What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
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The pictures, video and news reports coming out of western Nebraska and the Texas Panhandle this week are another eye opener of the destructive power of wildfire. Homes, farms, ranches, pastures, fences, crops and livestock all lost in a matter of minutes. Communities surrounded without evacuation routes, cut off by fire. A nightmare for those who live through it. Now is the time to make sure your family, home and facilities are wildfire ready. Start by making and emergency plan. There are many resources to help you develop an emergency plan,...
There are places in the world where time stands still. These are little-known spots where nothing changes and progress seems to have skipped over it. Thank heaven for those places. This weighty observation came as a result of opening up a newspaper the other morning. There in black and white was a story and pictures about my old stomping grounds, LaPorte. LaPorte is a wide spot in the road on Highway 287 between Fort Collins and Laramie, Wyo. I hope no one takes offense at the description. It...
Labels infuse our culture, transforming us in ways we do not fully understand. Commercial labels are the easiest to process and dismiss. We see them as identifiers, product enhancers, and information centers about the content, sale and receipt of materials and goods. Other labels become ones of convenience that spell out our personal choices, spending habits, or political leanings. At its best, the right label on the right product in an appropriate moment can be difficult to beat. Not so with...
When is a palm a palm? Is it a palm if it is only a few feet tall or do we need to see it in our mind as towering high above? Does it matter if its trunk is rough or smooth? How about the fronds? Does one style of frond say “palm” and another doesn’t (even if it is)? What if it looks like a palm but is taxonomically something else? What of the fruit it produces? Are date palms more “palmish” than coconut palms? What if it merely flowers, producing no fruit at all? Does that make it more or l...
It’s insomnia time on the Hodgson Ranch and many others, too. Sleep is long forgotten, taken out of our daily routines. What do we do with all this “spare time.” You may ask? Simple answer. We calve cows. If that sounds like a simple task, here are a few facts. A cow has a roughly nine month gestation period. During those 270 days, the tiny embryo is growing and mama cow is planning how to give birth at the most inconvenient time. Her goal is to schedule the big day as close as possible to mi...
If you have student loans, you likely received a “payment vacation” over the past few years, due to legislation related to COVID-19. But if you’re like millions of other borrowers, you may have recently been required to resume your payments. How will this affect your overall financial situation? Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is the effect on your monthly cash flow. But the amount of pressure you feel will depend on your income and the size of the required payments. If these...
Last week, I wrote an “Under The Wire” about the month of January. I had never thought about doing that before until it came to life in my imagination as a pretty cool month. It starts every fresh new year, generates a lot of parties dedicated to celebrating the new year and generates lots of new calendars from just about everybody we do business with. Many sport pictures from barns to birds and everything in between, making for some fun viewing. When the column hit Sue’s desk, her first obser...
There are but a handful of Supreme Court opinions that constitute fixed stars of understanding. Perhaps the most well-known is by Justice Robert H. Jackson. “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." [West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)]...
Environmental conditions affect plant growth in many ways. Conditions that are too dry or too wet, too cold or too hot can all affect wheat production and survival. Determining whether wheat plants are alive in the spring due to adverse growing conditions should be done before spending production dollars on those acres later this spring. Visual inspection: 1. Dig 10 wheat plants from the worst spots in the field, (hilltops, driest areas, etc.). 2. Cut plants diagonally and examine inside the root/shoot areas, especially inside the crown area....
Walmart got me bucked off a horse a while back. I’m mad at them. Don’t tell me about lowest prices or biggest whatever. I’m bruised, scrapped and I hurt all over. It’s all Walmart’s fault. Let me begin by saying I have never been a fan of any of those big, discount stores. Notice there is a comma separating the words big and discount. The stores are big, they offer some discounts, but seldom are these big discount (no comma) outfits. Sue and I are Mom and Pop business fans. We used to call ourse...
Most of us would agree that how we gauge priorities can be difficult and challenging. It is an easier task when they are closely aligned, but that is seldom the hand we are dealt. Despite our best efforts, priorities end up in a jumbled heap before us, waiting for some semblance of order or direction that will prompt us forward. Getting started on the task is always a critical first step, especially for the mullers among us. Eighteen months ago, issues of stewardship clouded our vision...
Forty-four years ago this month, Ronald Reagan won the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, vaulting him on a path to the 1980 nomination and a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter. The last presidential candidate to largely unite the country, Reagan defeated Carter 489-49 in the Electoral College and 51-41 percent in the popular vote. Four years later, he won 49 states and 59 percent of the popular vote. Reagan “rose from the ashes” of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presi...
In our household, going shopping has a different connotation than what many consumers embrace. The goal is much the same however. Find something which strikes your fancy, or an item that a household member would appreciate, and offer it to them in ways that make everyone feel good. In our setting, the difference is even more broadly noted as interactions that fall primarily between rather than within species. Dogs for example. It appears to be true that many dogs are ecstatically happy to have...
