Keep Calm and Farm On

Oh, hello.

It's me. I'm still alive, though you clearly wouldn't know it from the tumbleweeds bouncing across my blog all summer.

I spent my summer working in crop input sales, which seemed like a stretch for this cattle girl but turned out to be a fantastic learning experience. I've made the move south to Stillwater, Oklahoma where I am enjoying the heck out of my agriculture communications and agriculture economics classes and learning to look good in orange. More on that later.

Today, I want to share a great website that is empowering young people with passions for agriculture.

FarmOn is an online community with the mission to equip young agricultural businesspeople with the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to become profitable. The founding folks of FarmOn are all rural Albertans who have turned their agriculture passions into success. I applaud FarmOn for filling a necessary void in Canadian agriculture by empowering the young leaders of our rapidly aging industry.

I was honoured to do an interview with FarmOn which they have posted on their site. You can check it out here.

Rosie Goes Okie

8 days, 2 states, 3000km on the rental car and one visit to my future university.

This year's "Reading Week" (Canadian Spring Break) involved very little reading but a whole lot of fun-having. My dad, Byron, and I flew to Dallas, Texas and made the drive to Stillwater, Oklahoma for the next morning. The purpose of this trip was to explore Oklahoma State University campus, meet with professors and advisers, and get everything in order for my big move to Oklahoma this fall. As it stands, everything is falling into place and I can't wait to get started as an Ag Communications and Ag Economics double major.

Thanks to the magic of Twitter, I was able to meet up with some good friends IRL (in real life) for the first time. The lovely and talented Katie Vaz was my unofficial OK State tour guide along with Professor Ferrell and Cara, showing me around campus and treating me to my first Eskimo Joe's experience.

I also got to meet up with Jessica and Levi, and that evening we had some excellent pizza and did some bowling. 

Verdict: professional bowling is not in my future. 

I fell in love with the campus. I'm sure it's not hard to see why.

I'm so happy with how everything went in Stillwater. I met friends I already knew I'd love, and was treated to some fantastic southern hospitality. I can't count how many times I was offered help for my transition to Oklahoma from new friends and contacts.

After all the paperwork was settled and we had seen the sights of Stillwater, it was time to move on. We spent a day in Oklahoma City and visited Express Ranches, the Cowboy Hall of Fame, an Oklahoma City Barons hockey game, and Cattlemen's Steakhouse in the OKC Stockyards.

Our Canadian friend Doug who manages the Express Clydesdales was kind enough to give us the grand tour.

I think these horses have better living conditions than most people!

Papa Byron and I with the Express Stagecoach

No family trip is complete without looking at cattle. Their bulls looked great.

Express was amazing. I'd heard about it countless times so it was great to finally make the visit.

From OKC we headed to Texas, and spent the next three days on a grand tour of West and North Texas and plenty of their historical points, western shops, and trailer dealers.

Palo Duro Canyon, one of Dad's big bucket list items.

Hereford, Texas in Whiteface County. Well worth the detour off the interstate.

West Texas. Flat, treeless, and beautiful.

Templeton's seem to have a problem with cowboy boot addictions. This trip was no exception.

I brought home this pair, some Corrals for my sister, and Dad found himself a pair of Lucchese's.

On our final day in Texas, we spent the evening at the Fort Worth Stockyards. This is definitely somewhere I'll be revisiting as we didn't have nearly enough time to explore. We had a delicious dinner at H3 Ranch with another Twitter friend, Mark!

I loved my time in Oklahoma and Texas. I can't wait to get the Oklahoma State this fall and do some more exploring of the southern states. It will be a big change for me and doesn't come without some pretty major sacrifices, but I know it will be one of the better decisions I ever make.

Goals for the New Year

2012 is going to be a big year. Like, huge. Big enough that if the world ends this December, I won't even be that upset.

Let's do this, 2012.
Featuring a new haircut, because I'll get more accomplished with cute hair.

I prefer setting goals to resolutions. To me, resolutions are fun ideas like "go to the gym" or "spend less money on clothes" that I will briefly imagine myself doing, maybe even do for a month or so, but never actually stick to. Goals are things I have to do. Things that I will work my absolute hardest to make happen unless I decide there's a better goal for me to be going after. So with that nonsense, here are my 2012 goals.

1. Make Oklahoma State happen for Fall 2012. This includes maintaining the necessary GPA to get a transfer scholarship, applying for student loans, finding a place to live, visiting in February, and making the move in August.


[Note: I tried to find a picture of me studying, but there are none. There were, however, more than a few of me having a lot of fun. Finding a balance between those two is part of the first goal.]


2. Put everything into my summer job so I can get everything out. I'll be a summer sales student with Bayer CropScience, a great opportunity for any agriculture student. I want to learn as much as possible about this side of the agriculture industry.

3. Make things happen with Collegiate 4-H. I'm the President of the Collegiate 4-H club at my university, and this is our first official year as a club. I want to see our first campus events this year, and to help youth 4-H members learn about the possibilities of a future in agriculture.

4. Stay in contact with my friends at home and in Edmonton when I leave. Remember I'm only saying temporary goodbyes to pursue an amazing opportunity that will be the best thing for my future career and provide the experience of a lifetime.

That's how I do the new year. It's time to focus on everything I have going on this year so I can make my dreams happen. As more opportunities come up and circumstances change, this list will probably grow a lot this year.

Of course, I have silly resolutions too. I bought gym shoes because, obviously, not having any was the only reason I haven't been hitting the gym. And I need to start budgeting my money because Oklahoma, unfortunately, is not going to come cheap. Better study habits are on there too.

So enough from me, what are your new years goals? What huge things are you going to make happen in 2012 so you can go out with a bang (possibly literally)?