A Walk Down the Dirt Road with: Laurie Link

For this edition of A Walk Down the Dirt Road I'm featuring Laurie Link. She is a Missouri farm mom who blogs over at COUNTRY LINKed. I enjoy following her blog not only because she is another Missouri girl but because she takes some BEAUTIFUL pictures. She even had some displayed in the Agriculture and Farm Bureau buildings at the Missouri State fair this year.

 If you don't already I really suggest you go and follow her blog!

Designed by Erin Ehnle 

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Tell us a little about yourself and your family:

I am a momma who loves working, living and raising kids in the country and on the farm.  I love to laugh and feel like I am truly blessed to live this life of mine.  I try very hard not to take that for granted.  My husband and I have been married for 12 years and we have three farm kids.  Wyatt is 9, Kendall is 7 and Tessa is 4.  We moved home to my family’s farm five years ago to be closer to family and so that we could help on the farm.  My parents have been farming for over 40 years and I am raising the fifth generation of farmers.  My husband works for a wonderful seed company, Burrus Hybrids, and I love being a stay at mom.

Laurie and her husband 

Kendall, Tessa, and Wyatt

Why did you start your blog? 

I started COUNTRY LINKed because I wanted people to see and read about what it is like to live and raise kids in the county on a farm.  I like to write about what fun, interesting, one of a kind things that farm kids get to do.  Being raised a farm girl and living back on the family farm I feel that I have a chance to really show people what a Farmer’s life is really like.  This experience has also giving me the chance to get to know others across the country who farming is also their life/livelihood.

Talk about your farm?

It is beautiful.  We live up on a hill and can see pasture, row crops or hay fields in every direction.  We are diversified farmers, so depending on the year we raise corn, soybeans, alfalfa, cattle and hogs.  Right now my husband and I also cash rent some farm ground and it is planted to soybeans.   

What are some of your hobbies?

Taking pictures, quilting, reading, spending time with family, blogging and taking pictures.  Picture taking is my main one right now, but I do love to make quilts and enjoy a good book. 

What’s it like being a Livestock Show Mom?

Crazy!  Interesting!  Stressful!  Fun!  I showed for many, many years and saw mainly the good that comes from showing livestock.  I want my children to experience the thrill and fun of showing, but also know the dedication and hard work that goes into it.  As much as I want them to succeed, I also want them to work for every ribbon they receive and to be grateful for what they achieve. 

What is it like living in the best state in the US (Missouri)?

It is humid!  But there is no other place that I would call home.  I lived in Kansas and Texas, and they are nice places to live with good people, but this is where I was born and raised.  I love the beauty of this state and the diversity in landscape.  I am happy and proud to raise my children here and feel like they have bright futures as Missourian’s. 

What is your favorite part of being involved with agriculture?

This one is hard.  I don’t know if I could have one favorite.  I love the people, the work and the beauty of it all.  Agriculture is in my blood and it encompasses so much of my life.   There are no harder working, dedicated, compassionate people than farmers and farm families.  I enjoy the work that goes along with being a farmer.  Some jobs are not my favorite, but what other profession is there that you can have a tractor seat be your office chair or every day can be take your child to work day? 

If you could vacation anywhere where would it be?

At an all inclusive resort in a beautiful country, so that all I have to do is relax on the beach watching the waves.  Someday I would also like to travel to just take pictures of people living life in the country. 

 

When you grew up were you involved with either 4H or FFA?

Yes, I was involved in both!  Some of my best memories and some of my best friends are from being involved in 4-H and FFA.  When other kids were wondering what they were going to do all summer, I was trying to figure out how many days of the summer I would actually be home and not at a camp or on a trip or at a show. I was an 11 year 4-H member and an active FFA member for five.  I attended many county, state and even a few national events.  I also served on our State 4-H Council for three years, one of which I was President.  I severed as my FFA chapters President my Senior Year of high school, the same year that our chapter got its charter.  

What is the best piece of advice someone has given you?

“Choose your spouse carefully.”  I believe he put it something like this; you may not always like the job you have or where you even live, but you do have to want to be with the person you marry no matter what you are doing  or where you are living.  

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Thank You Laurie for doing this feature!! If you would like to do a feature shoot me an email at diariesfromthedirtroad@gmail.com 

Road Trip Part 2: "Who Do You Think You Are" / Chugwater, WY

I don't know if any of you watch the TV show on TLC called "Who do You Think You Are?" It is a show where celebrities go on a journey to find out more about their family genealogy. They get to travel across the country and visit significant places that their family was or had an importance to them. It is very interesting if you enjoy history and the study of genealogy.

When I went on my trip to Wyoming I got to experience my own version of "Who do You Think You Are". My journey took me to a small town about 40 minutes north of Cheyenne called Chugwater.

Below are a few pics of the drive to Chugwater.