Over the years, I have written about various Holidays that we all celebrate in one way or another. Christmas, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, all are special but none more so than Valentine's Day. The one day a year devoted to Love. A while back I did devote an “Under The Wire” to this special day. Recently, however, a dark side to this holiday has appeared. Valentine's Day has always required us husbands to visit stores we would never go into any other time to shop for items we might never buy...
I am not a big “Banquet Goer," however one banquet my family attends is the Brush Area Chamber of Commerce Ag Appreciation dinner. It is the one get-together that draws together just about every rancher and farmer in the entire area. They always put together an interesting program, vying for the attention with one thing in common with everyone else in attendance. Sometimes they bring entertainment in with guest speakers or a comedian or other forms of information. They accomplish their goal nice...
Time flies when you’re having fun, or at least when you’re a National Weather Service reporting station. For over two decades, the daily routine has included recording highs and lows from the previous weather day: precipitation amounts, wind velocities and directions and other noteworthy meteorological events. While ultimately compiled and collated with other volunteer observer sites across the nation, the original data is most often hand recorded prior to being sent in over the net. Dep...
A food emergency occurs when there is an adulteration or contamination of food, actual or threatened, that affects or may affect human health and requires immediate attention. There can be several causes of a food emergency; natural, technological/accidental, adversarial/human-caused. Some examples of these include animal disease outbreaks, wildfires, chemical spills, dam failures, cyber-attacks and biological terrorism attacks. When a food emergency first arises, a lot is going on to figure out the cause. There are investigations to see if...
It has been said that after two people have been married a long time, they begin to look alike. I have seen examples of this a few times. I also will proclaim no amount of years will ever make my beautiful, five foot blonde wife look like me. Thank God for that. It is more common for two long time marrieds to begin thinking alike. I present my sister and brother-in-law as prime examples. Brother-in-law Ken has been a long-time supply source of potential column ideas. Most, I don’t use. He h...
Chicken behavior has long been studied for its contribution to, and partial explanation of, models of human sociology. Aside from establishing pecking order and other flock behaviors, chickens in particular exhibit a number of unique responses to frustration conditions, and just like humans, responses are variable. When individual birds are highly stressed or frustrated they tend to react in surprising ways. One is to become more aggressive, targeting that which frustrates by taking it out on...
If you’re a business owner, you always have a lot to do and a lot to think about. But have you put much thought into how you’ll eventually leave it all behind? Even if you’re a few years away from that day, it’s a good idea to create an exit strategy. If you’re like most other owners, most of your net worth may well be tied up in your business — so how you exit that business can have a big impact on your finances and your retirement. As you begin the exit strategy process, you’ll need to exami...
Fall was a popular time growing up in a small rural community. The maples and oaks, though never quite as majestic as their eastern states counterparts, nevertheless provided a wealth of color and anticipation for the autumn holidays which were sure to follow. Our favorite trees were known by heart, each special limb or crook or natural perch a place of childhood wonder and familiarity. But in my small town there was one tree that was valued by a few kids more than all other trees combined. It...
This story will sound like it is going to be sad. Don’t worry. It is just the opposite. A few years ago Christmas Eve, my mother passed away. She had lived a long, happy and challenging life. A few days from her 97th birthday, she had emptied her bucket list. In fact probably several buckets, maybe even a barrel or two. Her life was happy because she and my father were married 67 years before he passed on. Another big source of her happiness was my little sister, Pam. Adding to her source of g...
When the snow flies at the first of the year, it is often greeted by nearly completed puzzles, leftovers from recent New Years activities. This year was no different. The first pieces of a picturesque new 1,500-piece puzzle fell quickly into place. A bright white bridge against backgrounds of fall foliage and still reflective waters was little challenge. The geometric shapes and clear cut lines sharply contrasted with the more gentle hues which they subsumed. A small white clapboard structure,...
Businesses that fuel Colorado’s economic engine can’t be blamed for cringing at the specter of the Colorado legislature’s return this month. Plaintiffs lawyers, however, are not cringing. Instead, the people who pay to put their faces on billboards along our busiest highways are licking their chops. Last year, lawmakers went on a lawsuit binge, introducing a record 25 bills that used private lawsuits for enforcement, rather than entrusting enforcement to a government agency. According to the Com...
The big picture is becoming more difficult to discern as social media, hyperbole and AI take center stage to an alarming degree. The picture is here, mind you, just a little hazy on the edges. In an age where veracity is not only fluid but hotly contestable, we are faced with choices of belief or disbelief, truth or untruth. It is no small hurdle that future generations face. We know it well, for we have placed it squarely in their path and declared ourselves innocent. Such audacity. Regional ar...
