Monthly Archives: April 2009

Just what I needed

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Have you ever watched that chick flick, “You’ve Got Mail,” where Meg Ryan gets so excited when e-mail messages from Tom Hanks show up in her in-box?

I mean, who doesn’t like to get a personal e-mail from time to time? They’re so much better than the impersonal forwards, the sale notices and the spam that seem to flood the in-box on my home computer.

Lately, my in-box has been rather neglected. Sometimes 20 or 30 messages will pile up before I have a chance to go through them. Once in a while there will be a personal e-mail from a friend. These days, most of them know they can find me on Facebook.

What did we ever do without that great social-networking site?

In a matter of minutes I can find out the latest happenings of my former WHS classmates, fellow SDSU journalism grads and profs, old friends and new friends and … oh yes, family!

My sister-in-law has dabbled in posting videos on Facebook, and the one she posted earlier this week had me laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face.

My dear, sweet nephew (and Godson) Reece stole the show in what started out as a video of my 17-month-old niece Alayna dancing to The Cars’ “You’re Just What I Needed.”

Alayna is bopping up and down to the music in her footed pajamas – until she realizes that the camera is pointed directly at her. She then wobbles the toddler walk toward her mom and there … in the background, 3-year-old Reece is shimmying and shaking to the music wearin’ nothin’ but a Pamper’s Pull-Up.

I hear my brother’s laughter in the background, followed by prodding from both Jason and Kari for their son to keep it up for the camera.

What a wonderful glimpse of an evening at the Buntjer house in Fairmont … and I could enjoy it thanks to Facebook!

It was, in fact, “Just What I Needed” to cheer up my day.

But I wonder … what is Reece going to have to say about that little video when he’s 15?

Wild Wednesday

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I didn’t have the time to sleep in an extra hour today, but the weather made me do it! It’s hard to face the day when the house is unusually dark at 7 a.m.

So, I’m an hour behind … busy (and happily) tallying up all of the results from the Minnesota FFA Convention for our readers.

Congrats to Worthington FFA’s Market Plan team for garnering first in the state, as well as all of the other teams in the region who did extremely well during this year’s convention. (I know there’s a couple more first place teams – I just haven’t dug that far in the pile of papers on my desk yet!)

Within the next couple of days, you will be able to find all of the State FFA results in the Daily Globe and online (There’s just so many of them to include in one edition!)

Aside from the stories I’m working on about the FFA, I finished a story this morning about this weekend’s lake and park clean-up efforts. They’re looking for volunteers, so if you can spare some time on Saturday morning it would be appreciated! Look for the story in Thursday’s Daily Globe and online, of course.

Also, lest anyone think I’m slacking, I have an interview for our next edition of Active Life this afternoon.

Uff da … it’s another busy day in the newsroom. I better get back to work … wait a minute, writing a blog is work!

Farm babies

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I’m so excited!

I talked to my mom tonight and they had made a visit to Runnings this afternoon and picked up 30 baby chicks and two baby turkeys (poults)!

I’m planning a trip out to the farm after work tomorrow so I can see the birds with their cute baby fuzz, hold them in the palm of my hand and pet their adorable little heads. As farmers know, the "cute stage" for poultry doesn’t last long!

My folks told me on Sunday that they were planning to get chickens. When I asked about turkeys, they said they were too expensive. Then I offered to pay for them. They refused.

"Wouldn’t it be nice to have some bronze turkeys on the farm again?" I told them. It would be just like the old days, when I was still in 4-H and showed my beautiful bronze birds at the Nobles County Fair.

Except, well, I don’t have to worry about putting these in a tub of warm water and Ivory soap to get them all shined up for the judges.

No, these bronze beauties can just be pets … free to roam the farm yard and strut their stuff.

Then Mom reminded me of Molly, my loveable mutt.

Molly hasn’t been around poultry. In fact, the only birds she’s been near are those she tries to attack … black birds, crows, sparrows – whatever is standing on the lawn when she is looking for a little fun.

I’m sure Misty, my parents’ dog, wouldn’t bother the turkeys, but Molly, well, she’s another story.

We’ll have to see how the summer goes. If the turkeys end up being toms (at this point we don’t know if they are male or female), I’m pretty sure all the birds will have to do is puff out some air and puff up their bronze feathers. Molly’s a scaredy-cat … well, except for the fact that she’s a dog (sorry about that bad choice of words!)

If the puffing doesn’t get to Molly, maybe these turkeys will learn to chase her around the farm yard kind of like that mean old black cat out in the barn.

Connecting the dots on swine flu

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When people ask me about the beats I cover for the Daily Globe, they often get a quizzical look when I list off agriculture and public health in the same sentence.

What do agriculture and public health have in common?

Actually, a whole lot.

Take today, for instance. After downloading my e-mails after a three-day weekend, I noticed press releases from the National Pork Producers Council and the Minnesota Department of Health – both tied to this past weekend’s announcement of swine flu and its spread from Mexico to the United States and Canada.

Nobles-Rock Community Health Services Director Brad Meyer posted a message on my Facebook over the weekend about the swine flu, just to prepare me for what my Monday would bring. I’ll be meeting with a couple of NRCHS’s public health nurses a little later today. NRCHS was participating in a conference call with MDH this afternoon about the virus.

The NPPC led off its press release with the statement, "Pork is safe to eat. Direct contact with swine is not the source of, and U.S. pigs have not been infected with, the hybrid influenza that has been identified in a number of people in the United States and more than 1,300 in Mexico."

The release goes on to say people cannot get the hybrid influenza from eating pork or pork products, and that preliminary investigations have determined none of the people infected with the hybrid flu had contact with hogs. It also states the hybrid virus has never been identified in hogs in the U.S. or anywhere in the world.

That is the information from the swine industry, in a nutshell. I’ll bring you the information on the human angle in Tuesday’s Daily Globe.

Gun Show continues today

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The Gun Show is in Worthington this weekend, and it’s open today (Sunday) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Arena on the Nobles County Fairgrounds.

The event is a fundraiser hosted by the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce Agri-business Committee, of which I am a member. All of the proceeds go toward establishing scholarships for students who plan to pursue a degree in an agriculture-related field. (So in other words, if you’re looking for a way to spend a rainy day, why not come out to the Arena and see all of the merchandise available from the vendors – you’ll be helping us send some more kids off to college!)

I’ll be working at the Gun Show this afternoon – not with the guns, thank goodness! I’ll either be selling tickets or selling food.