Rural Women Rock

Today I'm posting for Rural Women Rock as a guest.  Rural women along with their non-rural sisters are finding a voice through RWR giving them an opportunity to share their exciting lives and stories. Here Goes!

 Grandma Grace Was Truly A Rocking Rural Women.  She helped my dad groom his show calves, fed huge thrashing(grain cutting) crews, but could get "dolled up" to host club or Canasta parties in the blink of an eye.

Hi, I can't explain how excited I am to be asked to share my story. I'm thinking it might have something to do with nepotism, but I'm not sure.  I've been blogging from chainranchlady.blogspot.com for the past year or so.  My first attempt to share my family's agriculture story was through a website I designed on my own, which was an insurmountable task for a tech challenged baby boomer.  But I did it.  The advertisement stating "Have a Website Tonight" enticed me.  But by 3:00 a.m. I was pretty sure they hadn't taken into consideration time zone differences.  By the next day I was questioning their promise.  Anyway, I didn't give up and came up with chainranchlady.com.  Today I know it's outdated and blogs are the way to keep pace with our society, but I don't have the heart to remove it after the 2 million hours put in it...so she sits, I'm pretty sure- most of the time-all alone, over wherever old websites sit (actually it has great history and great family recipes). 
As I learned in the next few years Facebook and Blogging would be the way to keep up with today's attention deficited society, so I try my best to satisfy this disorder, which I thought would be easy since I think I have it. But faithful blogging is difficult.  Anyway it is for me in my current "season of life".


"Working Cattle" Is something we do twice a year.  For more info on cattle working please visit my website.
In this photo is another Rocking Rural Women, Bobbi.  She can "cowboy" with the best of them!  Maybe we'll get her to share her story soon. 

We are ranchers.  My great grandfather made the Oklahoma Land Run in 1893, but was too young to file a claim being only 17, so he returned to Kansas.  He would later make his way to Oklahoma Territory again and trade a shotgun and fifty dollars for the land my family now calls home.  I cherish this heritage, and thus my intense drive to begin a journey in social media and a mission to start sharing our family's animal agriculture story and ag's importance, to a world who knows little about where their food comes from.

As a member of the American National Cattlewomen cattlewomen are able to visit schools and other venues telling the Real Beef Story with funds from the Beef Check Off.  The Beef Check off program gathers $1.00 from each beef animal sold taking these funds to educate consumers and promote our product. Animal Ag Alliance, is a group I'm also very involved with. AAA monitors the detrimental actions extreme animal activists engage in to destroy animal ag in an effort to protect animal ag producers like our family. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association is another group I belong to which protects our beef industry.

It wasn't something I had planned: ...to become an animal agriculture activist.  The rural women in my life; my mom, grandmother and aunt, and myself for that matter, pretty much performed our "pre-women's lib" domestic damsel duties: cooking, feeding, cleaning, ironing, entertaining and helping the men when needed.

 But passion to protect my way of life surfaced as I realized extreme animal activists were telling a negative story about what we do and creating harmful regulations that affect our future.  An unexplainable drive to tell my story forced me into the uncomfortable world of social media and public speaking.
It is now something many rural agriculture women are stepping out to do.  We are making a difference.  When rocking rural ag advocating women such as @lifeonakansasranch-Debbie Lyons-Blythe, @couturecowgirl7-celeste settrini,  @katpinke- Katie Pinke, @JPlovesCotton- Janice Person,  @chrischinn-Chris Chinn tell their stories many of our urban friends are listening.

My husband and I have four grown married children and 10 grandchilden who live within a 30 mile radius.Our children, my folks, and my brother and his family all work  with us on our ranch.

Rural and Loving It

My life is full of blessings-very full. You've heard of the "sandwich generation"? Well, I've been very blessed to be enjoying a triple-decker serving with all the trimmings at this point in my life. I'm enjoying every minute of it...that's a lie.  It's not all bliss, much of the time we resemble a nice blend of "The Beverly Hillbillys" and "Cheaper by the "Dirty" Dozen" not "The Big Valley", "Bonanza", or "Dallas". But, I love it and wouldn't trade my life with anyone, and that's not a lie.
 

My Rocking Rural Mom "city girl" turned "rural ranch wife".  59  years ago she made her way to "rural" and has adapted well to hard ranch life.  She specializes in great ranch grub and has fed multitudes of ranch hands over the years.  

We are not factory farmers, just God-fearing, conservative family ranchers doing what we love...being good stewards of what God has blessed us with.  Raising clean, safe, healthy food for a growing population. Clean-Safe-Beef; the same product that we feed our families.  Clean-Safe-Beef  that can be purchased at your neighborhood grocery store without fear of  hormones or antibiotics, full of ZIP-zinc, iron and protein. For more on what beef ranchers do visit Explorebeef.org.