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New Years 2010
Two thousand nine is almost done
So I ponder on what has passed
Seems as I age each year just goes so much quicker
Life sails by way too fast
So many changes have happened this year
Good and bad scattered throughout
Stockmen fought snow and cold ‘till spring
I almost wished for a drought!
We had three blizzards in just two weeks!
Even the old timers never seen that
But then they didn’t have four wheel drive either
Afterwards the coyotes got fat
All that snow sure helped fill up the dams
Along with the following spring rains
All the hay and grass that grew so high
Helped to ease most of the pains
Odd how we always seem to need a calf killer
To ensure a bountiful year
Cattleman made ghoulish jokes to ease the pain
Trying to dispel some of the fear
That maybe the prices wouldn’t be quite enough
To ensure all their payments in fall
As always they tightened their belts a notch
Pulled their hats down and stood up tall
No, two thousand and nine maybe wasn’t the best
Like all years there was thick and thin
But we ended up with lots of feed for the stock
We’re in good shape for the shape we’re in
Two thousand and ten is bound to be better
That’s my prediction tho’ I ain’t no Wiz
How do I know? ‘Cause it’s plain as hell
This is the best “next year” country there is!
Robert Dennis 12/28/09
Happy New Years all!
Fed stock. Sat around and played with the grandsons. Let Kass whip me at cribbage. She say’s it’s a first but I doubt it. I have to run Cindy in in the morning for work and get a pump for my loader. The old one leaks pretty bad and the loader sure doesn’t seem to want to work very well. Kass took my car when she left tonight, seeing as how hers is in the shop. She made it to Wasta and had a flat tire I guess. Tate took his little Dodge over to Punkin Center and got new tires on back. Hopefully he can get around better now.
We had it yesterday evening when Hope got here from work. Kids opened their presents and there were even a few for the old people. Grandkids got red wagons to share between brothers and we had put one together. They sure had fun. Pushed and pulled each other around the house. They are learning about steering. Every little kid ought to have a wagon.
Tate and Chancve helped me with fixing my sled that I broke trying to get it out of a drift that was around it. Tate also helped me with my pump on my loder while Chance welded a new pin for the sled. I am afraid I need a new pump for the loader. I suppose I will have to take Cindy back to work and then pick up a pump while I am in town.
3 below at 7:30 this morning.
As Dennis Miller used to say on his TRV show, “I hate to get off on a rant here”, but……
We get a three day doozy of a blizzard. How long has it been since we had one of those in this country at Chriustmas? Been awhile. Setting here this morning reading all the comments and talk on the internet from blogs and Facebook, of people I read and know who have just went thru’ this. And what do I read? Whine, whine, bitch, bitch and moan, moan! “Woe is me!”
Oh how sad that your poor little lives have been upset by Mother Nature. On all the farm/ranch blogs I read, I never saw one person who whined about the extra work to feed the stock. Just the satisfaction of knowing they got the stock all fed and taken care of. Mostly (sorry town and city dwellers) all I read was whine, whine, cry, cry. because we can’t get somewhere we WANT to go. Oh my!
Things didn’t go your way!
How sad!
In most cases, no one had to go or be anywhere, they just WANTED to be somewhere else. They were all warm and dry and well fed. Was that good enough? NO! Oh hell no!
We are going to pout and stomp our widdle feet and act like the spoiled rotten little brats we are because we didn’t get our way
What a bunch of crybabies.
Here’s a thought. Maybe instead of whining about what you don’t have ,you ought to count your blessings that you are not in a war torn country as a soldier or a person who’s country is being torn apart by strife and war. Or that you are not living on the street tryingto stay warm and get food for you and your family. Or that you live in a country where you still have the right to whine and carry on like brats.
What a bunch of whining, bed wetting, spoiled little brats we have in this country. No wonder they voted in the pin heads we have in Congress! Like begets like I guess.
Grow up people and think about someone else besides your own selfish self!!!!
Sorry, but I am tired of your whine.
Maybe it’s just cabin fever. Guess I will go feed my hungry cows and horses.They don’t whine and are just happy to have what they have.
