Get Back On

Her name was Janie. She had thick red hair, a lot of patience, and a lot of lessons to teach a passel of little dairy farm kids who were thrilled to death to finally have a pony of their own.

Not too big, not too little. Important factors since, once Dad taught us how to catch, bridle, and climb on her bareback, we were on our own. Mom was a city girl with crippled feet, and a bunch of little ones to take care of, and Dad had his hands full with the cows and farm.

I was in 2^nd grade the evening we brought Janie home. As soon as she was unloaded, Dad began his riding lessons. Beginning with the oldest, and then me as 2^nd in line. Our driveway was lined with old silver willows with big heavy branches hanging about 4 feet off the ground. My sister's first trip ended quickly in disaster. As big sister, who was 8, headed Janie for the gravel road that ran in front of our house, Janie took a route that conveniently went under a tree branch, and wiped big sister right off her back.

Lesson #1. Get back on, and make the horse go where YOU want it to go. OK, Susie's turn.

My turn lasted only a wee bit longer than big sister's. I got Janie headed up the road. Things were looking good. Until Janie figured she'd gone far enough, and abruptly reversed course. I simply fell off. We tried again. She did the same thing--and so did I. At that particular juncture, Dad did one of the wisest things a father can do. He taught me...

Lesson #2. Whining never helps. He whacked me on the bottom, set me back up on Janie, and said, “Now RIDE her!” That was all it took. I sucked it up, made a quick mental adjustment, ratcheted up my determination a notch, and rode her. That was the beginning of new discoveries about persistence, over-coming challenges, situation analysis, and problem solving.

Big sister on Dad's horse, Blaze; me on Janie; and oldest little brother. 1963

Earlier this week I was searching for quotes to use on the Farm & Ranch Personnel site I'm building for Clayton, and came across the transcript of a commencement speech given by Steve Jobs at Stanford in 2005. Until now, my biggest interest had been in his company (Apple) since one of the best investment decisions I ever made was to pick up stock before Ipod hit the shelves. What I never realized, was that there was a period of time Steve Jobs was NOT Apple, and he was the reason the stock was now worth investing in. Here's an excerpt of that speech:

“...I found what I loved to do early in life...[we] started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard and in 10 years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired.

“How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months...I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over...”

He goes on to talk about his new endeavors, and how Apple ended up buying a new company he'd started. A company that “...is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance...”

His summary: “I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith...Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do...”

I only wish Steve Jobs could have lived a few more months to watch his company blow all estimates out of the water this week, and overnight, become the most valuable publically-traded company in the world!

I love these true stories of America's entrepreneurs. Even the founder of the company we spent 37 years at, failed 2 or 3 times before he got it right with the help of having the right people in the right place at the right time. These guys refused to become victims.

It's “Cowboy Character” at its finest.

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.”

Pr 24:16

Lost Pillars

Roy was our fencer. He'd worked for a neighbor herding sheep for 28 years, then decided he couldn't get along with him anymore, and came to work for the ranch. He was 72 years old, and spent the next 18 years repairing, maintaining, and building, on the ranch's 2,000+ miles of fenceline, and countless wire gates.

He refused to use a 4-wheeler, and walked every mile of fenceline, and shook every post. Even on the “Forest” where the government forbade driving, Roy would walk 10 miles to the end of the allotment dragging posts and tools with him.

His tools were as simple as his lifestyle. A hand-style post-hole digger, a shovel-- which he only trusted Ray to sharpen for him, a heavy tamping bar, a big old iron post driving mallet, fencing pliers, and a bucket of staples. His quarters consisted of the only modern things he ever used: a little camp trailer pulled behind his pickup.

Beginning in March, or as soon as the ground thawed enough, Roy would begin his rounds of the lower pastures in preparation for calving and branding season, then work his way up country ahead of scheduled cattle movements. He'd spend the summer in remote summer country, then work his way back down ahead of the cows.

In the earlier years, he often spent winter at headquarters. He'd surround his little camper with straw-bales for insulation. His laundry room was the fire-pit out front where he'd boil water in a big tin tub. A lot of the time he'd just buy a stack of blue jeans, then just wear the same pair every day until they wore out. In later years, he'd rent a motel room for the winter. The ladies at his favorite restaurant always looked out for him and would get worried if he didn't show up on schedule.

