I could always take or leave Valentine’s Day. There were too many expectations when you were a couple, and then it seemed like the world felt sorry for you if you were not. Add on the stress of what to give, or if the card would say too much or not enough, and it would make it seem bigger than it was.

Meanwhile, I’m of the kind that says “heck with flowers, buy me some hay or horse feed, or volunteer to cook and I’m in!”

My favorite Valentine’s Day treat were always the hearts with the sayings on them that were nothing but pure chalky sugar. I’m thinking it would be fun to make them into rancher sayings like “prime,” or “top filly” or for those people that you don’t care for “your cows are out” or “saggy gates.”

It sounds like another storm is festering its way in on Wednesday. We got hit again last week with more snow and an absolutely brutal wind that blew everything back in. Trying to get around was a challenge. Being the only one at the ranch, I was doing everything I could to not get stuck. There’s nothing worse than having to call the neighbors to help in those situations of my own stupidity.

I’m hoping for this storm because it looks to be bringing cold temps with it, and I need the ground to freeze and freeze hard so I can start pulling cows off of stalks. Between the snow and now the mud, the sooner I can get them off the better. It’s not really what one wants to do after being short hay because of the drought, but it will all work out.

The big project this last weekend was getting product picked up. Realizing I had too many boxes to fit in the beef trailer, I took the 24-foot Wilson that I had scrubbed to the point I would have felt comfortable eating off the floor. Box after box kept appearing out of the plant door, and once again I was in the mindset of wondering who thought this was a good idea.

After getting this round of 250-plus boxes stacked in the reefer, it’s going to be a week of sorting and organizing product. The sooner we bash it out, the sooner we can get it online and moved before we pick up the next round that’s hanging at the plant now and a big round that goes to the plant in a couple weeks.

We are experimenting with a couple of new items, including beef cheek which I’m very excited about. There are also a couple new brat flavors that we will be taste testing this week to see what we are going to move forward with. It’s definitely feels great to have product stocked up once again.

Next week I’ll be heading east. It will be a day of meetings to work on a new project which I’m beyond excited about and then a stop in Grand Island for the Women in Agriculture Conference where I’ll be speaking on a panel on mental health. We all know how important mental health is in agriculture, and I’m so excited to hear and share with others the struggles of overcoming some of those battles. To find out more information on the conference including how to register head over to wia.unl.edu.