A d(l)ovely kind of day

So it is early Thursday morning September 2, 2010. I just posted yesterday’s blog post a little over 2 hours ago. I tried to go to bed but I think I accidently double dosed myself this afternoon while on a boring phone call and now probably will be sprinting around the internet for a few hours. Rather than go to a liberal political chat room and point out that Bush and the GOP gained seats in his first midterm (2002) and if Obama and the Democrats are so great they should at least be able to hold seats in 2010, *snicker*, I decided that I would write another blog post. Besides, some envirowhacko with an abnormally large head left the earth yesterday in Maryland so I will give the people I normally anger a chance to mourn. All I know is some police sniper thought he hit the jackpot when he got that massive melon sighted in his scope today.

Easy now politicos, I will tell you about my day as a real lover of nature. I have mentioned that in the days before the fair it seemed my days were great but my evenings were horrid. Today was just the opposite, the day was an exercise in total futility but the evening was spectacular. I tagged 3 new fall calves this morning then began to look for one calf that was born yesterday that I had not tagged. The momma cow was a bit “bagged up” and after 3 hours of looking I decided to take a break and do something fun. I moved 2 hand lines by myself (I hate that Dakota is in school already) and then changed a tire on the atv so I could resume my search. I spent another hour looking to no avail. “F*C% me M00retta” I said as I spit the last two grains of Copenhagen from my mouth.

I then went home for a quick lunch (a pound of fried hamburger with ketchup and a Vlasic pickle) then went to start water for the corn circle. I also worked on some fence that needed mending just for gits and shiggles. I then decided I should do a walking search of the north fence line to see if the missing calf was hiding in the weeds there. I finally found the calf late in the afternoon which improved my mood immensely. I tagged the calf then decided I should do a thorough check of the spring calving cows.

There is one spring yearling heifer that has looked like she was coming quickly with calf last week. In fact, Dakota was worried she would calve while we were at the fair but I felt she was just showing a bit early and may calve in November but certainly not as an 18 month old and surely not while we were away. As I checked the spring calver’s I came across 9178W with a nice calf by her side. I need to learn to trust Dakotas’s instincts a bit more. The live healthy calf really made my day and made me laugh that my spring heifers have started calving before my fall calver’s are done calving.

Then I ran into some dove hunters that were hunting on the season opener. They had some cold beer in a cooler and although I seldom drink beer I wanted to be polite so I accepted one from them. I then went home and was concerned because I had no beer of my own in the refrigerator. Chris and Dakota got home and just as I was sending Chris back to town I realized we had a whole cooler full of beer left from the fair that just needed some ice. We had a nice family evening working with the show steers as the beer cooled. Back to the fair week I suppose I should explain about Debby my (fair wife).

Debby and I are co beef superintendents at the fair and for a week each August seem to spend more time doing work for the kids than spending time with our own spouses. I think we compliment each other well. Debby does the bulk of the paper work and the logistics. I flirt with the exhibitor moms and run the squeeze chute at the scales. I also collect all the compliments and pass the complaints on to Debby. It works out pretty well. I am going to tell one of two stories about my fair wife and last week in today’s post.

I know you blog readers may be surprised but Debby is more responsible than I am. On Tuesday night after arriving back on the fairgrounds from going home to check things I realized that we had not drawn the fitting and showing classes for Wednesday. I tried to call Debby to no avail, so I called our secretary Erica to see if she had heard from Debby. She had not so I decided to track Debby down. I seemed to be one step behind her as the VIP tent participants said she had just recently been there. I was calling her cell phone and leaving a message pertaining to her shirking of duties and that our secretary was going to quit on us. I had just finished leaving my message when a door to a port o let swung open and my fair wife emerged shaking her head. LOL, she had been inside trying to finish while listening to my loud mouth leaving her a message. Fitting and showing classes were posted a bit late but thanks to Erica’s professionalism nobody seemed to notice. Thank you to both these great gals for putting up with me last week.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is common mallow aka Malva neglecta.

