Chairman of the "bored"

I suppose a day and its level of excellence is in the eyes of the beholder. Today was one of those days that were productive in many ways but the tangible portions are tough to find. I do not really have any specific focus to this post other than to relate my day and how it played out from MY perspective. If this sounds boring to you maybe you should leave this blog and Google “World cup soccer”. Apparently there is some sport where they kick a ball and try to get it into a net but not before kicking it back and forth for a minimum of 89 minutes and 32 seconds. *Sigh* I Googled this “world cup soccer” last night but it did not impress me much. Apparently a high scoring game is 3 to 2. Now when a sport can have a final score lower than the pitch count on an individual batter in an individual at bat in a single inning in a baseball game I would guess it would probably not interest me.

So I awoke early today and did some minimal irrigation before heading to Ellensburg for our monthly (WCA) Washington Cattlemen’s Meeting. Just before I left today our Executive Vice President called to inform me that our President would not be present today and that I was chairman of the board for the day. I was as excited as a cowdog that was about to get a bath. I want to thank the WCA board and our guests for their participation and focus all the way through a long day. We covered a lot of ground and although the debate was lively at times I felt we made good use of the day discussing many issues. Those of you that read this blog that are not familiar with the cattle business would be amazed at just how intelligent and thoughtful a bunch of lowly cowboys and cowgirls can be when forced to discuss industry issues even when some of those issues seem boring and unimportant. Thanks again to all of you and President Dick we all hope you get to feeling better soon! On the way home I really felt proud to be part of such a small and select group.

I also noticed a few things on the way home today that spawned some random cowman thoughts. Would it be wrong for a candidate for Grant county coroner (or any county for that matter) to have a campaign slogan “Johnson is the dead right choice for coroner”? The next thing that perplexed me was a discussion on National Public radio related to war. How it is possible that in “the land of the free” an 18 year old soldier could ostensibly fire a rocket propelled grenade or a cruise missile as a military member but the same individual could not purchase a handgun in many states back home? That led me to another thought related to age and what is allowed in this country. In most places a 15 year old can purchase birth control but they cannot rent an adult movie. Apparently having sex at 15 is ok but don’t you dare watch some other people have sex? Then do not even think about having a cigarette (or other tobacco product) after fornication if you are “underage”. I am so glad that there are reasonable laws in this country to provide more rainbows and smiles.

I got home late tonight and I want to thank Dakota (my daughter) and Christine (my wife) for helping with the late hour irrigation change tonight. We also had an issue with Dakotas fair steers that we worked together to solve. Dakota has 4 steers for 3 potential fairs this year. One of them named “Robbie” had gotten his halter too tight around his muzzle and needed some assistance to rectify the issue. We did that this evening as a family and I commend Dakota for noticing the halter was too tight and Chris for helping to solve the problem. Just for reference Dakotas other steers this year are named “Toby”, “Homer” and “Teddy”. You will have to ask her where she got these names and why.

This is one of those posts that I am feeling that it is not anything that people would care to read. From the same perspective I am glad that I now have more posts in June than I had in May. I was about to change the title of this blog to “The bi-weekly Cowman”. I am also going to give a shout out to the chefs that are going to enjoy the next two days exploring the cattle business with the Washington State Beef commission. Thank you to the beef commission for providing the venue and education.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Long haired June beetle aka Polyphylla crinita.

Today’s picture is heifer calf number 0200w. This pretty girl will likely be a replacement heifer. Her mother has been a great producer and also produced one of Dakotas show steers back in 2007 named “Sir Loin”.