

First Jobs
Remember the cash from your first job? Did you make $1.70 or $3.00 per hour or $150 per month? Did you get an allowance for taking out the trash or feeding the calves? Cold hard cash would burn a hole in your pocket during the baby boomer years. Whether your first job was walking beans, picking ro…

Aerial Farm Photography
From the hills of Chipmunk Ridge to the wide-open spaces of Texas. From the cornfields of Oakland, Minnesota to the vineyards of southern California. We’re joined by John and Scott who shot and saved single moments in the life of our farms. Join us as we expand our horizons. Our guests take us on …

Farm Memories with Will Beitlich
In a one room schoolhouse a teacher asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. A doctor. A fireman. Will’s turn came and he answered – I want to be a farmer! Today we’re switching it up a bit and sitting down with Dan’s neighbor Will. Raised on a ridgetop farm he went on to spend the…

Spring on the Farm, Part 2
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow… we’re not talking mail delivery here, but spring planting for farmers. Timing is everything as farmers work against and with the clock and mother nature. The race to be first in the fields is on… with bragging rights and replanting options all on the table. Sunday …

Spring on the Farm
Where there’s a “Will” there’s a way! If you use a 2, 4, 6, 8 or 12 row planter the seed still goes in the ground 1 kernel at a time. Spring temps rise and the seed corn hats and jackets change hands and turn heads. Bags of seed are loaded on trucks and poured into boxes and hoppers. Wait a minute……

Wells and Water on the Farm
The whine of windmills, pumpjacks and electric pumps supply water to Rural Route addresses across the country. Simple math played out daily, if 5 gallons of water equals a gallon of milk. How much milk is produced by 50 gallons of water? Arriving in pipes and faucets from a well source up to 600’ b…

Manure
Get the inside scoop on manure during this episode, while we clean the barn. Join fellow manure “spreaders” as we remember cleaning calf pens, scraping alleys and putting lime on the alleyway and not in the coconut! Manure is on the move with pitchforks, manure shovels and barn cleaners. Oscar and…

Winter, Part 2
Snow had a way of stopping time! Every kid knew the signs before adults said a word. The forecast was for 4-6 more inches with the possibility of a “Snow Day”! We shot downstairs in the morning, turned on the TV and celebrated or groaned depending on the scroll. Winter felt bigger back during the …

Cow Stories
A Rose is a Rose – unless she’s a Ross or an Otis or a Mulligan. Some cows had names as unique as their personalities. Others had numbers and chains, but they were all a part of our herds growing up on dairy farms during the baby boomer years. Beauty contests with Miss Alaskow and Miss Moo Jersey …

Winter on the Farm, Part 1
The winds howled as Dad crawled back into bed. The radio forecast crackled a tune of 20 below with a good chance of more snow as he pulled the covers over his head. A slow thaw occurred after his midnight stroll where he fed the furnace, checked the milkhouse heater and stacked a couple more bales …