The House That Ag Built

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Great Careers in Agriculture

This is the first post from new guest blogger, and Big Sister, Shannon. Shannon was planning to just post about cooking, but then she just couldn’t help but comment on this issue.

This morning an article titled “College Majors that are Useless” appeared on Yahoo. Sadly this article includes three agriculture degrees – Agriculture, Animal Science and Horticulture – which do not deserve to be placed on such a list. I suppose the author must not be worried about eating or wearing clothes. As is typical in an attack on agriculture, the research and science is on our side.

FACT: Agriculture majors are in demand. Take a look at this report from the Center of Excellence. http://www.coeccc.net/Environmental_Scans/ag_scan_cv_11.pdf Overall, jobs in agriculture are expected to grow by 180,000 positions in California alone over the next five years. These numbers take into account the decrease in production jobs as a result of increasing efficiencies and mechanization.

FACT: Careers in Agriculture are well paid. The Center of Excellence found that in California careers pay an annual salary of $50,000 compared to the California average of $43,000.

FACT: The world population hit 7 billion in 2011. The population is expected to keep growing, but our limited resources will not grow. The professionals in agriculture will continue to work to produce more food on less land and using fewer resources. This will require more people working to make this happen.

So before deciding that a degree in agriculture is anything but a great route to a future career in a tremendously important industry, please review the facts. Oh, and maybe thank a farmer and all the agricultural professionals who provided the food for your table today, probably the shoes you are wearing and clothes on your back. I think I heard once that “hungry and naked” is where we would be without agriculture.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Worldless Wednesday - looking back

My nephew is almost 8 months old - he has grown so fast. Here he was the day and the day after he was born. So stinkin' cute!!

Linked up with Pinke's Post Wordless/ Wordy Wednesday

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Animal Rights Activists - Wordy Wednesday

Harris Ranch is a landmark on Intersate 5 in Coalinga, CA. It is hard to miss. For those of you who don't know, it is a feedlot with a inn, a restaurant, and a store. I have never been but I have heard that their restaurant is amazing. Harris Ranch is a family owned and operated business which is very succesful. They are amazing at branding themselves which is probaby one of the many reasons for their success.

On Sunday morning, the north american animal liberation destroyed 14 cattle trucks at Harris Ranch. The news article from the San Fransisco Chronicle is here. To see the letter from the activist group and Harris Ranch's reply go here. They did this becasue they choose a "direct form of action" against evil factory farms. Harris ranch is a family owned company - a very succesful family owned company.  The activist group was not taking action against factory farming, they were taking action against animal agriculture.

It is quite ironic that they chose the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr's birthday to ignite the cattle trucks and then challenge all of the activists that are 'on the fence' about violent protests to take action because "there is a lot of stuff that needs to be destroyed."

Even my first graders know the golden rule - Treat others the way you want to be treated. Apparently, these activists want their means of transportation to be burned to the ground.

I get being passionate about something but I do not get the ignorance that people show. If you don't like the farming practices of a business then don't support them - don't just go out and burn up their stuff! These activists have probably never been to Harris Ranch and asked about how they treat their animals or whatever it is that they were so angry about. They probably just take all the pictures out there of animals in semingly bad conditions as how the entire industry treats their animals.

If you want to be informed - get in touch with a local farmer and ask questions.  Not questions that can be answered yes or no, instead sit down and talk to them - tell them your concerns, tell them what you want for your family and if they don't provide what you want they can point you in the right direction. Farmers are not evil mindless machines - they are people with families and values just like you!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Black and White and Red All Over!

Hello, my name is Sarah and I used to be a style blogger. I stopped blogging my daily outfit because I was so tired of a few people (who were anonymous) commenting every day on my posts saying I should wear 25" heels - maybe I am exaggerating a little - they would say I should be wearing 5" heels. I am a first grade teacher and I am 5'6" - that is not tall but it is much taller than a first grader. As it is I need to bend over or get down on my knees to help them with work at their seats. My back, neck, and knees would really take a beating if I were to wear higher heels than I do now.

With that being said I miss style blogging - really I do! So, I have decided to post an experimental post and see how it goes. Style goes hand and hand with ag - all of my clothes are made of cotton or another ag product. If this post is received well then I will post outfits about once a week or so - they will not replace my current posts but will be in addition to them.

Also, I must say that comments that I deem as rude will be deleted. I hope that before you post a rude comment your momma will pop into your head and say in her mom voice, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all!" I will not delete constructive comments - like, "Oh, Sarah I love those heels - you should try wearing them with jeans!" But I will be deleted comments like, "Sarah - you look short and stumpy you need to be wearing higher heels." Get it? Good! Here we go:

Hello All!! Today is Everybody Everywear - black and white day!

I LOVE black and white together but just can't do black and white without a pop of color.

The only picture I got outside before it got too dark.

It has been a long time since I took an outfit post and I almost cut off my head in these pictures, but lucky for you you get to laugh (with me) at my strange expressions.

Just so you know I wore the blazer all day and the button came off before school started (which is both sad and hilarious)!

Blazer: Gap (thrifted)

Top: Ross

Pencil skirt: NY&Co (my favorite pencil skirt!)

Tight: Spanx via Nordstrom's Rack (best tights EVER)

Heels: Circa Joan & David via Marshalls

There you have it - my first outfit post over here! What do you think?

Monday, January 9, 2012

Hunk of Meat Monday: Goose Hunt

Michael is a hunter. During duck and goose season I pretty much never see him on weekend mornings, sometimes he is gone all day. He is lucky I love him so much, otherwise I would have to get a duck/goose season boyfriend! Anyway, last weekend he went up to Delevan where he got this amazing view of the Buttes (which is the smallest mountain range in the world) from the blind.

The season hasn't been going very well because of the weather. It has hardly rained and ducks (and geese I think) like the raining weather.

But this weekend, he went hunting around here and got this:

Wow, right? A whole pile of geese! There were four of them and they all limited out!! They got

that's right - 24! And all by noon! That is a good day of hunting!

Here are his geese - we had a super top secret project to go do (and he was a few HOURS late getting home) so he plucked the large goose on the right and breasted the others out (that means he took the breast out which is where most of the meat is). Now we have several hunks of meat in our freezer!

What is your favorite way of cooking goose?

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Hunk of Meat AND Wordless Wednesday

Our Christmas Eve dinner:

YUM! What did you have?

Monday, January 2, 2012

Dreaming of a White Kitchen

Ever since we bought our house, I have wanted to paint the kitchen cabinets white. I love white cabinets - they are so timeless and easy to change the mood of. You can add pops of color with accessories very easily. BUT we are not planning on staying in this house for very long (we want to move out of the 'burbs and back to the country) so I don't know if the work would be worth it. So, I didn't paint them.

Two years later we now have beautiful new floors! I LOVE the new floors and it only makes me want to paint the kitchen cabinets that much more. The white cabinets would look soooo amazing with our wood floors! So, instead of grabbing a paint brush and painting the cabinets, I ogled other white kitchens on pinterest.