Grit with Grace

How Social Media Sensation NY Farm Girls Defied Odds to Expose the Truth About Farming

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 20:28:05 GMT

The NY Farm Girls have become a social media sensation. With nearly 645,000 followers on TikTok , along with more than 171,000 followers on Instagram and Facebook , the NY Farm Girls are taking all of social media by storm.

“Social media can reach millions of people by the touch of a button,” says Claudia Leubner. “It’s been really cool we’re able to reach this many eyes in the world to try to share dairy farmers are not evil people.”

NY Farm Girls consists of three sisters: Evelyn and Claudia Leubner, who are both in their early 20s, and their sister Jojo Leubner, who’s still in high school. In addition to the social media piece of the business, the girls are seeing significant growth on YouTube with 87,000 subscribers. Their goal is to simply share life on the farm.

“We are a fourth-generation dairy farm. It’s a partnership between my dad, his sister, his brother and our two cousins, and we’re over 100 years old now, says Evelyn.

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With a mix of dairy cattle, row crops, hay and an agritourism pumpkin farm, life on this New York farm is in constant motion. The busy schedule creates long hours of work, but it’s also allowed each of the girls to uncover their niche.

“I’ve always loved working with animals,” says Evelyn. “I actually went to SUNY Cobleskill for animal science, because of my love for animals, and I honestly thought I would never come back to the farm.”

While Evelyn didn’t plan on returning home, she lived in Georgia after college. That’s until she realized home is exactly where she wanted to be.

“I’m pretty much doing her checks, vaccinations help with the preg checks on Mondays,” says Evelyn. “Pretty much everything cows and some calves stuff, I’m your girl.”

Being born into the Leubner family means you’re also born into life on the farm. Each of the girls started on calf feeding duty since elementary school. From an early age, those farm chores also gave them a taste for what they did and did not want to do.

“After I fed calves for that long, I realized it’s not really something that I was too passionate about,” says Claudia.

Instead, Claudia found a better fit on the row crop side of the family business. After attending the University of Nebraska, Claudia came back with an even deeper love for grains.

‘I’m helping with planting season harvest season, everything in between. It’s been really fun to start to learn about our crop operation” she adds.

And Jojo? Well, as a high schooler, she still works on the farm part-time.

“She goes to school during the day, comes home and does chores every night,” says Evelyn. “She doesn’t really know what she wants to do yet, with her future, but she doesn’t have to yet.”

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While the sisters work together on the farm, it’s their collaboration on social media that’s helping plant new seeds of opportunity for their business.

“When you come up to upstate New York, you’re going to see a lot of lakes and hills,” says Evelyn. “All of our fields are full of rocks, but it’s just really beautiful up here. We’re definitely a lot more than New York City.”

Do you want to read more stories of inspiration? Find the entire list of “Grit with Grace” stories that showcase the heart of rural America.

The three sisters are working daily to showcase New York agriculture, with a focus on dairy. Each of the girls will be the first to tell you that they couldn’t do it alone, and social media has actually drawn them even closer.

“Having this relationship together and doing things like this, and we’ve always just become much bigger, stronger bonds together,” says Claudia.

“And we’re really good at holding each other accountable. Like if Claudia is slacking on something or I’m slacking on something, we let each other know and we don’t get offended anymore,” says Evelyn, with a smile.

“Not anymore,” Claudia jokes back.

The bond the NY Farm Girls trio has built came despite the harsh reality of social media.

“Sometimes it’s not even the extremists. It’s also other farmers or people you know in real life that are the ones that are sending negative comments to you,” Claudia says. “You kind of just have to brush it off, because we have an end goal in mind,”

“You kind of have to learn to ignore it,” adds Evelyn. “In the beginning when we started, we really took the comments to heart and impacted our mental health and kind of almost made us not want to do social media anymore.”

Even as they battled the comments and negativity that comes with social media, the sisters refused to quit, as their motivation was seeing constant social media posts plagued with misinformation.

“It’s a huge passion of ours to teach consumers about agriculture, because they’re the ones buying our products; we want them to trust us,” says Claudia.

“All those touchy subjects people don’t really want to talk about, we dive into all of that,” Evelyn adds.

Reaching the “Moveable Middle”

With a variety of skills and personalities, the girls no longer focus reaching those who are anti-dairy. Instead, they target what they call the “moveable middle.”

“We know these people don’t know where their food is coming from. They think it’s coming from the grocery store,” says Claudia. “So we want to be able to target them and share exactly where their milk is coming from that they’re buying.”

What they’re doing is working.

“I just did a post the other day on Facebook about how there’s no antibiotics in milk, ever. And it reached almost 500,000 people because of how many people shared that post,” says Evelyn.

Her post was part of an ongoing effort during the entire month of June, which is also known as June Dairy Month. To play off the dairy theme, the girls decided to do a series of videos busting dairy myths.

“When you hop online and you see the negative connotations with artificial insemination or antibiotics, you’re obviously going to believe that because at the surface level, it might seem bad to you. But once you go to the source and see how it’s actually done, you can feel a lot better about where your food is coming,” says Claudia.

While the NY Farm Girls brand has grown since they started on social media, the motivation hasn’t wavered.

“We just want to reach as many people as we can and teach them about agriculture,” says Evelyn. “It just really comes down to that.”

Meet NY Farm Girls’ Dad

Each one of the NY Farm Girls is very visible on social media, but a less familiar face on the farm is one that has been a constant stream of support behind the scenes.

“My dad is a great teacher and very patient. You need a lot of patience with me,” jokes Claudia. “He’s always been very supportive of what we want to do on the farm, in our business and everything.”

Maybe the reason their dad has been such a great teacher over the years is because farming is what Tim Leubner knew he was meant to do.

“I never left. I just loved it ever since I was a little kid,” says Tim. “I couldn’t wait to get out of school and go farm.”

While Tim was hesitant when the girls first launched into social media, his tone has evolved over the years. He has seen the power of social media, and the benefits of showing real life on the farm. But in the beginning, that hesitation was rooted in concern. As for a father, his biggest worry is always the safety of his three girls.

In years past, they were getting threats constantly [on social media],” says Tim. “It was like that for about a year or so, and there people were really going after them. That was kind of scary.”

From animal activists to other social media users, the threats have calmed down and the situation has improved.

Tim’s concerns have also subsided and now his addiction to the farm could be turning into a new addiction for social media.

“I constantly am making little videos here and there, and then I’ll send it to Claudia or Evelyn, and they’ll make a video. We’ll come up with different ideas that might work, and I have mostly good ideas,” Tim shares, with a smile.

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How NY Farm Girls Brand Continues to Grow

NY Farm Girls is a business that continues to grow. The girls even launched their own clothing line recently, adding another chapter to the story of the brand.

As Tim watched the NY Farm Girls business grow, he’s proud of the fact his daughters are strong and independent. The girls’ drive and determination didn’t happen by chance, they’re traits that are a product of how Evelyn, Claudia and Jojo were raised.

“Don’t ever tell like a kid they can’t do something,” says Tim. “Always tell them it’s possible and just give them confidence and let them go.”

In their 20s and late teens, the determination and confidence is paying off as the NY Farm Girls continue to gain followers and fans. The side business is also helping these fourth-generation farmers secure a future for their dairy farm.

“We had no idea it would take off like this,” says Evelyn. “We started it just to share pictures of cows and calves and maybe teach a little bit about farming. And it took us a while to grow.”

“We obviously didn’t think that it was going to get this big,” adds Claudia. “We are so thankful we’re able to reach the amount of people we do, because at the end of the day, it’s not really about your follower count or how many likes you get. It’s that you are getting that information out there.”

Closing in on 1 million followers and fans across all sites is no easy feat, it’s the product of hard work that’s required constant grit and grace.

Ring of Glory: Pennsylvania Teen Chases Dairy Dreams After Surviving House Fire

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:48:03 GMT

It takes a lot of days in the barn to be ready for the ring at places such as the 2022 All-American Dairy Show in Harrisburg, Pa.

(Farm Journal)

For Reese Burdette and her family, each precious step along the way is quite literally a miracle.

“Showing and going to shows are some of my favorite memories,” Reese says.

The Burdette family lives and farms just outside of Mercersburg, Pa., at a dairy that’s just the right size to keep two teenagers busy.

“Reese will water and I’ll feed grain and then she’ll get milk and I’ll feed milk and then she’ll do bottles,” explains sister Brinkley Burdette. “We’ll usually get done fast, and then we walk our show calves.”

It is a step-by-step process their parents, Justin and Claire, are only too happy to watch.

“Oftentimes, it can bring tears to your eyes, when you look back to where we were,” Claire says. “I just know how hard it has been and still how hard it is for Reese.”

“She has some grit and determination,” echoes Justin. “She likes to prove to people that that she’s capable of doing it.”

What Reese is doing in the showring is nothing special in her eyes.

“I mean, it’s difficult but everybody has difficulties in the ring,” she says.

The challenges for Reese started Memorial Day weekend in 2014 during a visit to her grandparents’ house.

“It was a Sunday evening and what we now know is an electrical fire started in the room Reese was in,” Claire recalls.

Her mother quickly rushed into the room among the flames to pull Reese to safety while Claire’s stepdad went after sister Brinkley.

“I do remember getting out, sitting on the porch and waiting,” Reese remembers.

(Farm Journal)

Badly burned, Reese was flown to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.

