Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Sometimes I think people take life too seriously and don't see the humor in things. This really gave me a chuckle.

Report: Drought not gone, but could be rained out

The funny thing is that it's so true. What do they say, the truth is stranger than fiction, this fits it. While technically we are still in a drought with all the rain at the moment it sure doesn't look like it.

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter. Mark Twain

I see the hi-line of Montana got a gift today from America.

Following the evacuation, the representatives voted overwhelmingly to allow Amtrak to keep its long routes, essentially restoring Amtrak to its current state.

Rep. Denny Rehberg has been fighting for this and finally got it for Montana's hi-line residents. I see it still has to be approved by the Senate but the article states that should be easier than the House was.

I am not too sure about spending this kind of money on a service that can't make a go of it on its own. That's why I call it a gift. Everybody, whether Democrat or Republican, wants the Government to have a balanced budget then they throw money around like this. It doesn't make much sense to this dumb cowboy but then most of what the Government does falls into this category.

The great art of giving consists in this: the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated. Baltasar Gracian

Click on images for full size.

The yearlings are content and happy in their new pasture. I had some of the neighbors cattle in with them yesterday but got them out easily enough. Gate was left open where the neighbor was working though they won't admit it.


The cows and calves are looking good and are content. If it would ever dry up enough we would get a generator set up in a new pasture and move these to fresh pasture. They have gazed this one off enough and need fresh grass.


The calves are sure looking good. Now if I could just sell them at a decent price.

To be content is to be happy. Chinese proverb

Rain, rain and more rain. It sure is hard to get any haying done when all it wants to do is rain. For the past 5 days we have gotten .5 inches to 1 inch every day on our fields and pastures.


The hay lays on the wet ground trying to dry and not having much luck.


I haven't even been able to finish stacking the bales, that's because I broke down though, but the rain doesn't help. Look at the alfalfa coming back. We will get a second cutting it looks like.


I was mentioning how the barley hadn't lodged yet but now it has. That will sure make it hard to get dry, ripe, and cut. But we're lodging stuff everywhere.


This is a grassy flat that we feed on in the winter and sometimes hay. The grass on it is lodging and it's a mess. Lots of feed but I don't know when I will get to it.


This is water draining down the creek after the latest rain. When I looked at it earlier it was dry and when I come back by 2 hours later, 10 hours after the storm, this is what it looked like. It dumped some rain here that's for sure.

Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. John Updike

I have mentioned before my belief that the big meat packers are in control of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and run it for their benefit. It looks like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer would agree with that assessment.

The second U.S. case of mad cow disease will do little to change most people's minds about whether they are at risk of dying from the human form of the ailment. But the federal Department of Agriculture's mishandling of the matter ought to worry all of us.

The seven-month delay in word of the infected animal would be simply ridiculous if it were an isolated instance of bureaucratic ineptness. In fact, the delay looks like a prime example of federal officials favoring industry profits over intensive examination of food safety. The positive finding could have been confirmed long ago.

The Bush administration's see-no-evil approach to mad cow is so extreme that it will end up unintentionally hurting dedicated American farmers and ranchers. Taiwan immediately said it was taking steps to reimpose a ban on U.S. beef imports that it had trustingly decided to lift.

Experts say mad cow represents only a very minor health concern. That's reassuring. But the dismal handling of the new case reduces the overall credibility of federal food protection. The federal authorities have shown that, when presented with any health issue, the system's first instinct is likely to be to safeguard economic interests rather than the health of Americans.

"Federal officials favoring industry profits over intensive examination of food safety." I would have to agree except I am not sure it's Federal Officials, it's the big meat packing companies protecting themselves.

For conspiracy,
I know not how it tastes, though it be dished
For me to try how.

William Shakespeare

Supreme Ct. Declares US Constitution Unconstitutional

I found this frightening announcement over at Steve's palace Rabid Sanity.

n a surprise announcement, Justice Souter announced a decision of the Supreme Court for a case that they had not been asked to decide. Justice Souter, announces that after a review of International Law, specifically, the Constitution of the former Soviet Union, and the Constitution of the Republic of Iran, that the US Constitution is unconstitutional. Souter, appointed by President Bush 41, said that the problem with the former US Cosnstitution, was the emphasis on individual rights and a limitation on the powers of the government.
"This is counterproductive to good governance, and the greater public good," Souter said. This Court has been going on this line of reasoning for quite some time. "We find that the Constitution was fine for 18th and 19th Century America, but it was quickly becoming irrelevant to the changes in our country that we have experienced in the last 40 years."

The rate the Court is going I believe this is the way they feel. The damn thing is there is nothing we can do about it. Frightening.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy. Plato

Sunrise a few days ago, she was a beaut. Continue reading "Sunrise in Montana" »

How will the latest BSE finding affect consumer demand? Here is an opinion I won't argue with.

Meat-loving Americans will stick with beef despite a second U.S. case of mad cow disease, analysts and trade groups said on Sunday, even if cattle markets have the jitters.

I have to have some hope and I guess this is it. I know the markets down a little and what will happen there is anybodies guess. I probable should have taken the offer the buyer gave me earlier this year but I can't worry about that now.

Here's one interesting story on this whole thing. Taiwan closed there market to US beef again but consumers aren't as scared and are buying up the meat.

One woman, who did not identify herself, said she was not put off by the government ban on importing beef from the U.S. "I see lots of other people buying it so I think there's no reason I shouldn't buy it myself," she said.

Another man said it would be difficult to break the habit of buying American beef.

"We really like to eat it, and buy quite a bit," he said.

