Oodles of Noodles

What do you get with 1 old recipe, 4 adults, 2 little helpers, 4 dozen eggs and 20 pounds of flour?

Oodles of Noodles

Before our Grandma Poorman passed away, my cousin Jamie got our Grandma's noodle recipe in writing.  However it took all of our memories to make this recipe into the final product.

There wasn't one of the Poorman grandchildren that did not have their turn on the crank of the noodle cutter. Grandma would have been proud and impatient too with Bryer if she could have been here.

Summer Bucket List - Noodle and Memories Made

Poorman Cousin Reunion 2013

I was lucky enough like many of you I imagine, to grow up with three cousins that lived very close to us.  We spent most of the summer together with our 4-H projects, riding bikes and making mud pies.  We fought over show sticks and made up over Keebler cookies on the front porch.

This past weekend Jodi organized a reunion of sorts at her home in Wilmington.  We all came (except Jason) with our children. We left from the farm Sunday and traveled in two cars for the nearly two hour trip. We arrived to the very excited host Jarrod.  He was very excited for kids to join him in the backyard where his parents had prepared a kids size party pad with a pool, bounce house and play set. That provided entertainment for the entire day.  RJ the oldest of the second cousins helped set up the tents, preparing what most people suspected would be a short night in the tents for the younger ones. However, the kids were so tired they went to sleep, unable to be woken until morning.

We left on Monday for what turned out to be a tremendous trip to the Cincinnati Zoo.  Growing up in central Ohio, I have never enjoyed a trip to the zoo.  Every zoo I have ever been to usually ended up as an expensive walk, leaving without seeing many animals.  With Monday being cooler, this zoo trip was awesome with all the animals outside and playing.  The exhibits were set up for optimal viewing, including an underground view of the Polar Bear tank and being able to watch the bears swim.

It was a great reunion . . . who is planning the 2014 Poorman Cousin Reunion.  Jason?

Fighting Parkinson's with Gate Strategies

My Dad is a fighter of Parkinson's Disease.  If you are not familiar with Parkinson's Disease, it can best be explained as death of vital nerve cells in the brain called neurons.  These nerve cells dying cause tremors in my Dad's hands and also cause him to walk leaning forward and with a bit of a shuffle.  Parkinson's has also slowed my Dad down a lot.  This has caused some changes on our farm, including leaving all the combining and planting that my Dad use to do, to my brother.  However I believe this has been a great transition for him.  Jason has had the opportunity to learn and still has Dad there to answer questions.

There are a lot of things that Parkinson's has left my Dad unable to do.  There are a list of things that Dad has spent more of his time doing because these things have been removed from his daily chore list.  One of the things my Dad has really enjoyed working on is designing cattle handling facilities for friends and neighbors.  He also has a patent on hog pens that you can see at the Ross County Fair in Ohio. My Dad makes frequent trips to Kentucky with a plan to purchase gates and sell them to friends and neighbors.  Dad finds much enjoyment in designing, ordering, purchasing and delivering gates. 

Happy Birthday to my Baby Bother!

Today my Baby Bother turns 33. I started calling him my baby bother to the girls, when they watched a show called Olivia.  Olivia the main character who is a pig has a younger brother she calls her "baby bother".  I told the girls that I have a baby bother and his name is Jason.  They asked why he was a baby bother.  I told them because he used to take my Barbies and take their heads off.  I didn't tell him later when I had to drive him to school he would put my car in neutral so when I would push on the gas it would rev up the engine.  He mostly does anything that irritates me - because he is my baby bother and he is very good at it.  However, he taught me to drive, has been their to move me (on several occasions), loves his nieces (as long as he doesn't have to change diapers, wipe butts or cook for them), he is my husbands best friend and also works for free at the feedyard.  He is spending his Happy Birthday evening hauling manure for Poorman Farms.  We love you Uncle Jason and Happy Birthday!  

Poorman Christmas Tradition

We have had a Poorman Christmas since forever.  The Poorman family is very small, my dad has only one other brother. There are only six grandchildren on that side of our family.  Grandma Poorman had great food and made excellent homemade noodles and no one missed Christmas.  As we started dating, we were allowed to bring our "friend" to Christmas.  We had to make reservations ahead of time.  She would set an extra place setting and she had to buy them a gift, because that was the proper thing to do.

Our "friend" was not protected from any comments that our Grandma Poorman made.  These comments included wearing hats in the house, not helping carry things in or out of the house, not eating, being late, and many other things. So I invited a "friend" a time or two.  Basically if they could make it through an interview with Grandma Poorman then they were worth keeping around. There was one time that my "friend" did not show up. She was mad. She wouldn't let it go, two years later we were still talking about "what kind of person, can't show up for a family meal".  By this point everyone was thinking, we got it Grandma, and he dumped her a year ago. (thank goodness or we would still be talking about it)

We had what might be our last  Poorman Christmas last year. Since Grandma passed away last November, traditions change, people are busy and it is hard to get everyone together.  Until I see all of my Poorman cousins and their growing families again, here are a few memories from the past.

Jodi, Jenny, Janice, Jamie and Jason

Front Row: Jason, Janice and Jodi Back Row: Jenny, Grandpa Poorman and Jule, Jamie

Grandma made us all dolls for Christmas (except Jason of course)
Front Row: Julie, Jason and Jodi
Back Row: Janice, Jenny and Jamie

Jenny, Jamie, Janice, Jason, Jodi and Julie

Jenny, Jamie, Janice, Jason, Jodi and Jason

The technology of Record Keeping.

