Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

The water and mud we are having to deal with under all the snow. What a mess. Taken 3/29/2006.

I see Creekstone Farms Premium Beef has finally prevailed and has received permission to perform BSE testing on all the beef it slaughters if that is what they want to do. This permission is tentative since the Judge stayed his ruling until June 1st so the Government can appeal the decision.

I support Creekstone in its bid to test for BSE. Why can't a private concern screen for BSE if they want to? I would be curious to know what their procedure is going to be if they get a positive test. Announce it, get and official USDA test prior to announcment, ignore it and tell no one, what? This does concern me a little but I still think they should be able to test if they want. Maybe the USDA needs to work with them on procedures to use in case of a positive instead of just opposing it outright. That way they could work with the industry instead of against it.

I also wonder if this might show more BSE in the US herd than the USDA has found. I feel US beef is safe so I am not overly worried but there is always a kernel of worry in the back of a producers mind over these things. I've always said that BSE has a naturally occurring variant and blanket testing might uncover it to the determent of the whole business. That doesn't change my opinion though, Creekstone should be able to test if they want. I just hope they handle false positives ethically.

Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving. David Ogilvy

The calves enjoying a dry spot to lay during a break in the storm. I would guess we had 12-16 inches of snow. The tractor you see in the background is used for plowing snow when it gets to deep. I haven't had to use it much in the past couple of years but it sure is handy when it does snow a lot. Taken 3/29/2007.

I had heard rumblings about the problems Gov. Brian Schweitzer's appointment of Stan Boone to the Montana Board of Livestock and now these rumbles are hitting the mainstream. It appears that not only did Stan Boone flout Montana State Brand Laws, he threatened the life of a brand inspector serving him citations for the infractions.

Of course Stan denies the allegation of threatening the brand inspector but does admit to violating the brand inspection laws. I've also heard rumbles about his not getting the proper marketing certificates when shipping stock to a livestock auctions. I will repeat that this is sheer rumor but to me it fits right in with his violation of the brand inspection laws.

What really struck me is the report that most of the Brand Inspectors in the State signed a letter opposing Stan Boone's appointment to the Board of Livestock. Now employees that sign a letter opposing someone who is going to be one of their bosses makes a pretty strong statement and ought to be listened to.

Montana's brand laws are some of the strongest in the nation and can be used for tracking animals for disease purposes just like the government wants with NAIS. R-calf and other organizations would rather see a nationwide system using Montana brand laws over the high tech NAIS system dreamed up by the USDA. Any person who knowingly violates these laws should not hold a position of trust on the Montana Board of Livestock. It's flat wrong. If Stan Boone had an ethical bone in his body he would withdraw his name from consideration after the brand inspectors letter opposing him came to light. I'm sure he won't but I hope the Senators do the right thing and oppose his appointment. There are plenty of good ethical cattle operators in the state to fill this position and I really wish Gov. Brian Schweitzer would appoint one of them. Why he settled on a person like Boone is beyond me.

Homo sapiens, the only creature endowed with reason, is also the only creature to pin its existence on things unreasonable. Henri Bergson

We got about 16 inches of snow with 3-4 foot drifts so far out of the storm. I've been busy all day getting to the cattle and getting them fed. What little I looked around everything appeared to be all right. The cows and calves are all bunched up in a brushy draw to get away from the snow and wind. I hate this since once a stressed calf gets the scours the chances are it will run through all the calves as bunched up as they are. Nothing I can do about it though. They need the shelter and that's where it is.

It quit snowing for a little bit this afternoon but it has started again now. More to deal with tomorrow. I wonder if this is Mother Nature's early April Fools joke. Don't tell me we needed the moisture. I didn't need this kind of moisture.

If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot fall to leave their impress behind them. H. P. Blavatsky

This heifer was just contentedly laying there enjoying the sun not at all concerned about me. Unusual for my cattle, they usually don't like people. Taken 3/15/2007.

High winds, deep snow forecast for wide area

Beginning today, a two-day winter storm is expected to bring a dramatic turn in the weather - in the form of 12 to 18 inches of snow for residents from Livingston to Miles City. Winds between 20 to 35 mph are also expected.

