Karina Jones is a real-life ranch wife in the Nebraska Sandhills and one of the most highly sought-after speakers in the cattle industry nationwide!
I’m back from the county fair! Thanks for starting your week with me right here on Ranch Raised!
Did you enjoy all of those 4-H recipes I shared last week? Well, I am happy to report that the Peanut Butter Fudge and the Orange Cranberry Muffins are moving on to the Nebraska State Fair, infact those muffins received top honors! So if you missed those recipes last week, you can find them on the Ranch Raised FB page and the Your Ag Network App and Website where we have started a Ranch Raised Recipe Book.
Last week I unplugged and completely shut out the rest of world. It allowed me to focus on what was right in front of me. I observed a lot of great things like kids playing in the sandbox next to the show arena, jumping in bounce houses, and eating snow cones. I saw teenagers playing card games in the beef barn and helping their friends exercise goats. I saw swine kids offering their pigs for practice sessions and advice to kids who made it to the Elite Showmanship contest but did not have pigs of their own to practice on. I saw what I would consider heroic displays of sportsmanship, humility, and grace in and out of that dirt arena.
While the world seems so very heavy and if your trust in humanity is failing, go to a county fair. There is still a lot of good in the world and my faith in the next generation has been restored after what I was able to witness last week. We all just need to stay off the internet and keep our kids off the internet. We need to set up some card tables under a shade tree, look each other in the eyes, and connect with one another.
Come back tomorrow, I have special poem that I found about the county fair that I want to share with all of you!
Follow Karina Jones on Facebook!
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 3 daughters near Broken Bow, NE. She grew up in western NE, with roots also in southwest SD. The cattle industry and raising kids is her passion.
Watching the cattle industry go the path that it has gone, she could no longer sit quietly at home checking cows, fixing fence, and doing all the everyday tasks wondering when some else was going to make it all better. As she became more active and outspoken on industry issues, she was asked to join the R-CALF USA staff in September 2020 as the Checkoff Petition Campaign manager. That position transcended into her current role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
You can hear her almost every Friday on Your Ag Network’s Hot Barn Report that is broadcast on 60 radio stations with coverage in 9 states, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and highlights R-CALF’s work on industry reforms. Listen to Ranch Raised on a Your Ag Network hometown station or www.youragnetwork.com where she talks about her daily life on the ranch.
Cattle producers are her people. She will meet you at the county fair, at the sale barn, or anywhere the dusty trail leads.
[email protected] or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