I was recently asked to make comments on an important Agriculture Topic. What has been the best new technology or management style that farmers and ranchers use to produce more food?

One of the oldest and most effective management quotes on record is "you can't manage what you don't measure".  Farmers and ranchers continue to get new technologies in order to record and measure more and more information.  As we continue to collect and record more data we are able to manage more intensely. Examples of these include the use of EID (electronic identification) tags and the collection of this information.  At 4+ Feeders we are able to document the antibiotic given, date given, and withdraw date.  Being a backgrounder for calves that eventually move to another feed yard, this information easily transfers to the next care takers of the cattle.  In return beef consumers can be sure that their steaks, burgers, brisket or roast are completely safe.

There are numerous devices and tools that have been designed to help with food production.  I am sure you are thinking about a few right now.  However when I was teaching Agriculture Education I told all of my students whether they were returning to the farm or not that keeping track of expenses and expenditures for personal use, or if they were running a hair salon, dairy or any other business keeping accurate records is extremely important.  We filled out mock record books in class.  I recognized that the curriculum has called for all information to be put into a computer system.  I think it is extremely important to keep records electronically because it will give you more data and information to make better business decisions.  

However I always felt as a teacher to students being introduced to record keeping, that they should do their own adding and subtracting.  I didn't like the computer system adding for them and transferring the numbers through the book and then subtracting the expenses and telling them what they made.  I wanted them to understand the numbers moving through the system and how to change them.  It was important for them to understand that profit could be increased by both decreasing expenses and increasing income.  

I will never forget the day I realized that America was at a great loss in our education system for not teaching this anywhere in math except as an elective.  I had a National Honor Society student in my class and at the end of the week of teaching these concepts, he said "I am in Honors Algebra II, and I just don't get this."   I am thinking at this point and we are in big trouble. While I appreciate the math I have taken involving letters, that math has not made me near the money that math with numbers has.  

I am so thankful for the record keeping experience Jake and I have had with the FFA and Agriculture Education. If it wasn't for that experience, we wouldn't be doing what we are today.  Although our record system has changed and continues to evolve based on the information we want to collect and need to collect.  

There are two things that reminded me this weekend about how important record keeping was and continues to be in all facets of life.  The first was my cousin Friday night sitting down after we ate dinner together to count and record the money she had made cutting and coloring hair that day.  She recorded information from that day on paper, quite possibly the most simple record keeping system available, but still very useful. The second thing was when I found my Grandpa's record books from his Agriculture Education and FFA days.  I wish I would have had these when I was teaching.  These are my Grandpa Jim Poorman's record books from his Junior year of High School in 1942-1943.  This was the same year that he quit high school to take over the family farm after his father passed away. 

According to his records he took corn, wheat, cattle, sheep and hogs as his projects.  

This is an agreement that is very similar to the one found in today's record keeping system for Agriculture Education. It always bothered me that students would forge their parent's signature on these.  I would tell them it was against the law to sign someone else's name, they would say "oh my parents don't care".  Do you think these signatures look like forgeries?

Isn't this budget interesting?

A cattle Plan of Practice. In 1942 it looks like corn was on the menu for cattle.  Hmmmm!

Does anybody want to harvest corn with this plan of practice?

  

Grandpa Poorman - Happy Thanksgiving

My Grandpa, Jim Poorman passed away in October of 1994. Grandpa was the building block of my love for Agriculture.  He had to drop out of high school as a junior, when his dad passed away and he took over the farm.  Grandpa worked his entire life building and growing the family farm.  Although nobody talked about it at the time he was making Poorman Farms sustainable and making a place for his two sons.

My Grandpa Poorman raised turkeys for many years.  This is a picture of him the year he raised about 1000 of them.  He donated turkeys to the Somerset United Methodist Church for their annual turkey supper.  That was one of his ways of tithing.  Many of the turkeys were bought by local families for their Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.  When I was little I remember the butchering days and people stopping to pick up their birds for their family celebrations. When my brother in I were in elementary school we would get on the bus at the farm.  We would get the turkeys to follow us in the pasture next to the driveway down to the bus stop, then we would gobble at them really loud and they would gobble really loud back.  We would get them gobbling really loud for when the bus driver opened the door.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Autumn

picture courtesy of Jamie Snider

Poorman Family Reunion

The Poorman Family Reunion was held in Glenford, Ohio this past weekend. I grew up as a Poorman and before I took Jake's last name my name was Poorman.  I still have a few past students that still refer to me as Miss Poorman.  This event along with a few great pictures from my cousin Jamie Snider has inspired the post this evening.

Great Grandpa Earl and Grandma Emma (Westall) Poorman

Mabel, Nell, Jim (Grandpa) and Paul Poorman

Earl and Emma (Westall) Poorman Mabel, Nell, Jim and Paul Poorman

Joan and Jim Poorman (Grandma and Grandpa) Wedding Picture
(Does anyone else think the corsage is rather large? Maybe that is why Brides moved to bouquets)

Uncle John and my dad Jim

The eighth generation of Poorman's on Poorman Farms
Luke, Ethan, Jacie and RJ
(we need an updated picture with the added children)