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As I countdown to Baby Girl's due date - July 28 - ie. 29 days - I thought it would be fun to share what I'm looking forward to the most in motherhood - a TOP TEN, if you will (in no particular order)!
1. Holding her for the first time and all the time. I just can't wait to have her in my arms (and outta this big ol' belly o' mine!).
2. Seeing my husband transform into a father. I love him so much now - I know that will double and even triple once I see him hold our daughter for the first time- our precious little gift from God.
3. Becoming a family. Attending church together and events with family and friends together from here on out - we'll be a FAMILY OF 3!
4. Taking my new little baby out and about and showing her sweet face off to everyone and anyone!
5. Taking her outside to meet all the animals on the farm and watching her reaction.
6. Teaching her how to ride a horse ... eventually. :)
7. Watching her grow and develop into her own unique self.
8. Teaching her how to be kind to others.
9. All of the first moments. Her first smile, first bath, first words, first steps, first day of school, first crush, first date, first cow (or pig) show, first time riding a horse, so on and so forth!
10. Discovering a new unconditional, limitless love for a precious child created from the love of two people. :)
Aww ... hope I didn't get too sappy for a Monday ya'll!
I was recently editing an agricultural law column for the farm pub I work for and found it so interesting - I just had to share it on my blog! John Schwarz is a farm boy from Steuben County, Ind. and also a lawyer (and also a real nice guy that I was once a fellow intern with!). Somehow he manages to help his Dad farm over 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans and keep up a steady business of clientle in the legal arena. "
"You can take the boy outta the country, but never the country outta the boy!"
Anywho ... he recently submitted a column to me regarding lease agreements for wind energy turbines on farmland. If you're not familiar with wind turbines - they are those gigantic white turbines you see in farm fields, prairies, mountain sides and even across ocean waters that help to generate electricity using wind. They can measure nearly 300 feet in height, with a rotor diameter of the blades at 269 feet across - depending on the manufacturer. I will not be discussing the benefits of wind energy in this blog - but as you may know - it does provide an alternative source for energy production rather than depending on depleting resources from abroad.
According to Schwarz, many wind energy agreements are offered to farmers in 40, 75, 100 and sometimes perpetual year leases. And the financial offering of these agreements is often pretty lucrative in terms of $$$ per acre (or per megawatt produced) needed for the turbines. You may be thinking ... so what, who cares! I do and if you read on you'll soon understand why.
Well, we all know that attractive prices of today may not even cover the input costs in years to come. So, by signing such a long-term agreement, farmers are really putting themselves, their inheritors and future generations in jeopardy of financial distress down the road - 40, 75 or 100 years.
Mr. Schwarz has reviewed all kinds of differing wind energy lease agreements for clients across the state of Indiana. Most of these contracts offer the landowner a per acre amount for signing up, and then a royalty for the amount of megawatt hours of electricity installed. For instance, one particular contract he reviewed offered the landowner $7,500 per year for each megawatt installed on the farm. Not bad, considering if the company was able to install multiple turbines.
However, as you can imagine, no wind energy agreement out there operates on a year-to-year basis. The shortest duration stated in a wind energy contract he has ever reviewed is 40 years. The longest duration was perpetual. Yep, thats right, it went forever so long as electricity was being produced by the turbines.
So, a landowner signing an agreement with terms paying $7,500 per year per megawatt with a duration of 70 years will be paid $7,500 per megawatt in 2010 and each and every year thereafter up to the year 2080. Why on Earth would anyone agree to be paid the same amount each year all the way up to the year 2080? I doubt $7,500 buys much in 2080.
For this reason alone, Mr. Schwarz thinks signing a wind energy agreement for fixed payments over a long period of time would be worthy of Forest Gump’s famous line - "Stupid is as stupid does."
