Avoiding Train Wrecks

I was supposed to be here tonight telling you about the great day of hauling cattle to cornstalks I enjoyed. Alas, that did not happen today but not completely because it could not have happened. It did not happen because as I have grown older I have more ability to see potential "train wrecks" than I did as a younger man. Not a literal train wreck, but a train wreck in cowman speak is basically when everything goes to Hades in a hand basket and for a brief time you wish to never own a bovine again in your lifetime.

Some train wrecks just happen like the time we had 600 yearlings to ship back in the spring of 1997. As I have explained before yearlings are like teenagers on meth without parental supervision at an amusement park, they just tend to cause trouble. We had a successful gather that morning into portable corrals and I was thinking all danger had passed for the day. As we put the first group into the crowd pen to go up the loading chute everything went fine. As the first few calves lumbered across the top deck of the aluminum Merritt semi trailer the sudden noise caused those still in the crowd pen to bolt and they knocked over the Powder River Panels. This was not the end of the world because they were still in the main corral but one heifer had gotten her neck between the panel openings and was somehow upside down on the panels that now lay on the ground. I quickly grabbed a flailing back leg to spin her around so she could free herself. She made about 3 swift kicks and I deftly dodged each one. On the fourth kick she slammed a hoof into my forehead and split a gash about four inches long and pretty deep. There were about 47 seconds there that are still not real clear to me today. As with any head wound I was spewing an inordinate amount of type A positive blood into the sand of the Columbia Basin. The heifer got free and was fine by the way, I however needed a bit of stitching.

My uncle took me to the local hospital in record time and they got me in right away. The female doctor got me cleaned up and stitched up fairly quickly. Then she said it was time for a scan of my head and a talk with a plastic surgeon about how they could fix the resulting scar once I had healed. I explained to the nice lady that my head was fine, we had yearlings to load and I, and only I knew exactly which ones needed to be shipped. I also explained to her that my days as a model for Gentleman's Quarterly (GQ) were long over and all I really needed was a Codeine prescription and a ride back to the corrals. I think she only let me leave because she knew I was going to anyway. We eventually got everything done that morning.

This morning I finished the fence fairly quickly and was going to haul some cows but then I remembered about some of my rules about moving cattle to new pastures especially those that only have a single electrical wire to keep them contained. Here are a few of those rules which sometimes are broken but are a good guide and what took up most of my day.
Before turning out cattle against a hot wire fence

1. Have the fence HOT, even cattle that know a hot wire can sense if a wire is electrified, and have much more respect if it is carrying a charge.

2. Have the water source running and ready to go, especially if the animals have experienced much of a trip to get there, some will want a drink.

3. I almost always set up some type of portable small corral to unload into. This allows cows a stopping point as they come down the unloading ramp or out of a trailer to STOP and settle down for a few minutes. If the field or pasture already has cattle in it this is not as important. Being a herd animal they will usually join the group already in place.

4. Have another mode of transportation on hand if at all possible. A horse, an ATV, another pickup or something. This way if the cows happen to escape the fenced area you have something other than a pickup with a stock trailer connected to it or a semi truck and trailer as your only means of travel besides walking. It is not easy to round up cattle with an old Kenworth pulling a 48 foot trailer.

5. Stay and WATCH the first group as they explore their new area for awhile before leaving for another load. The cattle will usually fairly quickly find the borders of the field and will go to eating.

6. Try and have the cattle not be overly hungry, some hunger is good as they will want to eat and not travel but especially on cornstalks or lush feed a cow with somewhat of a full gut will not gorge herself on the first errant pile of corn she happens to come across and sicken herself.

7. If possible get the cattle to the new digs with an hour or more of daylight left. Roundups by headlight, spotlight and moonlight rarely work very well or are very fun.

8. NEVER turn out cows against a single hot wire that have not been weaned from their calf for a few days minimum, a week or more is better. Especially if they can hear those calves, I promise you, somebody will attempt to head back home to her calf that first night and she will likely take many of her friends with her.

