The roller coaster called "LIFE" continues!

I know it has been way too long since I have posted.  Things have continued to more hectic than normal around the farm here.  I am used to being busy and having lots of wheels turning all at the same time, however, things seem to be picking up the pace a lot!

We brought our puppy home four weeks ago.  He immediately became a part of the family.  The kids named him Zeus!  This is a picture of him this morning.  He has doubled in size already in the 4 weeks he has been here. 

This was a picture from the day after we brought him home during his first tractor ride.  

This was a little over a week after we brought him home.  I was resting on the chair and Prissy was on the foot area and Zeus was on my side.  Over the course of several "adjustments" he ended up using her as a pillow.  They have been cool with each other ever since.

This roller coaster ride includes weather changes, lots and lots of weather changes.  The day I brought Zeus home it was sunny and 65 degrees.  A week later it was 28 degrees with 2" of snow on the ground.  Within 48 hours it was 60 again.  To finish it off below is a picture of the weather two weeks ago.  It was 20 degrees with a total snow fall of around 3.5", most of which melted off of the hard surfaces before it got really cold.  By Wednesday of last week the temps were back in the 60's.

Even the cows were looking at me as if to say "SERIOUSLY!"

So, now that I am off of my soapbox on weather conditions I will dive into some other events of the last month.

My father in law went into the hospital very ill three weeks ago.  My wife flew back home to be with the family for a couple of weeks and came back last weekend.  The kids and I managed to keep everything going here at home but it was super hectic.  Her father is doing better but is still not completely well yet.  We are hoping he will get to go home sometime soon.

I want to share another thing that happened a little over a week ago.  Ever since I was a little kid I have been worried about getting hurt on the farm.  It only takes a split second for you to lose focus and you can get seriously hurt or even killed.  Unfortunately this happened to a family member of mine.  While harvesting some wood on the farm a tree fell in a direction opposite what it was supposed to coming down on the tractor.  My cousin avoided the tree but was crushed by the tractor instead and didn't make it.   He was a member of the Air Force Reserves and was a mechanic for the c-130 aircraft that fly over our farm during practice flights.  He also served multiple tours overseas defending our country.  He was laid to rest with full military honors on Tuesday and will be greatly missed.

I want to end on a positive note.   Over the course of several days last weekend I was able to get all of my seeding work done.  I seeded a bunch of new hay fields as well as a bunch of silage crops.  We had a nice soaking rain on Thursday/Friday that set the seed in perfectly.  I am already starting to see some germination.  I am super excited to see what this year holds and I can't wait to start making hay!  The best part was having Zeus along for the ride.  He is a natural and fit right in.  Most of the time he slept but every time I got out of the tractor he was up making sure everything was OK!

We are still planning on our annual hog roast on Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend.  We hope to see many of you there.  Our only hold up right now is finding someone to roast the hog!  If you know anyone please let me know!

Have a wonderful week everyone!

Kenny

HOLY COW!!!! CALVING SEASON HAS ARRIVED AND WE SELECTED A PUPPY!!!!

So between work and home there has not been any time to relax as with the early onset of spring we are in full swing at work just as calving season started!   I am very happy that this year we are having perfect weather.  Last year at this time is was extremely wet and cold.  

First up is our sweetheart 50.  She had her calf just today and it is another heifer.  This brings her total to 7 heifers and two bulls.  She lost one bull and one heifer.  We have kept all the rest of her heifer calves and each one of them has had a heifer for their first calf.  Overall her bloodline is averaging around 78% female calves to date.  We will have to see as her daughters start having calves soon whether they will keep the average up or have bulls.  As a farm overall we are averaging around 58-60% heifers for calves.  A dairy farmer would be in heaven with those numbers!  You may also notice that we used all of the original 50 tags that we bought for the cows and switched to Yellow.  50 got the tag that matched her name from the first batch we bought.  Her calf, Pollyanna, gets the first out of the new batch of yellow tags!

Next up is another surprise I found when I got home today.  This is sugar.  I got her off of a fellow I work with who raises show cattle.  He was going to fatten her out and sell her at the auction but I bought her and brought her home instead.  This is her first calf and it is....you guessed it, a heifer!!!!  This is our first Blue Rhone heifer calf born here on the farm.  I am super excited and can't wait to see how many more of these we get and how they grow!

