Blogs

My wife loves to garden. As a matter of fact, she is a dang fine gardener, and she works irrationally hard at it and gladly shares the bounty of her hard work and harvest.

I knew starting out I wasn’t a cowgirl – but I never claimed to be one, either. I knew the jokes around town about “the newbies that bought cattle.” I hope I don’t forget the comments because there are newbies out there who need to be welcomed into the ranching fold.

As I write this, the world has just welcomed in 2021 with an almost desperate sense of relief, as if flipping the calendar from 2020 to 2021 will magically make everything better. Who knows?

That unrelenting tyrant has descended once again upon the Dakotas – Old Man Winter. His arrival heralds subzero weather, wind-blown drifts that envelope pickups and, worst of all, brutally chapped lips. Its only positive attribute is that for one season, we don’t have to dodge road construction.

I was asked a little while back, “Can cows catch COVID?” It sounds like an alliterative riddle, but the answer is “yes.” While cows can catch COVID, according to South Dakota State University, they only possess a “medium” chance of doing so (and while we are at it, horses only have a low chance of catching the virus).

I consider myself, among other things, a former horse mechanic. The horses I did veterinary work on were ranch and feedlot beasts of burden. Workin’ animals from man’s point of view.