I did not have all these things ready today and by the time I did and finished an afternoon conference call it was too close to dark and I knew the cows would be very hungry. I am ready to go for tomorrow though and look forward to an enjoyable day hopefully devoid of any train wrecks.

Today's picture is of some happy cows on cornstalks that did not result in a train wreck.

Today's real environmentalist species found on the ranch is Little bluestem aka Schizachyrium scoparium.

Today's You Tube Cowman music selection is Justin Haigh singing "Waylon" I am a huge fan of Waylon Jennings and this song is an awesome tribute. Justin uses many of Waylon's songs to make this happen, "being crazy kept him sane" at 1:10 mark, you just cant find great lyrics like that anywhere. This is why I continually search for new music. That twang at the 30 second mark and the great guitar, drums and fiddle from 1:50 to 2:15 is real country at its best in my opinion!

Caution, Cowman at play

Many regular bloggers have a thing called “wordless Wednesdays”. Tonight I am not going to use that but I certainly am planning on it in the future as a way to make a blog post without typing something out. Today was just a bit too perfect to be a “wordless” day.

Besides everyday chores I spent most of today building hot wire fence. This “job” is something I very much enjoy doing although it is something that is hard to get motivated for. It really is enjoyable once you get going because of many reasons. The work goes fairly quickly and has very tangible results from a visual standpoint, much unlike paper or office work. There is a positive result from a health standpoint because there is lots of walking involved along with the exercise of pounding in corner posts. Today it was in the mid 40’s with lots of sunshine and for me and my demons that is a huge part of having a good day. All those things are great but the best parts are the quiet solitude and time to think, well besides talking to myself and my conversations with Festus about how the world really ought to be.

Festus and I both had a moment of “oh crap” today. There was one area where I had to ease Griselda (the pickup) down a steep grade in some really tall mustard/cheatgrass as I unwound wire. I was being careful so I did not drop into a huge hole but we did fine and made it to the bottom. As I started to walk back up the hill putting in posts Festus was about 10 yards away and was growling under the tall weed growth. I suspected he had found a pheasant so I walked towards his growling to “flush” said bird. Now when you flush a pheasant or a covey of quail by accident it can startle you so I kind of mentally braced myself for the explosion from the overgrowth. We got an explosion alright, as a mule deer doe exploded about 5 yards in front of us. Festus looked at me as if saying “that is no damn cow but please say ‘sick em’, I on the other hand just let the pee trickle down my leg and tried to quit shaking as the doe made a rapid escape.

I did not quite get the entire fence done but about an hour in the morning means I will be hauling cows to cornstalks tomorrow. I am about 3 weeks later than I wanted to be but these look like really good corn stalks with lots of grain underneath. Here in the Columbia Basin it is an excellent way to feed cows in the winter and is much more cost effective than feeding hay and it also is much preferable when the cows do their own foraging. Not only is hay expensive it does not just feed itself and the first two pictures today show just how big of a savings that can be. When $98 only fills your tank part way you know fuel is expensive. The other two pics today are of some new plastic fence posts I am trying, that worked excellent BTW, and the field of corn that cows will be grazing by this time tomorrow! Remember ALL pictures on this blog can be viewed in full size by clicking on them, hopefully I will have my commenting issue solved SOON!

Just to make my day complete I also did a load of laundry and washed some dishes much to my brides delight and tonight we had a WCA/NCBA conference call discussing the World Trade Organizations ruling on Country of Origin labeling. I am tired but excited tonight, I am so glad that what I do for a living does not actually require me to “work” and I get to spend my days “playing cowman”.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Northern Harrier aka Circus cyaneus.

Today's YouTube video is from JJ Lawhorn. I thought of this today as Festus and I sat on the tailgate and wired corner insulators. Lyrics are not perfect but not bad.

Plans in hot water

One thing I have learned over and over since I have been ranching fulltime, never, ever plan your day. If you do plan your day, make sure changes to your plan won’t cause you too much heartache. Today was certainly one of those days and I am going to tell you the story of two hot water heaters in today’s blog post. For the first part of the story a bit of history is needed.