I went out yesterday about 3 pm and started diggin’ the tractor out and feed the stock. The wind and snow had let off just a bit. I will go back to it today after the sun comes up. Probably a lot of people will show up here sometime this afternoon.
This is the 3rd day of this. Just talked to a friend down south west of here not far from Cheyenne Wy and it sounds like they only have about an inch of snow and lots of wind.
We have a drift almost as high as the box on my Dodge Ram 3/4 ton pickup. And they re pretty high! Drift off the steps goes a long ways. Drift behind my pickup that is pretty tall also. So when I go out to feed this afternoon as this is supposed to start slackening, I will have some fun digging.
Cindy of course stayed in town again yesterday and when she went to go to work this morning they tried to come and get her with some little 6 wheeled or tracked vehicle that they buried in the parking lot of the apartments Cindy is staying at. So they had to call for a big loader to come dig it out. Sounds like they have some pretty big drifts in Sturgis.
A friend from Nortyh West Iowa sent an email and sounds ike they re having funalso.
Why do people feel the need to go out in these conditions?
Feeding in the snow and blowing and cold with a tractor with no cab reminded me of this poem. It’s an oldie but a goody! Hope you like it! I wrote it back in 1993 at Christmas time. It’s all true.
The Gift
It had been bitter cold, for three long days
The wind blew sharp and swirled snow
So I bundled up, with lots’a clothes
‘Cause I had somewhere I needed to go
I caught and harnessed my work mares
The harness was so stiff, it wouldn’t bend
I warmed up the bits, ‘fore I hung ‘em on
On a cold day, you’ll do that for a friend
And them ol’ mares, are good ol’ girls
They give me, everything that they’ve got
Not too many friends would go willingly outside
Then line right out, in a trot
Those hungry cows was sure glad to see us
They went right to work, on their hay
You know, when it’s 24 below and breezy
You ain’t just feedin’ them cows for the pay
At least not the pay that the bankers loan out
But there are rewards, in the job that you do
So I drug out extra feed, ‘cause it’s Christmas eve
And I hummed a Christmas carol or two
When the cows were fed, we jogged on home
I poured a good feed of grain for the team
Most folks wouldn’t enjoy my kind of lifestyle
That’s O.K., ‘cause I’m livin’ MY dream
And I think about a babe in a manger
As I fill my manger, full of hay
I think about all the people in the world
And how they all celebrate this day
Some folks enjoy Christmas, because of the gifts
And I sure don’t think that’s all wrong
But most’a the gifts, they give and receive
Are forgotten, ‘fore the New Year comes along
The gift that I’m most thankful for
Is gettin’ to ranch, not punchin’ a time-clock
And strangely enough, goin’ out in the cold
With a good team, to feed my hungry stock
And here is my gift to you. Only one of many, go and read this, right now!
It is wonderful and someday will hopefully be a small part of a greater book!
From my friend Jim, probably one of the greatest writers of our time, in my view!
http://werdfu.blogspot.com/2009/12/greetings-from-north-pole-part-vii_25.html
Blowing good out there with gusts up to 40 mph.
Here’s some pictures from today. I went up west with the tractor and got two old bales and hauled them home and the cows followed me just like I planned. We were without power from 12:30 pm until a while ago. I had the generator running to pump water for the cows so I didn’t know until they called back from the Electric Company. Hopefully it will stay on, but it was as thick of frost as I have ever seen.
Southeast breeze blowing and they are always cold. I hauled a bale out to the calves and unrolled part of it with the re-built bale unroller yesterday. Seemed to work great. I unloaded the left over part of it at the corral for the colts and team or who ever is in the corral. Sounds like we may get up to 7 inches of snow and the wind is supposed to blow a pretty good clip tomorrow night. Cindy went in yesterday afternoon as she hates bad roads and they sounded like they will be this morning. She said they weren’t bad but everyone was driving slow. At least some have good sense!
As cold as it is I don’t think I will be working on any sled for the grandkids right now. That’s okay, I have plenty to do in the leather shop. It’s just matter of doing it. Aye, there’s the rub!