“I was in a lot of pain, I was scared, and they were telling me all these different things I didn’t know,” Reese says.

Justin and Claire arrived at this hospital as quickly as they could.

“First, they told us we’d be there one to two weeks and then it turned to one to two months,” Claire says. “We thought: How are we going to do this? How are we going to continue to farm both of us being away? Then it turned into 662 days.”

Reese was in the hospital for 662 days of recovery, of setbacks and unknowns.

“Through this journey Reese has had five cardiac arrests and she lost her leg in the hospital in that first couple of weeks due to blood flow issues,” Claire says.

Reese’s lungs needed rest, so doctors used an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine to pump blood outside of her body, remove carbon dioxide and send oxygen-filled blood back. However, there were complications and Reese’s parents were forced to make a call about amputation.

“Our surgeon looked us right in the face and said if it was my child, I’d do it,” Justin says. “You now have to be willing to have bad days to make good days.”

The good days were often overshadowed by the difficult ones. From the amputation, to learning to stand and eventually walk again, the days were long. Reese’s parents recognized she needed a goal.

That’s when a favorite dairy cow Pantene -- named after the haircare products -- came back into the picture.

“She was actually the first calf I showed at our county fair,” Reese says.

That’s why Pantene has a little extra hold on Reese’s heart. After weeks in the hospital her friend from home was the right incentive to keep stepping forward.

“One of her doctors was an off-the-wall thinker,” Justin says. “He said, ‘Well, bring Pantene down here.’”

(Farm Journal)

So, through the streets of Baltimore they went with a trailer, right to the main entrance of John Hopkins. Reese remembers that day clearly.

“She came to visit me in the hospital when I first learned to stand up,” Reese says. “That really made me want to get home.”

“It was definitely a moment,” Claire says. “It also gave the nurses and doctors who were fighting along with us perspective on where Reese came from and what she loved.”

Just about two months shy of two years, Reese came home to a hero’s welcome.

“There were a lot of people and one of the first things we did was come down here to the barn to see Pantene,” remembers Reese.

For Claire, the return home reunited her family of four.

“I felt like it was okay to laugh again,” she says. “It was OK to go out to dinner again. It was OK to go to the movies because we weren’t slighting her in any way. We were all included as one.”

A family and a farm were together again, and they were ready to restart the life they’d put on pause.

“We know she has something in store for her and she’s meant to be here,” Claire says. “We don’t know how her story is going to unfold, but it will.”

Reese returned to the showring. The first year she needed a wheelchair to back her up. This year she will be stepping through the sawdust on her own.

“I was actually just telling my friend that most of my favorite memories have been made at the Harrisburg show,” Reese says.

Now she’s setting her sights on Madison and World Dairy Expo, if she can get her parents on board.

“I’m working on it,” Reese laughs.

Along with showing, she’s taken up dance and recently joined FFA. Those extracurriculars happen between follow-up trips to the hospital.

(Farm Journal)

“She had a tracheotomy in 2014 and that was taken out this last year,” Claire says. “The progress she’s made from that has been amazing.”

She also had a leg revision in 2022, which has helped improve her mobility and reduce pain when walking.

“It’s easier for her to feed hay and stuff,” Brinkley says. “It’s easier for her to water, although I still have to hook up the water for her sometimes.”

It’s all helping Reese find a future without limits.

“She has visions of going to college and I’ve given her a three-hour radius,” Claire says.

“Our reality for Reese is that Reese is normal,” Justin says. “She needs to get the childhood she missed back.”

These steps along life’s path, may seem so small for most but for Reese they’re the road back to a future nearly lost. Her future now is stacked high with possibilities.

“You can get so caught up in the little things and at the end of the day, the little things don’t matter,” Claire says. “It’s the big picture and as long as you have your health and your family that’s all that matters.”

Last month at the Harrisburg All-American show, Reese stood fifth in showmanship out of 140 kids.

Enjoy Other Grit with Grace Stories:

The Power of Love and Faith: How a Journey to Help Foster Kids Heal On the Farm Led One to Their Forever Home

Couple Takes Off On Trip From Nebraska To Alaska In A 1977 IH Tractor To Raise Money For Kids

How Social Media Sensation NY Farm Girls Defied Odds to Expose the Truth About Farming

Trapped by Raging Wildfires in December, Kansas Ranchers Share Staggering Story of Survival

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:45:39 GMT

The serene setting in western Kansas is one that serves as an escape from the hustle of city life. Desolate with more prairie than people, Paradise, Kan., provides the perfect destination for raising cattle. And it’s where Ken Stielow’s family, owner of Bar S Ranch, has called home since the late 1800s.

“This quarter right behind me was homesteaded in 1900 by my granddad,” says Stielow. “My great-granddad homesteaded a mile west in the late 1880s.”

(Farm Journal)

At night, the skies can be painted with picture-perfect sunsets, at times allowing you to forget about the challenges that come with life. And those challenges are prevalent, as ranching in Paradise isn’t for the faint of heart.

“We’ll have some little prairie fires that start, and you get them put out in maybe a mile. But nothing of this magnitude. I’ve never been anything like it,” says Stielow.

Stielow’s family witnessed destruction for miles upon miles in December. Wildfires that were fueled by uncontrollable winds made Paradise look far from a dream destination.

“It looks like a desert or moonscape now, as somebody described it,” he says. “It’s kind of hard look at, really.”

What can be lush landscape with the right conditions is now charred and scarred, after a wildfire raged across the fields just seven weeks ago.

“It was December 15. It was a Wednesday,” recalls Stephanie Dickerson, Ken’s daughter. “The night before, there had been a whole bunch of schools canceled, and we knew that there was going to be wind.”

Stephanie, along with her husband, David, live and ranch on the family homestead. Winds come with the territory in western Kansas, so wind warnings aren’t unusual. However, on December 15, she says the wind was of a different magnitude.

“It wasn’t tornado weather. It wasn’t hail weather. It was just, you could just sense that there was something different,” she explains.

Despite wind warnings, even those were not enough to prepare area residents for what was about to hit. What they believe were downed power lines sparked a fire that changed their lives .

(Farm Journal)

“About 2:30 in the afternoon, our neighbors to the north and west of us, Craig and Joleen Lawson, called us. They said, ‘Hey, there’s a fire.’ And they said, ‘It is headed towards our house. Could you guys bring a couple of trucks and trailers over and help us evacuate our horses?’”

With that, the Dickersons took off, not knowing exactly where the fire was or how fast it was moving. David and their son in one truck and trailer. Stephanie and their son’s college roommate were in another truck following closely behind.

“Literally, you could only maybe see 20 to 30 yards ahead of you. It was just blowing that bad, and the dust and everything was terrible,” Stephanie says. “We got over to their house, pull into their driveway, and Craig meets us there. He’s like, ‘The fire is already here.’”

Raging Wildfires

Seeing the fire on the horizon, the Dickersons jumped back in their trucks to head back to their ranch when one truck and trailer flipped over from the high winds with David and their son inside.

“The truck that I was driving did not blow over,” Stephanie says. “So at that point, they ran back and jumped in with me. And we couldn’t necessarily see the flames. But we can felt the heat, so you knew that it was close.”

Knowing they had to escape the path of the fire, they drove back north. But they didn’t get even 100 yards north, and the fire was already crossing the highway. So, they turned around.

“Craig called and said, ‘Hey, Joleen is still in the house,’” says Stephanie. “He said, ‘You guys go and grab her.’”

So they did, but when they got there, barns and other parts of the farm were up in flames.

“David and I go into the house, we grab Joleen, and of course she’s frantic. She’s trying to put stuff in a bag, and we grab her and tell her we have to go,” says Stephanie.

What they didn’t know at the time, is the wildfires were so furious, they tore through a 25-mile path in about 18 minutes.

“It was blowing so hard, the fire would have been jumping half a mile to a mile at a time,” says David.

Trapped

At that point, they were trapped.

“We go to leave, and the fire trucks meet us at the end of their driveway, and we said we were going to go west. They said, ‘You can’t go west, there’s another fire coming over the top of this fire.’”

The Dickersons then followed the tanker truck and two rural fire trucks into a green, winter wheat field that the firefighters knew would provide the least amount of fuel for the fire.

“And this is all volunteer firemen at this point,” Stephanie says. “It is our local neighbor, people that we have known our entire lives.”

A Plan to Survive

And with that, those volunteer firefighters came up with a plan to try to survive.

“They told us, ‘We’re going to sit here, and we’re going to wait it out. And the tankers are going to pour water over the top of us when the fire gets close,’” Stephanie recalls.

She says with a limited amount of water left in the tank, they didn’t turn the water on until the fire was closing in.

“We’re sitting in the middle of the wheat field. And when the fire came over, [my son] Grady’s best friend, Tyler, was on the back of the fire truck,” says Stephanie, as she cries remembering how it all transpired that day. “He was the one that was outside and sprayed all the trucks with water.”

Video Stephanie captured on her phone shows just how close they were to not surviving that day. A thin ring of brown and green around the trucks is the only thing that wasn’t black in the entire field.

(Farm Journal)

House on Fire

Thankful to be alive, the Dickersons didn’t know if their own ranch and livestock were caught in the flames . So, after the flames passed they headed toward home.

“We got about a mile and a half, two miles from our house and I could see that the house was on fire. Our show barn was on fire. Everything at our house was on fire,” she says.

“There were nine structures there, and I think there’s two left,” says David.

