Can someone please tell me where August went? It went speeding past me so fast, that it was nothing more than a blur. September is threatening to do the same thing; I see it gathering speed each time I glance at the calendar.

Let me catch you up on the activities around here. School started a couple of weeks ago. This is a big year for our family; our oldest started junior high and our youngest started Kindergarten.

Fortunately they have each adapted to their new surroundings and are enjoying the school year. I wish I could say that I am adapting as quickly, but it sure seems quiet during the day with all of the kids at school!

When I am not taking kids to or from school, I have been spending time with this sweet horse, Betty.

She and I have helped gather and wean most of the heifers. Admittedly, she is officially in my husband’s string of horses, but that junior high boy I mentioned earlier keeps stealing my horses!

I have been taking care of the heifers that we weaned. Not a difficult job, mostly requires maintenance of this water trough, making sure they have enough feed in the fields they are in, and keeping them contained in those fields.

Today I am on my way to Denver for a checkoff meeting, specifically an Operating Committee meeting. I have been preparing for a few weeks now and am hopeful that it will be successful. Over the next two days the Operating Committee will hear proposals for checkoff program work in fiscal year 2015. The Committee will decide which proposals to fund based on how well those proposals meet the goals of the beef industry’s Long Range Plan. We will be allocating nearly $40M of producer and importer dollars, so we do not make the funding decisions lightly. It will definitely be an intense couple of days, but I am confident the Committee will make strong decisions and our checkoff work will continue to bring an excellent ROI to all beef producers.

Our first (and hopefully only) fire of the year. This one was on our summer country in the timber of Northern California.

We lost a great deal of grazing country that is going to force us to ship cattle out of here much sooner than we had planned. The past few days have been spent gathering cattle and bringing them down to meadows we had been saving for fall feed.

There were three fires in this area and one of them burned several homes. We have been counting our blessings–we still have a house and barn, as well as our cattle.

When this fire started I was in Denver at the cattle industry’s Summer Conference. I was in a meeting when my husband texted me, telling me that the fire was close to the house and he was grabbing what he could before loading the kids and dogs to evacuate. Talk about a helpless feeling! My family needed me and I was in a meeting 1200 miles away. Absolutely nothing I could do–except remind my husband to grab our daughter’s favorite teddy bear. And pray.

I was surrounded by cattlemen and women who understood the importance of our meetings and also the frustration of being away from the ranch at such a critical time. I was reminded, once again, that our industry consists of amazing people and I am so humbled to be a part of it.

Dear Friends,

I am writing this letter to answer the number one question I have received from many of you over recent months: “Kim, have you abandoned blogging?”

I can hardly fault you for asking. There is no denying that my blog is suffering from neglect. I have so enjoyed sharing photos and stories from my family’s ranch with all of you over the past five years. I have tried to be transparent with you, sharing the good times and the tough times. But, there is a part of my ranch life that I have kept from you.

In the beef industry we have a national checkoff program that requires cattle producers to pay $1.00/head each time a bovine animal is sold. That $1.00 is used to promote beef, educate consumers about beef and conduct beef research on both a state and national level. Many years ago, I was involved with the Idaho Beef Council which manages the checkoff program throughout the state. On the national level, checkoff programs are overseen by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board (CBB) and I am currently chairing that Board. It has been a significant time commitment for me, requiring travel to various meetings each month, not to mention the weekly conference calls or the daily emails and phone calls. In other words, the time that I used to spend on blogging is now consumed by my CBB work.

It is a tremendous privilege and honor to be serving in this position. It may be the most humbling job I have ever held (next to motherhood, of course–nothing is more humbling than that!). As I travel the country and meet with cattle producers from all walks of life, I am reminded that the decisions my officer team makes this year absolutely must be in the best interest of all the cattle producers in this country. It’s a little overwhelming at times.

Initially, I made the decision to not talk about my CBB work on this blog, because frankly things were a little contentious in the checkoff arena for a while. I didn’t want to have BeefMatters dragged into the fray. Now I realize this was a mistake. I am proud of the work I have done over the years and I want to share with you the last few months of this journey with you.

I hope you will forgive me and still take the time to read BeefMatters. I will do my best to keep you up to speed with life on the ranch and also fill you in a little on my CBB work. No time like the present, right? Let me tell you about the meeting I attended over the weekend.

I was invited to speak at the Georgia Cattle Association’s summer meeting. I have been to a number of other southeastern states, but never to Georgia and I was looking forward to the trip. I was not disappointed. Let me assure you that Southern Hospitality is alive and well in the great state of Georgia. Those folks were kind, gracious, unfailingly polite, and made me feel right at home. They were a wonderful audience–listened attentively, laughed at my jokes (thank you!), and asked many questions. We discussed the impact the checkoff has on consumer demand for beef, not only domestically, but also in our foreign markets.

The afternoon was spent touring Georgia farms and taking in the beautiful scenery of the Chattahoochee National Forest. My hosts picked my brain about cattle production in the high deserts of Idaho and patiently explained to me the struggles they face in their hot and humid environment, combined with the obstacle of the tremendous distance to the feedyards in the Midwest.

I left Georgia with many new friends, a (slowly) developing taste for grits and the knowledge that the cattlemen and women in the southeast understand the value of the checkoff to their own farms and ranches. And, once again, I am humbled by the dedication and tenacity of America’s cattle producers.

It was a fantastic trip, but I am anxious to get home. My husband reminds me that there is work to be done–horses to ride, cows to move and salt to be hauled out. And, yes, I am looking forward to all of that, but mostly I miss my kids. The best part of returning home is the moment I walk through the door and instantly have four kids jostling around me, all trying to be the first to hug Mom. Everyone is talking at once, telling me what I have missed and asking about my meetings.

It’s noisy and chaotic and messy–it’s exactly what I love most.