a junky lesson in life

If I could put together a string of days as productive as today was I would take a full day vacation and not even feel guilty. Maybe the key to having a good productive day is not having a plan. Last Monday I had a plan, I had a list, I had goals and I ended up spending most of the day spinning my wheels. Today I had no plan for the simple fact that I had so much that needed to be done a plan was not needed. I had not made a list because I did not have enough paper and I made no goals because I did not want to strive for anything more spectacular once I awoke this morning and knew I had not died in my sleep. Wasn’t one accomplishment enough?

As it was I did get many things completed today. The morning irrigation went well with no major issues. I had friends who started scrapping some of the broken, outdated, unused farm equipment museum pieces that my father and grandfather had acquired over the years. It looks to be a slow and thankless task but I am encouraged by how much they accomplished today and how much the scrap was worth. I could almost hear my ancestors cussing as I walked around with a can of spray paint painting the letters “ok” on any items that I deemed unusable in my lifetime. Don’t worry guys I am saving the entire decent pipe, angle, channel and other iron that could possibly be of use in my lifetime.

I did however decide that the 11 (yes really) International Harvester forage choppers had no chance of revival by my hands. I can just hear my Grandpa Paul now, “you might be sorry someday if you need one of those corn choppers!” The chances of that are about like winning the lottery which nulls the whole idea. If I win the lottery I am damn sure not going to chop corn with a pull type two row corn chopper that was already worn out when it arrived on this ranch sometime in 1971 through about 1987. I sometimes still wake up at night shaking my head after having a nightmare that Grandpa had filled the silage truck just a bit too full and sent little pieces of silage corn down over the cab, into the window and down my fragile teenage back. I only had to endure that from time to time, my poor mother was the designated silage truck driver in the field for 3 weeks every September back in the day.

The corn choppers are actually fairly recent arrivals compared to many items at the corrals. The 1948 F6 Ford truck that brought my grandparents belongings to the Columbia basin is part of the old equipment parked and piled there. I almost feel bad parting with some of the stuff. So many memories and stories of days gone by live in those old relics. I do need to get the place cleaned up though, the scrap price is decent, and I keep telling myself the money brought in will be used towards many needed upgrades and fixes around the place.

As I sorted through the junk pile today I remembered a story that is funny to me today but was not so funny back when I was 15 or 16 years old. One summer I had gotten the fever for extra cash. I would ask Dad or Grandpa about a certain old equipment item or parts of items that I could sell for scrap. For the most part they agreed to my longings except for one time when Grandpa would not let me cut and scrap an old model 57 International Harvester wire baler. We had been putting up round bales with newer machines for many years and I was not too happy that he would not allow me to scrap the old small square baler. His excuse was that the baler had better than scrap value in certain parts of the world and that one day someone would come by and want to buy the old machine. I asked him how much he thought it was worth and he said at least $300.

He was correct as later that summer a gentleman did stop by the corrals to inquire about the baler. I was there working with show steers and trying to be a big man I told the guy I would like $350 for the baler. He readily agreed to the price but I said we should go down to my Grandpas house to confirm that it was ok to sell it for that price. I proudly told my Grandfather that I had offered the baler to this man at $350 and he had accepted my offer. Grandpa seemed to be pleased with my sale but as was his custom he visited with the man about where he was from, what he farmed etc. Grandpa seemed to really like this man and as the conversation wore on he told the man, “Why don’t you just take that baler and do not worry about paying for it.” I quickly said goodbye and left on my motorcycle to sulk and be angry because I felt totally betrayed. I was none too happy with my Grandpa over the next few days. About 4 days later he told me he had something for me. He said I had done a good job of selling the baler but he just did not have the heart to charge the man for it. He did however have for me a $50 savings bond for my efforts at selling the baler. That was the way my Grandpa taught me much about life and what was really important in this world.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is Tumble mustard aka Sisymbrium altissimum.

Today’s picture is of a Pheasant trekking through the pasture on a beautiful June evening.

