Yesterday was a busy day for me. In addition to my actual "day" job I fit in a meeting in the morning at Senator Cathy McMorris Rodger's Spokane District Office. I met her Agriculture and Natural Resource Director, Mike Poulson. I had never spoken with Mike before and it was nice to sit down and chat about issues from healthcare & immigration reform to environmental policy and our state's constant agricultural legal woes! Mike is from Connell, WA and works for Cathy from our own state rather than residing in WA DC. That is such a blessing for our farmers and ranchers to have someone situated here locally giving our state Senator updates on the issues he is seeing firsthand. I left armed with some great ideas for getting more young people involved in the WCA and in agriculture issues in general.

When I was finally out of the office for the day and on my drive to Selah, I fit in a phone interview with AgInfoNet radio. I had been contacted earlier in the week by David Sparks who covers the program for them in Southern Idaho. After reading the great article on the YCC, WCA, and YWCA in the Capital Press, he was interested in bottling some of this enthusiasm and excitement for his Idaho listeners. My schedule had been so crazy this week that the time that seemed to work the best was 8PM last night while I was cruising along I-90...(oh hands-free of course right? wink wink!) David was a pleasure to speak with and is so supportive of everything the WCA and myself are trying to do in involving younger people and really taking action to save our industry! He said he would do whatever he could to help and it was great talking with someone who was also positive and excited about agriculture!

Everyone at my company this week has been abuzz over the Capital Press Article! The article was more than I could have it imagined it to be and is helping us do what I had hoped. It is not about me or anything I really even did on the YCC-its about creating a feeling of hope and enthusiasm in people, whether they are involved directly in the cattle industry or not! You are your own best or worst enemy and I hope that people can find hope in something out there in life. There is prosperity and life all around us if we choose to see it. You can listen to the news 24/7 and allow fear and worry get you down or listen to that doomsday/world-ending person next to you and allow their despair shred your sail.....OR you can choose to listen to those people that are willing to work through adversity and rough patches, knowing that a hillclimb is ALWAYS followed by an easy care-free descent!

Enjoy your weekend! :)