Happy Monday!

I’m officially a couple weeks into the blogging world and I must confess it’s harder to keep up with than I expected. Maybe it’s not so hard to keep up with as it is easy to put off. Sounds like a similar story to other things.

Example #1 “I’m going to get up early and start walking everyday… starting tomorrow”
Example #2 “I’m going to eat a salad for lunch everyday… starting tomorrow”
Example #3 “I’m going to blog everyday”

Remember the saying do as I say and not as I do, I guess that applies here.

We’re heading into the great month of MAY and what a great month it is. First of all, I’m pretty sure we can finally declare that Winter is over! Also, May is a great celebration month…. my brother, couple cousins, Farm Boy, Farm Boss, a couple of other friends and yours truly all celebrate birthdays during the 5th month of the year. Some people, when they get to a certain age, don’t like acknowledge birthdays anymore. Personally I love to. In fact I like to claim the whole month of May as Janet Birthday Season and sometimes, the whole summer! So, here’s to the 4th annual 30th birthday float trip!! By the way, I accept gifts and cash donations for birthday celebrating!!

May is also National Beef Month. Many people don’t always remember the event, but as a farm broadcaster, it’s at the top of the The Farm agenda. During National Beef Month, KMZU again will host the Best Beef Recipe Contest. We’ll accept recipes for about 3 weeks. We’ll choose 10 recipes that seem the most appetizing, cook’em up a have a little taste test at the office. The winner will receive a new grill from Vaughn Pool and Spa in Sedalia. At the end, all the recipes are put into a KMZU cook book and we will hand those out at KMZU events over the next year. So, send in your recipe and keep a look out for the KMZU Beef Cookbook 2008 edition!!

Free Pizza!!

I’ve been attending the National Ag Marketing conference in Kansas City over the past few days. It was my first NAMA experience so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Turns out it’s a great place to build the contact list. Several companies represented and I tried to meet everyone but there were a lot of people.

The convention wrapped up Friday but I just made it back to town this evening (Sunday). Spending time in KC is always fun and I had the chance to catch up with some friends who I don’t see very often. They were attending the convention too so we had lots of bonding time over the last few days. On Saturday night we checked out the new Power and Light District. That’s quite an experience with plenty of clubs and restaurants on two levels. We spent our Saturday night taking in a country band at one of the venues, dancing the night away and people watching. Now that it’s Sunday I remember why I don’t do that very often, but its important to remind yourself every now and then.

Oh… why the Free Pizza line? I stopped by the office this evening to see what I missed over the last few days. Thankfully it doesn’t look like I missed much. Bruce is on air tonight and stuck his head in the door to declare his hunger. To fix that, He’s buying pizza and I’ll serve as the delivery gal. That means I’ll be helping myself to the free Italian pie!

Dipping a Toe in Technology

So my adventure online this week has been interesting. Not only is this blog officially up and running, I’ve ventured into other online experiences. After years and years of thinking those online people are crazy, I’ve now joined the crazy ranks and have a Myspace account. To be honest, the Myspace account was actually established 2 years ago while I lived in Kansas. A friend from Arkansas encouraged me to give it a go so I could easily keep up to date with friends who are scattered across the country. I gave it a try, signed up for the account, decided the thing looked complicated and that’s where I stopped.
Now fast forward to this week…. While loading up on the internet experience, I remembered the Myspace log-in two years ago and wondered if it might still work and it did!! Still no information on my page, but it worked!! While tinkering with it I discovered there’s a mailbox which has been receiving messages for 2 years. Apparently there are a whole bunch of “naughty” networks looking for another member (it’s not just me, it’s the spam stuff I promise). As I’m deleting 6 pages of spam I come across a picture of a lady with a baby. I almost delete it but realize there’s a real message, not just some crazy baby mamma with a naughty message. It’s my friend from Arkansas who talked me into this online craziness 2 years ago. She apparently left me a few messages, and by the fourth one she wasn’t very happy with me. Well never fear, I’ve now replied to Crazy Jane.. She’s not sending out naughty spam messages, just threatening thoughts to an old friend who’s not very tech savvy.
Don’t worry Jane, I’m learning more with each letter I type!!

April showers bring.....more rain!

Well it’s a weekend of relaxation in MO. The clouds are still hanging over the state, and the snowfall we experienced yesterday still has many of us amazed…. It’s April right?
I know each year it feels like the winter we are escaping seems much longer than any winter before. I’m sure it may be a matter of perspective. I know I’ve thought this before, but gee whiz, can Spring please shine some light on to the countryside so the temperatures can go up and the Jeep can go naked. However, I suppose it’s just as well. If you’ve ever seen a vehicle I drive, you know that I live out of it. With that said, the top off the Jeep, driving down the highway in 80+ temperatures would be an easy way to clean house!!

A Broadcaster in the Making

Today we had a special guest at “The Farm.” Courtney, a member of the Wellington Napolean FFA Chapter, spent a few hours job-shadowing the farm department. She’ll be and attending the University of Missouri this Fall, majoring in Ag journalism or Ag Education. I tried hard to sway her vote toward broadcasting but suggested she pick up her Ed degree. Scott tossed in a great point, "pick up as much business and computer knowledge as you can too!" Courtney did a great job on a story that will air during the noon hour Farm News file tomorrow. If I figure out how, I'll post the audio here too.
I’m going to date myself a little here, but when I graduated from Houston, Mo, computers were useful, but not something 110% necessary for me. I had an electronic typewriter with magic tape to banish typos so I was set! Fast forward a couple years when I pulled an all nighter on a technical writing project. You can’t use the computer lab that late so I spent the entire night at my friends house on their computer. Thinking back on things, they (you know who you are) weren’t the best people to try and write A+ literature around but they were entertaining. Oh the fun of college….. Courtney.. actually it was no fun at all… keep your nose in the books and stay away from boys!!

It's a Wednesday

So the Blog has been active for a few days now although, very little activity from my end. As I mentioned previously, I was inspired to blog from the experiences that happened at the 2007 state fair. I’ll go over those in a couple days after refresh my memory. But let’s say in the world of radio sometimes there are a few things that go wrong. Come to think of it though, it may not be the world of radio… just my world!

Anyway, around here we’ve actually had another pretty day. I know everyone is ready for some sunshine. I’ve already bought a few plants to put in the ground to add some color to the house, but that hasn’t happened yet. I’m not a big fan of chilly weather so I’m waiting for Mother Nature to bring some sunshine then I’ll go outside and play in the dirt a little.

Finally started...

So it’s taken a while to get the thought of having a place on the web from my mind to the computer. It was several months ago the idea came to mind followed by several months of wondering where would be the best place to have a page. I hope to keep listeners, family and friends informed of things taking place in my world, a.k.a. what’s taking place at The Farm, KMZU. Someday I’ll have a picture of a farm road to match the title. In the meantime, let’s enjoy the idea of a nice warm beach instead of what the reality has been here for the last few weeks. If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please send them my way!

Starting the engine

First true venture into blogging. It will be interesting to see where the farm road leads to. We'll consider this first trip just a test.