Can an ant have an aunt?

Today was one of those days that are more common in the Columbia Basin in March than June. Those days where if you cannot find your sunglasses they are probably in your rain slicker or parka. We received close to another third of an inch of rain last night. Now I know in some parts of the country, anything less than an inch of rain you call “partly cloudy” but here in the eastern Washington desert that is a good rain. Especially when you get that rain in the month of June.

The rain not only washed many acres of hay that was cut the last few days it also really flattened much of the Timothy hay crop in this area. I am sure that most hay growers have stopped drinking alcohol at this point and moved on to heroin. I have not ever tried heroin myself but in the movies it looks like it solves lots of problems. Well wait, I should not say I have never tried heroin. I did take a girl dressed in a Wonder Woman costume home from a college costume party once but that is a different kind of heroine.

I spent most of the day restarting irrigation pumps and irrigation systems. We had some electrical outages last night so all the pumps were off. You would think that a hand line could go a few hours without a cow knocking it over or breaking off a few sprinkler risers but that is rarely the case. I also gathered half the yearling heifers and brought them to the home pasture. The pasture they were on was a bit overstocked and the home place needs to be grazed more vigorously . They should be bred by this time so I am not too concerned with them being turned out with the mature bulls that have a bit lower calving ease traits. Even my “growth” bulls are pretty moderate in birth weight so if the odd one gets bred it should still be fine.

I also gathered up a few more fall cows to sell. Two of these cows are old and I planned to sell them after weaning their calves. Two of them are not that old but I was not sure if I was going to sell them back in April when I pregnancy checked them. Since I was not sure I gave them an injectable product that controls both internal and some external parasites. This particular product has a 49 day withdrawl period so I could not sell them a few weeks ago when I sold the other fall calving culls. I really hate to part with these two cows but my brain tells me it is time for them to go.

I bought these cows as cow calf pairs in December of 2006 at a pretty reasonable price. They had come out of a snow bank and although they had decent young calves they were in very thin condition. Dad and I had rented some unharvested standing seed corn that year which fattened them up nicely and saved their calves from turning out small. These two particular cows were cows that I had the most long term hope for. The problem is although they “look” like the prototype to a perfect cow they are not. They both raise below average calves compared to their contemporaries. Both of these cows are naturally very fat and seem to stay that way year-round. They will sell tomorrow for more money than I paid for them with a calf on them in 2006 so it is time to cash in. Besides June 15^th and the quarterly tax bill is here. Ugh.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the small black ant aka Lasius niger as best I can find.

Today’s picture is a video of these ants I watched today. I picked up a pipe and was amazed at how they worked to take their eggs and larvae into the ground to save them. Hey, I thought it was pretty cool.

call 1-800 rotorooter

Around here you know it was not a great day when the morning hand line irrigation changing was the best part of your day. I had a nice list all made out and I was determined to get a good start on the week. I have mentioned before that we live in an old house that my grandfather built. It is small but as far as I am concerned it serves the general needs well enough. A large or fancy type house is just not anything I have ever really had any desire to own. As well as this house serves its purpose in general its age and issues related to age would make me pull my hair out if I had any to spare.

We had a new roof put on the house the first fall we were here. I hated to spend the money especially since the roof was not leaking yet. I did however know that the roof was last done the summer between third and fourth grade because I helped my grandfather do it. When the job was finished, as had been previously agreed, my grandfather bought me a toy tractor that I had my eye on in town. It was my first toy tractor with a cab on it and for $13.99 I felt like Grandpa Paul had WAYYYYYYYY overpaid me for quite a few hours of work. Knowing my Grandpa and how he was with money he probably thought he WAYYYYYY overpaid me as well!