Anyone looking to enter into a long-term wind energy agreement should insist upon the payments being tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or other inflationary index. Thus, as the spending power of the payment diminishes over time, the payments increase. If the company balks at such, he strongly suggests you RUN, not walk, away from the agreement.
The moral of the story is that when presented with a wind energy lease agreements, our hope is that farmers and landowners are not lured into signing an agreement based off of what the payments will be paid to you in the short-term. Consider what the payments will be decades down the road. Else, farmers and landowners may find themselves having a wind turbine on their farm that only generates enough income to buy a loaf of bread in the distant future. Yikes! So if you know of any landowners or farmers out there being approached by wind energy companies to build turbines - forward them to my blog so they can get a look at what the wind companies will probably NEVER explain clearly enough! And for anyone else out there - always remember to read the fine print, ask questions and if necessary consult legal advice!
This week marks my 35th week of pregnancy, leaving five more weeks for our little bundle of joy to incubate until she's ready for her grandiso arrival! As I near the end of this incredible journey, I'm beginning to reflect on the early, mid and final days of my experience in pregnancy.
One thing I've noticed and loved throughout the past several weeks is (for the most part) how kind and friendly people have been to me. Never in my life have I been asked so many times how I am feeling by friends, family and complete and utter strangers! Of the astrological sign Leo - we (Leo Lions) generally revel in being the center of attention - so as you can guess - I love it!
If I could point out one negative, and to be honest, I am curious how others mothers and moms-to-be feel about this ... lately I've had alot of people (again ... friends, family and strangers) call me fat, round, chubby, blown-up and the worst upon worst comment was from a woman at my workplace who called me "fatso," and while at 35 weeks it may be Ok (although not really, because hello people it's not FAT - it's a baby!), she uttered this atrocity at about 21 weeks!
If you want my opinion - it's NOT Ok to call a woman "fat" at any point in her life - pregnant or not, EVER! And if I could repeat this a million times - women who are pregnant can't even logically be called "fat" because the majority of weight gain is in the uterus and water weight - neither of which I recall being fatty tissue! So call me super sensitive, but when you're an average weight for the majority of your life, and all of sudden people of all sorts are calling you "fat" it takes a toll on your self-esteem. It's not as if pregant women don't have to endure enough already!
So how can you approach a pregnant woman and make a comment that is respectable and appropriate - in my mind it should center around the belly itself ... "Boy, you're baby bump has really sprouted!" or "Goodness, that belly of yours has really grown!" Be kind to all those prego chicks out there, and if at all possible avoid - "Man! You are sooo fat!" and "Good grief, you sure have gained a ton of weight since the last I saw you."
As a working woman in the world of journalism, I have to say I do love me a bit of Sex in the City re-runs. Obviously, besides the fact she is a journalist Carrie Bradshaw and I have very little in common, well except the fact that we're both just a little bit fabulous (for me tho ... it comes just a little bit cheaper!).
However ... a few years ago I found out that Carrie played by Sarah Jessica Parker has some pretty good friends in the dairy industry. And if you've ever watched even just one episode of the Sex in the City series (or movies) you know that Carrie has a serious affinity for her high-end, high-heel shoes ... particularly Manolo Blahniks.
But did you know that the owners of the U.S. Manolo Blahniks division -George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitisalso - also own one of the most prestigious Holstein and Jersey dairy herds in the country - Arethusa Farms in Litchfield, Conn. And Miss Sarah Jessica Parker is a serious BFF of the two shoe designers, and has been rumored to visit the scenic dairy on numerous occassions. Just another example of being fabulous on the farm! ;)
So how do a couple of high-end show designers find their way to owning a dairy farm. I found this excellent news report from a local Connecticut TV station that tells the story beautifully ...
In fact, a group of friends and I had the opportunity to visit the infamous Connecticut dairy farm run with money from the high-end shoe line a couple years ago, as they hosted the first annual Global Glamour Sale at Arethusa. This was the sale, where we witnessed a Red-and-White Holstein cow sell for $1 million - yes you heard me correctly. And her name was KHW Regiment Apple-Red.
