Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Well, I see The Donald (I always think of Duck when I hear it) was trying to shut up federal agencies and control what information they put out. Did he really think this was going to work? Do Americans with their tradition of Free Speech put up with this kind of stuff?

NO. They have decided to fight back. Good for them I say. The Donald might think he can control us all but he is in for a fight.

"Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life." I've seen this quote quite a few times and agree with it. My question is what happens when you fall out of love? Then it's nothing but completely miserable.

Some thing I kept telling My Darling Wife during the election, was that Trump's position on trade was going to be a problem for the export driven beef industry. I see that others are worrying about it to. You reap what you sow people.

Do we really need to be doing this? Is Trump's ego that fragile that he needs to dispute crowd claims at the inauguration? As they say around here, "cowboy up." Sorry about your job Trump, not your ego. We the American people don't need this shit.

New president. Is that really really going to fix any of our problems? I don't see how. Most of what he wants to do is contradictory. As an example, he wants to lower taxes and increase spending on infrastructure and the military. Where is the money coming from to do this after he powers taxes?

It is going to get interesting is all I know.

Something I heard in my many years of life is that the older your kids get the more they can hurt you. This is so true. My oldest really did a number on me today. She is mad at me for what I see as caring for her and My Darling Wife's relationship with each other and trying to help. I made everything worse.

I'm done. I just want to end it all. What use is life when all you do is screw everything up.

I was asked what I thought of the new farm bill and how it would affect me. To tell you the truth I don't know. I dont "farm the government" so I don't pay attention much to the farm bill. By "farming the government," I mean that you plant crops and control your operation to maximize the money you can get from the government.

The new farm bill does away wih direct payments and strengthens the crop insurance program. I will lose my direct payments because of this but I am not sure what the change is to the crop insurance program is so I don't know how it is going to affect me. I do use crop insurance so it will be interesting to see.

The one thing that is in the farm bill that I don't think is a good idea is mandatory Country Of Origin Labeling. I personally don't see how it is going to help beef producers and all it is going to do is make beef more expensive for consumers. As high as prices are now that is only going to hurt us all if we raise prices for no reason.

There has been research studies that show that consumers "say" they would purchase beef from US over preference to beef grown in other countries and that is all fine and dandy. The question has never been asked is if they are willing to pay more for this oppurtunity. I don't think they will but this has never been put to a test in the US. I do vaugley remember a study in Australia that asked the same question about Australian beef and got the same answer. They then followed it up with actual product that was only Australian in origin and some that wasn't labeld for country of orgin but was priced cheaper. By a large majority the people that siad they would buy Australina beef bought the not labeled stuff because the price was cheapr. I think the American consumer will be the same way so I don't see that it will help us. The cost of the packers segregateing thier operations to keep US beef seperate from other countries is going to cost them more and they will pass it on to the consumer. It won't come to the Cow-Calf man or anybody else in the supply line. The packer might get more but that is about it. Mandatory COOL is a mistake but what am I to do. Live with it like everything else the government does.

SO like it or not, the farm bill is here and I will deal with it.

Don't waste valuable time and energy on things that don't matter, obstacles, challenges and tough times are all part of the deal. So deal with it and keep moving Ricaardo Housham

I heard something today that I had to say something about. There was a person on a cooking program and they were talking about cooking venison and they ended by saying that the best thing about venison was that it was organic by definition. This really proves to me that the food consuming public has no idea what organic means. For venison to be organic you would have to prove that it never in its life consumed any herbicides or pesticides that were sprayed on anything it ate. Unless the deer was harvested in a wilderness area there is no way to make this assumption. Deer in any populated area are going to eat whatever is available and that includes yards and farmers crops that night be tended with pesticides or herbicides and therefore the venison would not be organic. Just because it is wild does not mean it is organic. Most herbicides have a withdrawal period that you are not allowed to graze livestock on treated acres for a certain amount of time after it is treated. I can sure enough move my cattle so they aren't there but I can't do a damn thing about the wildlife out there so any deer in the area would not be organic. I will repeat, just because it is wildlife it is not organic. Wake up and understand what things mean.

I'm perfectly happy to eat organic food, but if I choose to pay more for it, I don't pat myself on the back ethically. Quite the reverse. I think I'm actually being quite greedy, because what I'm doing is essentially saying, 'I want more land to be devoted to growing my food.'
Matt Ridley

The hired man asked me a question the other day that really made me think.