It may not be the booming tourist hot spot but to me its a place where I have deep roots and wanted to learn about. A woman named Carol had been talking with my aunt and had informed us that she had purchased the land that my family had once lived on and had done extensive research about them and really made quite a connection with the place. So I eventually started contacting her and made plans to visit her and the ranch.

An old areal shot of the house and ranch.

The house. It's had a few additions since they built it but the original house is still there.

The view looking out from the front yard of the House. 

The view from the backyard. 

A little history about the significance of the ranch. In the early 1900's my Great Great Aunt Effie and her husband Fred Brain traveled to Wyoming just east of Chugwater to homestead under the Homestead Act. If you don't know what the Homestead Act is it gave land to people as long as they could prove to the government that they could make the homestead a success. What this meant is that my Great Great Aunt and Uncle traveled all the way from Iowa by train and then wagon to the middle of nowhere Wyoming and had to camp out in the wilderness to build and start a new life completely from scratch. To me I find that absolutely fascinating. I've read so many historical novels where people do that exact same thing but to be able to learn and tie it to someone in my family  is truly amazing.

They lived and farmed that land and in the required amount of time that they had to, to prove up and show the government that they could make the land productive. On September 21st, 1915 they received the official document from the United States of America securing the homestead that contained 320 acres. That must have been one amazing day to have finally known that the land you were living on actually belonged to you and not the government. Carol gave me a copy of this document and it is one of the neatest things I got from her.

A copy of the document stating that the land is theirs. 

For the next 8 years Fred and Effie lived and farmed the land. Some sad news was that they had tried to start a family and ended up losing 4-5 children when they were infants and had no children survive to adulthood. Carol knew that they had buried the children on the homestead but didn't know where until one of her friends with the help of a police cadaver dog came and found 4 positive sites of where the babies were buried. They had buried them just to the left of their house in a near by tree row. To me this story breaks my heart. I would never want to lose one child let alone 4 or even 5 children as babies that must have been the most difficult thing in the world.

The tree row where the babies are buried.

A map Carol made of the positive sites and possible grave sites.

On August 4th, 1923 (Just about a week before we were there) 90-years ago Effie was killed in an automobile accident. She and her husband were coming home from Cheyenne when their car got swept into a flooded crossing. The water was deeper than they expected and swept the car downstream. Fred was able to make it to the bank safely but Effie was swept away with the car. Her body was found the next day far from the scene of the accident. It was reported in 2 different newspapers which I received a copy of both from Carol. Her body was later transported back to Iowa where she was born and I have in fact been to her grave multiple times to put flowers there not knowing the full story until now.

A copy of Effie's Death Certificate

After we visited at the ranch Carol took me out to where she thinks the accident occurred. It was just so crazy to think about what happened on that spot 90 years ago. It just was so amazing that you can't really put it into words.  I can't thank Carol enough for becoming so passionate about researching Fred and Effie. If it wasn't for her I don't think I would have ever known the entire story or would have even gone out to the actual house and homestead. The story itself may have been lost since we didn't have that much information about it. I know now that I want to learn more about not only Effie but more people in my family because I truly believe that I could relate to Effie. She had the urge to travel and move to an unknown land miles from everything and everyone she knew. She probably fell in love with Wyoming just as much as I did and its absolutely beautiful scenery. By going out there I truly was able to connect with a piece of my history and with my relative.

You can see where the old road bed was in this picture. The interstate that is now there is just over that hill. 

Here is where the bridge or crossing was and where they got swept away. Most of the time the land was dry like this but the time they went it was flooded. 

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Along with the history and genealogy portion of the trip to Chugwater we also got to visit what other things the town offered which were a museum and Wyoming's oldest still running soda fountain. Both were awesome to go and visit and below are some pictures from both places. 

We got a personal tour from Carol who had a key :) 

This doesn't look big but it was probably 10x10 ft. With all the local brands. I though it was neat. 

This is from an old plat book that was in the museum. It shows where Alfred Brains land was.

A wool bag from the Swan Company a big sheep and cattle company in Chugwater. 

Them Building the Elevator

The Elevator is still there today. 

While I was there I had a blackberry ice cream soda which was amazing!

Some of the old shake mixers from the past years. 

This Elk head they wanted to take out of the store to fix but it wouldn't fit through the new doors.

An old piece still in the fountain. 

Back in the day (not sure the specifics) a group of people got together and formed this company called Chugwater Chili they sell chili powder and other seasonings and so I had to get myself some dip mix.

