January 2015
THE CULTIVATOR
2015 Planning &
Advisory Committee
Beverly Ransler,
Chairperson
(269) 998-3806
Pam Bristle
Kim Clunis
Louise Courter
Leslie Daenzer
Katie Dellar
Christine Gelder
Ruth Gulvas
Shari Konkel
Sandy Maynard
Barbara Miller
Brenda Netzley
Sheryl Oswalt
Emelee Rajzer
Debbie Rasmussen
Dawn Schwab
Julie Schwab
Wanda Skinner
Wendy Stein
Agnes Talaski
Karen Uebler
Holiday Inn—
Midland, MI
Hello fellow farm chicks!
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. For me, it was snowing and we still
had corn standing in the field. I looked around the table and saw all the healthy
faces. Sure we need the corn to feed the cows, but we could buy corn if it came to
that; it might hurt the checkbook a little but I couldn’t buy the healthy handsome
faces of my third and fourth generation family. We face all the problems that others do, but actually they are small and can be handled. I counted my blessings with
a big smile on my face.
Our committee has found a very nice hotel in Midland. The Holiday Inn has
good sized rooms with kitchenettes – sink, refrigerator, microwave. On our visit in
November, Pam & I found the pillows to be great; hopefully they aren’t worn out
by March! Julie and the program committee have another great line-up of speakers for an informative and fun-filled meeting. I’ll keep my hands off the weather
machine so hopefully we will have good weather. I guess I pushed the wrong
buttons last year. I’ll keep my hands in my pockets, ha….ha…
All kidding aside, I hope you are talking to all your friends and telling them
what a great program we have at FWS and they should join you for the fun. This is
an event where farm women can talk to each other and not have to explain what
we are talking about. Sure there are many specialties; fruit, livestock, grain, dairy
but we are all producing food for people. We are FARM SISTERS! We all know
what it’s like; meals to the fields, driving machinery or trucks; or the call you get
that starts out “Honey are you busy? I just broke down – can you go get parts so I
can keep going?” Don’t argue; just love him, because without him it’s a lot worse.
Unfortunately many in our group have had to find that out. Farming is a good life.
When I was watching the snow the other day, it gave me a good feeling to know
there was hay in the barn, corn silage in the bunkers, grain in the bins and the cows
were safe and warm in the free stall barns. Hopefully by the time this reaches you
all the Big Boy toys will be parked in the tool sheds and your “crops” safely harvested. Now sit down and take a few deep breaths. Then get up and do all the things
you have been putting off. Remember farming is a good life.
So much for the ramblings of this old farm wife! The Committee plans are
falling into place and we want you to join us in Midland on March 11 th, 12th and
13th. I’m so looking forward to seeing my old friends from Michigan and Indiana –
and all the new ones that I’m going to make in Midland. See you in March!
Love,
Beverly Ransler
FWS for March 2015
As I sit here to write my article for The Cultivator it is just 8 days before Christmas and we still
have about 100 acres of corn in the field. This is partly because the corn has been to wet, but also because a neighboring farmer is buying it from us and
he is having problems with his silo unloader……
always something to keep our lives “interesting” I
certainly hope that by the time you are reading this,
after the first of the year, the corn will have been
harvested and the fields will just be waiting for spring
to arrive!
I also hope that you are waiting for March and
our time together at the 2015 Farm Women’s Symposium. After another successful symposium in 2014, the
committee has been working hard to once again find
interesting and educational programs for this year.
Director Jamie Clover Adams from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development
will be with us once again this year. We all know that
laws and rules are constantly changing in our business
so we are pleased that Director Adams will be able to
give us the latest updates on what is happening in regards to our industry.
Our key-note
speaker this year is
Kathy Peterson from
Iowa. At the age of 5
Kathy was already
an aspiring speaker.
She would talk to
anyone who would
listen! She put herself through college
and started her first successful business at age 19. In
1998 she started her new venture, PeopleWorks because it is about the PEOPLE who truly make things
WORK (that’s us). Kathy and her husband are proud to
be the fifth generation to live and work on the Peterson family farm in Storm Lake, Iowa. I’m sure we will
all laugh and learn from the 2 topics we have chosen
for her presentations....they are “Working With You is
Killing Me” and “Finding Happiness in the Craziness of
Life”! Both of these can apply to our lives on the farm
or occupations you may have out in the “real” world.
We will once again have 3 local agricultural
businesses explain what they do on their unique operations. We will hear from the Waibel’s, who are
bee keepers, JoanMarie Weiss, who has a corm maze
each fall and Mark & Miranda Daniels, who met at
MSU and now raise plants in a huge greenhouse for
Bonnie Plants. While all these farm stories are interesting, I think you will be inspired by the Daniels story. I am truly amazed by the work this young couple
has accomplished since graduating from MSU.
We will end Wednesday’s program with something a little different. Teresa Irish, is also a graduate
of MSU, and after the death of her father she opened
a trunk that had been in the house all her life. Inside
she found 1,000 letters he had sent home during
World War II. Five and a half years later she brought
the book “A Thousand Letters Home” to print. Her
presentation is a heartfelt tribute to America’s history, freedoms and family values.