Today’s pictures are last week’s cervical prolapse in a before and after format and my stunning suture job to solve the problem. I tried a new method and I am feeling pretty satisfied with the results. No wonder I can balance two wives and a secretary!

V.I.P.

When I look back at my number of posts per month it kind of reminds me of Obama’s approval ratings. The days are rapidly getting shorter though and maybe it will get better. We had a great week at the fair last week and I have a few things to share from that but I don’t want to do it all at once. I have decided I will share parts of the fair with parts of my actual days to break things up and give me incentive to post more regularly.

I had a blog post awhile back about how I thought exhibitors should view the fair. Basically saying to do your best, have some fun and let things fall where they may. Dakota really experienced this last week. There is really great market steer competition at the fairs around the area and I knew that we had a decent steer but not a show winner. She also ended up in the heavyweight class (Homer weighed 1426) which even the winner of seldom takes overall champion. She did get a blue ribbon though and was about where we expected in her class.

In fitting and showing she again got a blue ribbon but did not make the championship round which was a bit disappointing but there are so many great showmen that it was nothing to be sad over for long. Homer was pretty decent during the week and Dakota did a great job of taking more initiative this year than in years past and that made me very happy and I am very proud of her.

Sometimes just being satisfied with how things are is the best thing for future expectations. Friday was sale day and that was her best day. Her steer sold for as much as any of the steers in the barn and she will be that much closer to affording a post high school education. Thank you to Tyson Fresh Meats for your support of her and also to the many other sale supporters who gave close to $400,000 over and above market prices to the kids in the sale. I truly believe this is a wise investment in good, hardworking kids that will be an asset to our future.

The first night in the beef barn Debby (my fair wife, not to be confused with Christine my regular wife) and I (beef superintendents) gave the kids an overview of what we expected and how the week would go. I always like to test human nature a bit and I told the kids that if they were around their friends from the other livestock barns to be careful. I told them that they may feel like they were better than the other kids but it was perfectly natural because they ARE better than the kids showing other species. It took all of 30 minutes for a mom from the sheep barn to scold me, which was exactly what I was hoping for!

One venue that I will mention quite a bit in the coming days is the VIP tent. Now, I am not sure what VIP stands for but I am pretty sure it is for Very Intoxicated People or possibly Very Inclined to Pay. The tent serves a great dinner each night and then you can watch the rodeo from there if you like. It also tends to be the after rodeo gathering place for many of the people who camp all week at the fair. It has a bar as well I have heard but I have never actually seen it.

I am not really sure how it got started but on Wednesday night we had an adult female arm wrestling tournament going for quite some time. I tried to tell the participants that I was going to Wal Mart to buy a kiddie pool and we could have mud wrestling later in the week but that somehow fell apart. Hey there is always next year!

I got surprisingly little negative email from my last blog post with the YouTube music link. I did promise to share something a bit mellower to offset that and to show that I can appreciate music from a wide range. Radney Foster is a musical genius from my perspective but has gotten little airplay over the years for some reason. The song he sings in this link is in honor of a Texas Air National Guard helicopter crew of 7 that crashed and perished in Iraq and the people who brought them home. You won’t hear this on regular radio much but I think you can listen and understand why I think this is an amazing song; the video with it is pretty well done as well. Here is the link to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpYVfHTajOg&feature=related

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Black necked stilt aka Himantopus mexicanus.

Today’s picture is a scene from the beef barn at the Benton Franklin County fair last week.

Longhaired twang thang

So you know you are getting older when it is 10 p.m. on a Saturday night and you are working on a blog post. That is ok because today was a great day and next week will be a great week. Next week is fair week and for our family basically our summer vacation even though Christine and I will both come home a few times during the week for a few hours. I know for some of you this sounds terribly boring or hickish but I will have a better time than most anyone in the world next week. I plan to try and post a few times just to show you why and to keep you updated. For some of you local readers I will be looking for a handy laptop around the fair. Hint, hint.

