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!
We are winding our way through the first week of June and I am so glad to share a few moments of the day right here on Ranch Raised.
Today, on National Gardening Exercise Day, we appreciate the bodybuilding activity that is gardening by picking up our trowels and toiling in our gardens! Not only is it so satisfying to grow your own flowers and food from seedling to sprout to a full-grown plant, but it’s also great exercise! Any gardener will tell you that squatting to pick weeds or water a seedling will get those quads burning. Besides, working in the hot sun adds an extra athletic challenge.
While I find the history of gardening so fascinating, infact, I could probably go on for days about the different cultures and food raising strategies different people adopted and adapted.
But, today, I will focus on today! It is not too late to get your garden in. Infact, I am still working on getting mine all in. Gardening is a labor of love and one that cannot be compared to your neighbors. Small containers on patios can afford you just enough growing capacity to offer you salad greens and some cherry tomatoes.
I always have lofty aspirations of trying to grow as much food as I can to feed my family. Some years it turns out great and some years, like last year, you take it day by day, do the best you can and hope that the next year is better.
Gardening is my therapy and my exercise. So today we celebrate National Gardening Exercise Day. If you can’t get out and get your hands in some dirt, at least take a walk around the neighborhood and enjoy nature a bit.
Karina ranches with her husband, Marty, and 4 children 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, where she deep dives into cattle industry issues and 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 Jones 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
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