Gambling help available

Today was a pretty good day. It was kinda windy and the wind was a bit on the chilly side this morning but it was still much nicer than yesterday. I decided earlier this week that three different sections of fence were not only going to be fixed, but completely rebuilt this spring.

Sometimes there are areas of fence that after years of mending, stretching, adding posts, stretching again and mending again they just need to be completely destroyed and started over. This particular area also had a swinging gate that is broken and does not swing so that was going to part of the reconstruction as well.

Dakota helped me with this project for a bit this morning before she had to leave and color Easter eggs with her cousins. Happy Easter to everyone by the way. Dakota also had a good idea of changing the angle of the gate for better access with long trailers and other vehicles with bad power steering. Her idea is going to make life much better each time I go through this particular gate with the stock trailer or pipe trailer.

These are usually the types of projects where I spend so much time working alone that I get some good blog material. I really did not have anything in particular come to me today but I did listen to the radio most of the day and that gave me a few thoughts. Back in January on the 16^th I did a post about the power of music. Being that I like almost any kind of music I changed stations many times today and tried to focus on how whatever song was playing fit a particular moment in the day.

Before I even was able to focus on a song I had to run back to my pickup and write down a phone number. The number was an 800 number and said it was a gambling “Help line”. I am guessing this line is more for professional gamblers than us lowly farmers and ranchers who gamble on life. Either way I feel the number might be helpful at some point. What if I am deciding if it would be better to gamble on bred cows or yearling steers at the auction? Now I can call the help line and see what they say. What if I am in Vegas and am playing Blackjack and am dealt a soft 17? Now I can call the gambling helpline and ask them, hit or stay? I think this will be a very valuable service to people like me. I would bet someone $20 that they will need multiple lines for all the people calling asking for gambling help.

Once that advertisement was over the song “Lunatic Fringe” by Red Rider came on. I have always liked this song and it also reminded me I need to call my Doctor and make an appointment before my prescription runs out. Right after that Aldo Nova played “Fantasy”. Oh that made me laugh, do any of you remember the metrosexual in the leopard print leotard exiting the helicopter and then using his guitar to blow open the door on the warehouse in the video for this song? You want a good laugh check it out on youtube, oh metal band days.

After that I decided it was time for some country. One of the songs I heard today was Montgomery Gentry’s “Hell Yeah”. The song has one of the greatest verses of all time, “He’s got a redneck side when you get him agitated, He’s got the gold tooth look from a stiff right hook, He’s proud he took for his right wing stand on Vietnam say’s he lost his brother there. I always have a great visual in my mind from that verse. I also heard Keith Anderson singing “Picking wild flowers” today. It has the verse, “Hey Daisy don’t worry ‘bout your momma, like 007 we can keep it covert. Undercover on the ground by the water, gonna get a little ‘peace’ on earth. Talk about an excellent play on words.

One other song I heard today was Foster and Lloyd singing “Texas in 1880” It has the verse, “Our hearts will get broken and our heads will get busted, but we’ll always believe the things that we trusted. There’ll be those nights when glory comes round and we’ll tip our hats and wave to the crowd.” Go to you tube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEBgRF1hkDA to see the video with some excellent vintage rodeo clips. I did not get my heart broke today or get my head busted but as I left tonight the yearling heifers were all close by watching me finish the fence. Just for kicks I tipped my hat and waved to them knowing that if they had hands instead of hooves I would be leaving to thunderous applause.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is Kochia aka Kochia scoparia.

Today’s picture is of calf 0420w, he is the brother to one of Dakota’s fair steers named Homer.