(Continued from last night) After a few minutes of nervous silence from the kid I thought I would let him in on the fact that I was joking. There was a visible relief in the boys character. The thought that I would let him get ate was extremely uncomfortable for him, but afterwards the ridiculousness of the notion illustrated how absurd it would be. This helped galvanize the point I was trying to make. I took a few minutes to explain that he should not be afraid of anything when I am with him. As long as I am there nothing will get to him, unless it eats me first. And no matter how scary things get he needs to trust me. I think he understood.
When I was riding bareback horses, I prayed every time before I rode. I would tell God that I was there to glorify him and that he had free rein over me and my rodeo career BUT I asked for him to keep me safe. I know that sounds like a normal prayer and there is nothing technically wrong with it. But I said this same prayer every time I got on. As time went by I thought more and more about the prayer. I was basically giving God free rein over everything except my safety. I gave him permission to allow me to ride good or fall off, win money or lose me fees, But in my prayer I didn’t give him any leeway when it came to keeping me safe, at first it wasn’t that big of a deal. But after I noticed and thought about this, I realized I was consciously not trusting him with the choice of whether or not I stayed safe. I was not trusting him 100%.
It was a tough change when I changed my prayer from “Lord let your will be done through me and keep me safe” to “Lord let your will be done through me whatever the cost”. It’s a hard prayer to pray when you really think about it. Telling God he can do whatever he wants with you as long as he keeps you safe is a lot different than Telling God he can do whatever he wants to you in order that he may be Glorified.
"The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing. When you don’t fear God, you fear everything else." - Oswald Chambers.
This quote is so true. I can honestly say that 90% of the fear in my life went away when I decided to trust God with everything. Just like I was explaining to my boy, even if things look scary as long as I am with him I will do what’s best for him. I think God was saying thesame to me. It may not always be comfortable and I may not always understand but as long as I trust him he will be there to take care of me.
There are people who will tell you that its Gods will for everyone to be rich, healthy, and comfortable. I personally tend to think God is more interested in growing your character and shaping you into a tool, than he is in your comfort. God has promised that we as Christians will be with him in heaven, but if you think that God owes you wealth or prosperity here on earth you are reading a different bible than me. God loves us and wants to bless us but he wants what he knows is best for us not necessarily what we think is best for us. Comfort is not always the best thing for us. Sorry if this offends you but I think “Your Best Life” should come after you die, not “Now”.
Bottom line trust God always in every situation whether it make since or not, he won’t let you down. If someone says your not rich because you don’t have enough faith, Ask them about how much physical health and wealth Paul, Peter, Stephen, and basically every follower of Christ in the Bible, had. Pray for God to mold you into a tool however he chooses to do so then trust him when he does.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Fear and desensitization
Man, the last few days have be so awesome! It has been so nice to have my family home everyday. I have been blessed far beyond what I deserve. I have been getting a lot more time to spend with Anna and the kids since we are all here at the house.
Last week we went on a walk down in the woods one evening with the kids. The sun was starting to go down and I wanted to get back to the pasture and out of the woods before it got dark. To make a long story short, I found out one of my kids has sort of a “phobia” of the dark, or more specifically being out in the woods after dark, or yet even more specifically being lost in the woods after dark. No, we weren’t lost but I wasn’t going to tell them that.
Those of you that know me know that’s sometimes I have kinda a wired since of humor. Sometimes its dry, sometimes I joke with people and keep a straight face to intensify the awkwardness of them trying to figure out if I am joking or not. Sometime I get a little carried away with this...I know its a character flaw. Anyway, as “therapy” I took the one who was struggling with fear out tonight to do some predator calling. We left the truck at the cow pens and walked about ½ mile down to where we were going to hunt so as not to scare off the Black Panther we were trying to call up. And NO we were not hunting the type of black panther that stands outside voting stations with night sticks, we were hunting the elusive pantherus pardus a rare large feline that lives in east Texas and eats calves. We hunted for a while but didn’t see a panther, so we decided to make the ½ mile walk back to the truck before it got so dark we couldn’t find the truck. I “accidently” forgot to bring a flashlight. Remembering back to the problem he had at night in the dark I wanted to help the kid with his fear. When a horse has a fear problem we desensitize him by showing him the same thing over and over until he sees nothing bad is going to happen. I figure a long walk in the dark without a flashlight was a good start to ‘sacking out’ this kiddo (If you are not a horse person google “sacking out a horse”).
