Nine years ago, when BSE first appeared on U.S. soil, I wrote in my column for Prairie Farmer how the timing was really quite horrific for us. My husband recalls sitting on the couch, watching the news when the story broke on Christmas Eve. We were to sell our entire calf crop three weeks later and as he so colorfully recalls, "I thought I was going to throw up." The fear, of course, was the outbreak would spark food safety fears, ravage markets, slam exports and bring the reality of horrible prices all the way back to rural Illinois, where we would then get very little for our calf crop at the Fairview Sale Barn. An entire year's worth of work, down the tubes. Money, gone. Income, gone.

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I awoke Saturday morning at 4:10 a.m. Bright eyed. Awake. Not excited to be awake. But excited about the day ahead.

(Contrary to popular belief, not all farm people are automatically morning people. 4:10 a.m. is a ridiculous hour of the day. Amen.)

By 5:15 a.m., I was pulling out of the drive and pointing the car north. Northbound to Maple Park and the Mike and Lynn Martz farm, where the very first group of Field Moms would soon be gathering. Chosen by the Illinois Farm Families among scores of Chicago moms and bloggers, the Field Moms were making their first trip to the farm, accompanied by Roseville farmwife Deb Moore. I tagged along as both a member of the media and a farmwife myself.
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Grateful to be guest blogging today from Prairie Farmer!

Who doesn't love a road trip? I have been game for hitting the open road with a girlfriend since, well, since I turned 16 and could. My first was but days after my 16th birthday, when my best friend and I loaded up in my mom's Caprice Classic and headed to the big city, where we each got a second hole pierced in just one of our ears. We were total rebels.

So when the opportunity arose to travel to Chicago on behalf of Illinois Farm Families for an evening with a group of Chicago moms, I jumped on it. So did Emily Webel, of Confessions of a Farm Wife fame. In fact, we commenced to emailing each other pretty much instantly and formulating our wild plans. The lengthy exchange ended with a reference to cruising the square in high school; I'm not sure how we got to that point in our conversation but it was a fun one.

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I'm so excited to help kick off the Watch Us Grow blog!

I am Holly Spangler, farm wife to John, farm writer for Prairie Farmer, former farm kid from southern Illinois, and farm mother to three little farm kids. That's a lot
of farm, and I am a little bit exhausted just thinking about it.

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