When Dad passed away suddenly and without any expectation in 2008 it meant very sudden changes for my family. It did not take long before I could see that I could not both continue to run the apple orchard and the ranch especially from 30 miles away. This meant we had to move into the house my Grandfather built in the early 1950’s and had been vacant for close to four years since his passing in 2004. There had been some plumbing that had broken the previous winter that ran through the attic and there were sheetrock ceiling parts all over the floor of the hallway and the only bathroom in the home. I hired a contractor to fix the pipes and the damaged ceiling. They completed the job and I cautiously turned on the master water valve. Things looked good that morning with no leaks so I went about my ranch duties of the day, I checked back that evening and things were still good so I went home confident. I returned the next morning to find the new ceiling on the floor and water everywhere as the plumbing had failed in a different section. Long story short we got things fixed, it stayed good for weeks and we installed some new carpet and linoleum in the old home and moved in that June.

The first night in the home I was awoken at 2 a.m. by my middle daughter Samantha, she said there was water all over in the hallway. I was livid thinking the plumbing had failed yet again. That was not the case, the pressure relief valve on the water heater had completely blown out of the top of the water heater and water was spraying everywhere. Luckily it had barely reached any carpet and the linoleum survived and I replaced the water heater with relative ease the next day especially considering I hate doing home improvement projects and know just enough about plumbing, electricity and gynecology to be dangerous.

This past summer we moved down the road to the home I came home from the hospital to after I was born and where I spent my first 18 years of life. This house is about the same age but since my Mom had lived here it was in much better condition. Since moving here things have been mostly good but the appliance demons have really had a heyday. We have replaced one refrigerator and a washing machine in the 6 months we have lived here.

Today I had a plan of fencing a cornfield with the help of Christine and Dakota. That plan quickly fell apart as Christine said for some reason the hot water was only lukewarm. Oh no problem I thought as I quickly found a tripped electrical breaker. I flipped the switch and an early Fourth of July fireworks show spewed from the hot water heater. Resigned to my fate for the day I took several deep breaths. Replacing this water heater would be a cinch considering my past experience. It was bad from the start because shutting off the water flow meant my claustrophobic ass had to crawl under the house into the crawlspace to shut off the water flow. I was doing pretty well until my knee crunched the skull of some long passed feline under the dark, wet, slimy confines of the crawlspace. After a 60 mile round trip to purchase a new water heater, 6 or 7 trips back under the house to open and close the water valve because of leaks I am planning a LONG hot shower tonight. By the way, not a single fence post was put in the ground today nor any wire strung but the beer I am drinking tonight tastes especially excellent. Hey on the bright side I could have been born 200 years ago and spent the day chopping wood for a stove to heat some water for a bath. Luckily I really did not have any plans today anyway!

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is Gray Rabbit brush aka Chrysothamnus nauseosus.

Today’s pictures are out with the old, in with the new, maybe tomorrow I can post some pictures of fence.

Today's YouTube video is Shooter Jennings, yes the son of my favorite Waylon Jennings, sings 4th of July as I was reminded this morning as sparks flew from my water heater!

See ya 2011, I am still feelin lucky

Hello 2012, goodbye to you 2011. In many ways I am glad to see 2011 be over. I hate to start with the bad but I want to get it out, put it behind me and focus on the good for 2011. The toughest part of 2011 was the number of cattle I lost for various reasons. I think I can honestly say I lost more animals in 2011 than the previous ten years combined. I know for an absolute fact that I lost more mature cows in 2011 than EVER in my lifetime. Admittedly some were just terrible luck as two cows slid off a canal bank and drowned and I only remember ever losing 1 cow on this place to that in my life. I lost two cows to uterine prolapses and I had not lost a cow to that in over 5 years. I went through a terrible spell of sick calves last spring and although I was able to save many I still lost way more than I usually do on average. Some were my own fault like the 3 big fall calves I lost last spring right before marketing time because I failed to get a trailer door closed properly. That one will haunt me for a long, long time. $2500 or so just *poof* because of a mental error.

