Monday, June 29, 2020

Coming together slowly





It seems like I've got about four or five major efforts ongoing just now. I've got new family stuff, fencing, thistle control, ranch house roof replacement, and medical/nerve pain stuff.

Here's a look at clover blooming on the south side of I-80 where it cuts through the ranch. Bumblebees! Milkweed!



It's all coming together nicely but there never seems to be enough time in the day to make the kind of progress I'd like.

Stock tanks leveled (ish)!





The lack of big progress in any one area is a pain, but it's the price of having many irons in the fire, as they say.

The roof is set to be done today, so that'll be big progress.

Also today I have an appointment for pain management which is supposed to include a nerve conduction test. Then on July 14 an appointment which should resolve (or make progress on resolving) access to neurosurgery.

The family stuff is coming together. As with everything else in the lives of ape-lizards it's a work in progress, but progress is being made.

The major cross fencing job is/has been on hold. Just not enough hours in the day. But that should change once the...

...thistle control progresses a bit more.









Of course daily chores continue as always, and as always, daily chores always reveal one or more items or situations which require a time/effort input to properly resolve (often quite temporarily.

It's true that I often feel I'm spinning my wheels while facing an impossibly long list of tasks. It's a situation which can feel overwhelming if I let it, and sometimes I do. Looked at in scale, context, and perspective, however, it's clear that I'm making very good progress where progress has been lacking for some time.

The situation we face vis-à-vis near- and long-term routine upkeep and maintenance projects is rather interesting and worth touching on.

My Dad was of course the owner of the ranch until his demise. I was the operational manager and my task/responsibility description continually expanded over time. Dad continued to have operational control until he passed, and he was reluctant to delegate  decision making on almost all non-daily tasking, so a lot of things were put on hold for much longer than they should have been. This is a very common thing in family farming and ranching.

Lots of stuff piled up over time and now I'm working away at reducing the pile. It's fair to say that had more upkeep been kept up with ranch operations would be simpler and the to-do lists would not run to so many volumes. But so what? Spending valuable time and effort worrying about what could have been or perhaps should have been will not in any way address what is, so it only makes sense to pass on that kind of speculation and concentrate on doing the job as it exists today, in reality.

Another complicating factor is that when it comes to working with or discussing ranch operations with family members, you just can't fix stupid. I say that in a loving way, but also with a good deal of vexation. The ground truth is that I have years of knowledge and experience seasoned with ongoing learning and formal training. The family members I work with have none of those things, which is fine. However, like almost every other 'merkin on the planet, they know without question and with absolute certainty that if there is anything in the universe they have not fully mastered, it's stuff that's simply not worth knowing. With the Holy Tee-Vee as their guide, they know far, far more about ranching on our particular ranch than I will ever know, and the proof is there for all to see -- I completely reject the teachings of the Holy Tee-Vee.

By Holy Tee-Vee, I mean the zeitgeist of today's simulacrum of America, complete immersion in the sea of media-government information management.

So whenever ranch discussions come up, I nearly always hear word for word repitition of what the Bringers Of Information pronounce on the Holy Tee-Vee. There's no room in that place for reality.

So be it. Crazy people driving themselves crazy, genuflecting in front of the Holy Tee-Vee, knowing in the core of their souls that they cannot be fooled. Emperor's New Clothes? That's just a kid's fairy tale, right? And the Holy Tee-Vee is pronouncing serious, grown-up stuff, right?

Well.

In reality we (my family and my fellow Americans and 'merkins) are all dealing with good solid challenges and opportunities to learn and grow. For me in particular I have lots and lots of stuff to keep me out of the death recliner, and that's a very good thing indeed. It'll be interesting to watch and see how many people across the land take the death ride all the way to the end.

As some of us do today when we think of the Good Germans of, oh, 1870 to 1945, history will look back on this time, I fear, and wonder how people could have done what they did.

Sorry about the rant. I didn't intend to do so, but I did.

Choices.

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.

Or not.




10 comments:

  1. There are hard choices in the offing for this Nation of ours. I pray we make the right ones.

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    1. Some will, most won't. It is the way of things.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Sarge!

