Christmas

They say you never know what you have until it’s gone. I agree. My years as the resident barn owl at Wonderland Farms have taught me that many take what they have for granted.

We are down to the short rows of 2024. Winter is upon us. Christmas is days away. The older I get, the more quickly the days, weeks, months and years pass by.

The Christmas tree was a scrub cedar hacked from the edge of the woods that bordered the farm. Big-bulbed lights, strung in barber pole fashion, generated almost as much heat as the nearby wood stove.

While the president-elect continues to nominate prospective members of his incoming administration, the outgoing Congress faces a hectic sprint to complete a long list of unmet legislative duties before their pre-Christmas adjournment.

What if I told you there’s a breakfast so versatile, so satisfying and so easy to make ahead that it can save your busiest weekday mornings, elevate your lazy weekends and even grace your holiday table?

If you want to enjoy a taste of Indiana goodness, add an Indiana Grown Holiday Box to your Christmas wish list this year.

The largest drive-through light show in Indianapolis — Christmas Nights of Lights — is returning to the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Excited members of the Yorkville Christian FFA Chapter gathered at Spirit Farms for a private concert with country artist Hailey Whitters. The chapter won the 2024 Rock the Crop contest from Firestone Ag.

As Halloween approaches and the ghosts begin to roam, why not conjure up a wickedly delicious twist on a classic treat? Let’s take deviled eggs and dress them up for Halloween — Deviled Monster Eggs.

It is that magical time of the year — August fair season. In a lot of ways, I look forward to the fair more than Christmas. 4-H has always been a big part of my family.

Like most southern Illinois farms of my youth, my family had a closet filled with guns.

The earth provides an overabundance of food, but the distribution of that food is the struggle.

A second quarter U.S. Department of Agriculture Hogs and Pigs report held few surprises for producers and traders.

The Rahn family operates a centennial farm in northern Illinois that includes row crops, hay production, cattle feeding and a cow-calf herd.

One of my annual routines to kick off a new year is to replace our big family calendar that is posted in our mudroom and begin filling it out.

At the height of the Christmas giving season, the governors of Iowa and Nebraska, two largely rural, heavily agricultural states, chose to play Grinch by turning down tens of millions of federal food assistance dollars.

It has been a blessed Christmas season. The halls are decked, presents have been wrapped and you can hear Faron Young singing Christmas carols when you step in the backdoor of our house.

Santa Claus is as popular a figure in antique Christmas collectibles as he is in today’s decorations. Most are more festive than this papier-mâché figure.

The holidays are in full swing with all the hustle and bustle and seemingly endless to-do lists. You know what we need, besides more money, lower prices and an extra week before Christmas?

They say you never know what you have until it’s gone. I agree. My years as the resident barn owl at Wonderland Farms have taught me that many take what they have for granted.

The Christmas tree was a scrub cedar hacked from the edge of the woods that bordered the farm. Big-bulbed lights, strung in barber pole fashion, generated almost as much heat as the nearby woodstove.

Do you have fond memories of spending a winter day sliding down a snowy hill? Sledding is a pastime that has been around for a long time.

Toys have been used as advertising premiums for more than 100 years, from the cloth dolls that first appeared in the 19th century and baseball cards initially issued by tobacco companies to Cracker Jack prizes and more recent toys in cereal boxes or kids’ fast-food meals.

Wool season is here in northern Illinois. Those wool socks, wool blankets, sweaters, gloves and mittens are so comfortable. Wool is a remarkable natural fiber. The website www.americanwool.org has a lot of resources to help with wool promotion.

It’s been great so far this December to do chores without having to break the ice on the energy-free waterers we use here. Pretty much all fieldwork has been done by now around here.

‘Tis the season to give, so I gave the rams to the ewes. Now everybody’s happy. I should start lambing about mid-May. Hopefully we will have a lot of green vegetation to graze.

Some advertising icons have obvious connections to their brands, like Planters’ Mr. Peanut or the RCA Victor dog with his head tilted as he listens to a phonograph.

