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Just Me Kate

Family

My Easter

April 17, 2025

Easter. When I was young Easter meant spending the night at my grandparents’ house. My sisters, cousins, and I looked forward to the Easter Bunny visiting, while I am sure my parents, aunts, and uncles looked forward to the night off from children.  Staying at Grammy and Grampa’s became a tradition that started when my mother’s younger sister, Alison, was still living at home.  She was and always…

Business

If I were an action figure…

April 13, 2025

Is this cool, funny, or sad? Margaret and I were occupied on Friday afternoon in the office with the topic of action figures and what Chat GPT perceives us to be.  I guess this has become a “thing.” I admit, it was fun, especially at the end of a gray, rainy, and busy week of work. But recently, it has given me another reason to pause and think…

Travel

Back in the Saddle

April 5, 2025

I was back in the saddle this week – the dairy saddle – when I ventured west to attend the Western Dairy Herd Conference in Reno. As a guest of the Axiota team, I covered their speaker and helped promote the event on the Morning Ag Clips. I am happy to report that it felt good to get back into it.  It’s dairy speak.  It’s science-based, economics, and…

Lifestyle

Maple Season Then & Now

March 14, 2025

Fire up the evaporators, and start filling your tanks! It’s Maple Season!  When I think about spring, every other memory ties back to maple sugaring. As a little girl, I remember riding in the back of the old Toyota pickup truck. Roger would pull up to a sugarbush, and all of us kids would hop out and scatter, searching for the bucket yielding the most sap. We would…

Business

I will be there..

February 9, 2025

Who is going to the Commodity Classic in Denver? ME!     And I am so excited!   I have never been to Denver, and I have never been to a Commodity Classic. The Morning Ag Clips has been supporting this major ag event for years…I thought it was about time I checked it out and met all of you who will be there.   What do I want to know? …

Lifestyle

Let the Snow Come Down

February 2, 2025

A farm is different in the winter.  Quiet falls all around. The big white flakes drop silently as steam rises in the freestall. The fields are still. The tops of cut-off cornstalks peek out under a tent of snow; the field mice and voles nestled down in the dead root systems to escape the winter cold. Hunkering down, watching out the window, staring into the quiet as a…

Business

Passwords, VPN’s, Compliance… Oh My

January 19, 2025

My head is swimming, and I am feeling overwhelmed! Why can’t things be easy?? The other day, when I was out for my walk, the strangest thought came into my head–at least for me.   I thought about robberies. I thought about crime. And I thought about how lucky we are not to have much of that here in our little farming village.   But do we? At least it doesn’t…

Family

 It’s a Wonderful life…at 50

December 22, 2024

Being 50 means: …love and gratitude. …freshly fallen snow, a candle-lit walkway, and two magical Christmas trees. …3 beautiful children, willing to help, and an army of family and friends who always show up with open arms. …twinkling candle lights, coconut cake, and holiday carols. …a polar plunge and a Christmas Cosmo. …a roaring twenties fringe dress, pearls, and long black gloves. …a warm puppy, laughing friends, and…

Travel

First Dog Across the Finish Line

December 1, 2024

Thanksgiving 2024 is officially in the books, and the 2024 Christmas season is in full swing! It was a good Thanksgiving, full of family, laughs, and snow this year!   I truly enjoy Thanksgiving. Unlike Christmas, there isn’t the underlying stress of shopping, decorating, party planning, and wrapping. Trixie and I may have been the first dog and 54th human across the finish line for the Thanksgiving Day Turkey…