Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Brown, dry landscape. That's all there is to take a picture of so I guess I will. Sad. Taken 8/28/2006.

A really bad fire near Big Timber/Columbus.

Residents scramble to get out of Derby fire path

Towns of Fishtail, Nye under evacuation order

I note the map in the paper appears to be a little out of date. The reading I have been doing is that there is a pre-evacuation order out for Reedpoint and another one for the areas all the way up to Columbus.

It just shows how dry it is out there. I can't help but thinking if the fire was running with winds of 50 MPH, how many cattle and other critters were lost? How many ranchers are getting burned out? Everybody always talks about all the homes in danger. I see the ranchers getting hurt. Is that wrong of me?

The weather forecast doesn't look real promising for getting this under control. Cool today but then slowly warming up and no real chance of moisture. Bad situation.

A tragic situation exists precisely when virtue does not triumph but when it is still felt that man is nobler than the forces which destroy him. George Orwell

Wild Sunflower in Bloom. Taken 8/14/2006.

Johanns unveils drought aid package

U.S. Ag Secretary Mike Johanns toured drought-ravaged areas of South Dakota Tuesday, then announced a new program for hard-hit livestock producers called the Livestock Assistance Grant Program (LAGP).

Under the program, USDA will provide a total of $50 million in Section 32 USDA emergency funds as block grants to states that have counties rated as D3 or D4 on the Drought Monitor Map between March 1st and August 31st of this year. States will then disburse their share of the funds to eligible livestock producers living in those counties.

Dole out money to producers for votes, pure and simple election politics here. This will help some ranchers but those in the direst of straights it wont help at all. As the last paragraph of the article says, "too little, too late." What is funny about the comment is the person saying it, a Democrat. So Mr. Democrat, has your party been trying to do something to help livestock producers? Not that I am aware of so don't hold your head to high.

Election year politics, you gotta love it.

Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it. Samuel Johnson

P.S. The county I am in is a D3 on the drought monitor. Am I eligible for some of this aid? Only time will tell.

Dead infant reported; search finds nothing

A contracted sanitation worker was doing standard cleanup Friday and spotted what may have been a child. The worker was concerned but bagged the trash anyway, thinking it could have been a doll, Pryor said. Law enforcement was notified once the worker's supervisors learned of the possibility a child had been seen.

A worker spots what he thinks is a child but bags it up as trash anyway. This guy needs his head examined. Why didn't he stop and figure it out for sure. Now, how much money has been spent looking for a body because of this?

I really wonder about the human race sometimes.

Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant. Gustave Flaubert

Three trips to Billings to get everything I wanted to sell hauled up to the market. One hundred and eighty miles per trip. That's 540 miles total. Sixty dollars of gas per trip. One hundred and eighty dollars to haul all the critters up there. Sale is today but I won't be there, I have a stock tank leaking and need to replace the tank.

I would never make a truck driver. Those three trips about killed me, I hate driving to town.

The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, Sir Thomas Wyatt

Crested Wheat Grass. There is quite a lot of this domesticated grass scattered all over the country any more. It spreads like weeds. The cattle don't particularly like it when it is tall and old like this but will eat it if there is nothing else around. A little rain at this time of year will cause it to sprout at the roots again and then the cows really love it. They reach down in the plant to get at the green and end up with a bunch of the old grass too. Really makes for good feed, I just need some rain. Taken 8/14/2006.

Who ever thought that the International Astronomical Union voting to take away the status of Pluto as a planet would create such controversy. Some people are very upset by it. I saw a cartoon right after it happened that poked fun at it but I didn't think that it would come true.



Sure enough, it has burst out into the scene and is becoming true.

Pluto vote 'hijacked' in revolt

A fierce backlash has begun against the decision by astronomers to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

On Thursday, experts approved a definition of a planet that demoted Pluto to a lesser category of object.

But the lead scientist on Nasa's robotic mission

to Pluto has lambasted the ruling, calling it "embarrassing".

And the chair of the committee set up to oversee agreement on a definition implied that the vote had effectively been "hijacked".

The vote took place at the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) 10-day General Assembly in Prague. The IAU has been the official naming body for astronomy since 1919.

Only 424 astronomers who remained in Prague for the last day of the meeting took part.

An initial proposal by the IAU to add three new planets to the Solar System - the asteroid Ceres, Pluto's moon Charon and the distant world known as 2003 UB313 - met with considerable opposition at the meeting. Days of heated debate followed during which four separate proposals were tabled.

Eventually, the scientists adopted historic guidelines that see Pluto relegated to a secondary category of "dwarf planets".

NASA thinks it's dumb and the controversy now centers on if there was a quorum available to even do this. Are we going to have to in the future reinstate Pluto as a planet because there was no quorum? I don't know but tempers are hot out there.

Then there is the advice out there on how to deal with the emotional issues, yes emotional issues, involved with Pluto no longer being a planet.

What One Fewer Planet Means to Our Worldview

Is Pluto a planet?

The world's astronomers met in Prague last week to vote on this question, and in a sort of cosmic game of "Survivor," they voted Pluto off the solar system.

Many people were anguished. One colleague asked, "Don't you think it's at least possible that somewhere we're being voted off the solar system?"
........

"The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. Not all things are black nor all things white. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that nature rarely deals with discrete categories. Only the human mind invents categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeon-holes. The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects."

I never would have imagined such a controversy. Who cares? Planet or not, it's still a part of the solar system and will be getting a visit from a NASA probe paid for by the taxpayers. Pluto still has some status obviously.