I knew it was going to be hard on him, so I thought I would help lighten the situation with some light joking. I had a little talk with him. Like I said I have a talent for joking with people and acting serious so that they don’t know whether I am joking or not, its kinda part of my irresistible charm. I have blanked out part of his name so you will not know who it is. Here is how the conversation started…
Me: ” Now C____, you know we have been calling predators and there are most like some in the area so I want you to stick close”
C___: “Yes Sir”
Me:” I have a favor”
C___:”Whats that dad?”(In a trembly voice)
Me:”You know that I am the provider of this family, and that your mom and sister look to me to take care of them right?”
C____: “Yes sir”
Me:” We’ll like I said it is quite possible a panther is in the area, and I just wanted to tell you that If he gets after us I want you to lay down and let him get you so I can make it back to the truck.
C____”WHAT!!! NO WAY! (He was trying to figure out if I was serious or joking)
Me: “No seriously, just think about it If I get ate how are the bills going to get paid…Look if you wont lay down and let him get you I am going to have to trip you so I can make a clean get away”
There was a long nervous pause….
To be continued
Last week we went on a walk down in the woods one evening with the kids. The sun was starting to go down and I wanted to get back to the pasture and out of the woods before it got dark. To make a long story short, I found out one of my kids has sort of a “phobia” of the dark, or more specifically being out in the woods after dark, or yet even more specifically being lost in the woods after dark. No, we weren’t lost but I wasn’t going to tell them that.
Those of you that know me know that’s sometimes I have kinda a wired since of humor. Sometimes its dry, sometimes I joke with people and keep a straight face to intensify the awkwardness of them trying to figure out if I am joking or not. Sometime I get a little carried away with this...I know its a character flaw. Anyway, as “therapy” I took the one who was struggling with fear out tonight to do some predator calling. We left the truck at the cow pens and walked about ½ mile down to where we were going to hunt so as not to scare off the Black Panther we were trying to call up. And NO we were not hunting the type of black panther that stands outside voting stations with night sticks, we were hunting the elusive pantherus pardus a rare large feline that lives in east Texas and eats calves. We hunted for a while but didn’t see a panther, so we decided to make the ½ mile walk back to the truck before it got so dark we couldn’t find the truck. I “accidently” forgot to bring a flashlight. Remembering back to the problem he had at night in the dark I wanted to help the kid with his fear. When a horse has a fear problem we desensitize him by showing him the same thing over and over until he sees nothing bad is going to happen. I figure a long walk in the dark without a flashlight was a good start to ‘sacking out’ this kiddo (If you are not a horse person google “sacking out a horse”).
I knew it was going to be hard on him, so I thought I would help lighten the situation with some light joking. I had a little talk with him. Like I said I have a talent for joking with people and acting serious so that they don’t know whether I am joking or not, its kinda part of my irresistible charm. I have blanked out part of his name so you will not know who it is. Here is how the conversation started…
Me: ” Now C____, you know we have been calling predators and there are most like some in the area so I want you to stick close”
C___: “Yes Sir”
Me:” I have a favor”
C___:”Whats that dad?”(In a trembly voice)
Me:”You know that I am the provider of this family, and that your mom and sister look to me to take care of them right?”
C____: “Yes sir”
Me:” We’ll like I said it is quite possible a panther is in the area, and I just wanted to tell you that If he gets after us I want you to lay down and let him get you so I can make it back to the truck.
C____”WHAT!!! NO WAY! (He was trying to figure out if I was serious or joking)
Me: “No seriously, just think about it If I get ate how are the bills going to get paid…Look if you wont lay down and let him get you I am going to have to trip you so I can make a clean get away”
There was a long nervous pause….
To be continued
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Sweet Revenge
On the previous post I told the story about when my traveling partner, whose name I don’t want to mention, dumped snow on me while I was trying to work through some personal problems. Well I just want to take a few minutes to tell you about what I did to get back at the traveling partner who we will just call Bubba M. to protect his identity.
As we were driving somewhere up there in the snowy winter wasteland of black ice and slick roads, we came across a one vehicle car accident in which the driver lost control and somehow turned his car up on its side. That’s right it was balancing on the passenger side right there on the side of the road. The man driving it was standing there shivering but surprisingly calm we pulled over to render aide and ask if he needed help. He asked if we had a “Car Phone” (thats what they were called them back then) “Nawh, but we can give you a ride” says us. He agreed but while he went back to his inverted car we had the idea to “Help” the guy out and save him some money but flipping his car back over for him. Who needs a wrecker when you have a couple of wild bareback riders. We explained the plan to the somewhat apprehensive business man who was no doubt an accountant or something like that, you could plainly see he thought it was a bad idea and didn’t want to proceed but he lacked the assertiveness required to dissuade a couple of rambunctious cowboys from Texas. I got set to push on the hood and he got ready to push on the trunk. We began to rock it back and forth until it reached the tipping point and fell back to its proper position. At first we were proud of our accomplishment but there was some good news and some bad news. The good news was that when the guy flipped his car onto its side it was relatively undamaged, the bad news was that when we flipped it back it sustained a good bit of damage. Apparently the car slammed down so hard that the shocks and struts busted through the wheel wells and left the car mangled. It was quite an awkward silence between us and the seemingly distraught traveler, the light of a wrecker pulling up was quite a nice sight, and we took the distraction as an opportunity to skedaddle.