"We're looking at some pretty severe weather," said Scott Carpenter of the National Weather Service.

I keep hearing people say we need the moisture but I don't think we need it this way. I personally would like to see some warm weather to grow some grass, not get no moisture but it's not up to me to decide. With calving going on the last thing I need is 12-24" of heavy, wet snow to stress my calves and kill some of them. It's going to get rough around here that's for sure.

My Darling Wife and kids are moving to town so that school can continue and to be safe from any problems like power outages out here. This is a normal precaution we take with severe weather around here and it usually happens once a year. It can get damn difficult to get out of the place in bad weather and the school does not allow kids to miss school for such reasons and only allows 2 such absences, unexcused, before they will take drastic actions against the students and parents.

They keep comparing this storm to the April 3-4, 1955 storm which dumped 4 feet of heavy wet snow in the area. Believe me, this is not what we need around here. Some words from the Billings National Weather Service site.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 12 TO 20 INCHES
ARE EXPECTED BY THURSDAY AFTERNOON. LOCALLY HEAVIER AMOUNTS OF UP
TO 30 INCHES WILL BE POSSIBLE IN HIGHER ELEVATED LOCATIONS. SNOW
DRIFTS OF 3 TO 6 FEET WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE IN AREAS.

THE HEAVY WET SNOW WILL TRANSLATE INTO SIGNIFICANT LIQUID
PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS IN EXCESS OF 3 INCHES.

WITH A TWO DAY
TOTAL FORECAST OF 16 INCHES FOR BILLINGS...WHICH MAY BE
CONSERVATIVE...THIS STORM WOULD RANK AMONG THE TOP 5 BILLINGS
SPRING SNOWSTORMS AND TOP 10 STORMS OVERALL FOR TWO DAY SNOWFALL
TOTALS.

Not what we need. The damned thing is there is not much I can do for the cattle to help with this storm, I can't provide them with shelter or much help at all. They will manage on their own but I do worry and I will have some losses. I have been feeding close to some brush and draws that provide some shelter from such a storm but I can't force the cattle to use it. A cow that is wanting to calve usually leaves the herd to calve by herself. In this situation that means moving to a less protected area to have her calf and risk losing it in an area that doesn't have as much protection. If she stays in the good protection where the cows are at she risk having the calf stomped to death by the other cows that are milling around the area. It makes for a tough situation. If I go out to help, the cow will continue to move before calving and try to find a place where I can't find her. This leads to having it out in the open by accident and losing it for sure. This all sure leaves me in a real bind.

Then consider the calves that are all ready born. The cold, wet snow lasting for two days stresses them which lowers their resistance to disease and sets off an outbreak of scours, guaranteed. With the extended forecast I will be battling this problem for quite a while. If I am lucky I will have no death loss due to scours but it can happen.

This is not the kind of moisture we need. A slow, warm rain of about an inch might be useful but 2 feet or better of heavy wet snow is a disaster waiting to happen for me. It's Montana though, you take what you can get.

If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. Swami Vivekananda

This big red/white face calf really caught my eye. I could tell mom had a tough time having him but they appear to be getting along well. Taken 3/24/2007.

I was cursed the other day to look for a new pair of work boots. Mine had worn out and I needed a new pair. Nothing worse than trying to find a good pair of work boots. I have a theory on boots, your feet have to carry you a long way in this world so you put very comfortable, high quality shoes on them to help carry the load. I found while looking that trying to find a high quality boot was not easy to do.

I looked at the design of boots I wanted to try and picked out one that looked well made and was what I wanted. I asked the little lady helping me for the size I needed and when she brought them back I tried them on. They felt like hell, and didn't fit very well. I was disappointed. I went through about 4 other pairs with the same result. They just were not right. I told the person helping me that I wanted to look around a little more. I really studied the boots I had been trying on. I found a label in them, man made materials, made in China. Every one I had tried on was made in china and was made using artificial material.