Just to finish off 2011 for good measure I had another issue on the last day of the year. We worked all the spring calvers, replacement heifers and calves still here from the 2011 spring calf crop.It was a good day in the beautiful sunshine with no wind and a temperature in the mid 40's. Things went well with the Courneya family helping out and we finished well ahead of schedule. The cows received two semiannual vaccinations as well as an internal/ external parasite injection. Before we left the corrals for a late lunch I went walking through the cows to turn on a water faucet. As I walked I noticed a beautiful 3 year old cow that was pregnant with her second calf standing over a premature calf that she had passed. Most likely this was a result of a bump or push from another cow in the working process or getting bumped "just right" as she made her way through the working facilities. It seems like every bit of bad luck that I have dodged with the cows over the last several years all presented themselves in 2011. Ok, enough, on to 2012 and the good parts of 2011.

It says in my blog header that I am "the luckiest man in the world" most days I actually truly believe that. Sometimes I just flat fail to realize how lucky I am. The cattle market has been tremendous over the last year and at first glance I hated that I lost so many animals in a year when they were worth so much. As my wise brother in law stated I was actually "lucky" that it happened this year because the high prices offset the financial losses of the lost cattle. I also was able to get another center pivot put up this past year that will make the land more productive and overall it was a pretty good grass year. The calves I did raise to weaning and beyond were certainly the best I have ever raised. The first calf heifers I had this past year also did a great job without a single calving difficulty. I am starting to feel lucky again.

Speaking of lucky, I was lucky in the parts of life that really matter. My family enjoyed a profitable year, everyone was blessed with good health and we enjoyed some really great fairs and fun times as the year went by. I have a great family, extended family and many wonderful friends and made many more over 2011. Luckiest of all was I was once again able to spend my days with Mother Nature doing what I have wanted to do since I was old enough to have an opinion. Raise cows and crops to help feed my family and others all around the world. I am approaching 2012 with an open mind. I want to keep my head up, stay positive and enjoy life, just a tic more mania and a bit less depressive please. I am working on a long list of things to do for 2012 not because I am setting myself up for disappointment, but because if I make a long list and only accomplish a small percentage it will still be a long list of accomplishments. Here are 5 things on that list as we head into this New Year.

1.Spend at least 1 hour a day on ranch improvements, fixing fence, maintaining equipment, rebuilding and building things etc. Not a specific hour each day, but an average of an hour a day as the weeks pass. Things over and above what HAS to be done.

2. Take a bit more time off that is not directly related to the ranch, my service to the Washington Cattlemen's Association as President, or the computer. Family focused time off.

3. Manage my finances better, as the finances of the cattle business have improved, I have gotten somewhat lazy and need to focus on that aspect better.

4. Continue to talk to Dad daily in the way I do even though he is not physically here. Especially on those days that the going is a bit rough mentally.

5. I have a blog and Twitter. Facebook, You Tube account and participating in Twitter agchat on Tuesdays evenings, here comes the luckiest man in the world.

Today's real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Yellow Breasted Chat aka Icteria virens.

Today's picture is daughter Dakota and her friend Miss Shelby and my awesome cow dog Festus helping to water cows on New Years Day. What was that about more time off again?

I am also posting a YouTube video with lyrics that plays in my mind so often as I make my way through my days and as I miss Dad. Enjoy Tim McGraw.

Being 5231 in 2012

Oh man am I ever excited for 2012. Sadly when it comes to this blog 2011 was not a stellar performance in content and especially in regularity. Several things contributed to this but rather than crying like a child and making excuses I am going to rededicate myself to getting back to a better blog with better regularity. I know we are in the time of New Years resolutions and I could make a long list and then feel crappy about my failures by mid February or sooner. I am instead going to make myself a list of 100 “options” for the New Year and then feel tremendously successful if I achieve a 10% success rate. I have some newly found energy and focus and it is other people in agriculture that I have to thank.

