What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 220
Everywhere I turn, I have heard a lot about the wonder of technology. It has worked itself into our lives, like it or not. Ironically, agriculture, usually one of the last bastions to resist change, seems to have embraced it completely. GPS, I guess, now allows tractors to drive a straight row while the operator reads a magazine, at least that is what my son-in-law used to do. My tractors don’t have it and there is no place to hang a monitor on my horse. Nevertheless, I recently discovered h...
Well, Thanksgiving is over, didn’t get around to writing about it, mostly because I ate too much and slept through most of it. I’m sure you didn’t have that same problem. However, with that behind me, the next holiday, Christmas, looms ahead. For the past 39 years, have never missed a Christmas edition of “Under The Wire.” Am not about to miss number 40. Christmas is definitely my favorite because it lasts so long. “One day?” you say. Not for me. Sue and I will put up our tree. It’s artifici...
I guess you could say I have been “flipped off.” Now, depending on how your mind works, you may think Sue popped the clutch on the pickup while I was feeding off the flatbed. Some might assume this is a story about another of my horse mishaps. Probably a couple readers will have the old single finger salute in mind. The truth of the matter is, you are all wrong. I am talking about, of all things, a cell phone. Here is the story. Sue and I may be some of the earliest cell phone users in the cou...
Well, winter is here. I said I could hardly wait for it to get here. Boy, was that a stupid thing to say. I have to wonder just what was I thinking of. I do, however know what I was not thinking of. I was not thinking about frozen water tanks, even those very expensive heated waterers. In my limited and not very convincing defense, it was probably July or August when I voiced my eager anticipation of -15 degree weather. Nothing like 95 degrees and 85 percent humidity to make you crave cooler tem...
I just realized Fall and Winter are when I truly enjoy rodeoing the most. “What’s that?” you say. How can I enjoy rodeoing in our region in the fall and winter? There are no rodeos then. You’re right. There aren’t any. Am I nuts or am I saying I don’t like rodeo? Neither. Confused? Let me explain. I love rodeo. Rodeo was a big part of my life for a very long time and I would have been lost without it. When there was a rodeo to go to, my heart picked up a beat, my step became more lively, in...
Thanksgiving is coming up soon. I’m not sure if it is a national tradition to use the occasion to stop for a moment and think of the things we are thankful for or not. At our house, however, that’s what we do. In case that’s not how you honor the event, I thought I would share my own list with you. Maybe it will encourage you to make your own, even better, list. In these troubled financial times I am thankful to already be poor. While others mourn the loss of their villa in France, a major...
Partnerships. I will be the first to admit this is a strange title for an “Under The Wire.” Truth of the matter is, for some reason this morning while driving across our Sandhills pasture this subject popped into my mind. The more I thought about it, the more it demanded to be written. While it’s meaning really doesn’t need much explanation, I did decide to take down my dusty “New World Dictionary of The American Language” and see what it had to say. Surprisingly, the official definition...
This story is very hard to write because I am, in a way, having to retract a statement I have made quite often the past few months. Even worse I must “throw in the towel," “wave the white flag” and any other saying that describes defeat. This past summer I have complained about flies. Living with feedlots, large dairies and our own contribution to fly habit with horse and cattle pens near by, we must live in fly nirvana. “I can’t wait for the first freeze to kill these pesky flies," had come...
Once again, winter looms ahead. That means it’s time to switch from straw to felt hats, “T” shirts to long sleeves and jackets and for a cowboy, the most difficult change of all. Fall means it’s time to start staying home on weekends. The local rodeos, fairs and jackpots are winding down. In short, the fun is over. Not having exciting weekends to look forward to any longer is just part of the problem. The big problem is what you have to start doing now that you are home. Every crummy task yo...
The shiny new four wheel drive pickup rolled into the yard. As Rancher Smith walked up to the driver’s side window he was greeted by a big jovial smiling face. “Howdy, I’m your new neighbor across the road and I just wanted to stop in and say Hello,” the obviously happy fellow beamed. “The Misses and I have wanted to move out here in the country for years and we’re just tickled pink we finally got to do it,” he went on. As he got out of the pickup it was obvious that if he was tickled pink or an...
I have never considered myself a superstitious person, in fact I have made fun of friends who believed in any type of that behavior. I will admit, however, if it is genetically heritable, I may have the gene. My grandfather with whom I was able to spend lots of wonderful time, would hardly leave the ranch house on Friday the 13th. I do always try to carry a “lucky coin” in my jean pocket. Usually lose it in a few days. These coins come from a variety of origins. Sue gave me an Irish coin onc...
Growing up in Eastern Colorado there were two things I had little, if no, experience with and never developed a like for. Deep water and high places. In a region with about 12 inches of annual precipitation, I grew up without seeing much deep water. We had the Poudre River which ran too fast to get in when it was deep enough to swim in. Then the water was 34 degree snow melt, not many opportunities for swim lessons. Later I moved farther east to South Platte River country, often described as a m...
