is important, but sometimes so is the invasion of it.

Next, a college education. We fully intend to help our kids pay for college. The key word is help. I don't want college to put my kids into eternal debt, but I don't want to give them a free ride either. I know many kids who were given a free ride by their parents and wasted it because they didn't have to pay for it. I hope my kids have a better work ethic than that.

One commenter even remarked that they give their kids everything and how very blessed they must be. *gag* Sometimes denying your kids is the best thing you can give them. Don't get me wrong, my kids have plenty of stuff, way more than they need. The things I want for my kids, money can't buy: a strong faith, a good work ethic, respect, education, etc. That's what I want for my kids. Everything else is just "stuff."