There are so many great “agvocates” out there that do so much in telling our story. What is truly amazing to me is how they do it on such a regular basis and do such an incredible job of it. Many of them find the time to actually post DAILY! I figure I have a minimum of 3 posts a month just taking time to direct my readers to other bloggers and “agvocates”. There is a downside to these great people in the fact that the more of them I find the more I prefer reading them than I prefer sharing my own life. I will share some of these incredible people and their contributions as we make our way through 2012. Most of these people I have met through Twitter and if you have an account I would be glad to know and “follow”. My account there is http://twitter.com/#!/TheDailyCowman

To help with this new focus and adventure I went out tonight and bought myself a new laptop. This desktop is getting old and slow and between my maintenance schedule of dumping coffee on the keyboard, blowing off the tower once a year and regular kicks from my boots it has developed a few issues. The new laptop uploaded pictures in about 30 seconds tonight that I have been trying to upload on the desktop for months. I just feel that a blog post is so much more interesting if I can post a picture from my daily life when I post.

These days I am working to get as many cows to cornstalks so they can feed themselves and not be fed expensive hay. Lots of hotwire fence building, panel moving and cow hauling rule the day as we fast approach spring calving. Dakota has been home this week for Christmas vacation and having her help makes the day so much more fun and productive. As this young lady approaches her 15^th birthday she has become an integral part of getting things done around here, I am very proud and thankful for your help Gus. Between her help and her mother going dutifully off to work everyday to earn money to feed us it makes my addiction to chasing cows much easier to indulge in.

One thing you will notice on this blog as we charge into 2012 is that some posts will be much more abbreviated. Some nights it might just be a few sentences or a picture or two but to see that I only did 6 more posts in ALL of 2011 than I did in January of 2010 makes me want to try much harder. I thank all of you that have supported my efforts and as always I am a big boy and any input you have will be gladly taken as to how I could improve.

I tend to relate just about everything in life to mother cows, sometimes that is not always a good thing but you would be surprised how much cows imitate life. One of the things a good mother beef cow does is raise a good sized calf, while rebreeding and preparing herself for the following year. I am going to do all I can to emulate cow #5231B. This little cow has at times been a bit of a challenge because of her attitude but because of her amazing ability continues to stay here on the ranch. Today’s picture is her with her massive steer calf #0231W born in February 2011, clear back in September 2011. This big boy is now being fed out and will provide nutritious, healthy and wholesome protein for a hungry world. His momma will be bringing another stellar child into this world soon I have no doubt.

I also need to shout out a Happy Birthday to a very special lady that turned 21 today. Chelsey, our summer intern is enjoying a few drinks tonight and they are very well deserved. Happy Birthday kiddo!

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Eastern cottontail rabbit aka Sylvilagus floridanus.

Awesome industry

Hey there! Does anyone remember me? The guy that used to blog now and again. *Sighs* life has a tremendous way of being very ironic when it comes to blogging. The "busier" life is the more I see in a day that seems to be blog worthy. The busier life is the less I feel like blogging about it at the end of the day.

Last year about this time I did a blog post entitled "Beef counts and time flies" http://thedailycowman.blogspot.com/2010/12/beef-counts-and-time-flies.html Tonight I am going to mostly focus on how far the beef counts program has come in a little over a year.
What is beefcounts http://beefcounts.org/ ? Long story short, cash and animal donations are taken and matched at a 50% level by a beef processor here in our state http://www.agribeef.com/ . The money generated is then used to purchase high quality beef roasts to help serve hungry families in conjunction with Second Harvest http://www.2-harvest.org/ . There are also Washington beef industry organizations as sponsors including the Washington Cattlemen's Association WCA of which I just began my second year as President, (yea I know people vote really weird sometimes) Anyway, it is a great program and the links will show you how you can help.