Road Trip Part 1: Nebraska and Wyoming

**First things first I want to apologize to any readers I still have. As much as I love doing this blog I have been SOOOOOOOO busy the past month and it's not looking like it's going to slow down any now that I've started nursing school. I thought this summer would be prime blogging material, don't get me wrong it has been, but all the hundreds of possible blog posts are still in my head and may never be published. I would however like to share with you about my trip that I took earlier this month out west to Wyoming and Colorado. I've tried to post to Facebook and print out some pictures but I haven't even had time to do all that. I took around 1,300 pictures (no joke!) and would love to share some with you all here. I decided to break it up because with pictures and descriptions it's going to be a LONG post.**

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August 6th- Bright and early at around 6:30 am my friend Lora and I set out on our 8 hr. adventure out west. Our destination was Cheyenne,Wyoming. We didn't have anything other than making it to Cheyenne on our agenda for that day so we took it easy and just found things along the way. One of the fun things we found along our fun, exciting, joyous, happy, BORING trip across the ENTIRE state of Nebraska was the town of Aurora. I'm SO sorry to all my Nebraska friends your state is so boring to drive across in one day. Please don't hate me for hating on your state.

 It seemed like all we saw was a.) Corn b.) hay c.)signs for museums. LOL A sign for a museum was the reason we stopped in Aurora. They have this museum called the Plainsman Museum which had a bunch of history about their town and county. It also had a whole building full of old tractors and machinery along with a house, school, and blacksmith shop you could go into. They even had a little mock city inside the museum that represented different shops and businesses that use to be in the town. It was a great find and i'm glad we stopped. Here are some pictures I took from the museum.

Model of a Farm house

Old house they moved into town from the country. 

Old school

Blacksmiths shop

After we went to the museum we ate lunch in a nice little cafe and went along our way. Our next stop was in North Platte, Nebraska. We needed to fill up on gas and found a Starbucks with free wifi and plugins to charge our phones. We ended up stopping at a Starbucks in every state. While we were in North Platte we found a western store which was a little too expensive for our taste but right next door was a Goodwill where we found some great bargains including a Disney sound track cassette tape :) Going old school style. Our last stop in Nebraska was Sidney for a quick bite to eat for supper. Then finally.........

 We made it to BEAUTIFUL Wyoming. 

Our drive into Cheyenne was absolutely beautiful. We hit it right at sunset and I got some awesome pictures!

Aug 7th- On this day we spent just exploring Cheyenne. The one place I requested we go was to the Old West Museum which is at Frontier Park and has all the history about the Cheyenne Frontier Days. Even though we were a week late for the actual Rodeo and celebration it was still awesome to be there as a rodeo fan. 

Lane Frost Memorial out front

A Stripping chute for rough stock

2013 Saddle Bronc Champion Saddle that Wade Sundell / Chad Farley won! 

Steamboat was a bucking horse that served as the icon for the bucking horse symbol for everything Wyoming including the horse on their license plate. 

Some pretty awesome names in Rodeo history are on this wall. 

THE DADDY!!! 

Across the road from the Old West Museum was a small botanical garden. It was ok but I've been to better. It was a beautiful day so it was nice to walk around in the park and look at the flowers. The weather at home when we left was HOT and Humid so it was so nice to be rid of the humidity and have lower temperatures while we were out west. Here are some pictures from the botanical garden. 

After the botanical garden we at lunch at the Albany Restaurant. It was a little expensive but I highly recommend it if your needing a place to eat in Cheyenne. It's got such a historical vibe to it as well. Both Lora and I got a buffalo burger and shared an order of bull nuts. They were both rather good. 

The Bull Nuts 

In the afternoon we spent in downtown Cheyenne shopping at some stores and checking out the capital. We also found the Wyoming State Museum which was pretty cool to learn the history about the state. Here are pictures from there. 

This was written on a Buffalo skull. It is really a neat and emotional  thing to see. The picture below describes what it is. 

Wyoming Flag

A cool rock with lots of shell fossils. 

Sheep herders wagon! I will have one some day! 

This diorama talks about what happens at a roundup/branding.

Some silver bought by the State of Wyoming to put on the ship the USS Wyoming (I think)

An old road sign. 

After that museum we went on a hunt for some boots! Now we weren't looking for just any regular boots we were looking for 6 foot tall painted boots. They were made to raise money for the Depot. They are placed all over the city and we found all but 1 on the list. (it was in the airport lobby) I'm not going to show all of the pictures but some of my favorites. There were 19 total that we found. 

This was outside the Old West Museum

This one was outside the Wyoming State Museum

This one was all about bull riding and the stages of a bull rider from mutton bustin to riding calves to riding in the Cheyenne Frontier Days.

This was a religious one and was really neat. The spurs had crosses for the rowels. 

This one is inside a dealership which was closed but all the doors were open so we snuck inside to get a picture. 

This one we couldn't find right away but it was worth it it was such a neat one with all the weather stuff on it.

While we were on our search we found this amazing BBQ place called Mitchel's BBQ. We walked by and it smelled so good outside so we went back and decided to eat supper there. They had some amazing sauce which you could buy so I brought a bottle home!

My delicious pulled pork sandwich and cheese puffs :) 

Stay tuned for more info and pictures from the rest of my trip!