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Weather is an interesting business partner.

There’s a funny thing about raising and chasing kids in farm and ranch country. Well, actually there’s a whole pile of peculiar things about growing a crop of rural humans, but for now, I’ll narrow my focus for the sake of a good story.

Now and then I get to thinkin’ I should quit this feedlot job.
Go and ride with Buster what’s-his-name, his Texas wagon mob.

Yeah, you heard it right. I see producers who would divorce their spouse before shipping their cattle. It seems too many ranchers forget they make their living off the land, and the cattle are simply a tool to harvest the land’s produce and transform it into a cash crop. In all reality, that’s what the cattle are: a cash crop, no different than a bale of hay or a bushel of grain when we really boil it down.

I grew up on a ranch about four hours away from where I live and work now. It’s about an hour from there to the nearest town with an actual stoplight and an additional half hour to the nearest Walmart. There are more cows than people, and the mountains are only a breath away. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss it. 

As I write this editorial in my hotel room, my boots are off, my feet are up – and if I was wearing a Fitbit, I am certain I would have exceeded the day’s recommended 10,000 steps with more planned tomorrow.