So after all this we were quite aware of the dangerous of icy roads. I had a very funny, hard to describe feeling about the roads, they kinda scared me but I kinda liked the excitement of it. I know my haulin partner was so nervous he couldn't relax enough to catch a nap even though he was really tired. He would dose off for 1 to 2 minutes then jump up startled and look around to see if we were still alive then dose back off, then repeat. This went on for about 30 minutes then I came up with a plan. I saw a big rest stop up ahead. It had a HUGE parking lot for sleepy truck drivers to park in to catch a quick siesta. This parking lot was really big and for some reason really empty, I bet this thing was a half a mile long and a couple hundred yards wide. This is where I would get my payback. My fretful companion had finally managed to conquer his fear long enough that he had been asleep for about 15 minutes without waking up to check to see if we were still alive.
As I started to get set up on the northwest corner of the parking lot that was like a vast frozen, flat, snow covered, concrete slip-n-slide for vehicles, I smiled as I thought about the irony in the fact that my payback was in a rest stop just like the offense which I was avenging.
After a quick scan to make sure there were no popo’s (police officers) in the vicinity. I floored it! I was gaining speed like Marty McFly in Back to the Future trying to hit 88mph. When I was about halfway across the parking lot the speedometer was nearing 60mph. As per my plan I simultaneously screamed as loud as I could and fully applied the parking brake. As you can imagine we did spin. This, to say the least, rocked his world. This man shot up from his seat only to be grabbed in mid air by the phenomenon know as centrifugal force which without hesitation applied his screaming face to the glass of the passenger window. The screaming was like that of a slumber party of 10 year old girls with a frog in the bed, and it lasted duration of the spin which went of for what seemed like hours. It was such sweet revenge!
As we were driving somewhere up there in the snowy winter wasteland of black ice and slick roads, we came across a one vehicle car accident in which the driver lost control and somehow turned his car up on its side. That’s right it was balancing on the passenger side right there on the side of the road. The man driving it was standing there shivering but surprisingly calm we pulled over to render aide and ask if he needed help. He asked if we had a “Car Phone” (thats what they were called them back then) “Nawh, but we can give you a ride” says us. He agreed but while he went back to his inverted car we had the idea to “Help” the guy out and save him some money but flipping his car back over for him. Who needs a wrecker when you have a couple of wild bareback riders. We explained the plan to the somewhat apprehensive business man who was no doubt an accountant or something like that, you could plainly see he thought it was a bad idea and didn’t want to proceed but he lacked the assertiveness required to dissuade a couple of rambunctious cowboys from Texas. I got set to push on the hood and he got ready to push on the trunk. We began to rock it back and forth until it reached the tipping point and fell back to its proper position. At first we were proud of our accomplishment but there was some good news and some bad news. The good news was that when the guy flipped his car onto its side it was relatively undamaged, the bad news was that when we flipped it back it sustained a good bit of damage. Apparently the car slammed down so hard that the shocks and struts busted through the wheel wells and left the car mangled. It was quite an awkward silence between us and the seemingly distraught traveler, the light of a wrecker pulling up was quite a nice sight, and we took the distraction as an opportunity to skedaddle.
So after all this we were quite aware of the dangerous of icy roads. I had a very funny, hard to describe feeling about the roads, they kinda scared me but I kinda liked the excitement of it. I know my haulin partner was so nervous he couldn't relax enough to catch a nap even though he was really tired. He would dose off for 1 to 2 minutes then jump up startled and look around to see if we were still alive then dose back off, then repeat. This went on for about 30 minutes then I came up with a plan. I saw a big rest stop up ahead. It had a HUGE parking lot for sleepy truck drivers to park in to catch a quick siesta. This parking lot was really big and for some reason really empty, I bet this thing was a half a mile long and a couple hundred yards wide. This is where I would get my payback. My fretful companion had finally managed to conquer his fear long enough that he had been asleep for about 15 minutes without waking up to check to see if we were still alive.
