Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Back to that School Grind

If any of you have been paying attention to my blog posts, you might have noticed that the frequency of my posts has gone down recently. Well, there's a reason for that....I'm back to school! Yup, I made the decision last spring that I wanted to go back to school to get my masters. Of course, I had to apply and then hope to get accepted so in the beginning it was just a pipe dream, but luckily for me I was accepted.

The program I am taking is a Master of Organizational Management at Crandall University in Moncton. It's a really neat program because it is designed for the working individual. It is meant for those people who wish to work towards their graduate degree while maintaining a full time job. It's perfect really. Classes are one night a week for 4 and a half hours. We do 2 classes per semester and I think we graduate in May 2018 (I should know this but I have a long road ahead of me before I have to worry about that).
Academics
You're probably wondering what that jumble of words actually means, Master of Organizational Management? It's essentially an alternative to an MBA (Master of Business Administration) so while its focus is on business and management, it's more directed to working in government or non-profit organizations. To quote their website - because they say it so much better than I could - , it is "an alternative to the MBA in that it will focus more on working with, and through, people than on the technical aspects of business administration". I figured that it would be more suited to me than an MBA because with my background being in health sciences, odds are if I am going to use this masters degree at some point it will most likely be within the healthcare field. I had also considered doing a Master in Health Administration but in the end I decided not to as it was too focused on healthcare. That probably seems contradictory, because duh, I work in healthcare and just said if I was going to use the masters it would be in that field, but in the end I wanted to broaden my resume a little bit so that it could apply to other aspects of my life (aka agriculture).

So what made me decide to go back to school when I've only been out in the working world a little over two years? Well, a couple of reasons...First of all, I guess you could call it a "life goal". It is just something I have always wanted to do for no other reason than to say I did it. Secondly, I really do love to learn. I genuinely miss being in school, having a routine of studying and learning and working towards a goal. Although it is an adjustment, I am going to love the process! Lastly, and probably most importantly, career opportunities. Quite honestly, I do not have high hopes that I will ever get a job in x-ray. That might be a bit dramatic, I am sure I will get one at some point, either a part time or a full time 10 years down the road (if you knew the current state of medical imaging in New Brunswick, you would know that this is not an over-exaggeration). However, how secure that position would be is questionable - more jobs are being cut than created these days, gotta love that New Brunswick government *insert eye roll here*. Also, I am not bilingual which makes getting a job here even more difficult than it already is. So for all of those reasons I decided that I needed to do something that would give me a competitive edge and potentially make me suitable for a job somewhere else.

I am sure that some of you can understand how frustrating it is to go to school for four years taking something that you think will get you a job right away to find out, pretty quickly after graduating, that that is not the case. I was definitely naïve but it's still disappointing. I love my job and I love all of the people I meet while doing it, both coworkers and patients. However, I do want to be able to retire someday, before the age of 80 preferably. As frustrating as it is, I don't want to be one of those people that complains about something in their life but doesn't do anything to change it. So consider doing my masters as me doing something about it, taking the bull by the horns so to speak!

Alright, moving on! I am now 2 weeks into the program. The first 2 courses that we're doing are Organizational Behavior and Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics (that's a mouthful, isn't it?). My thoughts thus far; the professors are amazing. They are really great teachers and facilitators and you can tell they genuinely care about all of us students. They are also super understanding of the fact that we are all new to this whole, going to school while working full time thing, which is so great. I have to be honest though, it's tough. I'm sure that as I get into a groove it will get better but starting out I feel overwhelmed. It's so different from an undergrad. The professors are more facilitators of knowledge than actual teachers as it was in undergrad. We are expected to do the assigned readings and come to class prepared to discuss them, which is fine, but it's not just reading for the sake of reading, it's reading for understanding. If you've done an undergrad then you can appreciate why this took me off guard. Also, there are a lot of readings! Like I'm talking A LOT! And then we also have assignments to pass in each week and group presentations throughout the course, as well as term papers to finish off with. Now, after the initial shock I can say I do love it. I love being back to school and having higher expectations of me. I'm still not sure that my thought processes are at that of a Masters level but I'm sure I will get there. It's a process right?! I just have to keep reminding myself that if this was easy it wouldn't be worth doing and that it will all pay off in the end.

Due to the fact that I am back in school, working full time, and trying to help Scott out at the farm some, my posting frequency on here will be down some. I am going to try to post once per week though and I will definitely keep you updated on how I am making out with school. See you next time and have a great week!

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Pickles and Chickens

That seems like a strange combination doesn't it? But that is what my last 2 days consisted of. Monday was the day that our chickens went to, well, you know...the butcher. It made for a very busy day.