So as this year progressed we once again talked about "rollover" auctions that could help raise money for beefcounts. This is a very worthy program but I debated if I could really stand the donation of a $700-800 animal. I went to my Franklin County Cattlemens Association and asked them if they would be willing to go "half". Tom, a fellow cattleman and friend of mine quickly made a motion that the county association buy my calf outright and then donate it to beefcounts. I quickly thanked him for his generosity but said going half would be as much as I hoped or would ask for. Tom then proceeded to tell me it was his motion and that it was to buy the calf at market price and reimburse me and then donate the calf to beefcounts and I should just shut up he politely suggested. Our county cattleman's association is made up of the best people I have ever known. Hard working, honest, good neighbors and very generous. They voted unanimously to buy the calf.

So this was last month and Dakota and I chose calf 1000W a solid black steer calf as the calf to be donated. As we approached this evenings auction we have had quite a story. Our Washington State Beef Commission http://wabeef.org/, asked if Dakota and I would do a radio spot to promote beefcounts. I was all for it because for whatever reason I feel so much more intelligent, sexy and fit on radio as compared to television. So we got a scrip, Dakota and I practiced like crazy for 10 minutes and then did the radio spot at the end of last month. Radio is amazing these days as they can crop and edit so quickly and Dakota and I only did two takes to get the spot done. Overall I was very happy with the spot although I feel my voice is a bit flat. I was really impressed with Dakota though and the final product was acceptable, you can hear it here.....ARRRGGGGGHHHHH, so I cant save a mp3 file as a video and I dont have time to convert the ad tonight. So you will have to wait until a later date for the radio ad, sorry. Here is a picture that is running with the ads. UGHHHHHH........

So tonight at Toppenish Livestock auction calf 1000W entered the ring, he was sold numerous times and the Washington Beef industry raised over $32000 for beefcounts. AgriBeef will match that donation by 50% and with other donations I am sure we will clear $50000 to help feed hungry families in our state. For the month with other county and member donations we have raised very near $70000 for this cause.

I am so proud to be part of this industry, and I thank all of you that donated. I will not soon forget and now I can actually say i sold a weaned calf for over $30000 and it will be true!

Todays picture is one of Dakota and I that has ran with the beefcounts ads. If you read this and would like to make a tax deductible donation it would be very appreciated.

Washington DC and me

Hey everyone and thank you to my new blog fans that have been emailing me! I actually have so much blog material I am not really sure where to start. Since I was last here so much has happened and most of it positive. I was able to enjoy a day on the ranch actually working today and not only did I like it, I craved it and needed it!

I spent a good part of last week traveling and visiting our nations capitol "agvocating" for the cattle industry and the Washington Cattlemens Association. I am here to tell you that there is probably a good 10 blog posts related to that trip alone. Both from an awe perspective, to disgust and humor standpoint. I had been to DC before but not as a lobbying effort and not post September 11, 2001. Things are a bit different in that city than it was prior to that date. The city like so many in the south has its share of humidity and for a fat cowboy wearing a long sleeved shirt, sports jacket and felt hat coupled with being out of my element and nervousness (yes it happens to me too although rarely) I think I could have solved the drought in Texas just with the moisture my body expelled. Having to practically get nude and past security with a a metal belt buckle, steel shank boots and a tin Copenhagen lid got to be quite a chore.

I traveled with my friends and fellow cattlemen Jack (aka heart attack Jack) and Vic (aka Sidewinder). Other than being asked what part of Texas we were from as a bit of a pain in the ass I will say a cowboy hat on the capitol mall gets a whole lot of respect and a few raised eyebrows. I just love being in a place where the people with neon pink hair and fishing lures on their face filling piercings look at you like YOU are the "freak". I think having a conversation with an armed capitol policeman with a machine gun and discussing just how effective said firearm would be at picking off squirrels in the park is something that they rarely get to experience. Jack and I were even invited to join a wedding reception for a beautiful young lady and a military young man because they wanted some pictures to remember their special night with the bride wearing my black Stetson. Good times indeed, however nobody in DC that I came across can drink whiskey like cowpokes from the great state of Washington. The other wonderful observation was the ladies love a cowboy hat and we got lots of compliments and the riffraff seems to clear a path as you walk down the street. It is almost like if you are crazy enough to wear a cowboy hat in DC you are probably crazy enough to dispatch anyone that bothers you.

