So I am not going to be a dairy farmer... at least for now.

When you were litte, what or who did you want to be? What kept you up at night, too busy dreaming to sleep?

Now take a moment, did you accomplish that dream? Are you that person? Are you still dreaming?

"Flicka" came out when I was in 6th grade. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it. It's the story of a girl, who lives on a horse ranch and falls in love with this wild horse. (There's more to the story so here is a link to IMDb for more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434215/.)

I saw this movie and that is what I wanted (only I wanted cattle, not horses). I wanted beautiful scenery, a beautiful man (a cowboy of course), beautiful cattle, a couple beautiful horses and beautiful sunrises. I drempt of minimal people, minimal profits, and idealy minimal snakes. But somewhere along the way, the world stepped in. I thought of careers that were more financially fit, more sensible, more stable, more... someone else.

Then I found the dairy industry. It was a job where I could have beautiful cattle and in some cases beautiful scenery. And I love dairy, I do, don't get me wrong, but... well, it's hard to explain, even to those closest to me. (For the sake of this blog post, I will not go into the details, that will be for another time.)

When I graduated high school, my friends would always joke that I was going to head off to South Dakota, find my cowboy who had a ranch, and never come back. I would laugh and say no I'll be on a dairy, but in the back of my mind, I would think back to Flicka.

Mobridge, SD. Not far from McLaughlin

No, life is never as glamorous as in the movies, but growing up, I spent my days in the pasture with our beef cows. It was my happy place. So started in Janurary of 2017, after my December graduation from South Dakota State University with degrees in Dairy Production and Speech Communication and an Animal Science minor, Nick and I will be heading to McLaughlin, South Dakota. We will both be ranch hands for a family owned ranch. I will spend most of my days with the cows, Nick with the corn and some days with each other.

McLaughlin, SD

So, no, I am not going to be a dairy farmer... at least not for now. I am young and alive and I would not be me if I never gave my dreams a try.

Close to Heaven

I know all across the world right now, even amongst my friends, people are losing people. And to most, a cow is just an animal. I get that. Most cows are just cows to me too, but this one was different, God put her here with me for a reason.

A week ago, one of my best friends, at the age of 11.5, was shipped for slaughter. I did not find out until today and it hit me like a rock.

Dottie was a bottle baby out of my grandparents herd that I was given. We very quickly became best friends, since she needed to be fed a bottle twice a day.

Looking back on it now, I believe God gave me Dottie as like a telephone line to him. Every time I was with her, I spoke to God, and of course my grandparents. He blessed me with her to stay closer to him. She was the sounding board that I would tell all of my crazy ideas to. Whether I was mad, sad, happy, boy crazy, whatever it was, Dot heard about it. What I am going to do now that she is gone, I have no clue, but maybe that's why he gave me a puppy named Diesel, just as my other best friend was leaving.

Dottie, enjoy the green pastures of heaven, tell everyone I love up there hi for me. And please take care of yourself until we meet again.