Shout-out to the photographers Katherine Gamble, who produced the book Women and the Land and Sarah Krumm, who took these photos for Livestock on the Land.

About me

I grew up here, just down the road from the farmhouse where my grandma lived.   I searched for kittens in the haymow while dad milked the family dairy cow, climbed corncribs and drove the truck for my dad as he threw bales out the back to our cattle. I never expected to be the one to run the business though--number  four out of five kids, and born at a time when the only someone said to me about farming was not to marry one. It never occurred to anyone to suggest I might someday -be- a farmer.  I left home, graduated college and went on to teach in Colorado, dreaming of coming home someday, building a house close to the farm.  Other siblings farmed with Dad, but it didn't work out. Then, a few years after college, sitting at the kitchen table in the farm house, having a whiskey sour, Dad approached the subject of coming back to take over the farm. Could I turn around a herd of bison? Could a leave a salaried job?  Could I leave my life in Colorado? Was I ready to spend the rest of my life in Iowa? I came back every summer to help with tours, making hay and selling jerky at events. Eventually, my I don't know became Yes, but in a little while. I taught for eight years in Colorado, an amazing job. But then my mom was diagnosed with ALS, and truths came crashing in, the words of Mary Oliver: what would I do with my one wild and precious life? An amazing job--or the life I wanted to live? I moved home to the calm and quiet beauty of woods and bison and hollyhocks, certain my adventures were behind me. That was 15 years ago. In the years since, Dad passed away and I'm running the ranch on my own, though I am so grateful I can call on family for help when more than one person is needed.  I also work for Practical Farmers of Iowa, an amazing nonprofit dedicated to farmer-led education. Of course, two full time jobs means there are never enough hours in the day to get all the jobs done. But ask any farmer and I think they'd tell you the same thing.  And as it turns out, living here has been more of an adventure than all of the teaching and world traveling of my early years. This. If I won the lottery, I'd still be here.