One day
there was a post
on the Tulsa State Fair - Livestock
facebook page.
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My mom saw it and told me about it. (I had been asking for my own facebook page or webpage for awhile.) She told me to send in an email like an audition for the blog. Here's what I sent:
Dear Kara,
My mom saw your post on facebook about looking for a 4-H blogger. She asked me if I was interested in it, and I said sure. I'm going to tell you a little about myself and see if I'm what you're looking for.
My name is Madison MacKenzie Cook, but people call me Maddie. I just turned twelve in January. I have been in 4-H for three years now. I have owned and exhibited dairy heifers and cows since I joined. I started with one Ayrshire heifer, but one of her stomachs wasn't functioning correctly, and she died of bloat at six months. I cried myself out that day and decided that I wanted to try again. So I got a new Ayrshire calf a few weeks later (on the day she was born!) and I doctored her umbilical cord, fed her colostrom all day and all night and have raised her myself ever since. She is getting ready to turn two and is expecting her first heifer in August.
I have also added a Holstein (who is expecting her first heifer in June), a Brown Swiss heifer, a Brown Swiss nurse cow, and a bull calf and a heifer beef calf on the nurse cow. Would you believe me if I told you that I live in TOWN? Would you believe me if I told you that my parents never raised livestock and neither have my grandparents? None of them were ever in 4-H or FFA. They just really believe in the importance of the life lessons and the work ethic I will learn with my dairy projects. They do a lot of stuff to let me do this.
I don't live in the town where I go to school. We live in Guthrie, but my mom is a teacher in Crescent, so I have always gone to Crescent schools. My animals live at my Godmother's little farm in Crescent, so I tend them everyday after school. Every day we are not in school during the year, we make the half hour drive and back to take care of my chores. Like I said before, I live in town. When I got my first two heifers, they needed bottle fed three times a day, so we snuck them into our neighborhood and hid them in our garage! They lived there for about four months each. I don't know how many laws we broke!
My Brown Swiss heifer was Runner-Up in the World's Purtiest Cow Contest at Tulsa in 2011. She was Cleopatra and I was Julius Caesar. She also helped me win Jr. Showmanship! My Ayrshire was Junior Champion. I also got to be on FOX NEWS 23 in Tulsa the morning of Opening Day at Tulsa this fall. I was on air for almost THREE MINUTES!!! We downloaded it off the internet and everybody in the sixth grade watched it in their homerooms. They thought I was a star.
My Ayrshire was a gift from my Godmother and her brother, but I saved up my stock show winnings, birthday money, and odd job money and bought my Brown Swiss myself. I have a purchase agreement for my Holstein, and I almost have my nurse cow paid off. I have filed for prefixes for each of my breeds, and I'm just waiting to see if I got them. We chose "GODBLESS" because God has blessed me with so much, and when you say my animals' registered names, it will sound like I'm saying my prayers.
We just finished our local show. I got a first with my Holstein and a second with my Ayrshire. With my Brown Swiss I got a first, Champion Jr. Dairy Heifer, Reserve Grand Dairy Heifer, and 4-H Dairy Showmanship which also helped me win Overall 4-H Exhibitor. This is an honor I have won two years in a row. I got to go to Pinpoint in OKC and pick out THREE award jackets the other day!!!
I am the 4-H Reporter for our chapter. I have done this for two years in a row. Before that, I was the Activities/Refreshment Leader. I write articles for the Logan County Courier and the Guthrie News Leader. The Courier publishes a lot more of my stuff, though. It is a one time a week paper. I'm published at least once a month. I also have a little trivia thing I call "DAIRY: Did you know...?" It is published in a little box in the paper that I call The Dairy Corner. If you want some samples, I can send you some. I have made a public service announcement that I play at least once a year on the cafeteria flatscreens. It is also on YouTube.
I am the Oklahoma Ayrshire Jr. Princess. This is my second term as Jr. Princess. I got to be the Christmas Parade Marshall in 2010. I also work for Susan Allen with Dairy MAX. I have a booth that I take to health fairs, 4-H days, field days, and our county premium sale. I promote dairy as a part of a healthy lowfat diet. I mostly give away kids' cookbooks, informational pamphlets, stickers, pencils, and stuff. I've worked with her at the capitol. I'm working to get Fuel Up to Play 60 going in our school, and I'm helping get the sixth grade track team started in the middle school.
Dairy isn't the only thing I do in 4-H. I also do speeches, illustrated presentations, bake show, impressive dress, and shooting sports. I was number four in the state in junior air rifle. I make all sorts of crafts and things to enter in the fair. I have also had Junior Champion cake or pie at the county more than once. This will be my third 4-H recordbook. I have earned two pins each year, and I have won the Dairy Foods Award and Outstanding Beginner. I am working on Outstanding Junior and the Nutrition Award this year.
So that's the kind of stuff that I do. See the attached photo to SEE who I am. These are the cover sheets to some of my donor thank you letters this year. I will have to send them separately to see if they are small enough to send to your email.
I don't know if I'm the kind of blogger you are looking for, but I sure hope I am. If I am, what would be expected of me? How would I blog for the Tulsa Fair website? Please let me know what you think.
Thanks for taking time to read this, and please be sure to have Three a Day, the Dairy Way!
With sincere gratitude,
Maddie Cook
I guess they liked something they read, because the very next day, I got an email telling me they would LOVE to have me as a blogger, and they gave me all the instructions to set up my own blog. The rest is history!
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