“She walks like a winner, she knows she’s a winner, she could walk in the show ring right now and take on any competition she wants, she is a red-and-white queen,” said David Rama, who served as the auctioneer for the “once in a lifetime” million-dollar sale.
A sale unlike most, 54 of the world’s best consignments – with Apple obviously leading the bidding – the sale averaged $97,491 and grossed a total of more than $5.2 million. George and Anthony own some of the most award-winning, beautiful Holstein and Jersey cows I have ever seen in my life - so it's not surprising when they say their cows walk in the show ring like they are on a fashion runway! Needless to say, my friends and I were drooling over the beautiful cows presented before us, the beyond gorgeous grounds and facilities. It was the sale of a lifetime and absolutely FABULOUS!!
Here is just a dabble of their show winnings in the past 8 years ...
Hillcroft Leader Melanie (Holstein)
All-American and All-Canadian 4-year old, 2003
All-American 5-year old, 2004
Grand Champion Holstein World Dairy Expo 2004
Supreme Champion at the 2004 World Dairy Expo
Unanimous All-American Aged Cow 2005
Huronia Centurion Veronica (Jersey)
Grand Champion Jersey at the 2004 World Dairy Expo
Reserve Supreme Champion at the 2004 World Dairy Expo
Supreme Champion at the PA All-American in 2005
Grand Champion Jersey at the 2005 World Dairy Expo
Supreme Champion at the 2005 World Dairy Expo
As you can tell Melanie and Veronica are the matriachs of Arethusa Farm, but there are many many other cows at Arethusa who carry a respectable list of show winnings. This is just a perfect example of being fabulous and farming - if not even to a bit to the extreme. If you ever get the chance to own a pair of Manolos - now you will no doubt think about the designer shoes' connection to the dairy industry, and all the great cows bred, owned and exhibited by Arethusa.
For me, writing is certainly a form of therapy, it always has been. So today, I've got to take a moment to reflect on a loving companion of the Foster family we lost last night.
But first let me explain a couple things ... Big D and I are huge animal lovers, I know you're surprised, right. When Big D and I got married in the fall of 2005, I said I wanted to take the pet step in a certain order. He agreed ... somewhat - except on the horse inclusion. First ... a cat, then a dog, a second horse and then think about having a baby ... all within about our first five years of marriage. Well you can plan all you want, but as many of us know God has his own plans for us. So first we got one cat - Doc, then a second cat - Bear, a second horse Roxy, a dog - Grace, then we found out in November of 2009 that we were expecting a bambina in July 2010.
Doc was our first family kitty that we adopted from the local shelter. In a way, he sort of became Big D's baby. He was an inside kitty, extremely spoiled and especially loved. Last night, when I returned from work - we noticed he was missing. Instantly, Big D and I became worried and scoured the farm for site of our beautiful grey friend. No sign ... then this morning as Big D was getting ready to haul weaned pigs off the farm he noticed a grey kitty alongside the road. Confirmed -it was our precious Doc. A part of our family we'd loved since we first became a Mr. and Mrs. I know for many folks - it's just a cat - but Doc was definitely part of our family. The house won't be the same without his silly antics, playful spirit and genuine love. Today, he will be buried next to another very dear companion of our family ... Jack, my first horse.
Yes, unfortunately, earlier this year, we had to put to sleep my beloved Jack, a horse I sort of inherited when I was about 12 years old. Jack and I were the same age, 27, and lived thru it ALL together. It was absolutely heartbreaking to lose him and now that pain is returning as we place Doc next to his side. Jack was special in many ways - but by far his personality is what has set him aside from the rest. The farm is certainly not the same without Doc or Jack.
Anyone that is an animal lover, has had a ever lost a family dog or cat - knows this kind of heartache and can relate. Thanks for reading my therapeutic prose.
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