(Farm Journal)

They lost nearly all their personal belongings, except the clothes on their backs. And their family lost livestock, other structures on the ranch and 40-miles worth of fence. And 200 head of cattle, all gone.

“We had one group of cattle that we had brought into a pasture, a winter pasture with a lot of grass, and that had cows with embryo calves on it. And we were to put embryos in the next morning, we had an appointment. And I think there were about 50 pairs in that pasture, and none of them survived,” says Stielow.

After the Flames

But what happened hours after Bar S Ranch was devastated by the fires is where this story gets better.

“Well, in the next three days, we shipped most of our cows to other locations,” says Stielow. “You really don’t know what kind of friends you have until something like this happens.”

(Farm Journal)

Six hundred head of cattle that survived were immediately taken in by friends up to 450 miles away.

“We’ve had physical donations from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Iowa, the Dakotas and Colorado,” says Stephanie. “Not to mention monetary donations that I bet we’ve gotten from almost all 50 states. It’s pretty overwhelming.”

“It’s probably, as much as anything, letting you know that there’s still really good people left in the world,” says David.

Overcome with gratitude, the Stielows and Dickersons saw relief come from people they know personally, while other donations poured in from people they’ve never met.

“You see behind me the pile of hay? There was just a constant stream of hay trucks bringing hay people had donated. It was kind of overwhelming. It really was,” says Stielow, taken back by the generosity.

(Farm Journal)

A convoy of hay was trucked in from hundreds of miles away to help area ranchers who lost pastures and their own hay.

“I had a friend tell me this last weekend that we were so lucky, because the people that all showed up and people have sent donations. She said a lot of people don’t see how much you affect other people’s lives until your funeral. And they said, basically, you got to attend your funeral. But you’re still alive to tell about it. And for that, I will forever be grateful.”

While it’ll be at least three years before their ranch gets back to full capacity, this family is thankful that from the ashes rose relief that will continue to restore hope.

Here’s How You Can Help

As the Kanas Livestock Association continues to work to deploy resources, as LMA says there are four collection and distribution points for supply donations of hay, stockwater tanks, fencing supplies and more. Those designated collection points include:

Rooks County
Heartland Regional Stockyards
907 NW 3rd St, Plainville, KS
785-688-4080

Russell County
Russell Livestock
720 S. Fossil, Russell, KS
785-483-1455

Russell County Fairgrounds
702 Fairway Dr. Russell
Marcia Geir: 785-483-3157

Lane County
3 E Rd 120, Dighton, KS
Erik Steffens: 620-397-1687

The Strength of a Mom: How One Young Woman Battled Cancer Through COVID-19 Pandemic

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:34:01 GMT

A serene setting on this Missouri farm is where Kristen Clenney is living her dream.

“I was about 8 years old, and I declared, ‘Dad, I want to be a vet,’” she remembers.

Her dad, Tom Wright, says Kristen was even younger than that when he knew animals were her calling.

“Oh, it was probably when she was 3,” he says. “She always helped me in the turkeys. She was the one daughter who the animals didn’t bother her. She always liked the animals.”

Now a veterinarian in the neighboring town of Eldon, Mo., her career desires have been steadfast.

“I never changed my course at all; everything I did throughout high school and college directed me towards my goal of becoming a vet,” she adds.

A graduate of the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, she thought a large animal practice was her calling. But that changed when Kristen and her husband John had a chance to move back to her family’s farm.

“And as we move back home, we had just started our family. We had a son, and definitely my role on the farm changed, as well as my career, where I was a smaller animal veterinarian and having more controlled hours worked a lot better for our family,” she says.

(Farm Journal)

Family first, Kristen is now a mom who just went through the fight of her life.

“In January 2020, I randomly felt a lump in my neck that I knew was something odd,” says Kristen. “As soon as I felt it, I knew it wasn’t right.”

The next few weeks, were a whirlwind of doctor’s appointments, biopsies and ultrasounds.

“Unfortunately I found out that I did have thyroid cancer.”

Coping with the news, Kristen underwent surgery within five days.

“We were under the impression my tumor was small, they caught it early. I’d have one surgery, and that would be the end of it,” she says.

But it wasn’t so simple.

“We got the bad news that although my tumor was small, it was rather mighty so to speak, and it had spread. And I would be needing a second surgery as well as radiation therapy.”

(Farm Journal)

The radiation crippled her ability to be around anyone, or anything, including her husband, son and animals. And she said that battle is when she almost hit a breaking point.

“Initially, they said they were going to take your whole thyroid, and I was on board for that,” she says. “But then the doctor changed his mind and said, ‘We’re going to do half your thyroid, they’ve come out with new recommendations.’ I said, ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this,’ because what I originally felt was a lymph node. So I knew it had spread. I just knew it had.”

The one surgery turned into two. Radiation to try to get it all happened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To hear that news, it kind of knocked the wind out of my sails,” she says. “And I thought, ‘Why didn’t I fight harder?’”

“I think she’s always seen animals heal, and that was one of Kristen’s problems,” says Kristen’s dad. “She understood the medical part of it. Animals and humans aren’t a lot different. She knew what was happening.”

The medical battle came with a mountain of obstacles, as Kristen—the one who’s usually doing the healing—couldn’t do the healing herself.

(Farm Journal)

“That was the first time John broke down through it all, because he knew he was losing his job due to the pandemic and he felt he was letting me down. Our whole world just felt like it was crashing around us,” she says.

At a time when the country was shutting down, Kristen was shutting down too.

“There were days I wanted to give up,” says Kristen.

The battle to keep fighting was one that took place both mentally and physically.

“I found out I was reacting really badly to my medication and my kidneys were shutting down, and that’s why I felt so terrible,” says Kristen.

She was too weak to even do simple things on the farm, at the vet clinic and at home.

“I read something midway through my journey when I really struggling. It said, ‘It takes the same energy to be strong or to be miserable. It’s your choice.’ After reading that, I made a conscious decision that every day I was going to choose to be strong. Because I needed to be strong, not only for myself, but for my husband, for my son for my family.”

(Farm Journal)

She’s a wife and mom and now a cancer survivor.

“I feel very fortunate. Not everybody gets to see that after their journey,” she says.

And it was a yearlong journey that took grit and grace.

“I know that through the love of my family and my faith, I can get through anything,” she says. “And really, it is not giving up. it was a complete mindset.”

A scar on her neck that could symbolize pain is now something Kristen wears with pride.

“When I look at that scar, I remember all I’ve overcome,” she says. “I remember to be grateful for each day because life changes immediately sometimes and to just continue to be strong no matter what life throws at you. Just keep going.”

The Power of Love and Faith: How a Journey to Help Foster Kids Heal On the Farm Led One to Their Forever Home

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 21:30:45 GMT

Tyler and Amanda Radke’s story started in college.

“We met on the South Dakota State University (SDSU) Meat Judging team , judging ribeyes, so it only makes sense we kind of took ownership of that side of the beef industry, too,” says Amanda Radke, a mom and a fifth generation rancher from Mitchell, South Dakota.

Bonding over beef and cattle from the start, it’s only fitting that the cattle business is still their calling today.

“We sell bulls private treaty to area ranchers,” says Tyler Radke, of Nolz Limousin and Radke Cattle Company . “We sell about 35 to 40 limousine bulls, and we have a fall female sale, as well, with select show heifers and a couple of steers. We sell those private treaty, as well, to people that come and look and local families as well.

The Radkes also own and operate Radke Cattle Company. Life on the ranch is busy, but Amanda stays busy even off the ranch. Not only do they run a direct-to-consumer beef business, but Amanda is a motivational speaker , children’s book author and a boutique owner.

Listen as Radke shares her story with AgriTalk’s Chip Flory:

Struggles with Infertility

Growing businesses seems to come naturally for the Radkes, but where they struggled was trying to start a family.

“When we first got married, we actually went through a really hard time of infertility and not being able to start a family,” says Amanda. “I really struggled with just feeling like a failure.”

Struggling through the emotions of trying to have a child, the Radkes are now blessed with three.

“Scarlett was born June 3, 2014, Thorne was born June 4, 2016 and Croix was born May 22, 2018,” she says. “So, we had three kids born two years apart, exactly, and life was pretty busy.”

Tyler’s Calling

Tyler and Amanda’s hearts were opened to the idea of adoption as they initially waded through the uncertainty of whether they would be able to have children of their own. One day, after their third child was born, Tyler felt a calling.

“Apparently, I didn’t think we had enough going on,” says Tyler. “I honestly don’t know what I saw that made me think of it.”

“He just said, ‘We need to do foster care.’ And my reaction was very negative, because we were maxed out,” Amanda recalls.

Amanda was on the road constantly giving speeches and doing other travel for her job, all while juggling life with three kids and the family’s growing businesses.

“And so I instantly said, ‘No, you’re crazy. I’m drowning right now,’” remembers Amanda.

A Change of Heart

That day, Amanda headed to the airport for a work trip, and on the plane, her heart was changed.

“But again, God had a different plan, because I got on a plane, and the movie on the plane that day was ‘ Instant Family ’, which is a movie about foster care. And so I’m sitting on the plane bawling like a baby.”

She left on the work trip thinking Tyler’s idea was crazy, but that moment instantly changed her mind.

“He’s the steady, even keeled member of our relationship. I mean, he keeps the family going, and I have crazy, wild ideas that go take us off on other journeys and adventures,” Amanda says with a smile. “So for him to have that thought, I truly don’t think it even would have happened had it not been for god giving him that nudge to say, ‘Get this ball rolling.’”