The home is cinder block construction and is pretty well insulated. When the windows are closed you won’t know someone has pulled into the yard until you hear them scream as they run away from Festus. Even though eastern Washington is a desert we live basically in a swamp. Even in the driest part of the year you can dig a hole a few feet deep and have water. My Grandpa did have the insight to use that water to his advantage. The home has a geothermal type furnace that in the winter takes in the 50 plus degree water, removes the heat and uses it to heat the house very efficiently and cheaply. It does the reverse in the summer and does an awesome job of cooling but the system has some issues. It is basically like that high maintenance woman you have had (married to, dating, purchased, taken from neighbor, whatever) at some time as a man. Heck I am sure even a few women who think like men (lesbians) probably know what kind of woman I am talking about.

You know the kind. She is so pretty and has a body that is smoking hot. She also lacks the intelligence to know that what you are having her do in the bedroom really is the “new” CPR and if she gets it down she could be on Baywatch as a good point. But that same lack of intelligence and whinyness drive you nuts. The girl who will decide if the date goes well mainly based on how well her hair stays curled and if they remembered to not put her salad dressing on the side. The temperamental, overly emotional royal pain in the ass type. That is this heating and cooling system, it works well if it has constant attention. Even this I can live with as long as I can usually fix it without professional help and if it keeps the electrical bill low.

The electrical is a whole other thing. My grandfather knew enough about electricity to wire this house himself. I know enough to make sure that we keep fresh batteries in the smoke detectors. Once again it is not perfect but it is good enough and now that the kitchen light no longer has its wires connected with first aid tape (obviously Grandpa did not have electrical tape that day on hand) other than a tripped breaker now and again it serves us well enough.

The plumbing as it pertains to water delivery works for the most part. The first night we stayed here in June of 2008 the pressure relief valve blew off the water heater and covered the new linoleum and some carpet with water. Since replacing the water heater even on the coldest days the water delivery system has been consistent with the source being a community well. The problem is in the water draining. I do not know who makes Drano but the stock of that company must have tripled in the last two years just from what we have used in this home. I started working on a plugged kitchen sink drain at 1 pm today because of a build up of dirty dishes and I needed an excuse to cuss all day. Dakota, Chris and I spent all evening washing dishes in the bathtub and despite my best efforts the sink has drained about ½ an inch since I finished “fixing” the clog at 4 pm. Tomorrow or sometime this week depending on when we run out of paper plates and plastic utensils I am going to have to call a professional. How was your Monday?

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is Blue green algae aka Cyanobacteria. Several species found in eastern Washington.

Today’s picture is a picture I took last week. If I am going to deal with water systems at least make it outside where I can get my boots soaked and laugh about the fish head that popped out of the pipe.

Embrace life everyday

June 5^th, 2010. I am in total awe as to where the time goes. It seems like the older I get time just seems to move faster. One year ago today two incredible people left this earth. The Harder brothers (Eric and Kurt) were not only part of a family; they were part of the Kahlotus family, the Franklin County family, The Washington State family, the United States of America Family and the world family. They were also part of the cattlemen family, the farmer family, the agricultural family and the just plain good, hardworking, serve your community and industry family.

One year ago today I was already struggling a bit with life mentally. I had made it through the first year of Dads absence mainly on adrenaline and a bit of desperation. Although I had mourned the passing of my father, life had a way of somehow keeping it subdued by the things that were necessary to just keep carrying on. A physical move of family and belongings, just getting a handle on all the ranch things which was like picking up tiny pieces of broken glass helped to occupy much of my time and keep me from really losing it inside my balding, ok well bald head. Besides, I was a cowboy, I was a man, and I had a family and a mother to help care for, no time for hurting too much.

When the one year anniversary of Dads passing came that was when I really started to hurt. I finally had general life under control which gave me too much time to just miss him, which in turn made me hurt and fall into a depressed state like I had never seen in my lifetime. I was doing ok, but I was just keeping my head above water and really felt like I was going to overcome the grief, hurt, anger and fear that seemed to have caught me in their grasp. I was determined to win this battle; I had seen the highs and lows of life before. In my mind I had this under control, in my mind this was just a temporary setback and I was right on the cusp of “snapping out” of it. When I got the news of Eric and Kurts passing that June evening I snapped alright.