In my very first blog post I made a disclaimer that I would probably offend a few people at different times. Today is one of those posts that it may be possible to be offended if you are someone who gets offended easily. If you are someone who does not get offended easily you will probably still be offended but hey, for the price you pay for this blog consider it a bargain and a chance for mind expansion!

So this morning we did some irrigation changing as a family and a few things at the corrals with Dakotas fair steers and with some miscellaneous animals I currently have there for various reasons. Two words “cervical prolapse” *eye roll* was today’s fun exercise .Then Dakota and Chris headed to Connell to use the printer at Chris’ work for some pictures and various other items needed for the fair. They continued on to Kennewick to the fairgrounds to set things up for this week. We set up a borrowed for beef travel trailer from one of Chris’ coworkers there yesterday. Thank you to Amy and Dave for the use of the trailer this week.

That left me alone for the afternoon which is seldom a good thing. I changed the rest of the irrigation water and that went well. I have mentioned before how much I enjoy music and today I felt I found a real future “classic” as far as my musical preferences go. I am pretty open minded when it comes to music. I certainly like country and classic rock the most but I am always on the lookout for some new talent from just about any musical genre. For example as I type this I am listening to George Thorogood singing “I drink alone” but the previous song was Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley singing “Just good ole boys” and the one before that was Billy Squire singing, “Don’t say you love me”.

I think one reason I do this is because it helps you stay young in your mind. If I had not been open to new music I would have really missed some great talent in my opinion over my lifetime. For me I have a hard time explaining what music I enjoy but when I hear it I KNOW it. Seldom will a song “grow” on me or do I change my opinion to the negative about a song after hearing it the first time.

For me the things that make a song great are a combination of things. Does the song have good instrumental music behind it? Everyone is different but I like what my dad used to refer to as “long haired twang twang music.” That noise a steel or slide guitar can make or a fiddle or dobro that is somewhere between a whisper and a shriek is to my ears what peach cobbler alamode is to my taste buds. I also am a sucker for lyrics that somehow take you to a place in your memories or some "twisted logic" or a "double entendre" . The lyrics can be rough, soft, loving, brutally honest or whatever but certain songs of some genres are appealing to me based almost entirely on the words. The last thing is the song has to “grab” me. It has to make me laugh, cry, reminisce, anger me, or take my breath away or appeal to me on some other emotional level.

The song I heard today had all these factors even if it was a new rock/metal type of song. Many of you will not like it because in your opinion it is screaming. Some of you will really not like it because the lyrics speak to an issue that can be tough on some from a morality standpoint. For me however this is why I will try to always give new music a chance.

I love the instrumental music backing this song even though it may not be the taste of others. I also like this song because it is the kind of song that would piss off Tipper Gore. Her ex husband Albert pisses me off so there you go. I think just about every male can laugh and maybe reminisce to this song in one way or another from his single days. This song has lyrics that made me die laughing for many reasons because in its absurdity it also has quite a few elements of truth in my mind.

Here is a link to the song that also has printed lyrics so those who cannot sort through the screaming can follow along with the text. Female readers may want to get a male opinion before listening. If you do not like this song or especially the instrumental solo by Zakk Wylde towards the end maybe you should change more hand lines or replace a few more cervical prolapses in your day. Believe me you WILL find some appreciation for this kind of “long hair twang twang.” In my next blog post I will share a song that is a bit more mellow both in lyrics, music and meaning just to balance this out. If you are using headphones or loud speakers you may want to start at mid level. Welcome to the music world the Canadian band My Darkest Days with their first single…….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP_wjflirPM&feature=related

*chuckle chuckle ladies”.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Western Yellow Jacket aka Vespula pennsylvanica.

Today’s picture is of a big fat rockchuck (yellow bellied marmot) near his or her den earlier this summer.