I don’t deal in controversy. I deal in fun. It’s separate from reality. Dean Young

FROM THE PHOTO ARCHIVES
New not previously published

Seeing what the calves looked like when they were first born. I am not saying this is the same red calf I posted a picture of the other day but there is a hell of a difference in just a few months between the two.



Peacefully sleeping. These red calves are always so cute as babies. Taken 3/17/2006.

I got this in e-mail the other day and found it very humourous. Hope you do to.

Why it is good to be a man?

1. Your ass is never a factor in a job interview.
2. Your orgasms are real. Always.
3. Your last name stays put..
4. The garage is all yours..
5. Wedding plans take care of themselves.
6. You never feel compelled to stop a friend from getting laid.
7. Car mechanics tell you the truth.
8. You don't give a rat's ass if someone notices your new haircut.
9. Hot wax never comes near your pubic area.
10. Same work .. more pay.
11. Wrinkles-add character.
12. You don't have to leave the room to make emergency crotch adjustments.
13. Wedding Dress $2000; Tux rental $100.
14. If you retain water, it's in a canteen.
15. People never glance at your chest when you're talking to them.
16. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
17. One mood, ALL the damn time.
18. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds.
19. A five-day vacation requires only 1 suitcase.
20. You can open all your own jars.
26. You can quietly watch a game with your buddy for hours without ever thinking "He must be mad at me."
27. No maxi-pads.
28. If another guy shows up at the party in the same outfit, you just might become lifelong friends.
29. You are not expected to know the names of more than five colors.
30. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
31. You are unable to see wrinkles in clothes.
32. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
33. Your belly usually hides your big hips.

Barbecue chain to serve U.S. beef

A restaurant chain plans to resume serving U.S. beef at dozens of its branches nationwide, company officials said Saturday.

Zenshoku, based in Osaka Prefecture, plans to offer U.S. beef at the company's 57 Korean barbecue restaurants across Japan soon, the company said.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported earlier that the chain plans to introduce American beef as early as Tuesday, possibly becoming the first chain to do so since the government eased an import ban last month.

Now this looks real promising. Get more US beef back into the food chains in Japan. Any increase in demand helps out in the long run for us.

The supply of words in the world market is plentiful but the demand is falling. Let deeds follow words now. Lech Walesa

Well that little dirty job is done. We worked the yearling replacement heifers and had the vet preg check them. Right at ninety percent of the replacements were pregnant. Some people would consider that a little low for yearling replacement heifers but for the way I raise and run them I am happy. It turned out just like I thought it should. Ninety six replacements to calve out come spring. That's too many if it don't get to raining but the weather is a little goofy so I will just have to wait and see.

The ones that were dry plus the bunch of older cows I had cut off are going to market this week sometime. Three trailer loads worth. What a pain, there are too few to justify the expense of a semi but to get them all up to market in good order will take two days of driving back and forth. I'm not looking forward to it.

The new hired hand appears to know his way around a cow at least. I expected as much but it's nice to see confirmation of it.

I need to talk to the buyer but I am leaning towards shipping on the 29th of September. That way my oldest can help me work cows afterwords on the weekend. [sarcasm]She is so thrilled at the prospect[/sarcasm].

It is good to know what a man is, and also what the world takes him for. But you do not understand him until you have learnt how he understands himself. F. H. Bradley

I knew I was missing a couple of yearlings when I gathered on Thursday. A kindly neighbor called yesterday and said he had them so I went and got them so they could be preg checked with the rest today. Taken 8/25/2006.

Hat tip to Ed Kemmick for this one. He pointed me to a story about a bicyclist trip through Montana and going to the testicle festival in Ryegate. I won't go into the difference in taste of calf "oysters" and bull "oysters" like the writer does but I will quote his last couple of paragraphs.

And then it was back on the open road, ever eastbound. It's hard to figure what makes the big sky in Montana bigger than the sky anywhere else. Most places the sky is just the sky, dutifully starting at one horizon and continuing to the other one.

In Montana, the sky seems to start in a place farther away than a mere horizon and continue to uncharted territory on the other side. In between, it envelops a high range where, if deer and antelope do not necessarily play, at least they spend their days shaking their heads to shoo away the same ever-present biting flies that a solitary cyclist must do battle with.

Wow, that description is so true about the Montana sky. It really struck me.

In Montana, the sky seems to start in a place farther away than a mere horizon and continue to uncharted territory on the other side. Steve Rubenstein

Cows with regional accents? Pull the udder one

They have one word in their vocabulary and it's a single syllable at that.

But farmers claim cows appear to 'moo' in regional accents, despite their limited conversational skills.

Herds in the West Country have been heard lowing with a distinctive Somerset twang - prompting some to claim the sound is more 'moo-arr' than moo.

I'm not to sure about this. Sounds a little far-fetched to me. What really makes me wonder about this story is where it started.

The regional twangs were first noticed by members of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers group. Members spend hours with their herds making sure they are wearing cow coats and playing them classical music.

The practice is supposed to contribute towards the local cheddar's distinctive flavour.

One of the group, Lloyd Green, from Glastonbury, Somerset, said: 'I spend a lot of time with my Friesans and they definitely moo with a Somerset drawl.

This information comes from people that wear cow coats and play classical music to their cows because it adds a flavor to the cheese. I think this gives these people way to much time to think about nothing and make things up. It's gotta affect the mind. I think enough is said on this issue right there.

Strange to know nothing, never to be sure
Of what is true or right or real,
But forced to qualify or so I feel....
Philip Larkin