As I started to get set up on the northwest corner of the parking lot that was like a vast frozen, flat, snow covered, concrete slip-n-slide for vehicles, I smiled as I thought about the irony in the fact that my payback was in a rest stop just like the offense which I was avenging.
After a quick scan to make sure there were no popo’s (police officers) in the vicinity. I floored it! I was gaining speed like Marty McFly in Back to the Future trying to hit 88mph. When I was about halfway across the parking lot the speedometer was nearing 60mph. As per my plan I simultaneously screamed as loud as I could and fully applied the parking brake. As you can imagine we did spin. This, to say the least, rocked his world. This man shot up from his seat only to be grabbed in mid air by the phenomenon know as centrifugal force which without hesitation applied his screaming face to the glass of the passenger window. The screaming was like that of a slumber party of 10 year old girls with a frog in the bed, and it lasted duration of the spin which went of for what seemed like hours. It was such sweet revenge!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Rodeoin in the Snow
Ok people, welcome to my next blog post. Sorry I haven’t made a post in a couple days we’ve been pretty busy around the ranch. The weather has been nice so I have been taking advantage and getting a lot of work done. Usually this time of year the cold weather decreases my productivity by delaying my morning start time while I let the sun warm things up. I hate the cold. I can work in the heat all day long but the cold shuts me down. I would rather it be 115 than 40.
Nowadays I like to hibernate for the winter and come back out in the spring but I have booked up some winter rodeo’s this year so I guess I am going to have to make it work. I never liked rodeoing in the winter but that’s when I was riding bareback horses and the cold hurt my hand, I guess picking up won’t be as bad. Not only does the cold hurt my joints but I don’t drive that well on ice. I remember one time, I don’t even really recall where we were going, somewhere up north maybe Indianapolis or something. At the time I had a big blue GMC conversion van with top on it.
I was cruising while everyone else in the van was sleeping. Rolling north at about 80 mph drinking coffee and chewing sunflower seeds while the full moon reflected off the snow, I hated the snow but from the heated comfort of the van I thought it was beautiful. I was content, happy to be on the road doing what I love, thinking about how despite what everyone thought I was a good driver and I had this whole driving-on-ice thing whupped. About this time we were cruising over an overpass when the tires decided to turn loose of the grip they had on the road and we went to spinning. When you are moving forward at 75-80 mph and start spinning it is a weird feeling. The momentum is taking you forward but you are turning around at the same time. It was kinda crazy. When the spinning stopped we were pointing the same direction as before. So I just mashed the pedal down and kept going, no one even woke up. Yes it was scary but kinda fun at the same time.
Just so I can link this post to a previous one, I am going to mention a little side fact in the time line, then I will come back to spinning on ice. This trip was a year or so after the traumatic episode I had in the Wal-Mart in Cheyenne. All the rest of that summer, fall, and winter I was too traumatized to try to use the public bathroom. I knew I needed to face my fears and deal with my phobia. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about see http://cowboystuffblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-embarassing.html ) I firmly believe that strength lies in numbers and I had a good Christian Traveling partner who I felt like I could confide my fears in. When you’re driving all night with the same person night after night year after year, you talk about all kinds of crazy stuff. He knew, from having to ride around looking for woods with me and me confiding in him, about my problem.
It was about -400 degrees the next day and I couldn’t find a place to use the bathroom outside for fear of frostbite on my nether region. I decide to pull over to a roadside rest stop. After a deep breath I left the warmth of the van for the cold, uninviting, depressing, public rest stop bathroom. At this point I couldn’t really change my mind if you know what I mean.
As I entered the bathroom, I was trying to pump myself up, telling myself things like “This isn’t so bad…This is really pretty nice…That trucker is not starring at me” etc. I picked out the cleanest stall. And wiped the seat off with toilet paper, opting out of the paper seat covers this time. I figured that any bacteria was frozen solid and didn’t pose a threat. About 30 seconds after I sat down I heard the door open, I was overcome by fear. Unlike last time this time I din’t bolt out the door, I just froze. I was going to wait the intruder out. Things got worse. My worst fears were coming alive, the stall door next to the one I was in opened! “OH NO” I though, is this guy really going to occupy the stall next to mine when I clearly coughed and rustled my feet so as to let him know I was in there? Yes he was, or so I thought. As my blood pressure shot up and I tried to figure out what to do I noticed the feet weren’t turning around to sit on the toilet, they were actually disappearing one buy one? What the heck? Did this guy just climb up on the toilet in the stall next to mine…YES HE DID!!!!! I don’t remember too much after that except this cold, wet feeling. What was the cold wet feeling you ask? It was a bucket of snow that my traveling partner dumped over the stall on to my head during one of the most tense moments of my life. I don’t remember how I got there but the next thing I remember was running out the building trying to pull my pants up but I couldn’t because they caught most of the snow like and upside down umbrella. Without getting too graphic I will tell you the best way to know how it felt would be to set your naked rear end on a 5 gallon snow cone.
