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!
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglas
And with that, I keep wondering what kind of prosperity and progress we are in for in western Nebraska, because Lord knows we have paid the price with struggle this year!
I don’t pay much attention to world or national news. Foreign invaders could have landed on our coast and if our local radio station does tell me about it at 6 am when I have the radio on in my kitchen I would never know. What I do pay a lot of attention to is what is going on in my area, including what is happening at our cattle auction barns. I know, I’m weird. Anyway, with an undercurrent of predication, it is still hard to watch friends and neighbors continue to liquidate the cattle herds they have spent their adult lives building due to circumstances beyond their control, namely fire and drought. It is easy to for the arm chair quarterbacks to sit back and say, “They’re gonna cut them a fat check selling in this high market.” Or “They can always build back.” And all that is true. But, what can’t be seen in the condition of the heart. When you are forced to sell your life’s work, not under your own terms, there is an emotional trauma, that is scarring, no matter how much the check is!
While we have gotten a little moisture and I use that term relative to the area that each of us live in. The truth is, for so many in western Nebraska, it was too little, too late. I know with every once of faith I have these operators kept “tying another knot” at the end of their proverbial rope to hang on another day, another week, hopefully for rain in the next month. But reality is cruel and can leave little for us to control. So wether your crops have failed this year due to storms or lack of moisture or you cattle herd had to be downsized or dispersed, I just want you to know that I see you and I am holding you in my thoughts and prayers.
karina@youragnetwork.com or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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