WIR holds brave space, supports courageous action and champions rural women's leadership on the land
Hey girl,
We can make it easy if we lift each other.
If you’re feeling the weight of caring for land, animals, and community, join us as we celebrate all that we are and all that we do.
February is that strange and seemingly endless time between the winter solstice and spring equinox, when we never really know what we will get for weather (hello, seasonal confusion), and many of us feel like we’re in the twilight zone ✨🪐✨.
This time of year looks different depending on where you are geographically and what type of land, animals, and humans you care for. Please enjoy this fun and chaotic smorgasbord of what a day in February looks like for some of the women in this community.
Montana Ranch Kids: The next generation of Class C basketball
by Tami Jo Arvik Blake
Watching my little No. 1 play girls' basketball was for sure a highlight of 2023, and way more fun than I ever would have allowed myself to believe. And on the same court where I once dreamed my own big basketball dreams (!)... well, it was all enough to make this grinchy old mama's heart grow three sizes last year.
High school sports did not end well for me and I finished school with a bad taste in my mouth. For twenty-plus years, then, I took my leave, staying far away from gyms and balls of all kinds.
Tami Jo Arvik Blake writes, rides, homeschools four rowdy ranch kids, and occasionally dabbles in coaching basketball from a corporate ranch in Eastern Montana. She’s raising kids on the same ranch where she herself grew up; her dad rode for the brand for over 50 years before his retirement, at which point her husband, Beau, moved into the ranch management position. She now finds herself not only sleeping in her parents’ bedroom in the ranch house, but also beginning to doubt that she will ever truly be in charge! Thankfully a sense of humor, not to mention keeping an eye out for all the good blessings provided by ranch life, keeps her coming back for more. After a three-year run as the editor of Agri-News in the early 2000s, she’s now “retired” to a life of feeding bum calves, cooking for cowboys, and mass-saddling kid horses.
We know Valentine's Day can be a little 🧀, but we can always get behind supporting and celebrating yourself, your partner, your friends & family. If you choose to partake in gift-giving, consider our Purchase with Purpose program, which supports the work of creatives and makers in this community. We have limited hats, mugs, and sweatshirts available - custom-made by and for women in this community!