For the next several days I walked around in a fog. How could this even be possible? I had only met Kurt once but had gotten to know Eric through his kid’s participation in the fair. What the hell kind of world is this when two salt of the earth, hard working men die in a tragic accident yet allows gang members, murderers and all manner of vile people to live on virtually unscathed? A great family had lost two sons, a woman had lost a husband and three young kids had lost a dad. I had 40 years to spend with my father. The oldest of these children had a measly 10 years with their dad. What kind of worthless, selfish monster was I for wanting more? How could I be sad considering the pain this family was experiencing? This just added to my general malaise and the next two and a half months were not pretty. I just kind of detached from any part of the world that I absolutely did not have to participate in. This post is getting long and rambling but if anyone is still reading there is a point.

My wife and kids helped me to realize that I was not “me”. When I sleep 12 hours in a 24 hour day it is not me. When I snap in anger at the most inane thing it is not me. When I do not even enjoy spending my day out in nature it is not me. I got the help I needed and I thank my family and God or whoever is out there for helping me get that help. I also want to thank the Harder brothers as well. You may be thinking holy cripes (as in Jesus Cripes) he must be off mentally. He just told us that their death put him over the edge, now he wants to thank them? Well if you have ever dealt with a mental health issue it makes total sense. Let me explain; at least explain from my perspective.

I know some of you may be thinking; oh man what a weakling, needing to take medication for a mental issue. Well go ahead, call me weak, call me soft, call me a 9U%%$ and give me your best shot. Just remember, I am pretty good size,I am pretty strong, and I might not be medicated at the appropriate level. Go ahead and try to make me cry because it might work. I might even laugh. I might even rip your testicles off and shove them up your butt too and laugh so hard it makes me cry, but go ahead it’s your call.

Eventually the loss that the Harder family, the community and the world has experienced helped me live a life that is more understanding to realizing just what a precious gift life really is . The loss of them and my father have shown me that everyday really is a gift to be cherished and embraced. When something does not go my way, when something is painful either physically or mentally, when life is lacking in perfection that is a time to rejoice in life. Life is not perfect; part of our time here is going to have a few bumps in the road. Make sure that you learn to savor the good moments as well as the bumps in the road. Remember that it is always possible that the top of that bump in life possibly may be your life’s high point. When you come to realize that feeling sadness and pain is a symptom of LIVING just as smiling and laughing is. It will give you a whole new perspective. Embrace life everyday.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Bluish spring moth aka Lomographa semiclarata.

Today’s picture is of my daughter Dakota at her first fair with her first steer. We did not get this steer finished and he got a red ribbon in his market class. Dakota did however win Reserve Grand Champion in the novice showmanship class. On reflection that was perfect, the steer was tame, Dakota enjoyed her first year, I made it through the year without a heart attack and everyday that I see her I know that is a new gift of life. The Harder family is in our thoughts and prayers today.

Painting on the choo er chu er chew er

I know, I know, I really suck at posting daily. I keep looking forward to the summer slowdown that looks just ahead every single day. We have been getting rain, rain and more rain. Well for here and for June it is quite a lot of rain and it is raining again tonight. The rain has been good for me and my grass but not so good for hay growers. Most of what was cut before last week did not go up too well. Most of what is left to cut has now budded or bloomed which reduces its value.

The rain has helped me get caught up on pasture irrigation. Each year I am finding a better way to use more of the old pipe around here to cover more area and make life a bit easier from a physical standpoint. The battle will continue but I feel much better about it now than I did a year ago. I am going to guess that somewhere along the line we are in for some hot dry weather this summer. I hope the hot and dry do not match the cool and wet in severity.

I drove into Connell today to get feed. When I got ready to leave town I had to wait for a long train traveling through town. Maybe this particular group of train cars was abnormal but damn they were almost all covered in painted on graffiti. There were a few things I noticed today as I watched the train cars roll slowly by. Today’s post is about those thoughts.