I really started looking the boots over like I wanted. Most were made out of the country and I could identify flaws in all of them. Finally I found a really nice pair of boots. The were all natural materials and of all things, they were made in the USA. Chippewa is the brand name. I tried them on and they fit like a glove. They were well made of good looking material and I love them. I have been wearing them a few days now and they are nice.

I couldn't believe the crappy material the name brand boots I was looking at were made from. Don't these manufacturers have any pride in craftsmanship? I realize that the American buying public loves there cheap goods for low prices so that's what manufacturers make, shoddy workmanship using crappy material to keep the price down. But is it really worth it? Does cheapening your brand name with this kind of product really worth it?

A quality name and a quality product used to mean something. To me it still does but to most people it doesn't appear to. The cheaper the better. Hurray for Chippewa boots for making a high quality product and being proud of it. I personally am glad to see it.

It is quality rather than quantity that matters. Lucius Annaeus Seneca

After my little rant this morning I thought about the situation a little and wondered if there wasn't a way to support the use of alternative fuels without the Legislators needing to shove a mandate down our throats like they so love doing. I did come up with an idea, I might not like it well but it would allow the power of the consumers wants and needs drive the use of alternative fuels instead of mandating it.

What you do is manipulate the fuel tax for your goal. It's real simple, you reduce the Montana fuel tax by say 50% for biodeisel or ethanol blends that are made with Montana products and keep the fuel tax on everything else the same. This will give retailers the opportunity to price the alternative fuels cheaper than the normal fuels and the consumers, who are always looking for a deal, will by the alternative fuels since they are cheaper. This will help Montana farmers and get the alternative fuels production running in the state.

Now I know that lowering taxes is painful to some politicians, mainly Democrats, so the less attractive alternative is to raise Montana fuel taxes on non biodeisel or ethanol blends. You will have the same results as before since the consumer will buy the alternative fuels since they are now cheaper.

Working with the consumer, by manipulating the taxes, instead of shoving a mandate down their throat would support the Montana alternative fuels industry in a much better way. Politicians don't see it that way though, shove a mandate down the consumers throat. I wish they would find a different way.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. Edmund Burke

Lucky is just the right height that the cats love walking under him and rubbing their backs on his stomach. Lucky isn't real sure what to do about this. Taken 2/10/2007.

Two years ago when the Montana Legislature was in session I wrote very often about the stupidity of the ethanol mandate they were trying to put in and how if consumers wanted ethanol the market would support them and their would be no need for a mandate. As usual, nobody listened and they voted in an ethanol mandate. They did decide that we had to produce enough ethanol in the state to support the mandate before it kicked into effect which was a slight victory. To date there is still no ethanol plant in the state, they are still talking about one in Hardin but nothing has ever come of it and there is a proposal for one in the Northern part of the state but nothing has come of it yet either so there still is no mandate.

Now this time around the Legislature wants to mandate the use of biodiesel in the state. Now I feel the same way about biodiesel mandate as I do about the ethanol mandate, it's wrong. Why can't the Legislature just let the consumer decide?

Biodiesel flopped when it was introduced to the Billings retail market last summer.

Town Pump offered biodiesel at its convenience store on 32nd Street West and King Avenue. The company discontinued sales by the end of the year because motorists wouldn't buy it.

"Sales were very poor so we had to make a decision, and when it got close to winter, we decided that we needed to offer another kind of product," said Jim Kaneally, supply and distribution manager for Town Pump.

Kaneally said the Billings station initially introduced biodiesel at a price slightly higher than conventional diesel. "Eventually, we had to drop it to the same price, but it still wouldn't sell," Kaneally said. "We tried it in Great Falls and we had the same result."

Oh, I see, the consumers aren't interested in biodiesel so the Legislature just decides the best solution is to SHOVE A MANDATE DOWN OUR DAMNED THROATS AND WE WILL LIKE IT OR BE DAMNED.

