Long time, no talk!

Howdy, friends! I (Brittany) haven't written a blog post since December of 2022. Back in those days, our cherub of a baby had just sprouted his first couple of teeth and had the most glorious chubby baby rolls.

Fast forward, like really fast, and all of a sudden it's 2025?!?! 2023 and 2024 flew right by without so much as a blog post from me, a writer by trade. Shameful, I tell you. Truly cringe, as the kids like to say. These days, that sweet and angelic chubby 7-month-old is now a tornado of a toddler and keeps us on our toes all day long. Titus is 2 1/2 years old and lives his life full throttle. He loves his toy tractors, toy cows, books, and being outside. He's a late talker, though, and started speech therapy just after Christmas to overcome his speech delay. As always, he's going to do things his way and we're just along for the ride; I haven't the foggiest idea where he gets his stubbornness from. 

(Sam just gave me some wicked side eye.)

As far as the farm goes, we had a really dry year in 2023 and a really wet, then really dry year in 2024. We've been at this long enough to know that no two growing seasons are alike, and we can pivot and adjust accordingly for what 2025 has to throw at us. Sam was reelected as the county Farm Bureau president and is now chairing the state Farm Bureau dairy committee along with running for the town board. I'm slowly getting photography back to pre-Titus levels but Mammary Lane Body Lotion had a record-breaking year last year. I had a couple of speaking opportunities in 2024 talking about farmer mental health and suicide prevention, and I anticipate a few more will come up in 2025.

We classified Holsteins on January 14th and had a really good day after an 11-year hiatus from scoring the black and white cows. 11 cows scored Good Plus (80 to 84 points), 6 scored Very Good (85 to 89 points) and we had our first homebred Excellent cow! Berglane Diamondback Fresia scored EX-90 and is due back in July, just in time to score again in August. We'll be scoring a couple Jerseys the day before Valentine's Day and I look forward to getting the little brown cows shined up and primped.

Two days after scoring Holsteins, the Governor came to see us. His office had contacted me a week prior and said Mr. Evers was looking for a farmer to talk to about mental health. When the governor says he wants to visit, you best say yes. We rolled out the proverbial red carpet and had a really good time chatting with the Governor about our farm, the state of the dairy industry, and improving access to mental health services for farmers. I also made way too many cookies because we just ate the last ones on Monday.

The next day, we headed down to Marshfield for the 71st Wisconsin Outstanding Young Farmer Awards Congress. Apparently someone thought we were outstanding enough to nominate and we were selected as finalists, which was humbling and honoring in and of itself. THEN Sam and I won the Speak Up for Ag award, which was even more humbling. We had a great weekend getting to know the other 6 finalists and learning about their farms and families, and we are grateful to have a new cohort of lifelong friends. We're also super grateful for our friend Kyle Zeman, who did chores all weekend while we were gone, as well as the local businesses who sponsored us and everyone who sent love and support along the way. Of course, all the glory goes to God who allows us to take care of this piece of His creation.

Now that we're all caught up on all of that, I really need to make a habit of dropping by this way more often. Farming, motherhood, photography, and lotion keep me plenty busy but I could always be busier with the latter two. After all, photography and lotion buy a lot of groceries here so every photo session booked or every lotion jar purchased really makes a difference. 

Until next time,

Brittany