Month: June 2018

Hello Hump Day! Do you know what that means? I go to the FAIR tomorrow!!! I am beyond excited for Youth and Farm Bureau Day. Be sure to stop and say hi if you find yourself in Central City! Getting ready for our two days at the fair has been no small task but before I began planning for the fair I prepped for my first public speaking engagement. Working with youth is within my comfort zone but presenting to adults had me facing my fears.

When Barb Lemmer, Linn-Mar Agriculture Educator, first asked me to speak during the National Association of Agriculture Educators (NAAE) luncheon I jumped for joy! What a great opportunity to speak with 60+ agriculture educators about our Linn County Farm Bureau Education Outreach Program. I saw it as a chance to encourage others to implement agriculture efforts within their own elementary classrooms. But soon the nerves sank in. I was going to be standing by myself in front of 60+ high school agriculture educators from Iowa and surrounding states.

Fears can distract us from reaching our goals and I don’t want my nerves to be my limit so I gulped down the butterflies and got to work creating my speech and PowerPoint.

Barb Lemmer sent me a note following the event that read, “agriculture educators had many positive comments and were energized to reach out to their local Farm Bureau to improve agriculture literacy efforts in their area.” I feel very honored to have been apart of such a great event! And who knows…I may have just sparked the start of another great Ag in the Classroom program. Facing my fears taught me to look at new opportunities with excitement and momentum. Besides the support of a great boss! I had the support of God behind me. It is in this verse that I found confidence.

Who knows…maybe I will give public speaking another try 😉 Thank you for reading!

All thoughts on “Picking Wild Flowers” are my own and do not reflect Linn County Farm Bureau views.

Hello friends! It has been crazy over here! Between wedding plans and summer festivities it has been hard to keep up with my personal blog but tonight I want to spend a little time sharing the story of our 3rd annual farm clean-up day with you. 

Above is a photo we took this past weekend in Amana. We surprised Grandma Carol with t-shirts that say CJ’s (Carol Jean’s) Crew. Please keep her and our family in your prayers!

Okay back to the clean-up day! My oh, My! We accomplished a lot. Our farm dates back to 1913. We celebrated our Farm’s 100th birthday, the year I graduated from high school. Needless to say, there is some clean-up to do.

Megan and I began farm clean up days informally 5 years ago or so. We would come home for the summer and spend a few days cleaning the farm before our summer positions started. These short clean-up days made a difference but we wanted to do more.

And with the dream of doing more, the annual farm clean-up day was born! We dedicate a whole day to one or two major projects. Our first year, was also the first summer Tyler and I began to hangout. I didn’t scare him away…he must be a keeper ;)!

Most of you know we have cattle but did you know Grandpa Richard and Dad once had hogs? We have 1 large pig barn left standing but I can’t say the same for the one to the North. It went down in a storm a while ago and this year we picked this barn as our major project. It is so neat to learn about the history of the Ball farm!

For me, it is always emotional to take down one of the barns but I know it will keep our farm more productive.We worked out a pretty slick deal! We rented a large container for all of the metal and they dropped it off and picked it up. A huge shout out to Dad, Megan, Tyler, Jake and Grandma Pat for helping with our 3rd annual farm clean up day.

A couple weeks later we surprised Grandma Pat, with a new rock bed!

Welcome to the Ball Family Farm!

I want to wish Michael good luck at state this weekend! Can’t wait to cheer you on! ❤