So, that’s exactly what Tyler and Amanda did.

“We call the office and we just want information on how do we get involved and they said, ‘You’re in luck, the Mitchell training started last week, you guys can jump in,’” says Amanda.

The Start of their Journey to Foster

That happened in April, and by August, Amanda was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend when an unexpected call came.

“It was the state, and they had two kids and they needed them emergency placement for that weekend, “ she says. “And I said, ‘I don’t even have our license.’ And they said, ‘Yes, we just threw it in the mail.’”

(Farm Journal)

When Tyler and Amanda told their friends and families their wild idea and decision to foster, they admit not everyone was as receptive to the idea, especially her parents.

“They were scared,” says Amanda. “They were worried about our own kids and the effect that have on them. And just they knew we were a young couple, working full-time jobs, trying to build this farm, we’re trying to be in the seed stock business. We were very maxed out as far as time goes. So, I think in their minds, they’re like, ‘You don’t have time to do this.’”

She says the conversations that followed weren’t easy, as their strong system of support questioned the decision they had just made.

“At one point, I told my dad, ‘Take it up with Jesus, because this isn’t even us. We don’t even know what we’re doing either. So, we can’t even really fully explain it.’ But all it took was that meeting those first two kids, and they got it,” says Amanda.

She says in the last two years with the pandemic, they’ve welcomed a dozen children into their home to foster.

“I just truly believe that there can be a lot of healing done on the farm,” says Amanda.

From healing to growth, she’s even witnessed growth with their three children.

“They became like little agvocates, because they’re teaching these kids about the farm,” says Amanda. “And we just kind of step back and let them do their thing. So, they’re giving them the tour, and they’re teaching them how to pick grass and feed calves through the fence.”

Another Call–This Time, About a 7-Month-Old Baby

Fostering has been far from easy for the family, but as the Radkes can attest, life often reveals other plans. That was the case in 2020. As the world shut down and so did Amanda’s work travel, she was questioning what was next.

“And a week later, we got a call for a seven-month-old baby. And I was like, ‘Oh, now I see why my schedule is cleared, because we have a whole different adventure to go on,” she remembers.

That baby became part of the family during that time.

(Farm Journal)

“We had that baby all of 2020 and got to do all of her milestones with her and love on her,” says Amanda. “And on her first birthday, we found out she was leaving. My heart broke into a million pieces because that was my baby.”

The Radkes knew they’d only have her temporarily, but they were attached and the entire family was crushed.

(Farm Journal)

The Final Call for a Forever Home

Tyler and Amanda had to hold it together for their three children. So, that’s what they did, and life continued to go on, just as it did before. But a few weeks later, another call came.

“And that’s where Alex came in,” says Tyler. “He had been in some foster homes before, coming and going, and now he was available for adoption. Wherever he went was basically going to be his next home.”

They sent Amanda a picture of Alex. He had blond hair and blue eyes, just like their other three kids.

“And I about fell over because I said, ‘He looks like our son.’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I know. That’s why I called you.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I need to talk to Tyler.’”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Amanda Radke | Author, Speaker, Rancher (@amandaradke)

At that time, it was a very harsh calving season. Tyler was also busy with cattle shows and sales, so their businesses were extremely busy. The decision to adopt wasn’t taken lightly.

“We’d learned from the dozen kids that the dynamics changed significantly, if it’s a-seven-month-old, or we’ve had an 11-year-old, and it changes the family dynamic,” says Amanda.

The risks. The what ifs. The unknowns. The entire family had already experienced it with a dozen children, but temporarily. Yet, they agreed to meet Alex, and ultimately, become his forever home.

“Four days later, he had packed up his bags and moved to our house for good,” says Amanda.

Alex’s Adoption Day

Adoption day came October 5, 2021. The wild adventure and continuous chaos at the farm is where Alex seems to fit right in.

“Within that first year, he knew all the equipment in the field, he could rattle it off and had tons of farm knowledge. It was just crazy how he soaked it up like a sponge,” she says.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Amanda Radke | Author, Speaker, Rancher (@amandaradke)

Alex is a four-year old who has braved more in his little life than many will have to do in their entire lifetime.

“We always called him our superhero cowboy because when he came, he loved superheroes, but one night, very early on, I tucked him into bed, and he said, ‘Mama, can I be a cowboy?” And I said, ‘Cowboy? You already are buddy,’ and not because he lives on a farm now and we have cows, but because of how brave he is to change homes and to trust us,” says Amanda.

The trust has grown not only with Tyler and Amanda, but also their other three children. Scarlett, their oldest, stepped into the role of mama bear to not just Alex, but to all the kids the family has fostered the past few years.

“I taught them to be safe on the farm, not to go under the tractor. Don’t go into the pen, especially if there’s a crabby mama,” says Scarlett.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Amanda Radke | Author, Speaker, Rancher (@amandaradke)

And as they only girl, Scarlett can hold her own, especially when the boys become rowdy.

“I tell them I’m going to wrangle them up with my pink rope,” she says with a big smile.

Creating a Farm Sanctuary to Help Kids Heal

From fostering to now adoption, the Radke’s heart of service and selflessness have helped create a farm sanctuary that has helped children heal.

“Their lives have been pretty tumultuous, really,” says Tyler.

“I think giving them that space has helped,” adds Amanda.

“Well, depending on what you’re doing for that day, but for the most part, space,” adds Tyler as he smiles.

Tyler says he may never know what sparked his crazy idea to foster that day a few years back, but he just knew how lucky his kids were to grow up on a farm.

“I just wanted to share that with other kids that maybe had tougher luck than ours did, because they deserve the same,” Tyler says.

Fostering Because the Kids Are Worth Fighting For

Amanda says they’ve seen firsthand how the need for more foster parents across the U.S. is tremendous.

“There are more than 400,000 kids in the U.S. foster system today that are waiting for a forever mom and dad. And then there’s even more of them that are going to be temporarily in foster care before they can be reunified [with their family],” she says. “And so if there’s even a calling remotely on your heart to step into this really hard space, don’t ignore it, because the kids are worth fighting for.”

The Radkes have three goals: provide peace with a place to heal, experience a family full of love and introduce them to a household strong in faith. A recipe that’s filled with grit and grace.

“We always tell people, there’s always room for one more at the dinner table,” she says. “It’s been hard, but at the same time, we’ve been able to just roll with the punches and take on a little bit extra. When you think you’re maxed out, there’s always a little extra space to help someone.”

Amanda says even if you don’t want to start the process to become a foster parent , there are other ways you can support foster families who are in need of supplies and other donations as they continue their foster journey.

Grit with Grace

You can watch more touching and inspiring stories from across rural America in Grit with Grace.

From the Flames: A Lesson in Thanksgiving from a Man Who Survived a Raging Oklahoma Wildfire

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 21:20:43 GMT

Driving back to rural Dewey County, in western Oklahoma, floods Terry Burleson with memories and images from 3.5 years ago.

“How I escaped this wilderness on fire was by the grace of God,” Terry says.

Among the web of canyons and charred cedars, Terry survived. A miracle, left behind after nearly 300,000 acres burned in April of 2018. It started as a quick trip in the side-by-side to scout locations for a turkey hunt the following morning. Terry and two family members were rolling through the pasture when they saw the smoke.

“It seemed to be a long way off and we weren’t taking on any smoke,” he says. “So, it just felt like it was 10, 15 or 20 miles away.”

But in minutes, the fire was on top of them. It was being pushed by 50 mile per hour winds and now a wall of flames was racing across the landscape. Their road back was blocked and so they ran.

“From that point is where we, for whatever reason, decided to split up,” remembers Terry. “I don’t know why even to this day.”

Terry, not expecting to ever get out, was in loafers as he tried to sprint through the canyons. Somewhere during his sprint, Terry lost his phone. The other two men, via fence lines and dirt roads, found a way to safety. Terry ran for his life, up hillsides and down canyons. He ran until he couldn’t,

“My mind was telling me the fire was going to jump and at any moment I was going to be sandwiched,” Terry says. “I kind of gave up and I laid down to die.”

As he listened to the fire howling around him, he found peace.

(Farm Journal)

“I talked to my wife once, right when we got out of the Ranger,” remembers Terry. “I talked to her and told her we were out on foot; we were in it, and it doesn’t look good.”

He lay at the bottom of the canyon, as cedars exploded around him.

“I don’t know, I wasn’t scared and maybe that’s a God thing, too,” Terry says.

As the heat rolled over him, the burning drove Terry to his feet. He was gasping through the smoke as he climbed out of the canyon and eventually broke the tree line onto flat ground. A small road created the perfect fire line.

“The way that road angles and the way the wind was blowing the same direction, that’s the only thing that allowed that fire to backburn past me,” Terry says.

It wasn’t long before the flames came roaring back to life. This time it was on his side of the road.

“That grass was about waist high,” Terry says. “So, you can imagine the flames were probably 10 feet and created just a big wall.”

Terry worked his way from one safe spot to another, laying as flat to the ground as could, beneath the smoke. Eventually, he was forced back across the road and into the ashes. He was safe as the fire once again raged past him.

Several hours went by and as night began to settle in Terry got to his feet, disoriented, hurting and lost. By chance or by providence he turned left down that road.

“Something told me to go left,” Terry says. “I was very fortunate because when I turn the corner, I saw a water trough and a windmill.”

