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!
It is amazing how much emotion can be packed into a little 3/8 inch button! Thanks for starting your week with me right here on Ranch Raised.
Due to the rain and the impending entry day, my daughter and I spent our weekend locked in the sewing room putting together a jumpsuit for the county fair. This time of year is filled with emotion for me as I sit with my girls and guide them along making their quilts and garments.
I grew up sewing with my mom but mostly my grandma. I would flip through the JCPenny catalog and find something I liked. She would help me find the pattern and fabric and cutting, pinning and sewing would begin. I admit, I picked out some complicated projects and for some reason I was a gluten for punishment, I mean plaids. My grandma would breathe so much belief in me and help me solve every problem and challenge we would encounter.
When my grandma passed away, I collected a lot of her sewing room treasures. My husband thought I was senile developing an unhealthy obsession with old cookie tins full of buttons and bobbins of thread and totes of fabric.
But this weekend when my daughter needed a little 3/8 inch button to fasten the back of her jumpsuit. I immediately said, “we will find one in Grandma Wanda’s stash!” Could we have purchased one in town for a quarter? Yes! Would that bring tears to my eyes or fill my heart? NO! And now my daughter will have a fun story to tell the judge of the little piece of her great grandma that she is carrying on her outfit.
I have the rest of my life to find a purpose for the other 10,639 buttons of hers that I am happily holding on to!
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.
karina@youragnetwork.com or visit facebook.com/ranchraisedwithkarinajones
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