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casskjohn

I feel like a professional mover. (Except not the

I feel like a professional mover.

(Except not the kind that shows up with the back brace ready to lift heavy stuff because I'm actually kind of a menace when it comes to lifting and maneuvering large pieces of furniture.)

But, in terms of packing, organizing, and getting things ready to go, this ain't my first rodeo and I'm kind of a pro.

However, to be honest, this isn't a skillset I really desired to have, and I think a lot of wives of working cowboys feel the same way. We move a lot--sometimes too much--and this part gets really, really old.

Packing everything (again), cleaning everything (again), and unpacking and cleaning and learning all the roads and pastures and neighbors and grocery stores (again) just gets old for a change-resistant creature of habit like me. I also know, though, that with change comes new opportunities, and so we go.

This time feels different, though. I'm not sure if it's because Bert wasn't looking for a job and we weren't planning to move this year so our brains are having a hard time understanding what's going on, or if it's because this is a part of the world we know so I don't have to go through figuring out which is the best grocery store or pediatrician (Trader Joe's, duh, and we get to go back to the pediatrician we saw when Wace and Buster were babies and I'm SO dang excited) or if it's because this job feels like it could possibly one of those unicorns that only comes up occasionally (I get scared even typing that because WHAT IF I JINX IT but you can't jinx Jesus, so), or if it's because our permanent house isn't ready yet so we're summer camp-ing it in one of the houses the ranch owner's family uses when they want to get away so most of our things will be in storage for a bit.

I'm not sure. Probably all of it, right?

All I know is that I'm a very resistant amateur professional packer and mover, so if you need tips, I'm your gal, and I'm hoping that this is the last time in a very long time that we have to enter this particular rodeo.

Yesterday I went and had a meeting with the big bo

Yesterday I went and had a meeting with the big boys' teachers to check in and visit with them about their advice about what we should do with the boys for school after we move.

It was so hard, friends. They have thrived at their school here, their teachers love them, we love their teachers, and it feels almost cruel to take them away from this school. I am drowning in the mom guilt.

Moving is so hard, and like many working cowboy families, we've done it so much, but it's different and harder once you have kids in school. They have their own lives, their own friends, and taking them away from that feels awful.

Now, I know kids move all the time. I did. I was fine. Moving teaches kids valuable skills, and they'll both be okay. I keep telling myself that this could hopefully be (please, Jesus) the last time I have to sit down with teachers and have this conversation. They are so excited to not have to be on the bus for hours every day, and I am hopeful that they will thrive in their new school, too. I am excited that they will be able to have more playdates and play more sports at the new house because we won't be an hour from town.

But that doesn't mean it's not hard.

Moving is so bittersweet, but I also recognize how lovely it is that it's that way--it means that we're excited to go and sad to leave and that's how it should be.

I did not think I'd be writing this post in the ye

I did not think I'd be writing this post in the year of our Lord 2023, but here we are.

We are moving. Again.

We're moving! Again!

We don't talk a ton about what life is like for working cowboy families (but you better bet we will!) but we tend to move quite a bit, whether we want to or not. Sometimes it's because the job just isn't working (that's a nice way of saying the boss is awful) or because something happened like the sale of the ranch. But sometimes a move happens because a job offer is just so good that you can't say no.

Thankfully, blessedly, this time we are so firmly in the latter camp that we should buy t-shirts.

Bert got offered--what feels like out of the blue--an amazing, amazing opportunity to manage a ranch in Kiowa, Colorado. Basically just up the road from where we are, but closer to our families, to Denver, to the airport and school and Trader Joe's (glory and trumpets) and we can't wait.

I still can't believe it's happening, partially because now I've got to pack us all up and move us next month, but also because I'm allowing myself to believe that this is the opportunity we've been hoping and praying for. A long-term (we're talking multi-decade, folks) job that will allow us to build relationships with the ranch owners and the community and give our boys a chance to stay in one place for a long, long time. It's scary to even write that because the ranching world can be so, so fickle, but I'm choosing faith this time.

All that to say: we're moving. We're excited. We're overwhelmed. We're prayerful and grateful.

*Steps on soap box* As farmers and ranchers and/o

*Steps on soap box*

As farmers and ranchers and/or advocates of agriculture, the most effective way for us to help bridge the gap between the farm and the table and help people learn where their food comes from is to be connectors, relationship-builders, gate-getters, invite in-ers, translators, "You can sit with us"-ers, and tour guides.

It's not by complaining that everyone is against us, assuming everyone needs "educated," or by saying that ag isn't the problem.

I see lots of advocates take to the internets talking about how hard we have it, how everyone is against us, how people are stupid for not knowing how food is grown, or how the way we do things now is absolutely fine.

That isn't how we actually make change, y'all. That isn't how we are going to help move ag forward. It's how we piss people off (in a bad way,) preach to the choir, hear affirmation from the echo chamber and remain stuck in our current quagmire of issues.

We don't have time for that.

The deepest connection and most effective collaboration come by building community, and building community isn't built upon a foundation of complaints, condescension, or divisiveness. As a rancher, communicator, and advocate, I don't want a rally cry. I want conversations that actually go somewhere and include different points of view that get us where we need to go faster, and where we need to go is a food system that is better for the farmer, the consumer, and everyone else in between. Not to a place where we refuse accountability or different perspectives.

*steps off soapbox.*

If you're a collaborative type and you need a great communicator who knows about the production side of the beef industry, I'm your gal. If this post made you upset, I recommend yoga.

Today is Wacey's 8th birthday and how lucky we are

Today is Wacey's 8th birthday and how lucky we are to be this boy's parents. He made me a mama, he made Bert a dad, and he's just the best. He's an amazing, kind, funny human, a little bit bossy like his mom, such a great big brother and ranch buddy, and while we don't know where the last eight years went, they've been the best of our lives. Happy birthday to my oldest blue-eyed boy.

(Yes I cried a little making this. How do these babies get so big so fast?!)

10/10 recommend getting a bounce house and playing

10/10 recommend getting a bounce house and playing fruit bat with your baby (fine he's 3 but he's still the baby okay?)

*not actually a collab but if Bluey called I wouldn't say no.

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