Water! Terry wet his face, but he didn’t drink. He says given his situation he was worried it might make him sick. Then he laid down, out of the smoke on the cool concrete ring. That’s where he stayed until daylight.

(Farm Journal)

Meanwhile, his family feared the worst. They were kept away from the area by authorities and the raging fire.

“Knowing what the wind was doing, seeing the fire and watching it on the news we were just holding out for hope, begging God that he survives and praying all through the night,” recalls Mark Price, a family member. “You can’t sleep, and everyone was worried, nervous, scared and frustrated.”

When daylight broke, Price rallied the others from the family.

“I said it’s time to go,” said Price. “We’ve got to go find him.”

That morning, a few hundred yards at a time, Terry followed the trail across the pasture to a dirt road and then started toward the western Oklahoma town of Camargo.

“When I got across this cattle guard that’s when I saw a pickup coming,” Terry says.

He sank to the ground, and the men offered him water. Five minutes later his family arrived.

(Farm Journal)

“When we pulled up to that cattle guard, I saw him sitting in the road and I threw it in park, jumped out, jumped up in the air and screamed, ‘He’s alive, he’s alive, thank God he’s alive,’” Price says. “Then I thought, I’ve got to call his wife. So I grabbed the phone and I called her. I said, we found him. He’s alive. Then I hung up.”

Price laughs he probably didn’t share enough information, which worried family at the time.

“I got in trouble for that, and they said, you know, you didn’t really give us a lot of information,” Price says.

Local ambulance director Katrina Bryant was the first to arrive.

(Farm Journal)

“Truthfully, [Terry] was in good shape,” Bryant remembers. “I was expecting to be doing a body recovery, and the way that fire was burning, we probably wouldn’t have found a body. We probably would have found ashes.”

She says the entire emergency team knew he was missing and seeing him alive lifted spirits.

“When they found him, the talk on the radio chatter was just renewed life,” Bryant says.

Terry spent 21 days in the hospital, suffering third-degree burns on his arms and parts of his torso. His head and face had first-degree burns.

Exactly how and why he survived is a question Terry has grown to live with.

“You’ll hear God’s in control and so either he is, or he isn’t. It’s one of the two. It can’t be both,” Terry says.

“I know if the same thing happened to me, he wouldn’t stop until he found me. And you know, that’s just it’s a story of brotherhood, a story of friendship,” said Price.

“I try not to get emotional about it,” Terry says, surveying the place once more. “To come back and see it is all still a little bit surreal.”

From fire and ashes to walking among the living, Terry counts it a miracle. He remains thankful for every step along the way.

"It's Not Hollywood At All": How Veeder Ranch Battled Historic Blizzards, Found Hope in the Middle of the Storm

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 05:19:30 GMT

Once you reach the far western portion of North Dakota, the rugged ways of ranching on the cusp of the Badlands can be challenging, no matter the time of year.

“No calf out there is older than 2 weeks old,” says Chad Scofield, a rancher in Watford City, N. D. “Most of them have been born in the last six to seven days.”

This year, calving in the middle of a blizzard came with a battle that was unlike anything many North Dakota ranchers had ever seen.

“We were told it was coming,” says Gene Veeder, who owns Veeder Ranch and ranches along with his son-in-law Chad. “I guess the magnitude of it just kind of was a slap in the face.”

Veeder Ranch is a family operation that’s relied on this land for more than a century.

“Having that long, hard blizzard for a couple of days, and then another one, I don’t remember that ever happening like that in April,” says Veeder.

The family portion of the ranch is still intact, as Chad is married to Gene’s daughter, Jessie. They all live on the family ranch, raising the next generation.

“We didn’t know when I was growing up here in the 90s whether it was going to be a possibility for me to raise a family out here, honestly,” says Jessie Veeder Scofield. “It was a totally different economic time.”

Jessie’s husband, Chad, has worked on the ranch for several years, but has only been full time for a few years. Now that their family is fully immersed in the ranch life, Jessie is grateful.

“Every day we come to the work we’re doing in the family, that we have here, from a place of gratitude,” she adds.

McKenzie County, N. D., is unique with the median age in the community hovering around 35.

“It is because of the economy, because there are jobs here and the oil activity, especially, brought that to McKenzie County. It brought a lot of fourth and fifth generations back to the family ranches, and that’s been incredible,” she says.

Battling the Blizzard

Carrying on those traditions here, is what Jessie strives to do, even when Mother Nature pushes livelihoods to the limits.

An area stricken with dire drought conditions, the blizzard warnings stirred up emotions the week before Easter.

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“It’s like gratefulness and fear all sort of balled into one,” says Jessie. “I think everyone in McKenzie County and in western North Dakota was feeling that, because we haven’t seen snow like this for years.”

Both hope and fear entered the picture as the forecasts became closer and closer to reality. Then, just before Easter Sunday, the Veeders saw a blizzard of a lifetime.

“I think it lasted three full days, and it was bad. Like right here where we’re standing, we would have been standing in about 3 feet of snow,” says Chad.

Record-Breaking Snow

As snow piled up, even trying to wade through the snow to get to their tractors was a feat. Typically, the Veeders would enter their pastures on horseback, but the conditions were too extreme this time.

“Just walking from the house to the barn here on the first storm, where we’re standing right now, I had snow to my waist. I was almost panicky because I had to get to this building to get to the tractor to get out,” says Veeder.

“The snow was so deep coming across this road, that I was pushing it with the front of the tractor, not even the bucket, just the actual front of the tractor was pushing it,” Chad adds.

With blinding conditions and snow that was measured in feet, not inches, the first storm was bad enough. Then, just days later, another storm hit, this time as the Veeders were at the height of calving.

“That was hard for us, because we knew that we were going to have calves out there. We did the best we could to give them shelter and get bedding down for them, but if they were born in the night during the weather, we just couldn’t save them,” says Veeder.

Already exhausted from the first storm, the Veeders did everything they could to prepare for the second.

“What we did is we put them in our lowest, most protected areas and had lots of hay and stuff for them to lay on and got them out of the wind,” says Veeder.

Losses from the Storm

Even though the Veeders did everything they could to help protect their livestock, the blinding conditions were followed by ice, as the back-to-back blizzards were intense. The Veeders only had about 20 minutes after a calf was born to save it.

“They were just wet and cold and couldn’t get dry,” says Chad. “And the cows were all confused about who was the mom for each calf, and it was just kind of pandemonium.”

“My brother was here, too, so Chad, my brother and I were in the two tractors out there, and we had multiple calves in the tractor trying to get them warmed up,” says Gene.

Gene’s brother came back from Texas just to help during the storms, and even with extra help, it was a battle to save the calves.

“We were out in the tractors, looking for calves,” explains Chad. “I think we picked up four or five of them. And then a couple of them were able to get back with their moms, and now we are left with three bottle calves still.”

With the brutal conditions, some of the newborn calves didn’t survive the storm.

“We’re still probably going to be calculating the losses,” says Jessie. “It was certainly more than we wanted to lose, but gosh, we could have lost more.”

Ranchers across North Dakota found calves that were lost in snowbanks after the snow melted from the storm, and the losses are hard for even this seasoned rancher to weather.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch (@jessieveeder)

“It doesn’t have anything to do with dollars,” says Veeder. “I get a lump in my throat telling you about it. These cows that you raise, you kind of get a bond with them. And then you see them go through all that, and their (calf) just dies in a snowbank in 15 minutes.”

Sacrifices to Save Lives

Veeder Ranch lost around 10 calves, but it’s the lives they saved that the family celebrates.

“We had every family member in our entryway with a heated floor, and we were scrubbing those calves down, getting them dried off and getting them fed and trying to pick them up,” says Jessie.

Jessie’s two girls, along with her sister and her two kids, did everything they could to save each precious life on the ranch.

“One bottle calf, the girls named her Strawberry, and now she’s in the barn doing really well. So you feel kind of victorious with all of those little victories that you get in the process of being kind of desperate,” says Jessie.”

While ranchers will continue to battle the thoughts of what else they could have done to save their livestock, there are many calves that lived because of the sacrifices the Veeders and other ranchers made during the April blizzards. And signs of life are spread all across area ranches, in more ways than one.

“You have to just be in the moment, do what you can and be able to look past it into a more positive situation and know that it’s coming and believe that it’s coming,” says Jessie.

Relief in the Form of Moisture

Better days are exactly what’s ahead. An area that had faced a harsh drought for two consecutive years, saw moisture that was not just needed but crucial this year.

“We were in such incredible drought,” says Gene. “We were getting our business taken from us with a drought. We’re talking about this blizzard, but I felt worse about the drought than I do this blizzard, honestly, I do. It was a hopeless feeling.”

While the blizzard robbed them of some new life, it also brought blessings in the form of moisture.

“It means not having to sell the cattle for us,” says Jessie. “(Having moisture) to grow the grass that didn’t grow back in the fall means we’ll be able to keep our herd. It’s huge.”

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The moisture from the blizzard was extreme, but it saved their herd. Some of the animals they were already forced to sell due to dire drought conditions. Relief is just one of many emotions running rampant as the weeks of brutal weather have made ranchers here tired, both physically and mentally.

“I worked hard enough that my body feels like 90 years old,” says Veeder with a smile. “But never once do I complain because my dad worked way harder. And my grandpa worked way harder.”

Heavy Dose of Grit and Grace

For ranchers across the Plains, weathering the extremes is simply what you do.