To be totally honest, we have really struggled
to find agriculture in Midland for March. We have
plans to visit the famous Doherty Hotel in Clare along
with the Cops & Donuts bakery and gift store. We’ll
tour the state-of-the-art Loons Stadium with their
168 solar panels; rated one of the best stadiums in
the Country. We’ve arranged for a private showing
of the film “Farmland” where we can see for ourselves if the film has hit the mark on the realities of
farming. We plan to return early enough to give you
plenty time to enjoy the shopping opportunities
offered in this area of our great State.
Friday we will hear from Dr. Kelvin Grant on
GMO and non-GMO seeds and how technology will
be changing how we farm in the future. After a segment by Chemical Bank
staff on organizing your
critical financial documents, we will end FWS
2015 with Leslie Norris
Townsend. Leslie left
behind a promising
acting career in Hollywood for life on the farm
in rural Ohio on her family’s 100 year old farm.
She will give us an intriguing look at marriage,
motherhood and the
perfect balancing act desired by women. She will
move us from tears to laughter and will be sure to
send us home on the positive, upbeat feelings we
need in our lives.
Can’t wait to see you in Midland!
Julie Schwab
The committee visits the Holiday
Inn in Midland, Michigan
You have spoken—and we are Listening!
We take the responses to our program survey very seriously; and sometimes a little too personally. Fortunately over the years, we’ve developed thick skins! We continue to look at what factors effect our participants whether it be positive
or negative.
While most of us realize that hotels have
additional charges for taxes, it’s always an unpleasant surprise to see how they add up. This years
registration will include the full nightly hotel cost.
We know you love to shop and want more
free time. We are looking at a shorter bus trip this
year, but remember we are a non-profit & this is an
educational event. We owe it to our sponsors and
scholarship donors to have a full program for their
investment. We heard that you love ending with
humor so we plan to continue that! Being that
many people eat before they arrive; we plan to
continue having a continental type breakfast on
Wednesday.
One issue we can’t fully address is the limited funds for those that aren’t GreenStone customers. Since we are a non-profit organization
ourselves, we have toyed with the idea of offering
scholarships of our own. Unfortunately, historically
we have had years where we didn’t have funds in
our own coffers to do such a thing.
Our registration fee has stayed very level
and basically covers the cost of the meals. While it
can be a farm write-off, I realize that the money
still needs to be in the account. Where else can
you send your chief financial officer to an educational seminar for less than $2/day! Start a vacation fund. Be creative – what can you do to save
$10/week; maybe only stay over two nights?
DON’T be too shy to ask the people you do business with to sponsor you. Make the investment in
you—you are worth it!!
You have asked for more information; what to
wear, what activities are going on in the evenings and social type questions. Please feel free to call Julie or I at the
numbers listed on the registration. Post a question on our
Facebook page; probably others have the same question.
First; dress comfortably. The temperatures in these hotels
vary; dress in layers. Jeans are fine. Some enjoy dressing
up and that is great!
Midland Holiday Inn doesn’t have a hospitality
room and they only allow their food and drink in the pool
area but we are working on some alternative get-together
ideas. Stay tuned! If you are looking for a group to hang
out with; please, talk to a committee member and we will
find you some fun people to hang out with!
Finally, we are set to address the age old problem
of disruptive table talk with the addition of the Sergeantat-Arms. Wendy Stein has graciously accepted this position. We fully intend to crack down on disruptions out of
respect to our speakers and our fellow participants.
I hope you have found this information helpful, and
feel free to contact me if you still have questions or concerns. See you in March!
Sheryl Oswalt
[email protected]
(269) 330-2529
**Silent Auction Reminder**
Hello Ladies!
We have made it through harvest, Thanksgiving, and
Black Friday. Now we move onto Christmas, New Years
and then Farm Women’s Symposium! It will be here before
you know it. Oh, I can’t wait to see all of you to renew old
friendships and make new friends, to hear all the stories we
all have of our farming experiences. Both good and bad.
Funny and sad.
Silent Auction brings with it some fantastic “deals” as
well. We continue to have something for everyone; from
expensive to very reasonable—everything DONATED.
Thank You to all of you for your donations and support to
help make FWS a memorable time for everyone.
Anyone who has a donation for Silent Auction, may email me at [email protected], with the name and address of donor, description of item. This makes it much less
confusing when you bring your donations to Symposium.
Remember, no item is too small or too large and all the
money that is made goes towards next year’s Symposium.
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New
Year. See you all March 11-13, 2015, in Midland, Michigan.
Best Wishes
Pam Bristle
Farm Women’s Symposium
c/o Sheryl Oswalt
16029 S 33rd Street
Vicksburg, MI 49097
Address Correction Requested
Don’t forget to make your room reservations
Holiday Inn - Midland!
Farm Women’s Symposium looses a good friend……
Many of you may not be aware, but the planning committee lost a valuable member and a good friend this past summer. Shirley Hazle passed away
suddenly on July 23, 2014 at the age of 82. She had been on committee for the
past 20 years. In 2014, she was thrilled to be accompanied to FWS with both
her daughters, Kathy Hazle and Dana Sue Kirk, as well as her grand-daughter
Lindsay Garrison who was also one of our presenters.
She was very active in local government, 4-H programs at multiple levels
and also in several dairy organizations. I had the pleasure of having Shirley ride with me to several meetings
over the past years and she was a joy to have along. She had many great stories and she was a shining example of a strong, intelligent female that
never let her gender get in the way.
She was truly admirable. Her full obituary is viewable at www.legacy.com.
She will be sorely missed by friends,
family and her community. Our
thoughts and prayers continue to go
out to her husband George and their
children and grandchildren.