our youth: AG STARS
Transition — Confessions of a Teenage
Ag Diva
By MARSHA BROWN
L
78
andrie Austin sits in a booth
next to her mom as she peruses
the menu at Tequila Bar Y Grill, as
she chooses between the pineapple
scallops, lobster and the bean and
cheese nachos. The dinner choices
are an appropriate metaphor for
the crossroad that she faces in her
life right now. An extremely well-
read, polished 13-year-old, she finds
herself thinking more and more about
her career path. Her involvement in
4-H figures into her options more
than one would think.
“I’ve taken a break from cattle,
lately,” she said, once she finished
ordering her meal. “I still want to
be involved in 4-H, but I’m now
involved in volleyball and I’m more
into food, nutrition, clothing and
textiles, which doesn’t involve the
animals.”
How long since she made the
transition?
“When you do the major shows,
the main one is the Fort Worth Stock
Show … It takes a while to get your
steer ready. I decided not to show
this year.”
Any regrets on that decision?
“I do miss the steer thing a lot,”
she said. “But I have more time to
do homework, so I have improved
academically quite a bit. I used to
worry about the steers so much I
sometimes skipped homework.
The cattle thing takes so long.”
With the switch of focus from
cattle to clothing and textiles, Landrie
found herself with more time on her
hands. No one has to get up before
sunrise to feed a textile project, and
there’s no stall to clean out and
textiles never get sick.
What are you working on?
“Parker County does a 4-H fash-
ion show,” she said. her mother
chimed in. “She cooks a lot!”
Landrie’s mom, Allison Willis, has
been a big supporter of her daugh-
Landrie then
and now
ter’s 4-H activities since her daughter
was in kindergarten.
Her favorite culinary creation so
far?
“I’ve learned to make maca-
roons,” she said (correctly pronounc-
ing the word “Mac-a-rons,” a rarity in
Weatherford, America).
“Landrie can make an entire meal,
top to bottom,” Willis said.
From the beginning of Landrie’s
cattle showing career, at the age of
five, her mentor was famed cattle
baron Jim Martin.
“He was always there to help me
out,” Landrie said.
With neither culinary arts or cloth-
ing and textiles being exactly Martin’s
bailiwick, Landrie had to find a new
mentor, but she didn’t have to look
too far.
“My grandma,” she said. “For
one of my projects for 4-H, I got to
make Kraut Rolls. I got to practice
with her a lot. She is always making
something new.”
Landrie comes from a family of
cooks. Almost every female in her
life, on both sides of the family, they
all cook.
She clearly enjoys it all, though.
She seems to have it all figured out.
Her biggest success in 4-H was still
enjoyed with a bovine at her side in
the show ring.
“When I showed my first heifer,
and we took third place,” said
adding, “That was fun. And with my
steer, that first year, an Angus, we
took 4th place. I started in kinder-
garten. I went to Spring Creek. My
school is establishing a 4-H club.”
Her school is Trinity Christian
School in Willow Park and Landrie is
in 6th grade.
Continued on page 83