Raising Barns: #StillFarming

It is no secret we are living in times of uncertainty. Schools and business continue to stay closed and many of cannot see our loved ones, but you can rest assured there are still everyday heroes still working to keep our world going. Those in healthcare and at businesses still open work hard everyday and deserve great praise, but behind the scenes is another hero that will continue to work no matter the crisis. The American Farmer and those in agriculture are working hard and that will not change.

From the largest to the smallest farms, they continue to strive to bring you healthy, affordable food. While the rest of the world is on lock down agriculture continues to work, day in and day out even harder than before to meet the changing demands. They cannot stay in or hunker down and wait out this crisis, they have been facing their own for years already. Instead they are pulling on their work boots and stepping up to help in the best ways they know how.

From dairy and beef farms to crop farms and nursery’s and everywhere in between everyone is pulling together to meet the changes in the nations demands and food needs. Local farmers are working to make food more available. Whether it be locally raised meat or local vegetables, farmers are working to make their supplies more available in the trying times ahead.

The girls of Molly’s Market help get crops ready for future Farmers Market deliveries in Alpena and Hubbard Lake, MI

It is not an easy time for farms. Farms are working to meet distancing and safety guidelines all while keeping up with the ever-growing demands. There have been huge changes on the processing and delivering end making it difficult to supply the right amounts. Fear has caused panic buying and empty shelves and a new demand for them to meet. All of these challenges are being met head on with solutions and hard work.

The barns at Black River Angus Farm, Minden, MI, showing how the generations have expanded and grown.

American Farm Bureau has recently released the campaign #StillFarming to remind the world farmers are still out there working hard and will not stop. We love what we do, we love the world we live in, and our fellow humans, farmers will continue to work hard generation after generation regardless of the crisis. Take a moment today to thank the farmers that are #StillFarming!

Raising Barns: The Homestead

The homestead, Triple A Farms, the place it all began, or officially I believe we settle on Eagling Farms. My parents farm has gone through a few name changes over the years but it’s always been home. It was a place of solitude and wonder for my two sisters and me. We moved there just before I turned 5 and it still is the place I go back to when I need a little cheering up.

Our earliest records of the farm show the oldest barn standing behind a beautiful Victorian home in 1832 but before that we have no records. The home burnt down at some point and instead of removing it they buried it the yard for us to dig up years later when fixing the well. The old barn would stand until my high school graduation party when my father decided it was a good day to knock it down. In our time it would store my dad’s tools and be home to our chickens after my parents got the wild hair and brought home all the leftover Easter chicks from the local Quality Farm and Fleet one year. 100 chicks later my sister and I had our newest pets including the one that pecked me in the eye and the rooster that would chase my mom around the barn yard. Before that it was grain mill and the marks from the prices could still be found on the walls. When we first moved in it was like a treasure hunt in there finding old bottles and horse harnesses from years gone by.

I don’t know when the new barns were added but they housed all the projects my dad was crazy enough to let us try. From veal calves to steers to pigs to my failed worm farm he never complained, well maybe a little but he never let us give up and he always let us be ourselves. My sister learned how to train her own horse and I started my own small pig farm. My older sister had her own herd of cattle separate from my fathers before she was even 18. We learned hard work, to handle our own money, and not to take no for answer.

My happiest memories are in these barns and on these grounds but so are my saddest. Its where I first ran my own sled dog team but also where all my first team is buried. Its where I halter broke my first steer and where I helped pull my first still born calf. Where I hunted for newborn baby kittens but had to watch my father say goodbye to his childhood horse. It is the place I watched the horse my sister loved beyond measure pass in front of her eyes but also the place I watched an entire neighborhood come together to help when our cattle got a mysterious disease and needed daily shots. The entire community showed up for nightly round up every day without fail no questions asked and that’s the type of place I am glad to call home. A place I am glad has raised me.

These barns have raised me to know a hard day’s work and blisters on my hands, to love unconditionally, and to give generously. There isn’t a lesson I have learned in this life that hasn’t come from these barns in some way or another. I am proud to be barn raised!

Raising Barns will feature at least one new barn or farm every month as well as the story of the people it has helped raised. It’s important to remember the places and people that got us where we are and the things closest to us. As this is a special project of mine no farmer will be charged for there shoot but will have the chance to receive a discounted family session during the farm shoot if they so choose. If you know of a Raising Barn you’d like to nominate please contact me at eaglingam@gmail.com or on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MayShinePhotography!

Raising Barns: The Project

Raising Barns

We’ve all heard the term before, a barn raising. When the whole community would gather to build a barn and in the course of a day or a few short one’s entire barns would be erected into the massive structures they are, all with the help of those closest to us. Well I myself have never witnessed a barn raising I have spent most of my days in one and I think the barns have turned the tides on us.

In many ways I think the barn raising party has become a lifetime effort of the barns raising us, helping us grow into the people we are today. So many hard lessons and joyous occasions happen right there in those walls. They’ve shown us the joy of new life and sorrow of unexpected death and taught us the rewards of a hard day’s work.

They’ve brought us together from all walks of life. Brought children out of the house and into the fields forming bonds with parents and grandparents. They’ve brought friends from the cities out to enjoy the outdoors and become a farm kid even if just for a day, a day that changes their whole outlook. Brought communities and extended families together when others are in need or just to enjoy some much-needed company.

No matter what type of farm you may have grown up around, if it was your childhood farm, or just a friend’s farm the barns of our lives have shaped us in ways we can never repay. How does one thank a structure for guiding them? For being their place to run to when the going got tough? For showing them what they were made of? For bringing families and communities together?

We take care of them and ensure they are there to raise the next generation. We raise the next barn and continue the tradition that agriculture holds, and we honor them in whatever way we know how. I’m a photographer and documenting the love we have for our farms and the memories they hold is near and dear to my heart, so I created the Raising Barns Project.

Hello & Welcome

I’ve always loved memories; the way they can make you feel every emotion all at once or each one for just a fleeting moment. I think that’s what drew me to photography at first the idea of capturing a memory. I got my first camera when I was eleven and spent the summer documenting everything I could, thinking I took the most artistic shots ever seen. When the roll was developed, they were a lot of sideways photos of my mom’s flowers and my cousins and friends posed in front of our Big Foot power wheels, but I was hooked.

I dabbled here in there through out my life keeping it as a hobby and studying as much as I could on my own until one day I decided to start taking photos for more than just my family. Now here we are with this small wonderful business that has brought my passion to light. I have my husband to thank for that for pushing me to take the risk and supporting all my ideas.

When you grow in a small town you find joy in the small things, and I grew up in a small town. I grew up in the little area, not really even a town, of Long Rapids in Northern Michigan with my two sisters on our parents farm. We raised beef cattle and an array of other livestock and raced sled dogs. I grew up in 4-H and FFA and developed a love for public speaking and people. My family grew when my sister married and later welcomed my niece and nephew and my parents welcomed 4 exchange students that are now like blood. I married my husband in 2017 after being best friends for years, we enjoy all our northern town has to offer. Hunting, kayaking, and just living.

Photography is my joy and I want to share that with you, but I want to do it in a way that brings you the images you want at the price you can afford. When we got married things were tight and we almost didn’t have wedding photos until we found a wonderful woman willing to do them for an affordable price and that’s my goal. Bringing my community beautiful photos at a price they can afford. Everyone deserves to capture their memories, Let MayShine help capture yours!

Sincerely,

Amber Frahm

Photographer