“Both my grandparents homesteaded in this area. I don’t know how they did it. I can’t imagine so,” says Veeder. “The Yellowstone thing, there’s not enough dollars in livestock today to live that kind of lifestyle. You have to love it. You have to love getting up every morning looking at your cattle and having my grandkids come in and appreciate it and my kids appreciate these. It’s not Hollywood at all.”

Ranching may not be glamorous like pictured in popular movies or television series, but it creates lessons that last a lifetime, and it requires a heavy dose of grit and grace.

“We had a lot to be grateful for in this situation,” says Jessie. “We have family around us, we have a lot of help, we had the right equipment, we had the moisture. For me grit is just being able to see past it, you know, see past the hard time and into the next step. And the next step is going to be better, we’re going to do this, we’re going to have a plan.”

Virginia Farmer Was Stranded After His Tractor Ran Over Him; What Happened Next Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 22:17:14 GMT

Winding across a hilly, gravel road in Crockett, Virginia, is where you’ll find Allen Dix every day of the week except Sunday.

“This is part of my 75-mile mail route that I travel six days a week,” he says.

As a USPS rural mail carrier, it’s a route he knows by memory, and one he traveled just like any other mail day in early March.

Part of his daily routine as a mail carrier, it’s that same road where John Moody is also a regular.

“Well, I’ve lived here on this farm almost my whole life. This was my grandparents’ farm,” says Moody, who raises cattle in the remote area of Virginia.

For 31 years, John worked for the county USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), even serving as the county executive director, but now retired, owning cattle for more than 40 years means John never slowed down. And on March 4th, the day just after John had turned 70 years old, his day started as it normally would as he loaded up to feed his cattle.

“I had a hay bale here on the front, and I had a hay bale on the back,” John remembers.

With bales in tow, John stopped to open the gate to feed his cows, the same way he’s done for decades.

“I just pulled off the side road and pulled off in the ditch and let it idle over there, and then I go across the road, open the gate and come back and get on tractor,” says John. “Well, I did that, and I wasn’t paying any attention, but when I turned around and started back toward the tractor, I looked up, and here came the tractor.”

The Accident

His first instinct was to try to jump on to the tractor to stop it, but as he did, John slipped off.

“My right leg got caught under the back tire, and it just pulled me under,” he remembers.

(Farm Journal)

The tractor, with the two hay bales still in tow, ran straight over John, crushing his lower body.

“Luckily, when it ran over me, when it got to my hips, it just turned to the side and went on off into the fence,” John says.

After the tractor charged across him and landed in the fence, John couldn’t move. And John says just seconds after it happened, he was in shock.

“I thought I was paralyzed,” says John. “I couldn’t move either one of my legs.”

But hearing a steady stream of hooves heading straight for the gate still wide open, still unable to walk, in true farmer fashion, it was more than survival on John’s mind.

“So, I crawled over and got the gate shut,” says John. “And I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can pull myself up and get on the tractor.’ So, I pulled myself up on the gate. But I couldn’t take a step or nothing. So, I just laid back down.”

The Rural Route Rescue

By that time it was mid-morning, when the rural road isn’t traveled much. So John knew the best chance of someone rescuing him was to lie in the ditch.

“I kept thinking well, sooner or later the mailman would come, and I laid there about an hour,” he remembers.

And sure enough, Dix, who travels the road daily, pulled up right on time.

“But as I got closer, I noticed the tractor was across the road and it was into the fence, and the tractor was still running,” remembers Dix.

The route and frequent stops are ones Dix knows by heart. And as he pulled off to the side of the road, he quickly realized something wasn’t right.

“I actually found John in the ditch right here along the edge of the road,” he says. “I was kind of approaching him rather cautiously. And, I said, ‘John, are you okay?’ And he said, ‘No, actually, the tractor ran over me.’”

And that’s when Dix immediately called 911.

“911, do you have an emergency,” asked the 911 operator.

“Yes, I’m on Zion Church Road,” you can hear Dix say on the call.

“Is he out of the roadway,” the operator then asked.

“Yes. I’m a mail carrier and I want to stay here with him until someone gets here,” answered Dix.

But after he hung up, John had a call he needed to make.

“John doesn’t have cell phone. He’s old school. So, I gave him my cell phone,” says Dix.

“He called the rescue squad, and I called my wife,” John remembers with tears in his eyes.

“The first thing he said was, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m working.’ And he said, ‘Could you meet me at the hospital?’ And then I had to sit down,” remembers Debbie Moody, John’s wife. “And I said, ‘What’s happened?’ He said, ‘Well, my tractor ran over me.’ And then I really started to panic.”

She says Dix then took the phone back and explained what had happened as Debbie says she was still in shock.

“When John told me his tractor ran over him, of course. I imagined the worst,” she says.

With Dix still there, the ambulance arrived and rushed John to a local hospital, but it was there the staff realized John’s injuries were too severe.

“They sent me to Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina, and they flew me down there by a helicopter and they took me to the trauma center, and then they operated the next day on my leg,” he says.

Repairing a hole where gravel had burrowed into his skin, John also had three pins placed where the tractor fractured his pelvis. And it was during surgery the severeness of John’s accident also sunk in.

“The surgeon said, ‘You know, he shouldn’t be alive,’” Debbie remembers. “And I cried. I knew it was bad. But when she put it in those words, I cried and said a little prayer.”

John spent a total of 15 days at the hospital with rehab continuing when he got home. Debbie was a natural at being a nurse, but she was also John’s biggest cheerleader as he worked to walk again.

“It was hard on him because he would be tired and sometimes frustrated,” she says. “But he did very well and pushed hard and did what he had to do.”

Steady Stream of Support

As the recovery process was just starting, it was when the Moody’s returned home they saw support and help from family and friends.

“When we came home one of my neighbors they’d built a ramp for me,” says John. “Another one had brought a hospital bed for me, and I was in that hospital bed for about three months that we set up in the living room.”

And the generosity didn’t stop, as the kindness seemed to keep pouring in.

“I had one neighbor that came and fed my cattle for the rest of the winter, and then I had another one come in vaccinate all my calves,” John remembers.

But it wasn’t just those neighbors who continued to check on John. You see, Dix didn’t just rescue John on March 4th. Right after Dix found John in the ditch, he jumped right in to mend what needed fixed on the farm, as he waited with John for help to arrive.

“I was able to move the tractor off of the fence, get it back to the barn was able to mend the fence,” says Dix.”

Even then, Dix says his job still wasn’t finished.

“And he needed some personal things from the house. I went to his house and got those. After all that was finished, I finished my mail route.”

And for Dix, that’s just what you do.

“We take care of each other out here. We look after each other,” he says.

Rural Route Hero

But from finding John and calling 911, to then repairing the fence and gathering items John needed for his hospital stay, what Dix did on March 4, 2021 extended far beyond his day job, something for which he was recognized recently.

“They actually surprised me with the presentation at the post office. I had absolutely no idea that it was going on,” says Dix.

That surprise and presentation wasn’t just for any award, but the USPS’ Hero Award.

“I’m a little uncomfortable with the ‘hero’ title, because, John and Debbie are the heroes for surviving the accident, her giving him care through this whole thing. And it’s been an emotional six months for them, and for me, too.”

(Farm Journal)

A Humble Hero

With his name now engraved at the USPS headquarters in Washington, D.C., Dix still doesn’t like being called a hero. But to John and Debbie, a hero is exactly what he is.

“Allen is truly a hero. He will always be a hero to the Moody family, because of his quick thinking,” says Debbie. “In this area, people do take care of each other and look after each other, and that was just second nature to him.”

“He saved me from a lot of suffering getting there when he did, or I don’t know when somebody would have got there that day,” says John.

While Dix typically delivers mail, that day, Allen Dix proved to be a rural route hero by delivering an unforgettable rescue. As John and Allen share a new bond, it’s one of which John will be forever thankful.

(Farm Journal)

A New Chapter

As for John, his recovery has been a year in the making.

“I had been thinking about cutting back on my cattle; a third this year, a third next year, and then a third next year and going out of the cow-calf operation and then buying calves in the spring and selling them in the fall,” explains John. “Well, while laid there I thought well, this might be a good time just sell all them. So that’s what I did once I got better.”

However, the accident wasn’t the end of John’s story, as John recently started a new chapter. Nearly a year after John survived the tractor accident and sold off all his cattle knowing he couldn’t care for them at the time, he just purchased 19 head of cattle to graze again. As the cattle returned to the farm in March 2022, it’s affirmation that when you have enough heart and passion, it’s a way of life that not even tragedy can take away.

One Month After Hurricane Ida Destroyed NJ's Largest Dairy Farm, Rebuilding is Still Underway as Family Refuses to Walk Away

Tue, 05 Oct 2021 16:18:40 GMT

Located just south of Philadelphia, Pa., outside a New Jersey suburb, is where Eric Eachus calls home.

“We’re located here in south Jersey; we farm around 3,000 acres here,” says Eric, who farms in Mullica Hills, N. J.

In the middle of subdivisions and a crawling metropolis, Eachus and his family continue the farm’s 73-year history of dairy farming. Started in 1943 by his grandparents, today, they’re one of the last ones left -- not just in the area but across the state.

“We’re a dairy farm with 1,400 cows, and we milk around 650,” he says.

(Farm Journal)

Out of 114 dairy farms left in New Jersey, Wellacrest Farms is now the largest in the state. And just over a month ago, it became a dairy farm that’s managed to withstand a huge obstacle from Mother Nature.

