The Illuminating Blogger Award…

I opened my email Tuesday morning to see that Seasonsgirl had nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award.  I love the timing of this nomination because my last post discussed my goal of being “an illuminating light” on how cattle are raised to make beef.

I “met” Seasonsgirl through Social Media last fall, and have truly loved getting to know her through both her blog posts and also the personal messages that we have shared.  The more I interact with her, the more that I realize how many of the same values we share.  She is a woman of strong faith who loves animals and is interested in both “where her food comes from” and fun ways to cook it.  I am so thankful that we have become “virtual friends” and I love her openness and willingness to share with me.

The rules for the Illuminating Blogger Award are as follows:

1. Visit and thank the blogger than nominated you.

2. Say a few words of gratitude on your blog and share the nominator’s link with your readers.

3. Say a few words about yourself and then pass along the award to 5 other bloggers.

About Me:

I am a city girl turned cattle farmer.  I traded my flip flops for cowboy boots in 1997 when my husband and I moved from New Hampshire to his family’s farm in Central Nebraska.  Through hard work and determination, I learned to manage a cattle feed yard and become an excellent cattle caregiver.  I believe in providing my animals with holistic care, focusing not only on physical fitness but also realizing the important role of mental and emotional fitness in animal health.  I proudly grow beef that I feed to my family and to yours!  My husband and I are blessed with three daughters who are a constant source of joy, energy and vast amounts of dirty laundry 🙂

My nominations to continue the award:

I truly enjoy Aimee Whetstine’s faith based blog http://everydayepistle.com/.  I love to read her thoughts on a variety of issues and really respect how she ties her posts back to her faith and favorite scripture readings.  Aimee is a brave woman who tackles many difficult topics, and always manages to both write with integrity and respect the differing views of others.

I met Aimee through Ryan Goodman of http://agricultureproud.com/.  Ryan is an Arkansas native who is working on a graduate degree at the University of Tennessee.  Although his first love is cattle and his graduate studies of Beef Reproduction, he is an incredible wiz at social media and has been a tremendous mentor for me as I struggled to learn the ins and outs of blogging.

Kim Brackett of http://beefmatters.org/ gives a glimpse into the life of a busy woman raising four children on a ranch in the western United States.  I love Kim’s beautiful photography, and her natural gift of imparting the joy of raising a young family on a ranch.  I always leave her site identifying with her stories and reminiscing about times with my own daughters.

Debbie Lyons-Blythe of http://kansascattleranch.blogspot.com/.  Debbie is a cowgirl at heart and owns and manages a ranch in the Flint Hills.  I love to keep up with Debbie because she gives me another glimpse of a woman making her way as a “boss lady” on a cattle farm.  Debbie has mama cows, calves, and breeding heifers instead of a feed yard like mine but I love to watch her confidently run her ranch in the neighboring state of Kansas.

John Suscovich of http://foodcyclist.com/.  You all just met John last week via a blog post and podcast.  John left his job in NYC a couple of years ago to bike with his wife across the United States visiting farms and learning “where his food comes from”.  Now, John is building his own farm in Connecticut and also producing “how to” podcasts demonstrating different types of farms to interested listeners.  I love that John has followed his personal “call” to understand food production and is now living his dream to become a farmer.

All of these folks have illuminated a unique vision for me.  I thank them all for enriching my life and wish them the best as they continue blogging and living their dreams!