Good evening

Ok, so I have not been here for 10 days. I could make all kinds of excuses but the honest answer is I was in Spain as Michelle Obama’s escort. Now that I have that out of the way let me do a blog post. What??? You do not believe me? I am appalled that I have not generated more trust among my readers.

Really it has not been lack of material, being too tired or not having time to post. The real reason I have not been here is basically “crabbiness”. I have actually had some productive, fun and satisfying days since I have last posted. The issue has been my evenings lately. It seems that no matter if my day is great or mediocre my evenings have been about as wonderful as being Whoopi Goldberg’s beauty consultant. It has not been anything in particular but in the last 10 days here are a few gems I have dealt with. An irrigation pump panel that burned to a crisp because of lightning and age I am guessing. A circle that seems to want to get stuck as well as a few blown irrigation risers and a stockwater pump that keeps getting unplugged by cows that cannot find anywhere within 300 acres other than a 10 foot by 3 foot place next to the well to spend their time.

I have been feeling really well and have thought that I am on the cusp of mania but that has allowed me to get many things accomplished. We have experienced a few scorching days lately but overall the summer weather has been good. I have had many days that things went well and I had something I was really looking forward to posting. Then something in the evening has pissed me off and things have fallen apart. Whenever I sit down to this computer in a bad mood I find one thing that makes me feel better and it is not doing a blog post. What I end up doing is going into some political chatroom or message board and saying things that drive other people out of their minds. Somehow being in a bad mood is acceptable if I know I have helped ruin the evening of 3 to 5000 other people.

Finally today things went well and so did my evening. I got up early and changed a bit of water and the pump panel that burned up last week is fixed and ran all night and all day today without incident. After some early morning irrigation I headed to Ellensburg for a monthly Washington Cattlemen’s Association meeting. Today’s meeting was long but productive from my perspective. There were more than a few tense moments of debate on a few issues but I never feel anything less than proud spending time with these industry leaders. I even gave a preview of what it will be like when I take the reins by offering the participants a cold beer at 4 p.m. which seemed to be well received and helped my approval ratings.

We have been getting a few fall calves even though they were not supposed to start before Sunday the 15^th. The calving has gone well but it seems many evenings I have been missing a calf that has caused me to expend time finding it. The first of the first calf heifers calved Saturday without incident which was great. Tonight I got back to the ranch with about 30 minutes of daylight left. Luckily all the fall calving cows and the calves were accounted for in a short time while I stopped along the road and expelled the beer I drank at the end of today’s meeting. Then I went down to the corrals where Chris and Sam were helping Dakota work with her fair steers. These fair steers have been a bright spot and tonight was no exception. As I walked through the fall calving first calf heifers I noticed that there was another new child that was standing up and suckling her mother that had been born without any problems today. It was at this point that I decided at least for today life could not get any better so we finished up and came home. It may seem like a small victory but as far as evenings have been lately I was just happy to come home and not feel the need to make anyone else feel angry just because I was.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Longspine sandbur aka Cenchrus longispinus.

Today’s picture is of two coming spring calving first calf heifers’ #9904g and #9935g. These two ladies are rarely found more than a few feet apart on any given day at any given time. You would never know these two are half sisters would you?

The outlook is fair

Today was a great day. I was wrangled by my sister and niece into hauling the young un’s lambs to the Connell fairgrounds for shearing as fair season fast approaches. There is something wonderfully wicked and decadent about using a ¾ ton pickup with a 24 foot gooseneck trailer to haul two lambs that weigh a combined 275 pounds. Every time I am asked to do something for a kid involved in 4H or FFA I have a tough time saying “no”.

Some people may argue that there really is very little to nothing good about me. I will not argue with that assessment but I will say whatever good there is in me usually has some very direct link to my days raising animals for fairs in both 4H and FFA. You get exposed to and have to deal with so many things that are going to be part of life as you grow up and get older.