Obviously just like every other aspect of the world there are people who are good at what they do, and people that really suck at what they do. Some of the paintings were very detailed, colorful, artistic and well done as far as train car painting goes. Some of them had multiple colors and looked almost 3 dimensional. I saw one that was a buck toothed rhino in an astronaut suit that had a toilet plunger in each hand. I am TOTALLY serious; you can’t just make things like that up! All I could think about is how a rhino turd would probably plug a toilet on a fairly regular basis. The other really detailed one was about a four foot tall bishop chess piece with a bra hanging from the cross on top. I shit you NOT!

Some looked like they were done with a toddler set of finger paints but there were enough correctly spelled words that I am guessing at least a teen did the painting. Apparently someone name “Juicy” had an accident and has been put under strict bed rest by his or her Physician. The reason I say this is because the painting said “Juicy R.I.B 2-14-08”. There was no information to say if this was the start or end date of the prescribed bed rest. Who knows maybe someone was just craving juicy ribs for dinner and got carried away with periods on Valentines Day 2008. One other intellectual printed “9-11 was not a conspeeracie theory”. I guess the shame of losing the spelling bee in 2^nd grade caused someone to become a graffiti artist.

What really is amazing is how many Egyptians there are into tagging train cars. I don’t know what these gang members are trying to say but by the hieroglyphics they paint they must want King Tut to know about it and not anyone else. A few taggers need to be more mindful of shaking up their spray paint. Writing “I am so hawt” just does not have the same effect if it has to be printed 3 times because the paint keeps running down the side of a boxcar. The most disturbing thing is that people have time on their hands and decide that trespassing and defacing someone else’s property is what they choose to do with their time. I guess it is not that surprising when you consider someone who would take the time to write in very bright orange and blue letters “Santos luvs Sweet pee”.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Cattle egret aka Bubulcus ibis.

Today’s picture is of some Canada geese in the home place pasture.

For the love of gummer mouth cows

Today was one of those days that things went great, I was able to really appreciate my life, I had some fun, yet it was difficult to deal with reality.

I started the day changing two hand lines and one wheeline which normally is a pain but knowing I would spend the rest of the day being a cowman made the time fly and my attitude have a positive outlook. Once I had the water changed I headed to the corrals to load the cows I planned to sell today.

I had 8 cows to sell today for various reasons. Two were spring calvers that were going to calve soon but too late to fit my spring program. These were both old cows and fairly easy to part ways with. Four other cows were fall calvers that I had recently preg (pregnancy) checked. Two of these were middle aged, average producing cows that were going to be on the late end of calving and two others were older cows that just needed to go because of old age and mediocre production. Again these cows were parted with in relative ease.

The last two cows were the ones that tugged at my heart strings. Both of these ladies were pregnant and on schedule to calve between mid August and mid October which is just as I want my fall calvers to be. Both of them had raised good calves last year and other than the fact that one was 17 years old and one 16 years old they had not done anything wrong in their lifetime as far as I was concerned. Many people are afraid to own old or older cows. I prefer to look at old cows the way my father did when he would say, “a beef cow does not get old by being a poor calf raiser!” Most cows are sold at an age where their teeth cannot support them or because they have not raised a good calf. We have a fairly abundant supply of soft green grass on the ranch so we can use a cow longer than most.

