Adventures In Agriculture

One Year in Iowa

This week marks one year since I changed jobs from advertising to corporate communications.It has definitely been an adventure. I learned A LOT, both about how a factory operates and about what I want to do when I grow up.

Looking back, the past 12 months have been a whirlwind. In a year, I:

- Remembered how much I enjoy public speaking at the #140 Character Conference in Des Moines and at the John Deere Communicators' Conference 

- Traveled to Brazil, a trip that involved getting my first Visa and lots of vaccinations

- Visited John Deere factories in Moline, Illinois, Davenport, Iowa and Waterloo, Iowa.

- Got to see the new S Series Combines  up close and personal at the 2011 New Product Intro

- Visited North Dakota, Indiana and Wisconsin in a whirlwind tour of the upper midwest

- Saw some amazing old tractors and beautiful red barns in Horicon, Wisconsin (and got to meet @DairyCarrie while I was there!)

- Got really good at running meetings, even ones that start at 4 a.m. or last all day 

- Was retweeted by The Oak Ridge Boys during their performance at the Iowa State Fair. Heck, that was a bonus- i was just excited to see them perform!

- Still haven't managed to meet Kelly Rivard in spite of our best efforts.

- Ran video and photo shoots inside the factory, which is always amazing to see, even if I can't share most of the pictures with anyone who doesn't work for Deere.  

 

 

 

The Mighty Mississippi

I have to admit that I still get excited every time I see the Mississippi River. Growing up on the East coast, the river has always been linked to Out West to me. We read about it in context of pioneers and settlers, Laura Ingalls and Tom Sawyer. 

Working for John Deere, I spend a decent amount of time in Moline, IL, which is located on the river. I still can't drive across it without getting a little excited. 

There's a path along the river for pedestrians and bikes near the hotel I usually stay in, and I had some time to go for a jog with my camera the last time I was there. 

There were people out rowing and just sitting on the bank, including a couple of preteens who with cigarettes. I had to laugh because they were almost out of sight and obviously trying to hide, but they forgot the fact that it's pretty easy to smell when someone's smoking....

This old bridge crosses from Moline to Rock Island, which has housed a US Military arsenal. It was used as a prison during the American Civil War in the 1860s, and now there's a military museum, cemetery and trails. The arsenal is still operational too. 

I did love the sign post for the trails- fish! 

I had to cut my exploring short and get back for a dinner, but it was a beautiful day for a run and a beautiful day for pictures. Next I just need to figure out how to dip my toes in the Mississippi-- preferably before winter sets in!

 

Watching the sun set

I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Rock Island, Illinois.

All of a sudden, the light in my room turned a beautiful shade of rose. I looked out the window just in time to watch the sun set into the Mississippi.

Glorious, even in a cell phone camera picture.

Views from the Iowa State Fair

You have to give it to the fair- there's no where that looks quite like one. 

In college, some of my city-living friends were talking about going to the fair for a 2-for-1 ride night. I said that I loved the fair, but that I never actually went on the rides. 

My friends responded "What do you do? Look at the animals?"

Have to say that the animals were a big draw at the Iowa State Fair

And the Butter Cow. So much so that they have tribute statues. 

Love the American Gothic with Cotton Candy!

This struck me as a very Iowa kind of picture. 

Riding on Country Roads

Went for a motorcycle ride on the back roads north of Des Moines today. It was beautiful!

It's been a while since I was out on roads with so little traffic- it was nice and relaxing. And Iowa back roads are so straight that it's hard to get lost and you can open up the throttle. 

Beautiful blue sky above corn that doesn't look too bad. It was tall enough to make me be extra careful at some of the intersections. 

See the bug guts on the visor? Big squishy sucker would have nailed me right between the eyes (ewww). 

 

Factory in Field- Update

Got some updates of the corn field around our factory this week. 

 

Doesn't look too bad, especially compared to some of the soggy fields I was seeing earlier this year. 

 

 

Watching the sun set

I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in Rock Island, Illinois.

All of a sudden, the light in my room turned a beautiful shade of rose. I looked out the window just in time to watch the sun set into the Mississippi.

Glorious, even in a cell phone camera picture.

Only in Iowa: A Factory in a Cornfield

This is the view outside of my office: 

Yep, that's corn. 

Lots of corn. 

And some brand spankin' new equipment waiting to be shipped to a dealer. 

Notice the fences around said corn. Considering the cost of the equipment (and the equipment we use to build the equipment!) the John Deere factories are serious about security.

I took pictures from publicly accessible places, but I was wondering if the guards were going to hear about some suspicious person with a camera. I wasn't so worried about getting in trouble as I had no idea how I'd explain to people why the heck I was taking pictures of corn. It's not exactly a rare site here in Iowa... 

 

 

The Best Ride at the Festival!

I drove back to my apartment in Johnston this weekend and was amused to see that they're setting up a fair in the park nearby. I was even more amused when I walked past yesterday because there were some strange looking rides at this festival. 

Merry-go-rounds, ferris wheels and.... lawn tractors? 

And some not-so-lawn-sized tractors.

The 9630 Tractor had 12 wheels on its own. 

Fun Slides and Tractor Rides?

And funnel cakes and cotton candy. Sign me up please! 

This fair is about halfway between the Des Moines Works factory and our Finance Offices in Johnston, so it makes sense for green and yellow equipment to make an appearance. I hope they let people climb in it- that's half the fun!

What I've Been Doing While Not Posting to My Blog

One of the few downsides of switching to internal communications instead of advertising is that I can't post as many of the projects that I'm working on. They're still fun, but they're much more likely to deal with still-confidential projects than equipment. 

So what have I been up to?

- Shooting video for the next factory all-employee meeting. Doubly fun this time because I spent some of that time tracking down footage of our equipment out running. Yay, mulch rippers!

- Making a table full of hungry executives brainstorm over dinner. Actually, it wasn't as scary as it sounds. They were all willing to be a little silly and have fun, which beats the heck out of being uncomfortable sharing ideas. 

- Field trips to visit customers! You may have noticed that I really, really like hearing from the people running our equipment, both the good stuff and the bad stuff. It reminds me that my job isn't just about arranging pictures of slides. 

- Making plans to take over the world. (No, not really on that one. But I may have thought about it once or twice.)

- Taking a training course on Presentation and Image Skills. I picked up some good pointers, but I did have to laugh at some of the "dress for success" tips because they weren't factory-friendly. They were talking about accessorizing with something other than a bump cap and metatarsals... 

- Planning trips to Moline Seeding and Waterloo Works. Looking forward to both, if only because driving through Iowa is a lot more fun now than in the winter.