One year we got a severe blast of winter in October which drove the temperature down below -30 F. Ray was out-of-state at a meeting, and everybody else was so busy un-thawing their own vehicles and water sources that nobody gave old Roy, who was still 10 miles up-country, a thought.

Roy was resourceful though. He had to be. You don't survive by yourself out in the middle of nowhere if you don't have some common sense and self-motivation. He moved out of his camper into an old cow-camp cook-shack which had a barrel stove. He'd already parked his truck in the big storage quonset “just in case”. He didn't want to be afoot, and had learned alternative methods to start his truck when he got in a bind. I don't know as I'd recommend Roy's, but it worked for him. He would build a fire under his truck, then prop that trusty old tin tub over the fire.

Ray and Kristy checking on Roy in summer country.

When most people would have turned in their shovels for an easy chair, Roy was busy building what is probably one of the longest lasting legacies on that ranch. Good fences. Miles of them. Roy's arthritis finally got to bothering him too much, so at the age of 90 he officially retired and moved to town. He died a few years ago at age 100, and the friend who was looking out for him made sure he was buried in one of the most gorgeous wood caskets he could find. It would probably be the only piece of furniture Roy ever owned.

It was sad to lose him. He was an American icon out of a silently lost generation-- the generation that came through the Great Depression, fought in WWII, and stood strong for character, work ethic, morals, principles, responsibility, and accountability. Pillars of a successful society. We've lost more than we know.

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread,

and abundance of idleness..."  Ezek. 16:49 

Kinder, Gentler Winter

2011 had some pretty drastic changes for us, and I'm not really too sorry to put it behind us and get on with 2012. Already it's been a kinder, gentler winter.

It's not necessarily that they weren't good changes-- just drastic. (It's kind of like getting a divorce. You don't really consider that to be a wonderful event until you've moved on to a happy marriage!) If you've been following my blog you already know that, for the first time in our married lives, we are actual home owners. Even more exciting, we were able to pick up another 15 acre piece bordering us last week. With that addition, we can run a few cows if we want, or more likely, given the cow market at the moment, roping steers. It's irrigated, so for sure we'll raise hay on it.

Going from 320,000 acres, to 31 is a pretty drastic change. BUT it's ours, and I thank God for it. It's pretty amazing how everything fell into place and how our Heavenly Father was working out the details long before we had a clue this was it. It's the perfect home base and we love it.

I haven't been horseback for a few months now. But that's pretty typical of the last 10 years or so. I've learned that sometimes it's nice not to have to work if it's nasty out. I just leave maresy barefoot during the winter so I have a good excuse.

Yep. A fair-weather cowgirl. But I figure I've sacrificed plenty of flesh, and there's no sense aggravating my creaking knees, my bony fingers, and my twinkly toes by exposing them to more cold than they are comfortable with. I usually made it a point to get out on the worst days though, since that was always a good opportunity to find “cowboy suffering” photos.

I haven't decided for sure how to continue my blog. We're looking at a whole different scene than we were last February when I started this, so my current material is on a different tangent. On the other hand, we had such a unique life for the past 37 years, I feel like I need to work on writing things down before I forget. And I absolutely have to get my photo site re-done.

Since I've never been a journal-er, this blog has been a good exercise for me. We had the best years of our life, raising our kids, on that ranch, and, I suspect they may even have been the golden years of the ranch. We were able to do things that will never be able to be done again given the current trend of government, social, and corporate affairs. And we were able to leave with it being in the best, most profitable state it's ever been in. Really, the best way to retire from anything.

I've taken on another project, and just like a year ago, I'm glued to my computer. I put up an intro site for Clayton's new business, “Farm and Ranch Personnel”. I've got to finish the on-line forms I'm trying to build, and get the finished site up. I'm excited for him, because there is a real need for a good ranch job matching site for the intermountain west. Roger Koopman started that business in the early 80's, so he's got a pretty good base to build on, and Clayton has about as good a set of connections as anybody in the industry, coupled with broad, in-depth experience, and, he enjoys helping people. ("Like" FRP on Facebook)

2012 is off and running. It is bound to be interesting seeing as how it's an election year here in the States, but I hope and pray it is a prosperous and peaceful year as well.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (Thanks Stan, I grabbed this reference off yours.)