Looking back through past columns, I came across one that hits home 10 years after it was penned. I began: “You can tell a lot about a person by the way they handle four things: a rainy day, the elderly, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.”

As I sit here to pen this column tonight, I find I am quite exhausted after another extremely busy day, which included us doing timed AI breeding on 90 heifers. It took us about three hours to get it done.

The fat market has moved lower now that the holiday buy is completed, but I don’t see the justification. There are no more cattle out there and demand seems to be just as good.

Gift-giving can be stressful. Slippers? Wrong size. Candles? Wrong smell. Candy? Well, no, candy is always good, but I’m sure you’ve been in this situation before.

Kendra Downing has learned how to deal with adverse conditions and as a result won the National FFA agricultural proficiency award for agricultural sales — entrepreneurship.

If you want to support Indiana businesses this Christmas, you might consider gifting the Indiana Grown Holiday Box — a curated box filled with Hoosier-made products.

Roll up your sleeves and get ready to make the most delicious cookies. You will impress your family and friends, as well as Santa, by incorporating this secret ingredient — nonfat dry milk.

The best holiday gifts for gardeners are the ones that keep their minds in the dirt, even during the off-season.

We finally got a frost that finished off our corn after wheat. I have been busy pumping manure and did not get involved with chopping that last field of corn, but Brett reported it had made 12 tons.

For the farmers of Will and Kankakee counties who volunteer with Wreaths Across America, the time and labor to receive, unload and transport over 10,000 Christmas wreaths to a national cemetery goes beyond a good deed.

On my way to Kansas City a couple of weeks ago, I stopped at a Dollar General store to pick up some Halloween candy for the kids that come by our stalls at the American Royal cattle show.

Harvest is going very well for us. We finished beans and have moved on to corn. The weather has been excellent for fieldwork. We have only been rained out twice. Hopefully, that trend continues.

Wouldn’t you know after all these years of January lambing we switch to an April drop and we enjoy the mildest January, so far, I can remember. Not complaining, though, since it is nice chore weather, especially when ground turns to winter’s concrete.

The future is easily predictable, especially if you have access to a photocopier and a fax machine. At least that was the successful business plan of a central Illinois neighbor who maintained she had received the “gift” of clairvoyance after surviving a lightning strike.

They say you never know what you have until it’s gone. I agree. My years as the resident barn owl at Wonderland Farms have taught me that many take what they have for granted. It’s not until they lose something — no matter what that thing is — that they truly understand what it meant to have it.

The rush is on as the hustle and bustle of the holiday season ramps up. It seems like there’s never enough hours in the days or days in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

I reviewed my article from one year ago and read that I started to graze my eight-way annual cover crop field in the middle of November and it lasted until Feb. 1. This year I’ll be done grazing the annual field by mid-December — what one year and a slow lack of rainfall can do.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. We will be sending the last of our pastured hogs to the locker, so one less winter chore. We take orders in the spring from our regular customers and add a few more for new customers and buy our Berkshires from Ralph by East Peoria.

The holidays are just around the corner, and for those who celebrate Christmas, it’s almost time to pick up an evergreen tree. But will it be real or fake?

Even though it is becoming the dreaded winter out there, it is good to feel the fresh air and get away from the noise. No, I am not thinking of the traffic or another distraction, but the constant pounding we have taken from the political ads.

We’ve been taking advantage of the dry soil conditions and doing a lot of deep soil tillage ahead of our manure application this year. Surely, we have created some compaction issues with all the trucks and harvest equipment when we were making cow feed.

For many families, picking out the perfect Christmas tree is an annual tradition. But there are a few things you should keep in mind about your real Christmas tree to help keep it fresh through the holiday season.

The Christmas Nights of Lights show is returning to the Indiana State Fairgrounds through Jan. 1. The two-mile car ride will take visitors through millions of synchronized Christmas lights as Christmas music plays on the radio.