A Rare Tornado

An area not known for dairying is also one where devastation from a tornado is rare. But on Sept.1, 2021, Wellacrest Farms was the target of Hurricane Ida’s wrath.

“We had a F3 tornado come through and that left a lot of destruction ,” says Eric.

At 6:30 p.m. that night, Eric and his wife got the tornado warning alert. Away from their phones, they didn’t see the warning right away.

“My wife ran out and got her friend who said that there’s an imminent tornado just touched down a couple miles that way,” he remembers.

“Everything is Gone”

As they took cover, they didn’t realize the extreme scene unfolding outside: one of the largest tornadoes in New Jersey history was ripping across their dairy.

“As soon as we pulled up here along the main driveway, I just couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” says Eric, as he tours the damage still left.

The scene on Wellacrest Farms looked more like a scene from something he’d only seen on the news about the Plains or Midwest. Instead, with barns flattened, equipment trapped and infrastructure tangled all across their farm, that tornado damage was sitting in their backyard.

“You couldn’t even drive up here as trees, all the wires were down,” he recalls. “Buildings were blown down, cows all over the place. It was just disaster. As soon as we came here, I called my dad and he came over and just walked around; he was just in shock. What do you do? Where do you start?”

(Farm Journal)

Picking up the Pieces

But starting somewhere is exactly what they did. Checking to make sure the power lines were off of the roof, they started right in to save any cows they could.

“Back that way we have three different barns that house heifers and dry cows, and there’s nothing left to those buildings, so we had about 600 cows running loose,” says Eric. “The first thing was all the cows were out, so we were trying to gather them up somehow, just so they would be safe.Then we worked on trying to get trapped cows out of the buildings,” says Eric.

Read the original story just days after the tornado struck: ‘Everything is Gone’ New Jersey’s Largest Dairy Devastated by Hurricane Ida

As Eric and his family were still in shock, they knew the job was too much to do on their own. Plus, it was nightfall and dark out. So, they called a few farm employees and neighbors for help.

“By 7 p.m., we probably had 50, 60 people here,” he adds.

As more started to show up, he says 75 people were there until after 11 p.m., all working collectively to move the cows to safety.

“Out of the one freestyle barns that was down, we had about 120 cows on either side of the barn, and the one side was leaning a little higher, so we were able to get all those out. But on the other side, the cows were trapped,” he says.

Cutting metal trusses one by one, they were able to free cows on one side. While the cows were pinned on the other side, they were not injured. Considering the Eachus family couldn’t even access much of their machinery, they knew they couldn’t rescue the rest of the cows until the next day.

“So, the next thing was we called the local electric company and tried to get power to our parlor, because we still have to milk what we can,” he says.

(Farm Journal)

Working through the night, with the help of a specialist to fix mechanical issues, and enough generators to power the barn, the Eachus family was able to milk the next day. An amazing feat, one that happened with a community who helped. And the next morning, even more help poured in.

“Then, a local construction company came in, because they heard about it. And one of the foremen said, ‘What do we need to do?’ I said, ‘Well, the first thing is, we have120 cows still trapped, we can’t get to them,’” says Eric.

All day Thursday, that construction company worked to help get the remaining cows out. And Eric says the company has been on the farm ever since, continuing to help the family clear a temporary place for the dairy to milk.

“We put makeshift gates up, just so the cows can go back to their state of flow, they have no roof or building, but at least it’s their spot where they have a place to lay down; it’s where we feed them, they have water there,” says Eric.

How Do We Rebuild?

A temporary plan was put into place just two weeks ago, as the Eachus family wades through more rubble and navigates decisions of what to do next.

“The struggle is trying to figure out what are we going to rebuild? How can we rebuild?” he says.

At a time when building supplies are already tight, the plan to rebuild isn’t just coming with decisions of how to rebuild, but how quickly they can construct something to protect the cows from the harshness of an upcoming winter.

“Then the next big problem is insurance and dealing with insurance companies to figure out what they’re going to pay and what we can afford to do based on how all that works out,” Eric adds. “It’s been a lot of phone calls here the past couple of days, then there’s been quite a bit trying to decide what we want to do.”

As the Eachus family nails down a new building plan for their dairy farm, it’s a major decision, as almost every barn on their farm was a total loss. And he says it’s still a surprise out of 1,400 cows on the farm, they lost less than 20.

“The buildings were collapsed,” Eric says. “There was nothing left to them, but all the cows were scattered around their pastures, but there’s no fences left.”

(Farm Journal)

While the rebuilding process will take time, the material things can be replaced, which is why the Eachus family is not only grateful for the animals that were spared, but that other lives were not lost.

“The main thing is we’re thankful that despite how much destruction has happened, our family wasn’t hurt,” says Eric. “And also thankful that none of our employees were here milking in the barns at the time.”

Finding the silver lining is second nature for this dairy farmer. You can see it with any conversation. He wears a smile almost everywhere he goes, even in the midst of devastation.

Community of Support

“You look at all the stuff going on in the world and not just the world, but in our own country; everything seems so divided. But when a big disaster like this happens, everybody comes together and tries to help out in any way they can,” says Eric.

Many who knew nothing about farming, rallied around to help the Eachus family pick up the pieces left.

“We had school teachers here, we’ve had lawyers, we had everybody the night after it happened just coming in and saying, ‘What can we do to help?’”

It was a tragedy that brought together all walks of life, as this dairy family refuses to walk away.

“We will try to keep it going, so that maybe one day my kids can get to do it,” says Eric.

Fighting to have a future in dairy, instead of being overcome with the obstacles, as this dairy farmer is doing so with grit and with grace .

A GoFundMe campaign has been established to help in the recovery.

Read more inspiring stories from the Grit with Grace series here.

Celebrate the Grit and Grace of America’s Farmers

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 19:02:56 GMT

Need a little inspiration? From facing an F-5 tornado to battling cancer and beyond, these producers share stories of how they’ve overcome big challenges with grit and grace. Click on the link below to enjoy six heartwarming stories of farmers’ and producers’ resilience.

Download the Grit With Grace eBook here.

Remarkable Rescue: Five Farmers Save Father and 6-Year-Old Son After Falling 70 Feet into a Well

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 18:51:42 GMT

The evening of Monday, May 10, 2021 was a day just like any other for the Leseberg family in Rock Port, Mo. Brandon Leseberg, a Missouri farmer and cattle producer, was working cows while his sons, Louie and Everett, played. As Brandon was closing the gate to head home, his sons stopped for a drink out of the water spigot nearby, just as they had done many times before.

As Brandon was still closing the gate to the pasture, he noticed Louie, who was just standing a few feet away seconds before, was nowhere to be seen.

**WATCH THE FAMILY AND FARMERS RECALL THE REMARKABLE RESCUE HERE**

“I asked Everett, ‘Where’s Louie? What was wrong?’ and he said Louie fell in the hole. And he pointed down, to a tiny hole through the board,” says Brandon.

What Brandon didn’t realize is the board that was nailed across the well to cover it up had rotted out in the middle over time. And as Louie was taking a drink, the board gave in, and 6-year-old Louie fell 70 feet straight down into frigid water at the bottom of the well.

“I bet that was only just a matter of a few seconds after he fell,” remembers Brandon. “I didn’t think. I just ran over to that hole that looked not much bigger than a basketball, and I didn’t see anything, and I couldn’t hear anything for a couple more seconds. And then I heard a splash and some gasping. And there was no thinking; I jumped.”

Brandon knew Louie could barely swim. And with the sounds of his son drowning, Brandon said time wasn’t an option. So, without thinking twice, he just jumped in.

“I went through the same hole Louie was in,” says Brandon. “I remember that I just jumped through that hole in the board, and I obviously made it a lot bigger. But you know, you don’t think. I was just looking for the fastest way down there.”

Without the board still covering the well, Brandon couldn’t see in before he jumped. And so as Brandon was freefalling, he says about halfway down something told him to reach out.

“Turns out there was a pipe [on the side of the well],” says Brandon. “After I jumped down and my eyes adjusted a bit in the dark well, it felt like it was quite a ways down. But when I looked up, I was able to grab ahold of the pipe that goes down to the well motor and stop my descent.”

Able to catch himself from falling on top of Louie in the bottom of the well, Brandon said he would fall, and then reach out to grab the pipe in order to help stop his fall. He did that three times, all while Louie was still screaming for help. As Brandon reached Louie, he reached for his son, while bracing himself against the well just above the water.

“I still had ahold of that pipe, and I just braced both my back and my feet up there and then grabbed Louie and put him on my chest, because the water – we never took the temp on it – I’m sure it was close to 50 degrees if not colder, and he was already shivering,” says Brandon.

Calls for Help

After Brandon reached the bottom and picked up Louie, he realized there was no way he could climb back up.

“Once I was down there, Louie had enough confidence in me, he said, ‘Alright, Dad, you can pull us out now.’ And I told him no, because the last 20 feet or so was so slick on the pipe, I knew I couldn’t hold onto it. It just like ziplined into the water.”

“He said, ‘Dad, how are we going to get out?’ I said, ‘Your brother Everett is going to have to save us.’ And so he goes, ‘How’s he going to do that?’ I said, ‘He’s going to have to run to the road.’”

From 70 feet down in the dark well, Brandon yelled up to his 3-year-old son standing up top.

