Tag The Longhorn Farmwife

Thursday, July 24, 2014

5 Ways a Bucket Calf Builds Character in Kids

Our family is in its second year of raising a bucket calf for the fair.  As a parent, I carry most of the load, but the other day when I was helping my kids feed them, I was struck by the thought of how many life lessons and values my children could gain from this and how it could help them build good character. 

For those of you who are not familiar with this project, it is designed to introduce children and younger 4-H members to the cattle industry.  It allows them to learn the health care and nutritional needs of cattle, without a huge financial investment.  On our farm, we feed them milk replacer (a special powdered milk mixed with water) twice a day and leave them alfalfa hay and water in their pen and as they get older, small grain pellets.  Hay is often referred to as ‘forage.’  In order to show them at the fair, the calves must be trained to be lead with a halter by the child so that they can be lead into the arena for judging at the county fair.  The ‘Open Class’ is for kids not yet old enough for 4-H, which is 7 years of age.  My children started at ages 3 and 4.
So here are 5 life lessons that I hope my children gain from their bucket calf project.
1.      Responsibility

This calf relies solely on you.  If you do not show up with its bottle and a little forage, the poor thing will not eat.  If it does not eat, it will get sick and/or die.  If this happens you will get a tough lesson in……


   2.      Consequences

If you do not assume the responsibility for the project you have undertaken and do all that it requires, there will be most likely be a bad result.  Those consequences can be minor or major, but all of them impact what you have going on in some way or another and you must adjust your actions in order to prevent them from happening or repair the damage your actions have caused.

   3.      Dedication

When you choose to take on this project, you must be dedicated to doing it right and follow through all the way to the end.  If you wake up one day and decide you don’t want to take care of your calf anymore and ignore your responsibilities, the calf feels that neglect and in the long run so will you because you will not see that…...

4.      Hard work reaps rewards

When you are responsible and show great dedication towards a task you have taken on, there will be rewards.  These may be tangible, like the blue ribbon you receive or the check from the salebarn, but often there are more intangible rewards.  These can include the satisfaction of teaching your calf to lead with a halter, the feeling you get when the calves run to greet you because they have learned you are their food source, or the look of pride on your family’s faces as you lead your calf out to show at the fair. 

   5.      Life is not always fair

Sometimes in life, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been responsible and dedicated and done all that you can.  Sometimes things happen that are out of anyone’s control and you have to accept that’s the way it is.  Calves can get sick no matter how well you take care of them.  You could have spent weeks breaking that calf to lead, and it still might take off spooked across the arena.  You never know what life may throw at you, but part of growing up is learning how to roll with the punches, find a way to deal with the disappointment, and then move on.

I see my children learning all of these lessons as they work on their bucket calf project, and it gives me one more reason to be glad I’m raising them on a farm.  They have so much enthusiasm and I can tell this is going to play a role in the development of their character, and I hope that it instills in them their values for life from here on out.

Friday, June 27, 2014

The 'Mommy Reality' of my laundry room

Laundry.  It is the bane of my existence.  As a new farm wife, I can remember using the stain remover on every grease, grass, and manure spot and folding each piece of clothing nicely and putting them away in the dresser.  Then my three beautiful children appeared, and well, let's just say, my husband's laundry became a lesser priority!

With the laundry room in the basement and the dressers 2 stories up, it was difficult to leave the children unattended to move clothes like I needed to, so we came up with a solution.  My husband would just undress downstairs and leave his clothes by the washer and I would leave clean clothes there in a dresser so that his stinky farm clothes didn't get mixed in with the good stuff.

At first, this worked great.  I still folded things and put them away, but as time has passed it has become much easier to just leave them unfolded in a hamper for him to grab whatever he needed to wear for the day.  Somehow, the dirty clothes on the floor never seem to stop growing.  I have no idea where they are coming from, but as I do each load of laundry, the pile of the floor seems to grow exponentially.  No one goes in the basement, so that little corner of my life has remained a secret of the chaos in my house for a long time.  Until last week.....

I have started participating in the Mommy Reality Challenge on www.leapfrogsandlipgloss.com, www.jenerallyinformed.com, and www.alavenderlife.com.  Each Friday, they give us mothers a reality check in the form of a challenge to showcase our truth as busy mothers.  Last Friday's challenge was the laundry room, which I instantly knew I could win, but was I ready to put myself out there like that?  Subject to judgement and ridicule?  I decided I was, because anyone who claims that being a wife or mother or both doesn't cause a little chaos is full of it!  Maybe seeing my mess would give another mom a little peace of mind knowing that she isn't alone in her insanity.  The result of my entry: a win of course!  I haven't won a lot of contests in my life, and maybe I should examine why I'm excited that it was my mess that won, but who cares!  Life is short and this is who I am!  Here is the new meme featuring my entry:

http://instagram.com/p/pwKNn8i6BJ/
http://instagram.com/p/pwKNn8i6BJ/
 
On a side note, my canned goods got me extra credit points!  :-)