TOWN JOB

I shake cocktails four nights a week at the has-been cowboy bar. Seven days a week I am working to raise food for our table and yours. I am shaping children that will be a part of the future, mine and yours.

Our cows look great this year and the calves are stout and healthy. The land needs us to be more intentional than ever as we make decisions in the drought. My two little boys are wild and sweet as ever. The youngest is nearly walking, giggles with his whole belly and reaches for horses without greediness. The oldest is funny and caring, he chats with animals, knows how to use a shovel and is quick to say, "I'm sorry."

I am good at this work of raising food and the future but it won't keep the wolves from the door. So, like many ranch wives, I side hustle like it was my job. Burning candles into puddles and then stirring them into my coffee to live another day.

I want you to eat beef because I think that it will provide you with energy and nutrition. And I want you to buy beef so that I can quit my town job. Buy so much beef at such a high price that I have the time to irrigate and teach my kids about beetles and fescue. Eat beef with your friends and family so that I can plant cover crops and spend all afternoon holding a rodear, learning as I watch cattle graze. We can build top soil, sequester carbon and help the pollinators. You can buy whole boxes of beef for someone who cannot afford it. I can be home to read my children stories every night. Spend more money on beef than you do on fancy shaken cocktails and maybe, with the other mothers and ranchers, we just might change the world.