Here we have another first calf heifer.  Her name is hopscotch and I got her mother (butterscotch) at auction several years back and she was nursing a calf and was pregnant with this girl. 

 

This little cutie has a white mustache and two racing stripes, one on each cheek.  Super cute!

Next we have the only calf so far this year out of Thunder.  As most of you know we sold Thunder last summer and he was out with the cows for a week.  The awesome thing is that this is Chilli and this is a heifer as well!  We have sold her other heifers because of her size but I cannot argue with the fact that she is always on time with calving and is very consistent.  So, this little lady will be staying with us for the long haul!

This is Tigerwoods.  She is from the same farm as Sugar and is also a shorthorn.  She had a heifer as well but it is all black.  The total so far this year is 7 heifers and 3 bulls.  We still have 8 confirmed calves on the way and 2 unconfirmed.  It is starting out to be a pretty awesome season and I cannot wait to see how it all turns out in when we are done!

My daughter finally got her second dairy beef feeder.  He is pretty small next to T-Bone but he is growing very quickly!  His name is Milkshake and he is a shorthorn x red Holstein cross bull.  Since she is not able to take two to the fair we will most likely keep him as a bull and use him to breed heifers with for a few years.  

Next up I wanted to share a picture of something I didn't even know existed.  My wife was checking out one of the "Vernal Pools" in the pasture the other day.  A Vernal Pool is an area that fills with water in the spring and remains wet till summer and then dries out.  There are little tiny Fairy shrimp swimming all over in it right now.  I managed to scoop one up with my hand and you can see the little egg pocket on the back of it.  The eggs, once laid, will remain dormant throughout the summer and ensuing winter and will hatch next spring to start the cycle over again.  

Fairy Shrimp from a Vernal Pool in Ohio

I want to finish up with a picture of the puppy we picked out this past weekend.  He is still a little too young to bring home but we should be able to get him before Easter! 

It took us about 40 minutes to finally decide who we wanted to bring home.  He is the only one out of the entire bunch that has longer hair.  He is a fir ball!!  

He is also crazy cute and as you can tell he likes to stick his tongue out for photos!  We have decided to call him Zeus.  We have almost everything we need to be ready for him to come home.  Last thing to do is get a cable puller and install the new dog fence wire to replace the old one I installed by hand shortly after we got Daisy many many years ago.    

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and I will be sure to post pictures of the calves as they keep arriving and definitely picture of our new little guy.  We are extremely happy to bring home another rescue pup from the humane society just like we did with Daisy.  My only wish is that she would be here to greet him.  I am sure thought that she was meant to leave us so he could have a chance to enjoy the life she started for him.   We have a lot of training to do and I cannot wait to take him for his first tractor ride.  He will be unreasonably spoiled I already know that.  We also plan to train him to help with the cattle as well. 

Goodnight everyone,

Kenny

Updates from the farm!

It has been hard adjusting to not having Daisy around.   Even the cats were upset for a while.  Mistletoe, who joined the farm in December of 2014, has been keeping me company lately. 

She goes to the barn with Lisa and I everyday and has done a great job of keeping the mice and birds out of the barn!  We have had very little activity since she joined us. 

Last weekend was beautiful!!!  It was 65 degrees and sunny, unlike today that is 33 degrees with snow!   We knew it was going to be gorgeous out so the family and I decided to spend the day getting pasture fences ready and taking care of some misc. tasks that have been setting incomplete since fall. 

Lisa was at a friends house for a sleep over so it was just my wife and Alex helping me with chores.  He was very grumpy at first and didn't want to go but after about 20 minutes of pouting on the 4 wheeler he found something fun to play with in the creek and then had a great day the rest of the day outside doing stuff.  

The cows above an the pigs below had their own way of enjoying the warm weather.  The cows headed for the pasture and the pigs laid in the sun in the cow shed!

Lisa joined 4H this year and is taking dairy beef feeders.  She got her first (T-Bone) calf in January and just got her second calf (Milkshake) two nights ago.  T-bone is growing really well and should do well for the fair at the end of August.  I will get a better picture of her with them when the weather warms up next week.  You can see the picture is hazy because of dust in the air from bedding the pen. 

In the afternoon on Saturday I stopped by my cousins house after dropping Lisa off for her sleep over.   They were planing wood planks for a remodeling project and had a massive pile of wood shavings...which my son found very enjoyable!  Needless to say I will now need to clean the truck and he got a double shower that night!  You will also notice my cousin's dog beside my son.   She used to be very tiny but as you can see she gets a few too many snacks and is now a little chubby!

