I miss Ireland.

I'm homesick.

Alright so I can't really call Ireland "home." But my dad's dad's dad's dad did...so it's close enough.

This time last summer, I was in Ireland for a two week long trip with my parents.

There was no particular reason we went other than that Dad and I wanted to see it and Mom wanted to see it again. In our family, no trip is made without doing a little cattle business on the side. Of course, Ireland was no exception.

This is sort of, kind of the route we took. It looks like a boot. How fitting.

We more or less took a "pub and farm" tour of Ireland. We stayed in a different town almost every night and visited farms referred to us by the Canadian Hereford Association and other agriculture contacts. Liam Philpott and Anne Pounds of Allowdale Herefords welcomed us in for two days to tour their farm. You can follow them on Twitter @allowdale and see their website.

A few shots from Allowdale:

Liam & Anne

I found the Irish style of Herefords to be surprisingly modern with a few differences from the North American herd. For one, more white splashes on the cattle. Here in Canada and North America, people are trying to breed towards a darker red Hereford with as little white as possible while maintaining the characteristic white face, belly, and socks. The Irish aren't nearly as concerned about this. It's a matter of preference and style.

Of course, we had to do a little touristing. Which just happens to be limited to excessive drinking, kissing, and castle-hopping in Ireland. We were perfectly happy with this, the Irish folk that we are.

Kissing the Blarney Stone. Because I needed more gab.

Mobile meat market! Very neat idea.

A lovely town called Youghal. Which is not pronounced "YOU-GULL" but rather "YOLL." Of course.

Pops, Mama, and I

Do you see why I loved it so much? Ireland is a beautiful place with an incredibly vibrant landscape and an innovative agriculture industry with great people behind it. In every town we found new places to discover and friends to make. 

I'd like to go back now, please. 

Have you ever been to Ireland? Or observed different agriculture practices in a foreign country? Or drank Guinness and looked at cows for two weeks straight? 

Love Trials & Ecstasy

It's a book you probably haven't read. Most likely because there were only 15 copies ever made, and they all belong to members of my family.

It's my favorite book, and it was written by Joyce Templeton, my grandmother.

This book was the product of about five years of work and somewhere around 65 years as a farm wife on the section she, her two sons, and grandchildren call home today.

She wrote this book by the decade, starting with the 20's all the way up to 2010 when the book was published. It documents her life on a farm and ranch in southern Alberta through the dirty thirties, World War 2, secretarial school, and marrying the farmer she had always dreamed of.

In her younger years, Joyce went from secretary to checking seals on gas carriers for work. 

That farmer is George Templeton, who I spent seven short years with but continue to admire for his pioneer spirit and ingenuity as a rancher and farmer.

"As the passing years become more evident, I realized that one of the best memories I could leave behind was some stories of my life and experiences. In my heart I always knew it would be my goal to marry a farmer. I hope as you read my stories you can understand why." Joyce Templeton

She talks about the huge hit to cattle prices in the early fifties with Foot and Mouth disease in Great Britain, the enormous difference power lines made in their lives, and how she juggled three children, a farm, and a growing herd of Hereford cattle. She speaks of my grandpa's time as the Alberta Hereford Association President, hosting over 700 people at our farm during the World Hereford Conference in 1976, and travelling to New Zealand for the same conference in 1983.

(1951) "I remember two things about that fall: peeling potatoes in the grain truck while hauling wheat and caring for my firstborn son." In my eyes, this is the epitome of a farm woman. 

They became XTC Hereford Farms because they decided farming could either be "hell or ecstasy." I think naming it XTC has proved true. Our family was awarded the Master Farm Family award in 1969 after being judged on "right living, clear thinking, and good farming." Doran left to Olds College with every intention of returning to the farm, and Dad took a different path through the University of Lethbridge, but as fate would have it, ended up in the same place.

"These were trying times for us, but in farming we always believed that next year would be better." 

Reading her memoirs makes me extremely proud to be her granddaughter. I think it's a pretty good measure of a life if you can record each thing you've been through and accomplished for generations of your family to look at with pride.

Each grandchild has a page in the book. A few shots of me being little and cute, and
one of the only ones of me and Grandpa George(top right).

This is and will always be one of my most valuable keepsakes. It is an amazing story of the grandfather I never knew well and the grandmother who had a remarkably interesting and admirable life before she was "Grandma." It is a lesson in life, love, and survival in farming. Love, trials, and XTC.

Presenting: The Readymade Community Center

This weekend, we celebrated the grand opening of the Readymade Community Center in our community.

A little history. "Readymade" is a term used to describe the farms that were built for new settlers to move to in the early 1900s. The farms consisted of a barn, a house, and 160 acres of irrigated land ready for new settlers. The Readymade School was built in 1918, and continued to service as a school until 1984, and as a community center until 2010. I have fond memories of 4-H meetings and community dinners in the old building.

CPR advertisements for Eastern settlers to head west

In 2010, sod was turned on the land behind the old school. This weekend, we had our grand opening.

The community center is built in the shape of the original Readymade barns, a few of which still stand today.

It took over 100 volunteers and countless hours to build the school literally from the ground up. One of the coolest aspects is the floors: over 100,000 pieces of the original hardwood gym floor were removed, treated, and placed into the new center.

A school band, roast beef dinner, and speeches to thank the volunteers marked the grand opening of the new hall. A live band came after to get the crowd dancing. It was great to have the community together, including about 15 members of my extended family.

My Dad was the MC, keeping the crowd entertained

This hall is vital to keeping the spirit of our rural community alive. It will be a place for weddings, community dinners, fundraisers, and other celebrations. It will be a place to bring our community together. It will be a place for the members of our community to hold with pride. It will be a place for the hard-working volunteers who built it to be deeply proud of.

Thank you to everyone who made the Readymade Community Center possible. It truly is amazing what can be accomplished with the power of willing volunteers and a common mission.

Thank you, Dad.

This Father's Day, I'm honoring the man who made it possible for me to live the life I do. I love that I've had the opportunity to grow up in the country, and have cattle and farming be central to my life.

But this wasn't always how he thought it would end up.

Dad at 15

You see, my Dad grew up on the same farm we live on today. But at 18, he went to the University of Lethbridge to pursue a degree in...physical education. Yes, my Dad, the master of the pasture, the man who serves on about 7 different cattle and breed boards, and the ranch-roping fiend, at one point in his life, thought he was going to end up a gym instructor.

My Dad at his U of L graduation

When my Dad was 23, his older brother fell off a bale stack at the farm and broke both of his arms. Dad had finished his degree at this point and was travelling in Mexico with a high school friend. After hearing about his brother's accident, my Dad headed home back to the farm. He hasn't left yet.

Ranch roping is Dad's favorite new hobby

My father, always the cattleman, and his brother the avid farmer, worked out a succession plan between them and my grandfather. XTC Herefords incorporated, dividing the duties of the farm by the respective interests of my dad and uncle. This is still the system we have today, with my dad and our family primarily in charge of the cattle and my uncle and his family on the crop side.

So, here we are. A farm family that may not have been without a few special circumstances. And we couldn't be any happier that it worked out this way.

Here's how I thanked my Dad today:

It's a BBQ Brander- A mini branding iron for your beef!

Just slide the message in, heat on the BBQ, and brand!

I think Dad was pretty happy with it. Can't wait to use it on the steaks tonight!

Happy Father's Day Dad! And thank you for not becoming a gym instructor.