Ashley Mike is a country girl through and through, with a life spent on a farm and a love of home, family and the outdoors. So, it's no surprise that she's found a career in the UT Extension, an organization dedicated to helping families and communities develop important rural skills, stay healthy and be successful right here at home.

Mike was born and raised in Maynardville and grew up on Cedar Crest Farms, 200 acres which her family has owned since 1958. There, they still raise registered Black Angus beef cattle, and the family runs the farm as a team. Now married to husband Ethan, and with a daughter, Nettie, age 1, Mike and family still live on the Cedar Crest land and contribute to the effort, including grinding feed and putting up hay. Mike raises laying hens and sells farm-fresh eggs, and young Nettie loves playing with her chickens.

Mike is also an avid deer and turkey hunter, and she likes hunting for mushrooms, too, all hobbies that contribute to her advocacy efforts for youth in outdoor sports.

She is a 2009 graduate of Union County High School, where she was active in the Horace Maynard Chapter of the Future Farmers of America. She later earned an American Degree, one of the FFA's highest honors. She attended Walters State Community College and graduated with an associate’s degree in agriculture in 2011.

From there, Mike held several jobs, including working with NRCS and Soil Conservation on agriculture cost-share programs and helping the Farm Bureau board of director’s host Farm Day at local elementary schools each year. And, she held a job at St. Mary's Medical Center processing medical records, but the drive to Knoxville just wasn't for her.

Five years ago, Mike applied to work with the UT Extension Office as an administrative assistant, a position that would keep her at home in Maynardville working with the community she calls a family.

"I really love working in our community," she said. "Agriculture is where my heart is, but working in Union County, it's just like family. They just feel really comfortable."

At the Extension Office, Mike works with the wide variety of programs offered there, including 4-H, ag programs like Master Beef Producer, Family and Consumer Sciences, the Union County Farmers Market, and more. She manages the office calendar and fields the calls that come into the office, whether it's a farmer wanting help with an erosion problem or a family wanting to get involved in 4-H.

"Anyone can call here for information, and sometimes I'm like a phonebook," Mike said with a smile.

Life at the UT Extension Office is fast-paced, and Mike said many folks would be surprised at how much time the agents and staffers spend out in the field.

"We really like it, though," she said.

Mike is still active with the Farm Bureau's annual Farm Day, a program which takes hands-on agriculture activities to a different elementary school each May, and she helped plan JAKES Day, a juvenile hunter program at Chuck Swan Wildlife Management Area. Through the UT Extension's 4-H, she's active with the Hog Club and Chick Chain programs. She said teaching kids about agriculture, safe hunting, and other skills of rural life, is important because some kids might not get the experience at home.

"A lot of kids don't have any idea these days where food comes from," she said. "It helps them in ways they don't even know. Through the education of our 4-Hers, we've watched them grow, and they're doing great things. We've watched these young people become leaders."

Mike thanked her parents for being good role models and for pushing her to follow her heart in all she does. And she encouraged the community to get involved in the many programs offered by the UT Extension Office.

"I am devoted to my job in our community, and I hope to help and inspire our citizens," she said. "It is important to me that our youth grow up knowing how important agriculture is to each and every one of us. I hope to encourage them to follow a path that allows them to be as lucky as me and actively work in an openhearted community doing something they love."

Right now, the community can help boost the 4-H Hog Club by purchasing whole or half hogs raised by club members. The hogs will be ready Jan. 18, and cost is $1.50 per pound. For info, call the UT Extension Office at 865-992-8038.