What is interesting in this whole thing is how giddy the Canadian cattlemen and press is over the discovery of more BSE. They don't appear to care how it affects consumer sentiment on beef or on markets in general, their just happy to inflict more pain on the cattle industry as a whole and rub it in. Hope their having fun, it only hurts them too in the long run.

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. Václav Havel

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

Some interesting information for bloggers and would be bloggers.

It is not unprofessional to give free legal advice, but advertising that the first visit will be free is a bit like a fox telling chickens he will not bite them until they cross the threshold of the hen house. Warren E Burger

Lynn Cornwell really needs to wake up and smell the cow shit. Does she he really think that these poor Central American countries can afford to import our high quality beef we produce in the US. Maybe, but I kind of ******* doubt it.

It's the old strategy of divide and conquer. The goal of CAFTA advocates is to divide up different agricultural interests on this issue so we won't provide a united front in opposition to this and it's working. The only major organization that's opposing this is the sugar lobby.

We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. Benjamin Franklin

Hey, that says it all.

I would like to point out Lynn's pedigree at this point.

Lynn Cornwell, ranches near Glasgow and is a past president of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA). This is the government mouthpiece for the cattle industry that is controlled by the big meat packers so obviously she has been given her marching orders on this issue from the Government and meat packers who desperately want this to pass. I really doubt this is in my best interests if these are the people supporting it.

I would never condone vigilantism but who could really blame this woman.

A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday.

...

"The place was packed with people eating. I was sitting at a table and Soriano was standing at the bar very close to me when the woman walked in," he said. "She didn't acknowledge anyone but walked up to Soriano, who was drinking a coffee, put her hand on his shoulder and turned him round to face her.

"Then she pulled the bottle she was carrying from under her arm and began to tip it over him. At first I didn't realise what was happening, but then I smelt the petrol. I jumped up and tried to grab her, but when she struck a match I got clear.

"The petrol was in a pool around Soriano, and she threw the match into it. It ignited with a whoosh, and he screamed and staggered about covered in flames. As people rushed outside to escape the flames, she just looked at him, then turned and walked away."

I don't blame her one bit. If I was on a jury and this case come before me I would have a hard time convicting her. No matter what happens to her, she got justice.

Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue. Deuteronomy 16:20

What's the old saying, if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. My hay got rained on Thursday night, rained Friday night big on my hay, and it's raining again on my hay. At this rate it will never dry. On our way up to move the yearlings we rode by the barley hay field. I haven't been by it in a while. I couldn't believe it. The damn stuff was as tall as my horse. Not just stirrup high, as high as their backs. I ain't never seen anything like it.

Since it rained we had to ride all the way to do our job instead of trailer out like we usually do. For this reason I didn't take the camera and I sure wish I could of. The pasture we trailed the yearlings across hasn't had cattle in it yet and the grass in the bottom of the draws was taller than they were. Stirrup high and better grass. It's been a lot of years since there's been such a thing. All my hay still standing is lodging, grass is lodging, amazingly enough the only thing that isn't is the barley. I'm sure it will with time.

It's just funny, good luck for all the moisture but bad luck because I can't get my crops up. What do you do? Shake your head in wonder I guess.

Opportunity often goes begging. Luck, never. Mason Cooley

I was up driving around checking the yearlings out in preparation for moving them today. I couldn't believe the grass up there. Continue reading "Lots of Grass" »

Second case of mad cow disease confirmed in U.S.

This isn't real surprising. I always knew the increased monitoring would some day find a case. It was inevitable. But remember,

"I am encouraged that our interlocking safeguards are working exactly as intended," Johanns said at a news conference. "This animal was blocked from entering the food supply because of the firewalls we have in place. Americans have every reason to continue to be confident in the safety of our beef."

I have to find something positive about this and this is all I can see. How is this going to affect the market. We will have to wait and see which is going to be real tough, that's for sure. Gut reaction is the market will go down a little and then bounce back up to close to where it is now, at least I can hope.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a part as it may please the master to assign you, for a long time or for a little as he may choose. And if he will you to take the part of a poor man, or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen, then may you act that part with grace! For to act well the part that is allotted to us, that indeed is ours to do, but to choose it is another's. Epictetus

If you haven't heard about the Supreme Courts decision that allows cities to seize private property and turn it over to other private citizens then you must be living under a rock. The Big Sky Blog has a review of Montana laws on the subject and Dave Budge (among many) has numerous comments on the issue and vents his outrage on the whole issue.

I agree that in my opinion this is a flawed decision from the Supreme Court but I would really like to know why everyone is so surprised at it. I don't care what level of government you are speaking of, Federal, State, or local the trend in all is to remove a persons individual freedoms for the perceived good of all according to the good those in power imagine. So this just really fits right in. If Joe Shit the mayor decides that it is in the public good if his cousin Ernie opens a car dealer, guess what, he can now seize the land from private owners, turn it over to Ernie and do just that. Since Jes Shit feels its in the public good, it's legal. What it is, is BULLSHIT!!! One more of our freedoms enshrined by the paper shell we call a Constitution, down the drain. How unfortunate for us all.

I read somewhere along the way in my readings of this issue that people were talking about a constitutional amendment to prevent this. The Constitution is just a paper shell that's ignored at will so it would mean nothing, it is extremely hard to amend the Constitution, and most people don't really care about this issue. As long as it's not their private property that Joe Shit wants to seize for his cousin Ernie, and Joe spoon feeds them that it's a good thing they will believe it, hide their head in the sand, and go on and not worry about the right and wrong of it.

Enough on this issue, you know how I feel and on to other news yesterday that caught my eye. The short lived strike was settled which was sure good news to me. Continue reading "Yesterdays News" »