About the

Human Kine Partnership

 

When we got married on the full moon in July, 1994, and threw our outfits in together—including seven kids—three of hers, and four of his, we already knew how we wanted to live our lives. One of the first things we did as a couple was to sit down and write out a Three-part Goal Statement that described what we came to affectionately call the Human Kine Partnership. “Kine” as most of you know, is the archaic word for cattle. We liked the way it sounded.

 

Our Three-part Goal

 

1. Quality of Life

 

The quality of life we seek embodies the following values:

· To live with healthy, open hearts and minds in an ethical, moral, and just environment that encourages it in others, and produces comfort, safety, and an inclusive welcome for those we care about.

· Prosperity to amply cover our needs and maintain our surroundings, as well as provide for the independence and space for creative thought and work.

· Time for ourselves, for each other, for our children and families, and for worthwhile thinking.

 

2. Forms of Production

 

To sustain our values and achieve our mission we need:

· Profit from our minds—from the creativity, skills, and knowledge that we possess.

· To be a working team that learns, grows, seeks congruency, is competent, professional, collaborative, and capable of viewing life, work, and creativity in a holistic way of thinking.

 

3. Landscape ~ Resource Base Description

 

To sustain our forms of production and our values we need:

· A large, airy, healthy-feeling living space to accommodate our families, and to create a total environment that produces and creates well-being in those around us.

· A land base large enough to create the peace, serenity, and independence we desire—as well as profit and enjoyment from livestock, wildlife, and our earthscape—and the ability to pass on to our children the means for a lifestyle they choose.

 

Back in the mid-90’s we envisioned the Human Kine Group as a Land & Cattle Institute. A holistic integration of environmentally sound land management, organic beef production, and the physical-emotional-psychic health of humans, followed by some bullet points about how we envisioned this would be implemented:

· Combining up-to-date research with the best of traditional horsemanship, and livestock handling skills, in an ethical system of cattle management producing the finest of lean, additive-free, gourmet, grassfat beef;

· Utilizing a hands-on, continuous process of holistic resource management to ensure healthy rangeland, encourage biodiversity, and nurture wildlife in a sustainable ecosystem;

· Providing rejuvenating experiences for body and soul grounded in the Earth and facilitated by gifted experts in the healing arts; and

· Sponsoring creative retreats and intense, uplifting seminars, workshops, and opportunities for artists, musicians, writers and poets to explore their connections to the land, the animals, and each other.

 

Life happens. Over the years quite a bit of our optimistic, high-minded thinking has been down-sized by reality. None-the-less, quite a bit of it remains, and is how we live our life today. Still, as we contemplated the choices in front of us at a time of great change in the Fall of 2006—we both left the world of 9 to 5 jobs working for somebody else—it seemed like the perfect opportunity to refocus on our Goals, and get back to the life we always dreamed of. We also realized that it was just us, not the Group...the Institute was Rod and Sue, and so we renamed our enterprise the Human Kine Partnership.

 

Rod McQueary & Sue Wallis