Ramblings Of A Redneck Farmer

Chapter 22--90 Day Challenge Good Sunday Morning Everybody, how the heck is everybody?  It has been hot here, super hot.  In fact I have to work on my AC in my pickup and living room if its going to stay this hot.  I saw a meme the other day on Facebook talking about how God makes Oklahoma summers this hot so everybody will realize Hell is no place to spend eternity.  After the weather we have had this week, there shouldn't be an atheist in western Oklahoma!  Its been so hot I've even been coming in around 3 or so and watching TV and sitting by an air conditioner.  Yesterday, we watched a documentary on Netflix called "In Defense Of Food".  It had its usual crap in it.  You know, modern agriculture is responsible for all the woes in the world and the like, but I have to admit, especially for a network that slants left, it had a lot of good information in it.  Most of the time these documentaries want people to be vegetarians if not vegans, live on weeds and sprou

Chapter 21--Sacrifice And Dedication Is Worth It When Its The Right Thing Good Morning Everybody, How The Heck Are Ya? Here it is again, Sunday morning and I'm dutifully writing a blog post and getting ready for my podcast Monday evening. Sometimes I struggle with what to write about, because I've lived here on this farm for so long I think everybody should know everything about farming and this kind of lifestyle.  But, in all actuality very few have an idea about what daily life is on a farm and how much of a joy and how much of a pain in the butt it can all be, literally within 15 minutes and why we do it.  Maybe a little insight will help. Does anybody watch the show Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on The Travel Channel? I love that show.  Now I could do without the bug eating or rotten food ingesting, but I tell you, I love to see the different cultures shown on that show and how the people live their daily lives. I watch the show religiously and my favorite show

Chapter 20--Know Your Enema and Bulls Can Dance Too Good Evening Everybody, How the heck are ya?  I'm going to have to work hard to get  this one done before the day is officially over but I think I can do it.  Does everybody remember the classic show MASH?  Its one of my favorites.  I loved the banter back and forth between characters. My favorite character was Sherman T Potter, Col. Probably cause he was a farm boy and rode horses and I thought his plain spoken humor was damn funny. How can "Buffalo Bagels and Mule Fritters" not be funny? It wasn't till much later that I figured out just how left leaning and liberal that show really was.  But in the fog of my youth, I couldn't find a better show to watch. Even though those characters fought and fought with each other, they could always count on each other in the end. If you remember Major Frank Burns, you can remember how much of a nitwit his character was. He was overly complicit to whatever he thoug

Chapter 19--Happy Birthday America Good Morning Everybody, how the heck are ya?  Well I officially hate technology this morning.  I had this blog done and went to write my closing remarks and poof all of it disappeared.  So take 2 everybody. Today is July 4th, Independence Day in America.  A day, that if my math is correct, we have celebrated for 242 years. The day that the founding fathers of this great country said "Screw You" to the mighty crown and country of England.  I could go on and on about how this country has went down hill since then but that is a blog post for a different day.  Today I want to remember the signers of our "freedom papers".  Everybody is familiar with all the famous names associated with the Declaration of Independence .  You had John Hancock who signed his name so big that the monarchy could see it clear over in England. I actually met one of his descendants, aptly named John Hancock. He lived next to my aunt and uncle in Oklaho

Good Morning Everybody, How The Heck Are You?  I've got to get into a better schedule on blogging.  Here is to better intentions.  We were driving to Dodge yesterday and my wife and I were talking about how things were just better back in "the good ole days".  How people were better people, how animals seemed to be better and that conversation has inspired this blog post, so here we go. Now, stay with me.  As usual I'm going to take a big wide turn on this one.  I promise it will make sense in the end. Back in the late 70's and early 80's my family was running quite a bit of ground, 4000-5000 acres.  We were running a lot of cattle over some kinda rough country. So when cattle had to be checked and or doctored you just couldn't do it from a cab in a pickup.  You had to have good stout horses that could travel.  Now we raised horses, good horses, we still do for that matter.  But we were in-between finished horses and Dad was riding a lot so he decided

Chapter 16--What A Glorious Morning Good Morning Everybody, How are ya?  Our little area of paradise received its first meaningful rain in over 6 months last night and this morning.  Reports so far say we were blessed with around an inch of rain.  Praise the Lord it rained, but maybe just as important is how a good general rain over a large area just changes everybody's attitude.   Farmers and ranchers are the ultimate optimists.  We have to be.  It seems we see droughts, storms, blizzards, low commodity prices, floods, high feed costs, tariff wars, crop failures or a combination of it all, as frequently as some people change their underwear.  Nerves can be on edge and accounts dry from buying more feed then normal, but the positive psychological affects are just mind boggling.  When I was a little kid I just didn't get it.  My parents would talk about how great a slow gentle, all day rain was, does anybody even remember those?  You opened the doors and windo