Some of these things are quite obvious like learning to work hard, striving for excellence, setting goals, learning to deal with success as well as disappointments. You notice I did not say success or failure? That is because anyone who has completed a 4H or FFA animal project has succeeded in my book. There are times though things just don’t go your way. There will always be the years that you have a particular steer (if you are minor leaguers you may substitute hog, lamb, chicken, rabbit, goat, llama or chinchilla) at this point as is necessary, but anyway you may have that steer that you really felt good about. Maybe you felt he was really an excellent market animal and maybe at home he acted like he would shine in the show ring and help bring home a trophy from the fitting and showing competition.

Many times these high expectations are not met based on many outside factors, which do not mean that you failed; it means you succeeded at a lower level as far as I am concerned. Think of it this way, maybe you were middle of your class and you are usually near the top. This does not mean you failed, it means that for whatever reason today was just not your day. If you want to feel better take a different tact with your mind. Realize that only about 3% or less of all kids even have the opportunity to show an animal at the fair. If you are dead last in your division you are at least 97% better than the rest of the nation at showing an animal! Embrace the opportunity, appreciate the wins and learn from the disappointments, again notice I did not say losses? I will promise you that for every time you thought you had a win in the bag that did not happen, there will be a day when you felt you had little chance to win that you will be holding a purple ribbon and trophy and/or belt buckle.

When you become an adult you will remember those wins, and you will remember the times you didn’t win as well but not at such a high level. The important thing to focus on is threefold in this old mans opinion. If you did not win, did you do your best with whatever the situation that was presented? Be able to say yes, not a weak “I thought so” but a strong and forceful “yes, I absolutely did my best. If you are the religious type remember something else, “God hates a quitter”.

The second thing is did you learn anything that will make you better and more competitive next time? Again, you should be able to answer in the affirmative and you should put that knowledge to work for you the very next opportunity you have. Maybe you saw something the people above you did that you did not. Maybe it was just how you dealt with a specific situation and that next time you would deal with it a bit differently. My Dad used to say, “Experience and good judgment usually comes from lacking experience and making many poor judgments”.

The last thing has two parts that are equally important. Do not be a whiner; a bit of emotion is fine but do not be a whiner and a blamer. Things like, “the judge was not watching when I did “x” or so and so had a steer that was just as jumpy as mine and they did better etc. etc. Let me tell you something as someone who has been in the show ring as both an exhibitor and as a judge. A class of animals and how they are placed is one person’s opinion on a specific day at a certain time. Believe me; anyone who has judged has some second thoughts over the next few days and they have to deal with those thoughts just as you second guess certain things you did or did not do.

Whenever I have been asked to judge I tell people that I will promise them three things. I will do my best with my knowledge and experience is the first promise. Secondly, when I am finished placing a class there will be some people who think I am a superstar judge (the winners). Lastly, after placing a class there will be some people who will say I am some level of idiotic (the non winners).

As for the second part of the final thing exhibitors should achieve and in my opinion the most important. Did you have any fun? Did you maybe get a chuckle when one of your competitors forgot to brush their steer after the judged handled him? Were you able to laugh at yourself because when you switched steers you forgot to lead up and reset the animals feet? Maybe it was the soaking that a new kid gave an older exhibitor at the wash rack. It is very possible that a fun thing would be some urban person saying, “oh, look at the COWS" as they walked through the steer barn. Life is about living and enjoying your time doing it. I will guarantee that as you grow older and look back there will be few times in your life that you will reflect on and have smiles and good memories about than your time at the fair if you follow this advice. Have a great fair season kids and please have some fun. You are part of a very select part of our nation. The kids that had the chance to raise, train and show an animal at a fair. If you do not grow up to work in an endeavor that feeds the world, at least you know how to if needed.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is nutgrass aka Cyperus rotundus.