“I just told Everett he was going to have to be a big boy and run out and stand by the mailbox until somebody drove by. And be a big boy for us, I told him. You’re going to have to save us,” says Brandon.

With strict instructions to stay out of the road, that’s exactly what 3-year-old Everett did.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

“I saw him standing along the road, and we just couldn’t figure out why he was standing there,” remembers Christi McKenney, a neighbor who happened to drive by while Everett was standing by the mailbox. “So, we stopped. And he was saying, ‘My daddy’s in a hole.’”

As Christi and her husband, Mark, reached the farm, they thought the hole to which Everett was referring was in the cow pasture. But then she noticed the 4-wheeler was still running.

“And I said, ‘Okay, show me where he’s at.’ And he pointed down in that well. And then I yelled at Mark.

“I just jumped out of the pickup and called 911,” says Mark McKenny.

The Call to 911

The 911 call obtained by Farm Journal reveals the initial words spelled out during that call.

“911, where’s your emergency?” says the 911 operator. “This is Mark McKenney. I need some help. A guy fell in the well, and a boy is in the well,” answers Mark.

As the 911 operator asks Mark for the address, she also asked questions about possible injuries and details of the fall.

“How far did they fall?” asks the operator. “I don’t know, probably 40 to 50 (feet),” replies Mark. “Are they complaining of any injuries?” asks the operator. “I don’t know. They just said they needed help. He went down to get his boy out of the well,” answers Mark.

More Calls for Help

As the 911 operator asked more questions, Mark instructed his wife Christi to call their neighbor for help.

“I was so emotional, I can’t even remember what I said,” says Christi. “I didn’t even know if he could even get out of it what I was trying to tell him.”

That neighbor was Dan Athen, a farmer who lives just up the road from the Leseberg farm.

“When she first called, she was pretty distraught,” Dan recalls. “And what I got out of it was Brandon fell. I didn’t know what or where. And then she finally said ‘south of your house.’ So, I knew it was Brandon Leseberg. And then she got out that he fell into the well.”

Thinking it was just Brandon in the well, he thought fast after he hung up the phone.

“I knew how deep my well was, which is about 140-feet deep,” says Dan. “And so I thought to grab a barn rope; I didn’t even know how long it was.”

As Dan pulled up to the well, the 911 call captured his first words.

“Brandon, Dan Athen. We’re going to try to send a rope down to you,” Dan yelled.

“Then Brandon said, ‘OK, we’re going to send Louie up first,’” says Dan. “That’s the first that I knew that his son was in the well.”

Dan says with those words, his heart sank. Dan, a father, too, had his teenage son by his side. And, he says, to discover a 6-year-old was stranded at the bottom of the well was shocking and heartbreaking.

The Remarkable Rescue

Without wasting any time, Dan and Mark sent the rope down to get Louie first, but Dan still didn’t know just how far down they were, or if his rope was long enough to rescue the father and son.

“The rope Dan brought was like 85-feet long,” says Mark, a detail they didn’t know until after they measured it days later. “And we used about every bit of that rope to get him out of there.”

But as the men pulled the 6-year-old up, Louie was heavier than Dan thought he would be.

“All of a sudden, something broke free, and it got lighter,” says Dan. “Well, when he got up here, he had wires wrapped around his arm. And I think it was just pulling the pump up and dragging it up on the side of the well, too.”

At that time, Eric Duncan, who works on the Leseberg family farm, and Jacob McKenney, a family friend, also showed up to help.

“We finished pulling them up, and I had ahold of the rope right above his hands. And I just sat Louie on my knee while we took the wires off him,” says Eric. “I knew I still had a bunch of hoodies left in my pickup. So, I just picked him up, took him to the pickup, wrapped him up and turned the heater on as high as I could.”

Less than 9 minutes after the 911 call was made by Mark, Louie was out. And those initial reactions were also caught on the 911 call.

“You’re out, buddy. You’re out, you’re out,” you can hear on the 911 call. “We’ll get you in the pickup, and we’ll get you warmed up.”

With Brandon still at the bottom of the well, the five farmers knew he would be too heavy to pull him up with just the rope, as they did with Louie. So, thinking quickly, they used what was left of the old windmill surrounding the well as a hoist.

“We just started pulling and hollered down to Brandon to ask him if he was able to help pull himself up on the pipe. And he said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Are you ready to go?’ And he said, ‘Let’s go.’ And we started pulling,” says Dan.

Brandon says after he reached the top after the guys finished pulling him up, he collapsed from bracing himself against the walls of the well for so long.

“I was a little more exhausted than I thought from the adrenaline,” says Brandon. “That’s what keeps you going in a situation like that.”

Unexplainable Outcome

As Brandon looked around and saw emergency vehicles starting to enter the farm, he realized it was those five farmers who rescued him, as well as his son, Louie, before the ambulance had even reached the farm.

The series of events Brandon says didn’t happen by chance, as he remembers what he and Louie did while their 3-year-old son and brother ran to get help.

“What do we do? Did we pray a lot?” Brandon asks Louie, as Louie shook his head yes. “You asked me who was going to save us? Who saved us?” Brandon asks. “God,” answers Louie. “And were there angels all around us? Had to be,” says Brandon.

“Well, I think the hero here is probably Everett,” says Dan. “Sending him out to the highway to stop somebody for help. What would be going through a dad’s mind as you have your son in the well. How am you going to get help out of there? And what a trooper to go out there to the road for help. He’s the hero here. Not us. We’re just neighbors to help any time anyone needs anything.”

The five farmers performed one dramatic rescue after a fall of fate.

“I can remember being in the bottom of the well and Louie said, ‘Dad, are you crying?’ I said, ‘No. This is my happy laugh. It’s all I can remember,’” Brandon says as he tears up.

As Bandon relives the fall, he says it wasn’t a coincidence he and Louie both survived with only a few scratches. It wasn’t by chance the two fell more than 70 feet into a cold, dark well with no major injuries. And it wasn’t by luck that 3-year-old Everett, who doesn’t always speak the best, listened and found the words to tell Christi and Mark what had happened, all while Christi and Mark happened to be driving by and saw something out of place and knew to stop.

“Literally, we had about 2 feet, looking back now, or even a foot and a half, to clear everything where it was just a freefall,” says Brandon. “And you know, we both did that. So, there’s too many good things that happened that day that you can’t mark that as luck or coincidence.”

(Farm Journal)

Before the farmers hoisted Brandon up, he snapped this picture. His cellphone had been with him the entire time, but that deep into a well, he had no service to call for help. He captured the picture to remember that day and just how far those two boys fell. The small circle of light is the the top of the well. Brandon says he wanted to document the miraculous outcome, which is one not even those who witnessed it can still explain.

“How they’re alive is amazing,” says Jacob.

“You hear about people falling in the well, but you don’t ever hear about that outcome. It’s just, I don’t know, one in a million to be alive,” says Eric.

“We have angels looking after us,” says Brandon. “God was up there. There must be something special he wants to do with these boys is all I know.”

(Farm Journal)

Being “Well Aware”

This Father’s Day weekend, the story shows the lengths of a father’s love, one that proved to be a powerful and unbreakable that May Day.

Even before Brandon and Louie had left the hospital from being checked for any unknown injuries after the fall, Brandon had already called to get a concrete cap put on the well. And Brandon says he and the boys now count windmills on their drives, making sure they’re “well aware.” And the main reason Brandon agreed to share his story was in hopes it would help prompt others to cap their wells with concrete, and ultimately, possibly save another life.

True Grit: A Tribute to Ranchers Who Weathered the Extremes This Week

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 20:52:20 GMT

The record cold temperatures and extreme weather had a major impact on ranchers across the country, but through it all, the men and women showed what the true definition of a rancher is.

pic.twitter.com/IAbxf5ArqA
— Mary Marsh Heigele (@ksualmondfarmer) February 17, 2021

The work of a rancher often goes untold. Cowboys and cowgirls wearing their work on their sleeves, but not always on their face. It’s hard work that often goes untold, but work you are often born to do.

Cold weather near Broadwater, Nebraska. pic.twitter.com/TdC4O9gcp8
— Paul Burgener (@PaulBurgener) February 18, 2021

Braving the extreme weather, enduring the frigid temperatures this week, putting your livestock before you. It’s a livelihood maybe you chose. Maybe it’s one you were born into, but no matter the path you took to get here, it’s a responsibility you don’t take lightly.

pic.twitter.com/MjY6OGWEts
— amber🌾 (@thegypsysroad) February 17, 2021

This week, you showed the true grit or a rancher. It didn’t matter the time of day, or night. Whether it was 3 in the morning, or 3 in the afternoon, you were there to make sure those newborn calves stayed warm, and in many cases, saving their lives, sometimes, there was nothing more you could do.

Bundled up! Was -6’... warmed to 18’ today here in MO! pic.twitter.com/ipqI1CCaYT
— Janet Crafton Creek (@JanetCrafton) February 17, 2021

It was a constant battle. Breaking ice so your livestock had water, checking on your cows at all hours, placing the priority on them. It’s each of you who put in way more than a 40 hour week, knowing just what had to be done to put your livestock first. Sleep may have been rare and sporadic this week. And the bitter cold that bit through your clothing reminded you just how tough of a career this really is. But you put in the work; work that not just anyone could do.

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Do you want to read more stories of inspiration? Find the entire list of “Grit with Grace” stories that showcase the heart of rural America.

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A New Chapter

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