Just because some women have an occupation involving farming and livestock, it doesn’t mean they are not concerned about their appearance, hair, skin and body care. Kadie is one of them. She’s on a family ranch in Montana. Both she and her husband share the calving duties in the spring, but cold windy weather plays havoc with her beauty regimen. Last Christmas, she had clipped out an ad for a spa that included hot tubs, massage, pedicures, manicures and mud baths. She even posted a sample page from the ad on her bathroom mirror listing the services she might need.

As part of the government’s stimulus program they are offering $500 million worth of grants to create and train “Green Jobs.” I’m not sure how they define “green,” but there is certainly one job description that should be at the top of the list if you’re looking for the purest form of green jobs: Farming.

Cowboy poetry is one of my efforts. I do my best, but sometimes when I am in the corn belt or entertaining the Western Pistachio Growers, I’m asked why I don’t do more farmer poetry. I try to explain to them that cowboy poetry is about wrecks – horse wrecks, cow wrecks, sheep wrecks, dog wrecks, financial wrecks, Tyrannosaurus wrecks – the never-ending wrecks.

When I started practicing feedlot medicine in the late ’60s it was a fairly new specialty. Feedlots, as we picture them now in the Midwest and Southwest, were not as common.

I’ve oft addressed the challenge of being true to the cowboy life. Remember, the cowboy’s dream is to be able to support himself throughout his life … without ever getting a job!

I’ve oft addressed the challenge of being true to the cowboy life. Remember, the cowboy’s dream is to be able to support himself throughout his life … without ever getting a job! This stubborn independence weaves them through a series of vocations as they travel down life’s trail. Vocations such as: team roper, cutting horse trainer, day-work wrangler, horse shoer, auctioneer, real estate broker, saddle maker, Heel-O-Matic rep, cowboy poet, stuntman, horse whisperer, even the ministry.

I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with a roundup of cowboy friends. (This means that you fed the horses and caked the cows before breakfast).

Lassen County, California, is bigger than Rhode Island, but what isn’t? And it has less people than the average funeral in New Orleans. It is famous for its volcano and Western tradition. Joy and her husband run cows, guide hunters and rent cabins at their ranch near Butte Creek.

Lassen County, California, is bigger than Rhode Island, but what isn’t? And it has less people than the average funeral in New Orleans. It is famous for its volcano and Western tradition. Joy and her husband run cows, guide hunters and rent cabins at their ranch near Butte Creek. It was nighttime, two days before hunting season, and two poachers were butchering a deer hangin’ in a tree down by the road.

I looked at my schedule for the first week in December – Jamestown, North Dakota; Denver, Colorado; Laramie, Wyoming and Springfield, Ohio. I asked my secretary why she couldn’t book me in Victoria, Texas, or San Diego, California, in the winter? She reminded me she had booked me in Miami last winter. “Yea,” I said, “Miami, Manitoba!” Actually, I don’t worry about traveling in cold weather. It would be easier to plan if I could count on global warming, but it’s just not reliable. Al Gore found that out. You just can’t count on it when you need it.