{"id":17078,"date":"2015-04-10T14:51:55","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T20:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=17078"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:01:22","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:01:22","slug":"senators-hard-work-pays-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=17078","title":{"rendered":"Senator\u2019s hard work pays off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Mike Groene and grandson Hudson admire a catch.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Groene enjoys hard work\u2014the more, the better. Describing himself as someone who \u201chates to sit still,\u201d the new senator said he realized early in life that it was best to embrace his nature.<\/p>\n

Groene was raised in Olean, in Colfax County, and was the second to youngest of seven siblings. When you grow up in agriculture, he said, you learn the value of a day\u2019s work. So, after graduating from Dodge High School and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he built a career in agricultural management and sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do what you know and I knew agriculture,\u201d Groene said.<\/p>\n

But, after establishing his career, Groene thought it might be time to explore a hobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you reach the middle class, you figure you\u2019re supposed to take up golf,\u201d Groene said. So, he tried it. \u201cI found myself waiting and waiting and standing around on that golf course, and I realized, I don\u2019t like this. I\u2019ve got to keep moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the beginning and the end of golf as a hobby.<\/p>\n

Although he says he has no time for hobbies these days, Groene enjoys spending time outdoors, especially on the South Loup River near his North Platte home. He recently finished building a cabin near the river, where his children, Rebecca and Jebb, and their families come to relax and fish. He said a photo of his grandchildren holding up their first catches is one of his favorite possessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go home every weekend to restore my sanity,\u201d he said. \u201cFamily is what matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s busy at the Legislature, Groene\u2019s wife Barb fills in at his regular occupation, which includes staffing the show booths at agricultural conferences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt works out,\u201d he laughed. \u201cThey like her better than me, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Groene said he is looking forward to bringing his agricultural and business experience to the Legislature and working for less government involvement in the lives of Nebraskans.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood government is less government,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just a country kid who lived the American dream and that\u2019s what I want for the people I represent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Mike Groene enjoys hard work\u2014the more, the better. Describing himself as someone who \u201chates to sit still,\u201d the new senator said he realized early in life that it was best to embrace his nature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[167,18],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-17078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-mike-groene"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetGroene_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17078"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21668,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17078\/revisions\/21668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}