Your Community Builder
Your Community Builder
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Hello, I’m not the biggest football fan around. I very seldom watch an entire game. That is unless it’s the Harding County Ranchers junior high team. Then I pack up Gramma and travel across two states to watch future NFL stars. I sit on hard bleachers in wind, rain, and snow and sip poor coffee and spit sunflower seeds out. And dang, it is fun. But this past weekend was a little different. The Bison were playing in Texas for their seventh championship in eight years. I attended NDSU, albeit briefly. It was in the late six...
Hello, Shirley said to write a Christmas story. And when Shirley says, I write. I think Christmas is over by the time you get this, but I’m writing it before Christmas so just bare with me. And that happens because, unlike ranches, newspapers adjust their schedule for printing on holidays. Christmas time is a time for friends and families. Kids and grandkids are coming home for Christmas. Neighbors are stopping by to drop off a gift or share a cup of coffee and wish each other well for the season. Santa is greasing up the s...
Hello, I enjoy looking at pictures. Whether they are in an album, on a smartphone, or in book on the coffee table. I enjoy seeing the pictures of families that come on the Christmas cards we receive. If you haven’t gotten our card yet, don’t worry, for the 48th, or maybe 49th year in a row, they are lost in the mail. I often wonder how many marriages get off to a rocky start because of pictures. You know. It’s 115 above. Hot and humid. The bride and groom are dressed in the most uncomfortable attire. The father of the bride...
Hello, I’m too young to remember the good old days. I guess they were in the early 1900s. When you didn’t have snow plows and four-wheel drive tractors. You didn’t have snow blowers and insulated underwear. You didn’t have front-end loaders and sanded highways to drive on. If you wanted to get to your neighbors on a morning when it is –27, you harnessed a team up, threw a scoop shovel on the sled in case the team played out in a drift, wrapped a towel around your face and headed out. Those were the good old days! I am old en...
Hello, I’ve always been pretty lucky. At least that’s what Dad says. And I realize that more than ever today. On Friday, I had one of those phone calls that you dream of. I was a winner! A big winner. I had a phone call from, listen to this, a phone call from Publishers Clearing House! I was their grand prizewinner! I was a little skeptical at first. But I’m sure it was a legitimate call. The accent definitely was not from North Dakota. And I know their headquarters is not in either North or South Dakota. The caller asked...
Hello, A famous quote, probably more famous than Grandpa’s, “Never buy a horse from a guy that sits in the front pew at church,” was Winston Churchill’s, “The only thing we have to fear… is fear itself.” Evidently, Winston did not know Shirley. The Thanksgiving cow sales are over! The sales that men go to while Mom goes shopping on Black Friday. It’s this time of the year that neighbors start meeting at cow sales. Buying a few cows to replace the “opens.” Replacing some of those old girls that aren’t producing the kind of...
Hello, It seems to me that the world is spinning faster than it used to. I suppose that happens as you age. You just write about the fourth of July and it's Veteran's Day. Then finish an article and it's Thanksgiving. Then Christmas pops up. I think I'm going to fly off! I had an interesting week. Was invited to read a few columns and give a little talk at a nursing home in Garrison. I haven't been to Garrison since the late sixties I would guess. And as they say, if you remember the sixties, you weren't there. Anyway, I...
Hello, A few days ago we celebrated Veterans Day, to honor those who served. It signified a war that ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. I hope you gave our veterans a little of your time on that sacred day. Whether it be with a prayer, a silent salute, a phone call, or maybe just a moment of silence. Veterans Day is about more than buying a mattress on sale. That is really dumb. My column is going to be just a little different this week. I guess maybe it is the time of the year. But, with Thanksgiving...
Hello, As you are aware, Thanksgiving is getting closer. That’s the holiday where all the relatives come and you compare families. You admire the others’ kids and grandkids and comment on how much they’ve grown. You take out pictures of your grandkids that couldn’t be there and compare them to other grandkids. Oh, you don’t need to wait until Thanksgiving. With the advent of smartphones, we all have pictures of our kids or grandkids. We have pictures of their first step. We share pictures of their first horseback ride or v...
Hello, To many of my readers, this time of the year is a great time. Pheasant hunting is open, you can blast those ducks that are heading south, and deer season is right around the corner. Coyotes are nearing prime and prairie dogs are enjoying wrecking the prairie and standing above their dens and bragging about it. But, thinking of hunting, reminds me of a couple of stories. One involves a good friend who passed away a several years ago. Jerry Linseth. He had a ranch west of Grassy Butte on the Little Missouri. He loved...
Hello, Last week I told you about a few of the bucking horses and how many of them were given their names. I had a lot of comments, well two, from readers. One from my daughter and one from my current wife, Shirley. So with that kind of response I’d like to visit with you about a couple others. Oh, and by the way, if you are calling to buy my donkey or my mules, you are too late. They are gone. No, they didn’t run away. Shirley and her sister, Rose, delivered them to Montana over the weekend. All I had to do was spread the...
Hello, They had a bucking horse contest in Watford a couple of days ago. I wasn’t there. I wish I had been. They bucked nearly a hundred young horses out. Putting a dummy on them. No, a real dummy. It’s a deal rigged up to come off a young horse after a few seconds. Gives you a chance to see how these colts are going to perform as they get older. It’s a contest between stock contractors and bucking horse breeders. I’ve always had a soft spot for bucking horses. Unless they are saddle horses that buck. Over the years I’ve go...
Hello, I am writing this at 4 in the morning. On Monday. A snowy Monday. It’s not that I like to get up and write at 4 in the morning. It’s just that I can’t sleep. Maybe that is because I went to bed at 7:30. Shirley says that is why I can’t sleep in the morning. I always tell her that you should go to bed when you are tired, not at a certain time. Anyway, after going to bed early the past few nights, I now find myself getting up around three. By the time it is light enough to work, I’m ready for a nap. Or maybe it is the...