Lastly, I want to share a picture of a litter of puppies we will be getting the chance to view next weekend.  The mother is a husky cross and is very similar in size to what Daisy was.  She is with a shelter here in our area and was rescued after she was found living in a dump.  She was not tagged and had no microchip either.   She was also found to be pregnant.  She had her litter 5 days after she was rescued.   

We are looking to rescue another pup just like we did Daisy.  We did look at some others because most of the shelters have exceptional adoption rates now unlike they did 12 years ago when we got married.  However, we want to stay with a smaller dog since they will be riding in the tractor and in the truck.  Also, if something happens my wife will need to be able to pick the dog up as well so a large breed doesn't work well for us.  

We will let everyone know if we decide to bring one of these little ones home.  From what the shelter can tell there are several different breeds in the litter bu they believe a few of the pups will stay under the 40#-45# size.  We will not know until we get to go see them next Sunday.  It is time for us to have another dog in the house.  While cats are great for mice and naps there is nothing like coming home to a house with a dog who greets you at the door.  Coming home right now is a constant reminder of who is missing.  We are starting to be able to move on but until we find someone to take over Daisy's roll here on the farm we will never be able to completely move on. 

Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy the nice weather coming up this week.   They are calling for weather similar to late spring for the week!!!  Hoping to hear peepers this week.  If we do that means spring has actually arrived!!!!

Kenny

Spring is trying to come early!

Hello everyone,

I took a couple weeks off from posting to get some things taken care of.  I had another interview for a blog cast about the EPRI/AFT nutrient trading project we did here on the farm.  This was in relation to the article that was written about the project that I put in the last post about the project.  They are doing a Pod Cast series and wanted me to be a part of it.  I am anxiously awaiting the finished pod cast and I will share it once it is completed. 

I also found out at the beginning of February that RFDTV also did a special report on our project as well as the other farm in the area.  

RFDTV special report.

Since my last report we have also seen our first heavy snow fall of the winter.  We received about 6-8" of very heavy wet snow.  It was terrible to push at work and created some nasty snow pack and slippery conditions.  That was on Tuesday.  Yesterday (Saturday) it was 65 degrees and brilliantly sunny with lots of wind.  Today, 99% of the snow is gone and we are forecasted to get a day of rain this Wednesday followed by another 2-8" of heavy wet snow and another warm spell.    Spring is definitely trying to come early but old man winter just won't let it happen without a fight.  

We are coming up on calving season as well.  The first 10 of 19 calves of the year are due to be born the second week of March!  So we are obviously rooting for an early spring, or at least some dry weather for a week or two to give the calves a good start in the world!

I also had some pictures to post, however, last weekend, while delivering meat, my phone got extremely hot while using it for GPS, and apparently melted the battery.  It died that night and would not come back to life.  I ended up getting a new phone and lost all the information and pictures I had on that phone that was not backed up.  

Lastly we are starting to look for a puppy to take over Daisy's responsibilities here on the farm.  We have looked at a few but haven't decided on one yet or gotten very serious about it yet.  My wife wants the new dog fence wire installed and working before we get the new dog so I will most likely be doing that next weekend.  The weather is supposed to remain mild so the ground should remain thawed out for me to put the new cable in.  

Have a wonderful week everyone and come on spring!!

Kenny

With a very heavy heart we unexpectedly say goodbye to our beloved Daisy.

Hello everyone.  I have some very sad news from here on the farm.  I came home Friday night from work to find our girl Daisy very very weak and ill.   At first I thought she had eaten something she shouldn't again as this has been a problem for the last 6 - 7 months or so.  I called my wife who was almost home and we hurriedly fed the animals and put daisy in the car to take her to the hospital.  She tried to stand up to watch the car ride but was only able to do so for a few minutes and then collapsed on the back seat.

The Vet took a few X-rays of her to see what was going on and had some very bad news.  Turns out the last 6 months when Daisy was getting sick it wasn't because she was eating things she wasn't supposed to.  The problem was actually due to a cancerous tumor that had been growing in her spleen for an unknown time.  Each time she got sick it was because it ruptured and bled, but, because it was not that big, the bleeding would stop and she could recover in a couple days.  

