NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Monday morning news is usually not what I want. They, the newscasters, always play ball games over, tell what the fashion gurus are doing and say dang little about the important things. The stock market is the one from Wall Street, as if I cared what the rich bunch are doing, and never a word about the price of corn or heifers. So, therefore, I drink my coffee and head out to do my daily doings.
The weather is wonderful out here on the rock pile. I have never in all my born days seen grass grow so fast and turn so green. The old hides eat day and night, afraid it will turn out like last summer, be gone in a heartbeat.The calves are growing by inches a day and I am loving being what I am. My close relative probably even likes me more when the weather makes me so superbly happy!
The cattle market is holding steady, and I am not ready to sell. That has happened to me real often in my lifetime, hold them till the market drops so you can help out the buyers! Well, I am a good feller but not that good exceptwhen forced. The sale barns have been sending a feller out to look at my calves, but I can’t be talked into moving until I am ready to let them go. I enjoy watching cattle gain and that is part of my pay.
A cattleman had better like the kind he feeds, enjoy the work it takes to produce beef and not mind the hours and low pay, or he needs to be working for someone else. If you see an unhappy cattleman, he is most generally a hobby beef producer, because we who are in it for the long haul are happy even if it kills us!
My close relative has worn shoes that are full of holes. We had no money to buy her any hatching jackets when she was expecting our offspring, and we kept body and soul together with biscuits and gravy. The food was good and we didn’t have time to notice how poor we were. She is still apt to wear patched and faded shirts, but she’s as happy as can be. She doesn’t do without any more, but she saves like the times are gonna turn around and she will be back to needy. This time around she is gonna be ready!
I know folks are having hard times, gasoline is sucking the life blood out of the working man, and we can’t do much on the land without the use of petroleum products. Fertilizer is too high to buy, but we have to because we can’t spread chicken litter any more. The men selling the fertilizer and lime are about to go under because their former customers are just that, former.
This column didn’t start out to be a tear jerker, and I am a happy feller, but, as I have mentioned, the road is pretty dad-gummed rocky. I feel for the dairy producers who are buying feed and competing with those who buy corn to sell for gasoline.What a mess we have going on in this world!
It is my opinion, and everyone has one, do what you can to listen to the grass grow, birds sing and offspring laugh. Nothing is better for our souls except reading the Bible and praying. I am sure you do that anyway. And keep your chin up!
One other thing that will be a smile guarantee is a menu of beef, beans, biscuits and pie! Dig in and enjoy all you can as often as you can! Happiness will be the direct result of the aforenamed consumption!
Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.
Opinion, Pages 7 on 04/04/2012