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!
Any other families singing the praises of the end of another school and beginning of summer break?!? I’ve talked before about how my days just aren’t the same if I don’t have all of my kids home, so I live for summer break! I love making big breakfasts, talking about everyone’s daily plans and tasks, and watching my busy bees buzz around the ranch working on their different projects! I watch as my girls walk their lambs and goats up and down the road. Rinse and work hair on their show cattle. Saddle up horses and ride off with my husband to go do cattle work, gather pairs, and go to grass. There are steaks and burgers on the grill. There is usually some rock hunting and hunting for chicken eggs in the barn. Planting, picking, and harvesting in the garden. There is fixing fence and putting up hay. Jars of random bugs being brought into the house for identification. Craft and art projects all over my kitchen table. There is mulberry and wild plum picking. Baking and cooking with a range of outcomes. Some sewing. A little boy who is zooming tractors and trucks all around our feet, up and down my walls, and all over the place inside and out! He is chasing bubbles that his sisters blow for him with an endless supply of giggles. There are sidewalk chalk masterpieces. There is watching baby turkeys and wildlife in our surrounding prairie habitat. There are nights under the stars with smores and hot dogs on sticks. There is beef jerky and more ice cream than usual. There are fights and more laughter. There are memories being made in a mess where the focus is never on perfection but instead on working hard and finding the joy in the everyday on the ranch.
So bring on summer. The mess, the memories, all of it! We are ready!
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 former role as full time Field Director for R-CALF USA.
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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