This time however this was not the case.  By the time we got her to the hospital and got the diagnoses she was barely able to hold her eyes open to tell us goodbye.  Due to the advanced stage of the cancer, even if they did surgery, they only gave her a 5% chance of surviving more than a week or two.  We could not put her through that since we knew she had already been fighting it on her own for so long.  She was finally ready to take a break from all her hard work and was waiting for us to say it was ok.  

Her Thursday was spent with the kids and I in the truck.  I came home from work early and took her with me to town to get parts and feed, then we picked up the kids to go to swimming practice.  I had to help her in the truck not knowing that she wasn't getting old but was fighting a battle I knew nothing about. When we got home she wanted to ride in the tractor and after helping her into the tractor she helped my wife and I feed all the animals and checked the piglets before coming back into the house.

I would like to share some pics of how we will always remember her.   She was a great help on the farm and my closest friend.  She never judged, was always here when I got home from work, and always showed unconditional love to everyone she knew.  This was evident at our customer party every year where she kept everyone company and went on the hayrides in the tractor to keep everyone safe.

Daisy helping check the cows.

Every time I went to check on the cows or pigs she was there to help.  She became very skilled at riding the 4-wheeler with me and constantly helped fix fence, herd cattle, and hunt mushrooms.  

This was a pic from a few years ago showing all the flowers in bloom.  We were on our way out to check the cows and as you can see she was with me and ready to go.  She is now resting beside the trees in the background where she can see the sunset and watch over our house each night.  

My wife and I rescued her from the pound the winter after we got married.  I have never been without a dog my entire life and after moving into our house I knew I couldn't go long without a companion.  When we found her she had been found roaming the streets in Wooster and was adopted once before but the family brought her back because their child wasn't taking care of her.  They have no idea what they lost by doing that.  When we brought her home she was very quite and shy.  But that wore off in about a week and the true Daisy came out and shined ever since.
 Little did I know how much she would become a part of our lives.  She constantly tried to ride our first open station tractor with me but the deck was small and it wasn't safe.  So we got a bigger tractor with a cab so she and the kids could go with me.  I could not start the truck or the tractor without her being there to go along.   Yesterday was the first time in 10 years that she was not with me for a ride in the tractor 

The pic below was Daisy and I taking a break after a long day on the farm.   I didn't realize until she was gone just how close she always was.  She literally met me at the door every single time I came through it and was with me until I left through it to go to work.  One winter she even went with me to work while my wife and daughter were in Japan.  It was that winter that someone approached me in my plow truck in the middle of the night.  She jumped up and started barking and they immediately left the area.  I never had a problem again after that.

Here is a picture of her helping birth piglets.  She was such a great mother and would wait for each one to be born and then would vigorously clean it off and nuzzle it until it was up and running.  Once she started helping with the pigs farrowing we had much less piglets die during and just after being born because of this.  She was also very protective of the barn and would quickly run off anything or anyone she didn't think should be there without my permission.



My wife has shown our entire family the joys of camping when on vacation.  Because of this we were always able to take Daisy with us on our vacations.  Below are a few pics from our last vacation to the outer banks.  She literally went everywhere with us, and yes, she would even sit at the table when she was allowed to when we were camping.

Mom, is that mine?

She was waiting for her part of breakfast, when I snapped the picture she thought my wife was going to eat her treat and was very concerned!

Hey, that is mine, don't eat that!

Below is our last family picture together.  I believe she started getting sick not too long after this picture because that is when she started having trouble getting in and out of the truck and tractor.  She was very good at hiding it and we didn't realize her decline until the last 4 or 5 weeks.  However, we still thought, after a visit to the vet over the holidays, that she was just having upset stomachs and would get better soon.

It will be very hard to go back to the outer banks without our baby.  She would sit under the truck and watch the kids play.  It will be even harder to come home from work every day to a house without her, or go on a trip without her standing on the center console of the truck watching where we are headed.  We will never replace her nor will we ever forget her.  I only hope that we can find another as caring as her that can take over all her duties here on the farm.

My wife and I both feel as though we have lost our closest companion we have ever had.  I long for the day when we can be back together as a family again.  This is gonna hurt for a while and I hope that over time I can remember our times together without the pain of missing her taking over so badly.  I can deal with almost anything life has thrown at me but saying goodbye to loved ones is something I am very bad at dealing with.  It seems like it gets harder each time.  The difference now is the one I confided in and had comfort from when no one else was around is no longer here to help.