How does it feel to own a ranch? It has to be a sense of security and accomplishment. Land ownership has to feel so good.

I really had to sit and think about it for a minute. I finally told him his thoughts couldn't be further from the truth. First off, a person doesn't own the land. We just rents it from the government. Stop paying your property taxes and find out how much you own the land. The government will seize it in a hot second and sell it right out from under you to get the money it feels its due for allowing you to use its land.

So to me the ownership has a sense of responsibility. Responsibility to use the land right so I can pay the government, support my family, support my employees, and provide food to feed people. A lot of responsibility and burden to shoulder. There is no freedom and security there. Just worry.

Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility. Peter Drucker

Good News.

Montana declared free of livestock disease

Export restrictions on Montana's billion-dollar cattle industry are to be lifted today after federal officials declared the state once again free of the livestock disease brucellosis.

Bad News

This doesn't mean other states have to let our cattle in unfettered. It is up to each state to set it's own rules. They could still demand costly testing if they so desire. Oh well, half a loaf is better than none at all.

As everybody knows and I haven't commented on, the President and Congress's big push is for health care reform. Fixing the broken system. I've even heard them say that this will bring the country out of the recession. I highly doubt this claim but that is beside the point. What really seems to be the push is for the government to take over our health care and make it a single payer system with the government in charge.

Why in tarnation would we want to do this. The government all ready provides all the health care for the Indians in our country and look how screwed up that system is. The government run Veterans Health care is in no better shape than the Indian Health Care system.

WITH THESE TWO EXAMPLES OF OUR GOVERNMENTS ABILITY TO RUN HEALTH CARE, WHY WOULD WE WANT TO LET THEM TAKE CHARGE OF THE WHOLE COUNTRIES HEALTH CARE? CAN ANYBODY ANSWER THIS SIMPLE QUESTION?

How stupid can the American public be to think that the track record for health care will change in this country if the government is in charge. Pretty damned stupid if you ask me.

Well, we put the boyz out for the summer yesterday. Wish I had pictures but the camera is unavailable at the moment. We started real early because it was supposed to be warm and I was sure glad we did. They didn't give us any trouble but they sure could have as warm as it was.

Boy is it dry around here. We really could stand some moisture. I don't know when the last time I seen it as dry as now. The grass still looks green and good but if it doesn't get a shot of moisture soon we are in for big trouble. Hell, could be in trouble all ready. You should see the grasshoppers and Mormon Crickets that are hatching. There nasty.

The weather is what it is. I can't change it. I can sure complain though.

Taking pairs to the Williams Place. It was beautiful out. I don't call it God's country for no reason. Taken 5/21/2009.

Long time, no write. Things sure catch up with a person. Branding season is upon us. Started with my branding last Saturday and then had a couple more brandings right after that with more coming up this weekend. So far the brandings have really been going well and everybody has been in a real good mood at them. My branding went spectacular. I had a hell of a good crew and we got them done in record time with no one, animal or human, seriously hurt. That is always good to see.

I've been working towards getting cattle out in the right pastures so that I can turn bulls out with them for breeding season which is coming on fast and furious. We are about there. I would be making more progress but the oldest is graduating High School on Sunday which is throwing a kink in my plans.

Damn, hard to believe that she is graduating. It doesn't seem like enough time has passed, but I look at her and she sure looks like a grown up woman now. She is pretty enough that she has to beat the boys off with a stick which causes me some grief but luckily she takes all the attention in stride. I just wish she had more plans for an education. She hates school and has no plans on getting an education. She doesn't want to stay on around the ranch, it's too isolated around here for our little social butterfly, and help so she is going to go out and get a job and start working in the big city. I truly hope that after a while of trying to make ends meet on minimum wage jobs, she will get the idea that an education isn't such a bad thing. The school of hard knocks can be tough but I hope it works.

Oh well, I'll do what I can for her while not making it too easy. Maybe things will work out. Otherwise, green grass, blue skies and fat cattle are making the country look great. A little rain would be nice right now but overall no complaints. It's beautiful out and I hope it stays that way.

Okay, jokes over. It's snowing yet again. I'm tired of this shit. Spring needs to truly start and get some warm weather so the grass will grow.