Today’s picture is a video of Dakota selling her first steer at her first fair. I am constantly telling her that these animals and the fair will always be something wonderful to remember no matter what path she takes in life.

We'll leave the light on for you (hopefully)

I am really disappointed in myself. I had no idea until tonight that July was my worst month for posting here. My lack of posting has been a case of several issues. First and foremost, I have been busy. July should not be this busy but this year that is the case. I have also been dealing with some computer issues. I think this 5 year old machine is getting so full of crap that it is soon going to need to be replaced

.

August is now here and that means hot weather and the coming of fair season. Dakota has 4 steers for 3 fairs and they have been working fairly well. I am glad that they are mostly well behaved but somewhat disappointed in how they have all turned out. I feel she has 4 really good steers but not a single great (winning) steer. We shall see how things turn out as we enter the show season.

The spring calves are really growing well and their mothers are still in excellent condition for this time of year. The cattle market is not sky high but it is certainly acceptable given the economic conditions and jobless level of the country. Whatever it was that made a few calves not feel so good awhile back has seemed to run its course and we got through that with no death loss which is excellent. It has been fairly hot (mid 90’s) lately but that is pretty normal for July here in the Eastern Washington desert. The older I get the better I feel that I am able to handle the cold but I handle the heat much more poorly than I could as a kid. This may be just mental or the fact that 30 extra pounds keeps you insulated better in the winter better than it keeps you cool in the summer.

I do really look forward to each day right now. Each day entails Dakota and I changing water in the morning and working with her fair steers at some point in the day. For years I have been on her case to take initiative and stressed that she is not in 3^rd grade anymore and can do things herself and should know what needs to be done and what is the appropriate time to do each thing. This year she really has embraced that idea and almost daily she takes some initiative on something that in years past had to be stressed over and over. Good job Gus I appreciate the effort and initiative.

The last week has been spent changing irrigation water, working on cleaning up some of the old equipment for scrap and two items that seem to make their presence at some point EVERYDAY. One of these issues is the corn circle. It is on a hill that is somewhat steep and this time of year the corn is drinking water like a hung over camel in heat in the Sahara. The problem is that because of the hills the circle tends to get “stuck” in certain places. When this happens you have a few choices. You can shovel dirt into the wheel track, add straw bales to the wheel track or reverse the circle and hope it runs a few days in the opposite direction before becoming mired down again. Walking into a 10 plus feet tall stand of corn on a hot day will remind you of a nice day in Houston Texas (humid as a steam sauna in Hell)

The other problem I have been dealing with is one particular cow and one particular calf. I will first focus on the cow. She is a two and a half year old Holstein (dairy breed with black and white spots) that was one of my Dads last purchases. This girl showed up in a group of Holstein steers Dad had bought as stockers (calves purchased to gain weight on grass to hopefully sell at a higher weight and for more money). When you get a heifer in a group of Holstein steers it is usually because she is a known freemartin (lacking a viable reproductive tract). This girl somehow defied the odds and was pregnant as a yearling (teen pregnancy basically). She had her first calf without assistance and it turned out to be a pretty decent calf. I kept her and she is now raising her second child which is a steer calf and is above average as well.

She is pretty easy going and an easy keeper (able to stay in good condition with little resources) but she is a fence breaching bitch from hell. The fence does not need to be particularly bad, nor does the grass have to be short for her to decide that she needs to escape the confines of her 350 acre home. She usually just heads to the hay barn after she escapes but still I am always concerned about her getting on the road. Once she is put back into the pasture she stays in for the night but each evening she just has to test my patience. There is also one calf that has found a weak spot in the fence but he won’t be doing that for very much longer as I am planning on giving him a “shocking” experience with an electrified wire now that I know his escape route.

