Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2022 i Farm and Ranch Living

EDITOR’S LETTER At the start of each new season, I’m certain this one is my favorite. The first snowfall of the year brings me a childlike sense of glee. Spring’s emerging growth spells unparalleled optimism. And when summer arrives, I’m over the moon. But autumn! Oh, autumn—the air is crisp and leaves crunch underfoot; the kids return to school, so eager to learn; apples are bountiful and pumpkins are ripe for the picking, making things busy-busy for Kentuckians Kasey and Chris Hendrick, who recently added a market to their farm (page 18). Fall is soup season, too, and you’ll find a simple, tasty recipe for one of my faves on page 15. The ag diary by Field Editor Dixi Wellman (page 32) is also bound to whet some appetites, this…

A DOG’S LIFE I adopted my dog from a local animal shelter. The workers told me that if he stayed there, he would have only two days left in his life. I walked with him to determine if he would respond to me, and as soon as we looked at each other, we were pals. After bringing Pal home, I trained him to help with the cattle. It has been wonderful to have a working dog on the farm. But, more meaningfully, I wanted a good friend. He has become that and so much more. Since I live by myself, Pal is very important to me. He keeps watch over things and greets all our visitors. He even gets to run in 10K races with me sometimes. (I have been…

THE GRATITUDE GOES BOTH WAYS! Growing up in the ’40s in a farm family of seven, it’s a pure delight to receive this magazine. Everything about Farm & Ranch Living is positive and colorful, and I learn something new with each issue. The photos are gorgeous and so filled with memories. While reading the ag diaries I am amazed at how dedicated these families are. Like them, my family worked from dawn to dusk—and so did our neighbors. Keep doing what is successful, and know you give the older generation smiles of memory and gratitude. JANET LONG SALEM, OREGON MAGAZINES IN MOTION We sure do love our summer night rides in the Bronco with the latest issue of Farm & Ranch Living. AMY HALLER NEWMANSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA All Grown Up I…

Autumn days fill me with melancholy. I suspect this feeling is familiar to all who harvest, be their plots 500 acres or a tiny backyard. Yet those golden, precious days also beguile us. I spent a good part of the spring and summer scraping the almost 50 years of accumulated paint from our lead-framed windows, so I had no time to plant and tend a garden. My entire harvest consisted of three bunches of artemisia, which I hung to dry from the beams in our living room ceiling. Something that has always evoked harvest and fall for me is the smell of my mother’s fresh tomato soup while it’s cooking. Without a garden this year, I bought the ingredients at the farmers market. Because I loved the aroma of the…

WAVERLY, NEBRASKA LAND 10 acres PRODUCT Wagyu beef FARM ORGS. FFA TRACTOR John Deere Our family consists of my husband, Rusty; our two kids, Skye (23) and Kolter (13); and me, Dixi. This Nebraska ranching story began with a call from my brother, Dick Travis, who thought it was time for his nephew to own a bucket calf. We had no knowledge, experience or place to raise a cow. But with the help of our sweet neighbors and my brother, we acquired an orphaned Black Angus calf that came home in a dog kennel. Kolter learned a good work ethic by rising early to bottle-feed that calf and then feeding it again before bed. He learned that we don’t eat, drink, retire to a clean bed…

BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY LAND 1,000 acres BUSINESS 3H Farms & Farm Market TRACTOR John Deere Hi there! My name is Kasey Hendrick. My husband, Chris, and I first met as kindergartners in Smiths Grove, Kentucky. Who could’ve guessed that we would become high school sweethearts and get to where we are today? Chris and I own and operate a farm in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He is the brains behind the cattle and crops, while I help make sure everything falls into place. We are a good team. Both of our families ran country stores, and I believe it’s what we were meant to do, too. Our shop, 3H Farms Market (3hfarmsmarket.com), is the fulfillment of a dream. Chris had the big idea, but we’ve made this happen together. At the…

The smells lingered heavily near the pumpkin field and offered a complex understanding of low-level ecology: Rot. Fungus. Mildew. Rust. My boss called me to the farm early one morning to help salvage the pie pumpkin field. Central Minnesota, where I was working a seasonal job before starting school, had been visited by an early frost, and he wanted to harvest as many of the healthy pumpkins as possible before the next freeze. I was eager to work with small pumpkins after the behemoths we’d been picking the week before. The fall harvest had started with average jack-o’-lantern-sized gourds, but later, as some of the larger species reached their prime, we spent hours picking pumpkins that averaged 35-50 pounds. I was still sore. By contrast, pie pumpkins are all of…

TRACTOR TALK DEPRESSION-ERA DOODLES When you think “tractors,” factory-built models usually come to mind. But home-built tractors, called doodlebugs, are also part of the picture. My parents raised laying chickens, grew strawberries and had 11 kids. Like many farmers during the Great Depression, our family couldn’t afford a prefab tractor, so they made do with what they had on hand. Dad’s tractor was a doodlebug, made from a Ford Model A truck. My mother drove it until we kids were old enough to take over; Dad walked behind the plow or cultivator. In contrast to assembly-line tractors, each doodlebug was one of a kind. Some companies, including Montgomery Ward and Sears, sold conversion kits to turn cars into tractors—but many doodlebugs were built without a kit. On lots of small…

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