Scott dropped the chickens off first thing in the morning. Oh sorry, let me correct that; Scott was supposed to drop the chickens off first thing in the morning, 7am to be exact. Someone, not mentioning any names (starts with R and rhymes with Brachel), said she had booked him in for 7 but turns out she forgot to. So Scott didn't end up getting out of there until 9:30. He had to rush straight to Walkers for work and I had to go with him to take his truck for the day (as my car was getting an oil change). While at the farm with him I picked a crate of pickling cukes. Scotts parents were coming over Monday evening to teach me the art of pickling (not sure if it's an art, but it's something)!
Once I was done there I went home and got straight to tidying up the farm. We had a few people coming that evening to pick up chickens and you know what they say, first impressions are everything. I mowed, whipper snipped and picked up some things we had lying around. I also cleaned up the house as they would likely be coming inside at some point. I have to say, the place is really starting to come together!
The cutest little pup!
As soon as I was done with all that I had to rush to pick up the chickens. The plant where we had them all done is about 25 minutes from home. It was 4pm when I left to get them and I had to be back home, chickens in hand, by 5:30. To say I was rushed is an understatement. This was my first time visiting the chicken plant and I was impressed. It's a nice facility and they did a great job on the chickens. They were clean and packaged in sealed bags - very professional. I did run into a bit of a strange bird while I was there, picking up her "organic chickens" - a story for another time! Once I got out of there I hurried back home and arrived at the exact same time as the first customer! I weighed all the chickens and stored what we weren't selling that evening in our freezer as well as some in Scott's parents.I then went to pick up scott from work and made it back home again in time to learn how to pickle!
This doesn't include all the ones we had already sold plus the ones in Scott's parents freezer.
This year all I wanted to learn was how to make mustard pickle. I am not a big fan of pickles in general but I do love this kind. Scott's parents were kind enough to take on the task of teaching me. I knew that pickling took time but I didn't realize how much time - it is a PROCESS! It took two evenings, about 2 hours each night, to make around 18 jars of pickles. I guess it's not so bad when you consider the fact that they should do us at least the next year. Our next project is grape jelly! Phil and Charlene (Scott's parents) are coming to help me again sometime next week. We have a large grape vine on the fence out front of our house. Mom picked a bunch last year and made delicious jelly, so now I want to try. I know, I'm like a 70 year old in a 27 year old body...pickling and making jelly. What can I say, I'm an old soul! Anyway, I will keep you posted on how the jelly making process goes! Chat next time!

Friday, September 9, 2016

She Got Quilled...

September 9th! SEPTEMBER! Where has the time gone? It seems like the summer just started and now it's pretty much over. It's been a great summer though, busy, but great. However, I am definitely ready for things to slow down a little. Fall is actually my favorite time of year. From the leaves changing and fall decorations to pumpkins and the cows moving back into the barn for the winter, there is not a part of it I don't love. We also have a few things planned that I'm looking forward to and I start back to school next week (eek!).

We had another wedding this weekend, which was super fun, but before we hit the road we had a wrench thrown in the mix ...one of our heifers got quilled! Yup, a porcupine got her good! Honestly, it wasn't actually that bad. I had gone to pick up my niece and nephew (as we had to watch them for a few hours in the morning) and Scott had stayed home with the intention of mowing some silage. We had planned on leaving around 11am so we had a tight schedule already. When Scott went outside he noticed all the cows were in the lower pasture, just behind the house, and they seemed worked up. He went out to get a closer look and found that our heifer, Coco, had some quills in her nose! Poor girl got a little too nosy for her own good and seemed to have caught the tail end of a porcupine. Fortunately for us though, she was the only one. Scott managed to catch her and got her in the barn and his dad came to help him pull out the quills (there were only 8 or 9 quills). It was fairly uneventful, but could have been a lot worse. You see, we have a history of run-ins with porcupines...

A year (to the day) ago, our cows got into a scuff with a porcupine, only that time we weren't so lucky. The breed of cattle we have are very protective mothers. Our guess at what happened was that a porcupine got into the pasture with the cows and them, not knowing what the heck it was, attacked it. In total, 8 of our cows had quills. And in this case it wasn't only 8 or 9 quills per cow, one of them had around 500. They were in their noses, faces, ears, and even legs. When I say they got it good, I mean it. We had to get a vet in to help us get them all out because it was just very overwhelming for only 2 people. Not to mention how worked up the cows were. We got them caught and got all the quills out, it took about 2 or 3 hours (I can't remember exactly). This is why, when Scott saw Coco with the quills it caused a bit of panic, flashbacks of the last porcupine attack! Here are some pictures, words just don't do this justice...
This is the poor girl who had the most quills, roughly 500!
You can see the quills also in her legs and under her chin - they were everywhere!