When dealing with a center pivot (circle) you can always look even from a distance if the “light” is on. If the light is on that means all systems are normal and the circle is moving properly. Today’s picture is of the corn circle and at this point in time the light on meaning it was running properly. What I found amusing is if you look at the picture in large size by clicking on it, you can look just behind the cab of the pickup on the bed rail to see just how you deal with a stuck circle at 8 p.m.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is corn aka Zea mays that has many different varieties.

This is why it is called the "boob tube"

My mother has been away this week. Her and my oldest sister are down visiting my middle sister in New Mexico. I cannot really say much more because my mom is just sure that there are some burglars that lurk online just waiting to find a blog that gives them the information they need to commit their crimes. I do not mean to make light of being careful online because that certainly is an issue. I do however doubt there are many online stalkers just dying to break into a house to steal canned goods, hairspray and every frozen ice cream treat known to mankind which are the three most numerous items in her house. Besides, Dakota and I have been staying there at night to enjoy her excellent air conditioning, Direct TV and frozen ice cream novelties.

I have never been a real big television person. Sure, there was a time as a child that I wanted to watch “Speed buggy” or “Scooby Doo” but that was mainly based on Debbie and Daphne’s respective mini skirts. When I was a pre teen Miss Marcia Brady then later as a teen Miss Daisy Duke could make me focus on a TV schedule to some degree. There have also been a few programs over the years that I truly do enjoy such as “The Sopranos” and “Deadliest Catch” but I would much rather watch them on DVD on my own schedule or when they have “marathons” of these programs throughout the year. For that reason and because I am basically a red neck hick we do not have cable, satellite TV or other television service here at home. *GASP* In fact, we have never had any of these services over the time that Chris and I have been married for many reasons.

Spending the last few evenings with access to television made me debate this stance but also confirmed that I have made the correct choice. I tend to operate in the reality world or at least what I perceive to be reality. Because of this it affects what type of programs I enjoy. I have caught up on the previously mentioned Deadliest Catch and what the Bering Sea crabbers have dealt with especially the passing of Captain Phil Harris this year. I also have watched a few History Channel episodes of things I found interesting and that I felt added to my knowledge of the world. There are also all kinds of sports type shows which made me think maybe I should get a dish installed for my evening enjoyment.

Just when I think I should buck up and spend money on a monthly subscription I take a cruise through the dial (channel guide) and see why I really do not plan on doing this anytime soon. I found “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” and holy crap did I ever shake my head. Now I am all for the idea to each their own but DAMN. You have some 40 plus year old bimbo going in to her plastic surgeon for her 4^th, yes 4^th time to do a breast augmentation! If you have watched the show it is painfully clear that Danielle desperately needs her 1^st brain augmentation WAYYYYYY more than she needs her butter bags lifted for the 4^th time. Holy batshit Robin do people actually watch this crap on a regular basis?

The other problem with watching TV in the evening is the constant blows to your self esteem. Apparently the programmers and product selling companies have decided that most everyone have breasts, credit ratings and tallywhackers that are too small coupled with asses, debt levels and stomachs that are too big. Sadly I also must admit that Gregory Peck and John Wayne do not seem near as impressive when you realize they gallop their horses over the same 12 feet of ground over and over in those old westerns I once loved so much.

Then you have all the “experts” on TV that are trying to tell you how to make your life better. I am sorry but as someone who gets to work outside, work around nature and cattle I just cannot see how some “Dr.” Phil that has to wear a suit and tie and talk to losers for an hour each day is going to tell me anything that I have not figured out better than he has. I guess I could use a little help though because one program focused on what dress some movie star wore to some event and how “atrocious” it was. I really did not see the problem other than the fact that she would have looked better in some boots, Wranglers and a tube top running a sorting gate while keeping her mouth shut.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Sand wasp aka Bembix rostrata.

Today’s picture is a video of some fall calving cows being unloaded today in a new pasture. I am thinking maybe there should be a show “Real calf raisers of North Franklin County” If you notice none of them need their teats augmented and they are all much more attractive and some are in better physical condition than any female from New Jersey that is on TV.