I have lost track of how many columns I’ve written about my dislike of computers. Well, here is one more. Everywhere I turn there is a story about A.I. No, not the kind of AI we livestock people are familiar with which involves a squeeze chute, long plastic glove and well, you know. Nope, this A.I. means Artificial Intelligence. Personally, my definition of this is all the annoying people walking around talking about things they know nothing about, but hey, enough about politics. The other, m...
A few weeks ago I wrote an “Under The Wire” in which I complained about my on going battle with weeds here on the Hodgson Rancho. It included descriptions of moving, spraying, chopping with a shovel, grazing with cattle and horses, anything to discourage their growth. Nothing seemed to work. My list of problem weeds read like the Who’s Who of bad plants of the world. In spite of my efforts, they flourished nearly everywhere. Then, one day something mysterious happened. It was one of those sunny...
Fall is a wonderful time of the year. Trees turn wonderful colors, night begin to become longer and cooler, days are shortened a few seconds every day and best of all the frosts that accompany fall kill flies, mosquitoes and weeds. Fall also is very expensive. Folks with kids in school get hammered with fees for everything from lockers to cheerleading uniforms. For me personally, that part of fall is long behind me but I hear getting them born is nothing compared to the cost of sending them off...
Some things in this world don’t require much explanation for them to make sense to just about anyone. On the other side of the coin, there are certain situations that are difficult to explain to another person. It’s hard because even the expert doesn’t seem to understand what he’s saying. Among the easy ones is the recommendation to not walk suddenly behind a horse. If you violate this law of nature, Plaster of Paris will become a very big thing in your life the next five to eight weeks....
One of life’s great mysteries is how a father and mother can produce two children and have them be so different. I also wonder how some couples had a particular child and even wanted to chance having another like the first one, but that is a whole different story. Each of you probably can think of examples of two siblings being as different as night and day. One is outgoing and funny, the other shy and serious. One is very athletic while their brother or sister is not. Same mother. Same father....
How often have you asked someone “How are you doing?” and received a reply of, “I’m doing OK but I wish someone would shut off this wind!” I find this notable because rarely does anyone want to “shut off this rain, snow, cold or heat.” Why does everyone pick on the wind? Wind does a lot of good if you think about it. For centuries it made travel across oceans possible powering sail boats. Sue has cousins who live on a sailboat, traveling to all sorts of exotic places, courtesy of the wind. Gas c...
I have often said everything I know about people I learned from a cow. Today, however, I am writing about something I doubt even a cow could understand. We all have heard about “Test Tube Meat," the brain child of some who wanted a part of the “huge” profits all of us have been making calving cows and running feedlots the past hundred years or so. They, however did not like the idea of borrowing a few million dollars to buy land, machinery and cattle just to get started and then have the privi...
Long time “Under the Wire” readers are by now aware of my propensity towards accidents and injuries. The truth of the matter is, new readers won’t have to read very many of these columns to figure out, several include details of my latest “oops!” The most recent published adventure involved having a cow use me for a door mat, resulting in close to two dozen fractures to various bones in my frame. I said “published” because that isn’t my most recent miscalculation. That one would be parking my p...
A recent, rare, Hodgson family vacation via automobile, drew me from the familiar flatlands of Eastern Colorado to an area so starkly different, it could have been the moon as far as I knew. In fact, it looked like an entirely different planet compared to what I have grown used to. Our trip took us across the seemingly endless rocky hills and canyons of extreme W. Colorado and Eastern Utah. An area which to this grassland orientated cattleman, had no economical value to a rancher. I did find...
Folks like us who make a big part of their living off the land develop an appreciation not only for how it serves us but also for those who took care of it before we came along. As a student, I will admit, history was not my favorite class. In fact it ranked pretty close to the bottom of the list. I only passed Colorado history at Cache LaPoudre high school in LaPorte because the teacher was the football coach and needed me to stay eligible. A side benefit of a small school that needed a 138...
In the past when a cowboy got ready to leave for a rodeo, he loaded old Dobbin in the trailer, crawled into his truck and pulled onto the super slab. Today, nothing really has changed, except for one thing. When he climbs into his truck, we’re talking truck. The last contestant parking lot I saw could have been easily mistaken for a truck stop. It was not filled with Dodges, GMCs or Fords. Instead there were rows and rows (at least as close as a bunch of cowboys can come to parking in an o...
Those of you who know who Cher is will be surprised to learn she and I share a unique similarity. Slightly younger readers probably wonder, “Who the heck is Cher?” Once you hear about her, chances are you will be more than a little confused. Cher began as Cher Bono, part of a 60’s rock duo Sonny and Cher. A good singer, she was equally well known for her outrageous appearance. Wild, sometimes daring clothing occasionally revealed jewelry in places other than her ears and around her neck. “What...
“What comes around, goes around.” I have no idea who to attribute this quote to. It’s about as common as “look at the sunset,” so I’m going to guess nobody knows who said it first. This concept has expressed itself in clothing for men and women, furniture styles, even eating habits as evidenced by the movement toward chemical free “organic” food. Grea-grandpa and grandma were eating “organic” 100 years ago. There weren’t any chemicals invented yet, if you don’t count moonshine. The point is...
