Articles by Karina Jones

For the last 18 years have been spent strengthening their roots and preparing their wings. And now it is time for her to spread those wings and I just know that she is going to fly. 

I’m keeping all the families headed back to school on my heart and praying for a smooth transition. Which also reminds me, to remind you, to slow down and stay safe on those streets and the kiddos are heading back to school!

So this week I throw expectation to the wind. We are at the county fair to have fun. To support everyone. To celebrate the accomplishment of just getting there. To have someone else make my coffee in the morning and my walking taco in the afternoon.

I stand in the door of our barn today and realize, it will never be like this again. Today is the last day this barn that we have adapted into a show barn will ever be this full. There will never be this many show lambs in the barn being managed. Show cattle numbers will always be in flux. My chest tightens. Im trying to breathe through it.

While I looked out over the parched prairie I thought, “there are very few of us left that are willing to work like this to feed our country. I hope our government decides the American cattle producers are important enough to protect, before we rely on global imports to fill our meat cases.” Contact your Senators today and let them know you want them to reinstate Mandatory County of Origin Labeling on your beef!

In a sense, the hayfield built me. I grew up in a time before cell phones and air pods. Sitting on a tractor, usually with no AC made you very aware of all of your senses.

I got out to a new meadow that hadn’t been opened up yet. It was like a handing a painter a blank canvas. I could do whatever I wanted to do. Well, I took that freedom a little too far.

Wether your family is involved in 4-H and FFA, or not, the county fair usually has some sort of entertainment factor that draws the locals to this gathering spot, even if it is the church pie and ice cream social.

I think every time my husband and I make it through a drought, trucking cows to greener pastures in far off areas, or buying feed at a premium, we tell each other, “we will never feed cows through a drought again.”