Hello, We were working calves over the weekend. Giving fall vaccinations. I suppose it is a lot like the H1N1 flu shot. Some people give them. Some don’t. Everyone argues whether it is worth it or not. Except the calves. They don’t seem to like it, but they never say anything. Now Shirley is about as good of help as you can get. She doesn’t need to look at the numbers to know if a calf belongs to a certain cow. She can ride a pretty big circle and pen up a pretty spooky cow. But the amazing thing is dinner. I don’t miss ma...
Hello, I can’t recall a fall with so many beautiful days. I know I will not have my fall work done when the first snows hit, but it dang sure won’t be Mother Nature’s fault. She is giving me plenty of opportunity. I’m a believer in climate change. And I’m thinking again this morning that maybe for our part of the country that is not all bad. Please remind me of this again this winter when Shirley’s face is frostbitten and the tractor won’t start. On Saturday we moved a bunch of cows to the harvested cornfields. My ideas of b...
Hello, You know, I am not a real big radio person. Oh, I listen to the markets, maybe listen to the news once a day, catch part of a ball game once in awhile, but mostly I just drive and think. Don’t ask me what I think about. I can’t recall most of the time. When I was a hotshot driver I could go to Houston and back and maybe listen to the radio an hour a day. Get the morning news, catch the game scores, and listen to a song or two. Sometimes I can get public radio and let classical music play while my mind drifts, but tha...
Hello, Football season is here. I’m not real excited about it. I suffer from attention disorder, or however you say it. I can’t watch an entire game. Unless is involves the Ranchers, or maybe the Bison. I am what many would consider elderly. And football tires me out. Especially when you have grandchildren involved. Because for them, football isn’t just for Friday nights, it’s a 24-hour deal. Two of the boys play junior high football. It’s a big deal. Getting your own helmet, your own pads and a jersey with a number on it. Ga...
Hello, I don’t know why we celebrate Labor Day. We should have a day to celebrate not working. Maybe it’s because if you are involved in animal agriculture, every day is labor day. Oh, sometimes you can sneak away for a few days. If you have family or friends that will come over and let the dog out, feed the bum calves, grain the saddle horses, check the water tanks, put out a little hay, go around the fences, repair the fence the bulls tore down, give the sick pen a little medicated feed, feed the fat cattle, pick up the...
Hello, Sometimes things are much more difficult than they appear on TV. I don’t care if you are solving crimes, cleaning the oven, curing a cold, dieting or anything else. Take a suicide for instance. Now, on TV, if you want to commit suicide, it is a relatively simple deal. Grab a hose, put it over your exhaust pipe, in the window, and bam! Now, I’m not encouraging suicide. It’s the hose part that bothers me. How can this person find a hose that easy in an apartment in a city? One time we had a water tank froze up for about...
Hello, Those of you that have been following this column over the years know this is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s fair time! Now I don’t get too excited for the State Fair in Minot. Oh, fifty or sixty years ago I would. I loved the rides. I loved the livestock barns. I loved the food and the crowds. As I’ve aged, I started to hate the crowds. I got sick on the rides. I hated waiting in line for cotton candy or a pig on a stick. We were providing livestock for the rodeo there and it was too hot and too conge...
A few years ago Nelson stole a colt. Nelson was our mule. He’s a small mule. Like a Shetland pony. We’d had him about twenty years. I thought he was a mule colt when I bought him. I don’t know a lot about mules. He wasn’t a colt. He was a small mule. A kicking mule. We named him after the kicker for the Vikings. For twenty years Nelson has guarded the bucking mares. He kept coyotes, wolves, bear and gypsies away from the mares. He fought wild stallions, goblins and werewolves. And he always followed the pickup when you wan...
Hello, Farming and ranching has lots of challenges. And I’m not real good at challenges. Many of those challenges involve repairing equipment. This is something I’m really bad at. That is worse than being “not real good at”. So you would think that I would take something into the implement dealer or the pickup dealer if I have a problem. You would think so. But you are wrong. You see, they charge about $10,000 per hour to work on your pickup, tractor, or baler. You have to improvise. Shirley says that no one will ever st...
Hello, It’s been awhile since I’ve been to the dentist. On my phone, I keep getting a message that it is time for my next appointment. I will get to it, but I have to finish haying first. And I also keep getting a message that it is time for my eye appointment. Again, haying comes first. But I promise, when the last of the hay is baled, I will honor these calls. I have a good dentist. He has TVs in the ceiling, so when you tip your chair back, you can watch the news, sports or cartoons that you like. That is cool. Not tha...
Hello, Do you remember that Don Williams song that has a line in it, “I love sleep without dreams?” Or wait; maybe it was Tom T. Hall. I’m not much into remembering songs or musicians. But I did play the trumpet for a number of years. Was pretty good, except for the high notes; I wasn’t a Louie Armstrong. What made me think of this were dreams. And stories. I’ve always been kind of a storyteller. When Will was growing up, at bedtime I would tell him and Alfred bedtime stories. They usually were stories about my war heroics....
Hello, I started haying on June 2. That is a long time ago. But, thankfully, we had a few stretches where it was rainy and couldn’t hay, but the past couple weeks we’ve been going pretty steady. So when we had a chance to take an afternoon off and go help friends celebrate 50 years of marriage, we took off. Shirley said it was too wet to bale. I remember going to my folks’ 50th anniversary party. I marveled at how they could still dance! My gosh! 50 years of marriage and they could still dance! As Shirley and I are getti...
