Re:Connecting

December 2025

When life forced a slowdown, one family found new purpose through regenerative agriculture practices

Kacie Scherler-Abney used to measure her life in motion. There was always another project, another trip, another cause to chase. Until the day her body refused to move.

The stillness that followed upended everything she thought she knew about purpose. It was quiet, humbling and, eventually, healing. That stillness brought her back to Walters, the Oklahoma farm she once simultaneously loved and resisted, and into a new rhythm of living.

What began as a search for her own health became something larger: a way of healing the soil, reimagining how food is raised and creating a space where others could feel at home in doing their small part to care for the world.

Kacie’s story began like many others in a small town. Everyone knows your name and your roots run deep. But even as a kid, she knew she saw the world differently.

“I cared about things that weren’t really cool among my peers,” Kacie, a Cotton Electric Cooperative member says, laughing. “I started a recycling club and came up with volunteer projects. I just had this big heart for people and the planet.”

That instinct to care came from her parents, who modeled compassion through service. But despite her love for community, Kacie didn’t always love farm life. At 15, she swore off meat altogether for a few years after her dad sold a set of calves she’d grown attached to.

“I became kind of the odd one out,” she says. “But that thread tying me to the farm stayed with me.”

Her world grew far beyond Walters, from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Uganda. For nearly a decade she built a career in global nonprofits to empower communities to lift themselves out of cycles of poverty.  Along the way she met her husband, Zach, whose similar upbringing in Uganda gave him a deep sense of purpose. Together they believed they could help make a
difference.

Two months into her marriage with Zach, a sudden and rare autoimmune illness left her with few answers, only the bleak possibility that recovery might never come.

“I’ve always been someone who defined myself by what I do,” Kacie says. “Every day of my life was filled with activities and work. For the first time I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t know who I was without all that doing.”

She and Zach moved back to Walters, fixing up an old farmhouse near her family’s land. Searching for ways to support her health, Kacie began reading about clean eating and regenerative food systems. The couple decided to raise their own meat, just two longhorns to start.

“It started as a health journey,” she says. “But it became a soil journey.”

They called their operation Re:Farm, adopting regenerative farming practices that nurture: no tilling, no chemicals and constant rotation of cattle to allow the grass and soil to heal.

Over time, her health improved. Then, the community took notice. Neighbors stopped by, curious why the cattle moved so often. Customers at the farmers market lined up for their beef. And amid a global pandemic, another seed began to grow.

“During COVID, I kept thinking: what if there was a store that was good for you and the planet?” she says. “We started brainstorming words and values — restore, renew, revitalize — and Re:Supply was born.”

Re:Supply now has locations in Norman and Wichita Falls, offering everything from their locally raised meat to refillable household staples and clean pantry goods. Kacie credits director of operations, Bridget Tanner, and a team of passionate individuals who run it smoothly as both a store and a space for connection.

“I’ve been in stores like this in California, and they can feel so intimidating,” Kacie says. “You walk in and think, ‘Oh no, I didn’t bring a pretty glass jar!’ I love when people bring in their old yogurt containers. I want them to feel disarmed and welcome.”

That sense of welcome extends far beyond the checkout counter. Re:Supply has become a place where people across different backgrounds, even political divides, find common ground.

“Food is one of the few things that still connects us,” she says. “If we can gather around a shared table, we realize we have more in common than we think.”

Finding balance

Kacie and Zach’s journey hasn’t been without challenges. Farming has a way of humbling even the most determined optimists. Droughts, breakdowns and unpredictable seasons test their resolve. But they have learned to find humor in the hard days and gratitude in the ground beneath their feet.

“Agriculture teaches you that the only constant is inconsistency,” she says with a smile. “You have to laugh and you have to trust.”

Their partnership thrives on contrast — her vision, his pragmatism.

“I’m the dreamer; he’s the spreadsheet guy,” she says. “We’ve had to learn when to switch hats and when to take them off. Especially since becoming parents, we’ve realized how important it is to define our strengths and protect our time.”

Zach prefers being out with the cattle and mentoring with other ranchers, while Kacie finds energy in connecting with customers and creating community. Together, they embody the very principles they preach: balance, restoration and renewal.

“My idea of home isn’t tied to a place anymore,” Kacie says. “It’s tied to a vision — living in a way where we produce more than we consume, where we give more than we take.”

That vision continues to grow through Re:Farm and Re:Supply, inviting Oklahomans to rethink not just what they buy, but how they live.

“As consumers, we have so much power to make change,” she says. “Even the small things still matter. You don’t have to overhaul your life to make a difference. You just have to start.”

These days, when Kacie looks out over the pasture, she doesn’t just see cattle or crops. She sees possibility. Every patch of grass and conversation is an opportunity, one rooted in leaving things better than you found them. Her story, once defined by motion, now finds meaning in rhythm: the steady, grounding work of renewal.