Instead of going into great detail as to our lobbying efforts I will instead post about some of the more amusing and exciting parts of the trip from my perspective and twisted observations. It started in the park and fly outside the Seattle airport. As Jack squeezed the car into a tight slot I noticed that the guard shack had a sign in the window, "like" us on Facebook! Now I do not have a Facebook account as of yet but I am just not thinking when I do have one I will be "liking" a park and fly parking lot. Then we got to the ticket counter where Jack, Vic and I had a long discussion over checking luggage. Someday when there is Cowman airlines things will be different. All checked bags will be free and any carry on item bigger than a Copenhagen can and a wallet will be allowed but will cost $8,974 per item. It drives me nuts to watch people hold up a flight as they try to stuff a bag that could hold an elephant or half of Rosie O'Donnell into an overhead bin! Before I even had to witness this spectacle I saw something that my mind just could not let go as we waited in the boarding area. At another gate I noticed a dwarf couple (aka little people aka midgets) board a plane. Other than the fact that an unfortunate sight at a strip club in Vancouver BC years ago on a fishing trip made me very midget uncomfortable I also had this thought. Why did this couple really need 2 carry on bags that were at the upper limit of size? I mean really, one shirt of mine, a pair of socks and some denim trousers would not take any more cubic space than a midgets wardrobe for a month.Here I was being very politically incorrect in my thoughts as I headed out to be politically correct.

Our flights were mostly good considering my claustrophobic butt and I only needed 5 beers @ $5 each to make the flight to Atlanta without breaking out a window and doing a DB Cooper minus the cash. Hey that really was not that bad, Jack needed 4 beers and he is not even claustrophobic! After throwing away my boarding pass with my plastic chef salad container in Atlanta I was able to convince Lila at the gate to give me a new one and let me go with my friends to DC. This flight was much shorter and would have only required 2 beers but luckily our flight attendant was not very attentive and only served us one each but also did not charge us. Here we enjoyed our first of many taxi rides of the next few days that ranged from one that was really fun with a guy from Ethiopia that had lots of great reasons why we could become bazillionaires ranching in his home country to one son of a bitch that could do nothing but grunt a pissy "mrumphfff" to any question asked.

This is getting long and I have not even gotten started so a few other quick thoughts;

To a Washington cowboy $150,000 is a lot of damn money, that same amount in DC is equal in perspective to the change in Griseldas ashtray to my total ranch operation.

Our National Cattlemens Association (NCBA) of which our state is an affiliate has some really top of the line people in DC and helped us get face to face access to people that matter and I was thoroughly impressed with their influence, hospitality and genuine down to earth people that did so much to make our trip more productive and enjoyable. I also want to thank the Missouri Cattlemens Association and their leadership for all the conversation, perspective and fun.

A quick karate chop to the steering wheel of a taxi cabs horn means, get the f*ck out of the way.

It is damn hard to find Pendleton brand whiskey in Washington DC.

The waterfront of the Potomac river has some wharf rats that look like they could wean 6 weight calves.

If you are going to join the occupy DC crowd you would get more respect if you did not stand next to a sign saying "corporations are evil" while using your Apple iphone, and AT and T connection and holding a Starbucks coffee while wearing your Nike shoes.

When a flight attendant asks a four year old boy that is in the row in front and across from you "may I get you anything young man?", and he says, "yeah, I need a place to POOP." it is much more amusing to me than it is to his father! Oh my that was solid gold I tell ya!

A young lady flight attendant named Cassidy will probably never have children.

All flight attendants named Patrick are not gay but at least one is. (not that there is anything wrong with that)

You cant tip a flight attendant for providing good beer service but if you give them a $10 bill to throw away as she passes by she probably wont throw it away.

Last but not least, those of you that happen to know Jack should tell him, "It a'int easy Jack!" every chance you get just to see his temple pulse.

Today's real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Northwestern Fritillary butterfly aka Speyeria hesperis.

Today's picture is an old one of cow #5019w with some birds because although I have a new camera I am not getting my pictures from the media card to load, arghhhhhhhh!