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  2. Heard an exasperated foreman once say to a new manager, "That is the way we've always done it, because that is the way that has always worked".

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    1. Exceptionally good point WSF.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete
  3. Me: "Honey when things are looked at in scale, context, and perspective, I'm doing great." Wife: "That's nice. I knew you had it in you." She's southern, so that explains the "that's nice."
    Seriously, you have a lot going on and I like your attitude. I have less going on, but I will try to incorporate your methods in my doing. Keep on truckin' and try to take a break from time to time. We will be here.

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    1. Thanks Mark. I do talk a better talk here than my walk is in real life. But I try, and this place helps keep me focused a bit more on principle and truth.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete
  4. Curious...who owns the farm now - your Mom? Or shared among the kids? (Hoping you don't think of her as "stupid" - I sure don't!). I thought the roof replacement was contracted out so minimal effort required on your and your siblings part.
    Your Dad was a good steward of the land and managed it in the manner he saw best given limited resources He was a well educated Nebraska county agent after all and I think perhaps saw a bigger picture than you do. (not discounting your hard work and efforts).

    You say you don't watch television nor own one but you certainly seem opinionated and knowledgeable about it's content. Interesting. I watch the "holy teevee" and find that I'm better rounded in my conclusions and overall outlook on the nation and world...limited and reasonable doses are good - overindulging in anything is not healthy.

    By now I'm sure I've pissed you off - fair enough; you pissed me off so exercising the debit/credit thing. Go ahead and block me...it's your blog after all.
    I need a Stetson so when I'm on my high horse I look cool. Do you have one when you're on yours?

    Signed, A human (not an ape-lizard), Liberty loving American, Can't fix a stupid uncle, happy to be your Mom's brother, middle upper left coast fiscally conservative moderately liberal, life-long registered unaffiliated voter (ie INDEPENDENT!)

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    1. I don't block people for disagreeing with me or pointing out the branch in my eye.

      There's an enormous difference between the real place and the reality of the situation of managing the ranch. One of the curious things to me -- and it's quite frightening too -- is how nearly all ape-lizards populating this geographic entity have totally abdicated their responsibility to say "I don't know but I'm going to try to find out." It's amusing and sad how many people tell me on a daily basis how things really are, having never even looked at the real place and the real stuff.

      The present opiate of the masses has turned people who've never looked at data or studied virology to know without question and with absolute certainty that the phantom menace is actually a magic thing rather than a flu virus and that global warming is mass victimization by political enemies. Those illusions are precisely the illusion of the emperor's new clothes. Spun entirely out of twisted thinking and a conscious decision to evade the truth because having things to be oppressed and terrified of is such a delicious thing. The insanity of first world of ape-lizards -- the richest and most coddled H. saps of all time -- having to invent bogeymen, yeah, it just blows my mind. Scale, context, perspective. Available to all humans. It's a choice to spurn reality and rage against the notion of rational gratitude. Empires through history have always known they would live forever even as they bled out. I think history proves that the answer to peace and good life really is liberty, coupled with healthy spirituality. But it's hard work, and there is always the siren song of the easier, softer way. As always and for all ape-lizards, it's a choice.

      At the end of the day it doesn't matter what I think to anyone but me. That I spend so much of my life in reality and spurn newspeak really chaps a lot of ape-lizard ass. That's fine. I remember what Humpty Dumpty and Orwell said and I see that they were right. But I do not feel compelled to join the movement.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Pat!

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  5. Hi Shaun: I tried to respond to your yesterday's post, but my wife installed a new browser and blogger ate my comment, twice. I hope I have it now figured out so I can post this.

    Is Pat among the people you and your Mom were coming out here to see when we met for lunch?

    As to your post, I think ( as I usually do ) that you see things pretty clearly. It is my hope that I too see an unclad emperor.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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    1. Argh! New browser!

      Yes he is.

      Truth and reality work better for me. I don't see how liberty can work in the absence of these things, but of course that's my opinion.

      History does show that utmost evil is perpetrated by people who are absolutely certain of their wonderfulness and omnisience.

      Thanks for hanging tough and perservering in commenting Paul!

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