{"id":393,"date":"2009-04-09T19:55:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T01:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/linux\/wordpress\/?p=393"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:34:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:34:23","slug":"schilz-transitions-from-outdoorsman-to-senator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=393","title":{"rendered":"Schilz transitions from outdoorsman to senator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: The beginning of Sen. Schilz’s legislative career coincided with his 40th birthday.<\/em><\/p>\n

From herding cattle to finding consensus, Sen. Ken Schilz has seamlessly transitioned from work in \u201cCowboy Capital\u201d Ogallala to the Nebraska State Capitol.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came from riding horses every day, vaccinating cattle, hauling manure to spread for fertilizer and buying and selling cattle, to coming down here and negotiating on bills and building relationships,\u201d Schilz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the cattle are a little easier to get along with,\u201d Schilz remarked with a laugh.<\/p>\n

A number of Schilz\u2019s interests involve the outdoors. An avid hiker, he enjoys backpacking in the Rocky Mountains. During one nine-mile hike, the senator ascended 3,000 feet, an accomplishment made even more impressive by the fact that the elevation for the base point of the hike was 2,000 feet higher than his hometown.<\/p>\n

In his youth, his favorite outdoor activities revolved around Lake McConaughy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t many kids in Nebraska who can say they grew up as a beach bum,\u201d Schilz said.<\/p>\n

When Schilz is not in his outdoor element, he said he enjoys reading. Though he owns numerous public affairs titles, he said his favorite books are fictional works written by authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Dean Koontz and Stephen King.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll read just about anything, but I read to escape, not to learn,\u201d Schilz said.<\/p>\n

Since moving from private citizen to public servant, Schilz said he has adjusted to a new dynamic in relationships with his friends who regularly testify at committee hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are guys whom I would consider some of my mentors, and now they are looking at me as an expert,\u201d Schilz said. \u201cIt still seems a little bit surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Humility is a virtue Schilz seems to naturally possess. When asked how it feels to be addressed as a senator, he erupted with a contagious laughter and said he still chuckles when people use his formal title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very fortunate to be able to serve the people of my district and have them place their trust in me. It is a very humbling experience,\u201d Schilz said.<\/p>\n

Schilz said he employs an agreeable attitude and pleasant demeanor, whether he is at home working with cattle or at the Capitol working on legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always found that it is easier to attract the flies with honey than with vinegar,\u201d Schilz said. \u201cAnd that is the philosophy that I live by.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From herding cattle to finding consensus, Sen. Ken Schilz has seamlessly transitioned from work in \u201cCowboy Capital\u201d Ogallala to the Nebraska State Capitol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21382,"comment_status":"open","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":[89],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-ken-schilz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetSchilz_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","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=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21712,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/21712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}