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Life is too short to eat bad food! Sharing great recipes, farm life, stories and photography from our Northern California dairy farm.

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August 2, 2010

News Worthy? Really?! & I think I Might be Fired

"Hello?"

"Yes, this is Nancy."

"You want to do an article on me?  And my blog?"

This was the phone call I received last week from Rob Rogers, a reporter for the Marin I.J.  Let's just say, I was a bit surprised.  This call was spurred on by a national contest I entered, Web Moo.0 by NutriDense with the hopes of winning a trip to Chicago at the end of August to attend the 1st annual AgChat Convention, who helps farmers promote 'agvocacy' by the use of social media.  The grand prize ultimately went to Ashley Messing, a dairy farmer out of Michigan and I won a Flip Camera.....so get ready to see some video on this blog in the near future!

Here's the link Marin I.J. article.
Here's the link to the results of the Web Moo.0 contest.

Photo by Frankie Frost, Marin I.J.




This afternoon there was perfect weather to go to work with Dominic....not too hot and not cold.  My job was to open and close the gates.  Easy right?


First stop, feed the heifers {cows that have never given birth} their first course - hay, in the nice, cool freestall barn.  But of course, the first thing I see is that darn bull.  There's 65 heifers to be fed and he's the one who spots me first!  I think I'm a bull magnet or something, because seriously, out of over 300 cows and heifers, it's one of the two bulls that ends up right near me......EVERY TIME.  Can you tell bulls make me a bit nervous?  Even if they are on the other side of the fence.



Heifers....they're SO cute aren't they?!



Lunch time is always a great time of day.


So, remember when I said that being in charge of opening and closing gates was easy?  Well, it's easy if you actually close the gate when required.  Let me tell you what happens when a gate isn't get closed after feeding.  Ummm, 60 or so milking cows find their way over to the open gate thinking they've SCORED because this is the section of the freestall barn where the hay and alfalfa is kept.....no cows allowed! 

To my own defense, we were coming right back with a load of grain! 

I think I'm fired as gate monitor. 


It's no wonder I sometimes detect resistance when I announce to Dominic that I'm coming to work with him.
No, not really.  I think he likes when I help him at work...or maybe just watch.

But I did help him move them all back out of course.  {while snapping a few photos along the way}


Okay, back to feeding.  Second course - silage/grain mixture.





Happy Monday!
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11 comments:

Dairy Woman Strong said...

Congrats on the win! Keep up the good work!!

threecollie said...

Congrats on your win. You do a great job with this blog and you certainly deserve to be noticed!
Did they send you your camera? I also won recognition and wondered how that was going to work.

Nancy Grossi ~ Churned In Cali ~ The Wife of a Dairyman said...

Thanks Orange Patch! You too keep up the good work!

Three Collie, no camera yet, but I hear it's on it's way!

Nancy Grossi ~ Churned In Cali ~ The Wife of a Dairyman said...

Three Collie.....Congrats to you also!!

shannon (the daily balance) said...

i can never get enough of your photos!

congrats on the win ;)

Unknown said...

I love the fact that you took pictures while moving the cows back! I'm sure Dominic loved it! haha! Congrats!!

KT Walters said...

YEE HA 4 NANCY!!
You go Girl!!!

The Wife said...

Congrats on the article and flip camera. That's awesome!

Isn't it funny how the one thing that makes you nervous always seems to find ya. Never fails!

LOL about the gate. Those girls were making a break for it!

Samantha said...

Congrats! I love your message and tone in this blog and especially love the authentic and honest information you provide about food producers. Great job!

Dana Gustafson said...

Yay YOU! You go girl! So excited that the Marin IJ has highlighted your wonderful blog. Congrats on the flip camera too...won't that be fun??

The gates...I QUIT that job (before I got FIRED) back in the day. Gates were too stressful ;) Those girls where always more interesed in whatever was on the "other" side..the old grass is always greener saying seems to apply every time. LOL

Katie said...

Congrats on your very newsworthy article Nancy. You have done a great job at telling your dairy farm story.