Until we meet again,

Kenny, Natsuko, Lisa, and Alex.

American Farmland Trust and EPRI Farmer video and an article we were featured in for the program.

I just found out today that the video that I was interviewed for has been posted on the American Farmland Trust (AFT) and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) websites and on youtube. 

Ohio River Basin Water Quality Trading Project Farmer Interview: Conser Run Farm

Check it out, my video is #3.   There are more videos in the series but #3 is mine and it turned out very well.  It is well worth watching and is just a snippet of  everything we discussed but still got a lot of information in it.  

The star of the show is my first cow 50!!!!  She got almost as much air time as me!!

We were also featured in an article for the program as well.  This year they are looking to grow the program and reach more people.  This program has the ability to affect the world as we know it. Similar programs are used elsewhere in the world already.  

Multi-State Water Program Hopes To Stand On Its Own Two Feet In 2016

Here is a simple example of how it works.  Power companies supply the electric that powers the world.  Everyone relies on them daily for even the simplest task.  However, the side product of being able to read this post, make coffee for your breakfast, turn on the lights in your house, or even pump the water that you use to feed your family and clean, is pollution.  The power companies, and many other businesses have already spent an unthinkable amount of money trying to eliminate this pollution.  However, the law of diminishing returns cannot be avoided and eventually the cost per unit of pollution control is unrealistic and un-achievable.  

Lets say you take $10,000 and invest it on pollution control measures at an electric power plant.  Lets say the return on investment equals one nutrient credit or one unit of pollution control.  Now, take that $10,000 and invest it in a grass roots location where the impact per dollar is greater.  That same $10,000 invested into a project like mine can create 450 or more units of pollution control.   The return on investment and the impact that comes with it is enormous.  It also affects every single person that comes in contact with the water that this affects.  

Every drop of water that flows down a ditch along your street, gets flushed down your drain, runs off of a field, or any other runoff ends up in the ocean eventually and takes with it anything that is dissolved in it or carried by it with it.  If this gets out of balance with what is naturally normal you get pollution problems.   A program like this would take the money being spent on small gains at a power plant out into the rest of the world and can help farms, small towns, and small businesses that are not able to financially do it on their own but genuinely want to make a difference.  

So please watch all the videos, read the article, educate yourselves and share this information with someone you know.  I am very happy to be involved with this program and I am encouraged by the possibilities I see ahead.  

Have a wonderful day everyone.  

Kenny

Happy new years everyone!!!

Another year comes to a close!  I have been been doing my annual New Year's blog post for 5 years now.  This will be the first one that doesn't start with me standing in the very cold weather giving thought to the year past.  This year it is actually quite mild!  I had a friend and coworker over today for some fun and spent some much needed time with the family as well.   There is more work on some projects that I want to finish soon but are not huge priorities so they can wait another day or two!  

Nothing like the last few new years eve's!!!  40 degrees and no snow!!!

I like to reflect on the year past and see where we have come from and where we are headed.  At the end of last year I was still catching up from two months of being down due to illness and a broken finger.  Through that experience I learned that I cannot rely solely on myself to get everything done.  I learned that prioritization is very important and perseverance is extremely important!  

I knew last year that as a family and a business we were at a huge milestone/turning point.  As a family my wife and I have seen our kids go from malleable little children into individuals who have an opinion, personality, and world of their own.  Both of our children our now in school and beginning to build a world of their own making.  I am continually amazed at how different they both can be even though they both come from my wife and I.  My wife and I are challenged every day with how to help them the best way possible to help them succeed in life.  However, it is a challenge we both accepted when we decided to bring life into this world and we will work till we cannot work any more to help them succeed.  

My wife is going through a tough transition in her life right now with the end very near to a position she has held for five years.  She is currently back on the job market and looking for a long term position that she can grow with moving forward.  She does not know where this road will take her and it will probably be bumpy along the way, but, she knows now that she has the support of all of us to get through it!  I look at her current situation as a huge opportunity.  She gets a chance to start an entirely new path of her making.  We are currently in a position that she can take some time and find what is best for her.  In the mean time she can spend some time with the kids and work here around the farm.  This was not an option before and I envy her being able to do this.  I am blessed every day to have her as a companion.  Even when I am upset I remind myself that I would not be where I am today without her continual guidance through life!

