Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

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.

Stole my daughter's camera so took a picture. Taking the Yearling Replacement Heifers out to grass. Done feeding them. What a relief. I think they feel the same way too. Taken 4/12/2009.

$1 trillion deficits seen for next 10 years

I thought Obama was going to balance the budget and fix this problem. He now is making it worse. So what does this mean? I bet, that Obama and his buddies will decide instead of paring back the budget, the fix will be to raise taxes on all of us. You watch and see if my prediction doesn't come true. Those people in Washington don't know any other way of doing things than to spend other peoples money as fast as they think taxers will give them more money to play with. Watch and see.

Enabler : one that enables another to achieve an end ; especially : one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior (as substance abuse) by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior

I'm fed up with all this talk about the AIG bonuses. This is exactly the kind of behavior the government can expect when it acts as an enabler. By bailing out AIG, the President and Congress caused these bonuses to happen. If they wouldn't have bailed them out, they would be no bonuses.

So why are people upset with AIG? They should be upset with the enablers, the government for bailing out AIG.

My Darling Wife finally managed to get some pictures of some of the babies. It's going slow with them but we are making progress, if only the weather would cooperate. Taken 02/20/2009.

Let's see, a quick update on calving. I'm tired.

Above and beyond that, it's going really slow. The heifers could have started around the 8th of February. I had the first calf on the 14th of February and they are going slow. Not quite 10 percent done yet. When they finally start opening up and calving they are going to have a bunch but I have no idea when that will be. No pictures, sorry. My camera isn't working right and I haven't replaced it. My Darling Wife has a real nice one but she hasn't come out to take any pictures yet. Says she would fall and kill herself on the ice. Since I fell this morning and knocked myself loopy, I would believe her. Damn all this ice.

Found here.



So true.

I had a very strange experience when I got up last night for one of my heifer checks. I woke up about 5 minutes before my alarm went off which isn't unusual. I very diligently shut off the alarm clock because this particular clock is very hard to turn off and My Darling Wife gets very annoyed with me if it goes off and I am not around to shut it off. I went out into the mudroom to get my boots on and noticed that the outside door was cracked open and there was snow coming in the house. I am always very careful to shut the door so i couldn't figure how the door was cracked like that and I couldn't figure where the snow was coming from. A couple of hours before when I was out the sky was clear and there was a million stars in the sky. The weather forecast also didn't have any snow in the forecast. Regardless, I knew I had to clean up the mess. Just as I started to step out in the mudroom I hear my alarm clock going off. I knew I shut it off, how was it going off. I turned to go shut it off----

And sat up straight in bed with the alarm clock going off beside me. What was going on I thought. I was in the mudroom, how was I in bed? I reached over and shut the alarm off and couldn't help thinking I just did this a few minutes ago, why am I doing it again? Wasn't there snow in the mudroom? There wasn't any in the forecast. I went to the mudroom and sure enough, no snow. I finally decided I had been dreaming and I was now up and I needed to check the heifers.

The whole time I checked the heifers I couldn't help feeling something wasn't right. Was I still asleep and dreaming? How would I know if I was dreaming or really doing this? How do we know our whole existence isn't a dream? I was so confused. No new calves but doubts about my existence.

I feel better this morning but I tell you, it was a very odd experience. Was it reality or a dream? I truly don't know.

Congress Passes Stimulus Package

My question is whether this will help or hurt our country. I personally feel it more than likely will hurt the country but we will see. It's Obama's show now and he gets to spend all the money that the Democrats will let him. How we as the taxpayers will pay for it all is beyond me.

I sure wish we weren't living in such interesting times.