The Legislators again try to sugar coat this biodiesel proposal by saying the mandate won't go into effect until a certain number of gallons of biodiesel are produced in the state but that means nothing. Just like for ethanol Montana biodiesel will never be able to compete with the Midwest farmers and their capacity to grow crops. We are just to arid here and there are not the water sources for widespread irrigation to produce the necessary crops.

What I find interesting about the ethanol and the biodiesel mandate, at least to my understanding, is that once there is enough of either product produced in the state to kick the mandate in, there is no saying the local fuel companies need to use the Montana product in their blends. Once the mandate kicks in the oil companies can buy cheaper products from the Midwest for their blends and leave the Montana plants high and dry. Real helpful to Montana producers this shoving down out throats a mandate is going to be, isn't it? The politicians sugar coating is awful sour when looked at in this light.

I'm so tired of this shit, why can't they just let well enough alone instead of imposing their will on us. Biodiesel might be the next best thing to sliced bread but can't we as consumers decide that without the damned politicians and their lackeys shoving it down our throats? I guess not, us dumb consumers don't know what is good for us so we need to be told.

BULLSHIT WE NEED TO BE TOLD!!!! LEAVE US ALONE!

Perfect freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship. Patrick Henry

The Bighorn Mountains in the distance with the snow still on them really caught my eye. We might see some snow her closeup later in the week. Preliminary forecasts are predicting up to 2 feet of snow in the area. Taken 3/25/2007.

The story in the paper yesterday about drugs and murder was very interesting. It touched on a pet peeve of mine. The dosing of our children with prescription drugs to control them easier.

In a nut shell these sorry excuse for parents got prescriptions for ADHD and by hook and crook got more pills than were necessary and used them to keep their child in almost a coma so they wouldn't have to deal with her. Reading the story it is not really even for sure that the child had ADHD, it was just based on family history. At 4 years old did this kid really need to be on such medication?

Kifuji told police Rebecca had been her patient since August 2004, when she was 2. She said she based her diagnoses of ADHD and bipolar disorder on the family's mental health history, as described by Carolyn Riley, and Rebecca's behavior, as described by Carolyn and briefly observed by her during office visits.

But Rebecca's teachers, the school nurse and her therapist all told police they never saw behavior in Rebecca that fit her diagnoses, such as aggression, sharp mood swings or hyperactivity.

I THINK NOT!!!!

This just shows in my worthless opinion how parents want to control their kids with medication to make their lives easier. I am sure glad I grew up when I did. I have been told I was a handful when I was growing up and My Well Seasoned Mom has told me if the drugs were available when I was growing up that are available today she would have got them for me.

Today I can do nothing about how hard it might have been on my parents when I was growing up but I turned out pretty good without drugs to regulate my behavior. Nature has managed some revenge on me with my son who is also a handful. We have had people say we should get some medicine to control him better but we figure, you have to let a kid be a kid. Most of them grow out of it and turn into reasonably well adjusted human beings. By teaching them to use drugs to control their behavior seems to be a dangerous path to be on to me. What other drugs might they use to change their behavior since they have learned "better living through chemistry" thanks to their parents?

I know, my rant about over medicating our children is old, you've heard it enough. But it does worry me. What really makes me wonder though is this so called doctor diagnosing ADHD and bipolar based mostly on family history. Is this moral/ethical? It sounds like poor doctoring to me.

And while we are on the subject of medication you always need to look at risk versus benefit. Temple Grandin

Sometimes what a hired hand says needs a little translation. I thought I would jot down some of it here. When you interview them o course they know how to do it all and they are the best you've ever seen at it. Then once they start working watch out for some of these phrases.

I'm not to sure but I will try. This means they have never done it before but it looks simple enough to do so they will attempt it. Be wary if you hear this when you set them driving a high dollar piece of equipment, if their try doesn't work out to well it can cost you a lot of money.

It's been a long time since I done it, I would be more comfortable if you showed me how. This means that they have no concept how to do it, don't want to do it, don't want to learn how to do it, and want you to go do it for them. Even if you take them along the chances of them learning how to do it are slim.

Why do these guys claim they can do something when they can't? It gets so tiring after a while.

There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers. Erich Fromm