Cow number 3109y was born here on the ranch in the fall of 1993. Dad had chosen to keep her and only 3 other fall heifers that year. I was a bit skeptical at the time because her mother was on the small side and she looked as if she would be a little cow herself. She did turn out to be on the smaller side as she sold today at 1090 pounds which is fairly small for a commercial beef cow but only slightly below average for the type of cows we like to own. This cow, 3109y had her first calf unassisted on August 17^th 1995. She had her 15^th and 16^th (yes twins) on August 20^th 2009. From what I can decipher from my sometimes incomplete records she never missed having a calf. This is pretty amazing in the commercial beef cow world. For those of you that attended the Benton Franklin County fair last year you may have saw her twin bull calf in the beef barn. At that time he was an orphan that the beef barn kids named “Booger” that we bottle fed throughout the fair. His sister “Snot” stayed out on dry range with their mother. (Very difficult for a commercial beef cow to properly raise twin calves in dry range conditions) Booger ended up with a surrogate mom shortly after the fair and is a healthy weaned calf as is his sister today. I watched this old cow struggle a bit this winter and with her age and the cull cow market at a high level I decided to sell her today. Thank you 3109y for always being a good mother, a good producer and an easy going cow. I promise you that the fact that your facial features were terribly unattractive (even ask Dakota) did not enter into the decision.

The second cow was 4069yt, a black cow that body wise in human terms I would relate to a woman that is 6 foot 6 inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. “Racehorsey” as we refer to those types of cows. 4969yt arrived here in December of 2006 in a group of fall calving pairs I purchased. She was already 12 years old which is 1-4 years past when many ranchers get rid of cows. With our soft valley grass we can keep cows longer than average. She was part of a group of 21 cow calf pairs I bought that day and really the only cow I was not too excited about at the time. She had a good calf but damn was she skinny! Over the years I realized that was just how she was. I think this cow could have been given free choice grain daily and never gotten fat. As skinny as she looked that day off the truck she certainly overcame the odds. She was the last of those 21 particular cows still here on the ranch and weaned off an awesome steer calf this year. To be honest the only reason I sold her was because of a slight limp and the fact that I did not want the skinny thing to have to face another potentially difficult winter. If every cow were like these two I would be a millionaire by now and so selling them was difficult. Luckily I have been able to own a few disaster cows in my lifetime so here I am continuing to try and make a living raising and finding cows like 3109y and 4969yt. Thank you ladies for all you gave our family.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is Canada thistle aka Cirsium arvense.

Today’s picture is cow 4069yt back in January with her last calf 9069y.

Good to go

Where oh where does the time go? I swear almost everyday I say I am going to make it here to post something and yet so many nights I am so tired and feeling like I do not have the time. Things have actually been going pretty well but I just seem to never run out of things that need to be done.

We have been having excellent grass growing weather but I am glad I am not trying to get hay put up this year with the cool and showery weather. I am friends with many hay growers so I try to balance my thoughts between hoping for cheap rained on feeder hay and at the same time rooting for anyone that is involved with agriculture to have a good year. The cattle market has seemed to have topped out but the current level is great compared to the last few years.

I need to start making a point to take my camera with me during the day. I have missed so many great nature shots lately. I watched a pelican wrestle with a large carp yesterday and the pelican won. The camera always seems to be in another pickup or at home. I am going to try and gather the late calving, open (not pregnant) and old fall calving cows tomorrow. This time of year cash flow is always an issue and the bills seem to not really care as they continue to roll in. I have one irrigation pump that is giving me fits and I am at the point of calling a professional. Oh well, another bill to make sure the bank account does not get too fat.

All I really do these days is change irrigation water and fix some fence just to break the monotony. The weather is nice and the long days help to keep a positive attitude. I keep dreaming of little improvement projects but even with long daylight hours they seem to fade away because of things that HAVE to be done each day. The saving grace is I am feeling well, the family is healthy and happy, the grass keeps growing, the cows are slick and fat and the calves are growing.

I guess sometimes life is just about appreciating the little things and not getting caught up in the “extras” that are nice but not necessary to living a full life. I heard a song today that I guess has been out for awhile but I had somehow not heard it before. After hearing it I took some time and talked with Dad because it reminded me so much of him. The man really had life figured out and as I strive to get to that place I sure think about him a lot. If you are interested here is a youtube link to the song……http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liFA8VonWqU

Today’s real environmentalist species is the ladybug aka ladybird aka Coccinella septempunctada.

Today’s picture is of two yearling heifers that apparently did not have time to look up for the camera.