As for me I have had many changes personally since last year.  I went from a field management position at work to more of a full management position.  It has been a struggle at times this year stepping out of the world I have grown to know and love into a world where I cannot do everything myself and I have to motivate those around me to accomplish the tasks at hand efficiently and timely.   I am used to being in total control of a job site and being able to make the physical world bend to my will.  However, the physical world of dirt and wood and stone is completely different than the world of employee relations, management of budgets, and growing everyone around you along the way.  In the past year I have realized where some of my greatest weaknesses lie and where my best strengths can take me.  I have and will continue to learn every day how to control my emotion and see the worth in everyone around me before I see their faults.  Every person has value and every one has something they do really well.  The key is finding what everyone does well and grow on that.  I am excited beyond belief for the new year at work.  I finally have an opportunity to show another level of my potential.  I also am excited to know that I will not be able to get there alone and can only achieve this by taking everyone around me with me!  

As a family farm we have turned a huge corner with the passing of this year.  We have finally seen some financial return from the farm.  The first 6-7 years were spent just busting our butts and doing whatever needed done to get to a point where we could be productive.  The money and time we have spent to this point will take another 6-10 years to be fully paid back if we stay the course.  The future is ours to make.  If we continue to grow and learn and fix the tiny little things along the way the big things will work themselves out.  While it didn't seem like it, we did sell a lot of cattle this year without reducing the total head count.  We are expecting a new record of calves born on the farm this year of 17.  While this may be a day's worth of calves on a big ranch that is a years worth of income for us!  It was only a short time ago that we were unbelievably excited over having three calves in one year!  With the new building being done, the equipment updated, and the herd tweaked to our best cattle, we are looking to grind out a couple years of fine tuning and paying off debt.  After that the sky is the limit!  Our only competition will be ourselves moving forward 

This year as I look into my pasture I see huge challenges and even bigger opportunities.  I see two young children that are in the most influential point of their lives.  I want to give them the opportunity to do whatever they put their minds to.  I see a herd of cattle that just a few years ago was a dream of mine that I could envision but wasn't sure when or if we would get to that point. I see my wife who has supported me, and most importantly helped me make better decisions along the way.  Without her I would still be where I started years ago.  I see a new group of pigs that I was ready to give up on last summer when I lost our beloved boar Redballs.  Double stuffed has picked up the torch with his new girls and is slowly getting things back to normal.  Our first litter of the year is due any day now!  

I want to close with a quote from Steven Covey.  He wrote a book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I am not one to read.  For me to read it either has to be required or it has to be something that grabs my attention and holds it with a force that is unbreakable.  This book was given to my by my fellow manager at work.  At first I started reading it and wasn't really drawn in but I knew if I wanted to grow as a person I needed to push through.  By chapter two I was completely drawn in and hooked.  This book is a long read and there are audio versions available that are much shorter.  In the second chapter of the book this quote is what grabbed my attention.  This hit me pretty good because this is so true for me as an individual.  

“ You can buy a person’s Hand but not their Heart.  Their heart is where their Enthusiasm and Loyalty is!  You can buy a person’s back but not their Mind, that’s where their Creativity, Ingenuity, and resourcefulness is contained.”

As a leader you cannot force the best out of people.  The best you can get out of a person by forcing them is the bare minimum.  If you want their heart and their mind you have to earn it, you cannot buy it, you cannot force it, and you cannot take it from them!  There are some people that I will never be able to earn their heart or their mind and I accept that but I still try.  

You can only grow if those around you grow as well.  If you only enter into something with yourself in mind you will not be successful.  So as you go throughout your year please take a moment and start thinking about the outcome.  Begin with the end in mind.  How will you benefit from what you are doing?  How will those around you benefit?  Are you the only one that will learn and prosper from this or will someone else share in your victory?  What good is a victory if you celebrate it alone and lose those around you along the way?  

As I reflect back over the years of my past and look out into my pasture I can now clearly see that when I started with the end in mind and worked on something that benefited those around me as well as me I was successful.  When I was simply doing something to benefit myself it rarely turned into something good and prosperous!  

I want to wish everyone a prosperous New Year!  Keep in mind that every day is a new chance to start again.  If you slip two weeks from now don't wait until next year to change.  Get back up and get right back on course.  I hope someday you can come tell me about your experiences and show me what you have in your pasture and what you have grown and those around you grew as well!

Thank you everyone and here's to 2016!!!!!!

Kenny