Payback was heck…I’ll tell you about it next time.
Nowadays I like to hibernate for the winter and come back out in the spring but I have booked up some winter rodeo’s this year so I guess I am going to have to make it work. I never liked rodeoing in the winter but that’s when I was riding bareback horses and the cold hurt my hand, I guess picking up won’t be as bad. Not only does the cold hurt my joints but I don’t drive that well on ice. I remember one time, I don’t even really recall where we were going, somewhere up north maybe Indianapolis or something. At the time I had a big blue GMC conversion van with top on it.
I was cruising while everyone else in the van was sleeping. Rolling north at about 80 mph drinking coffee and chewing sunflower seeds while the full moon reflected off the snow, I hated the snow but from the heated comfort of the van I thought it was beautiful. I was content, happy to be on the road doing what I love, thinking about how despite what everyone thought I was a good driver and I had this whole driving-on-ice thing whupped. About this time we were cruising over an overpass when the tires decided to turn loose of the grip they had on the road and we went to spinning. When you are moving forward at 75-80 mph and start spinning it is a weird feeling. The momentum is taking you forward but you are turning around at the same time. It was kinda crazy. When the spinning stopped we were pointing the same direction as before. So I just mashed the pedal down and kept going, no one even woke up. Yes it was scary but kinda fun at the same time.
Just so I can link this post to a previous one, I am going to mention a little side fact in the time line, then I will come back to spinning on ice. This trip was a year or so after the traumatic episode I had in the Wal-Mart in Cheyenne. All the rest of that summer, fall, and winter I was too traumatized to try to use the public bathroom. I knew I needed to face my fears and deal with my phobia. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about see http://cowboystuffblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-embarassing.html ) I firmly believe that strength lies in numbers and I had a good Christian Traveling partner who I felt like I could confide my fears in. When you’re driving all night with the same person night after night year after year, you talk about all kinds of crazy stuff. He knew, from having to ride around looking for woods with me and me confiding in him, about my problem.
It was about -400 degrees the next day and I couldn’t find a place to use the bathroom outside for fear of frostbite on my nether region. I decide to pull over to a roadside rest stop. After a deep breath I left the warmth of the van for the cold, uninviting, depressing, public rest stop bathroom. At this point I couldn’t really change my mind if you know what I mean.
As I entered the bathroom, I was trying to pump myself up, telling myself things like “This isn’t so bad…This is really pretty nice…That trucker is not starring at me” etc. I picked out the cleanest stall. And wiped the seat off with toilet paper, opting out of the paper seat covers this time. I figured that any bacteria was frozen solid and didn’t pose a threat. About 30 seconds after I sat down I heard the door open, I was overcome by fear. Unlike last time this time I din’t bolt out the door, I just froze. I was going to wait the intruder out. Things got worse. My worst fears were coming alive, the stall door next to the one I was in opened! “OH NO” I though, is this guy really going to occupy the stall next to mine when I clearly coughed and rustled my feet so as to let him know I was in there? Yes he was, or so I thought. As my blood pressure shot up and I tried to figure out what to do I noticed the feet weren’t turning around to sit on the toilet, they were actually disappearing one buy one? What the heck? Did this guy just climb up on the toilet in the stall next to mine…YES HE DID!!!!! I don’t remember too much after that except this cold, wet feeling. What was the cold wet feeling you ask? It was a bucket of snow that my traveling partner dumped over the stall on to my head during one of the most tense moments of my life. I don’t remember how I got there but the next thing I remember was running out the building trying to pull my pants up but I couldn’t because they caught most of the snow like and upside down umbrella. Without getting too graphic I will tell you the best way to know how it felt would be to set your naked rear end on a 5 gallon snow cone.
Payback was heck…I’ll tell you about it next time.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Good traveling partner
Im blogging from in the cab of the tractor today. I put a bale of hay in the pen and parked the tractor by the gate. The cows are in the pen eating but the calves usually wait till I'm gone for about an hour before they go in. So I am killing time sitting in the tractor waiting...those who know me know that waiting is not my strong suite.
As I sit here thinking about patience I wonder why God didn't choose to bless my with alot of it. I can think of a ton of times it's almost got me in trouble.
One time off the top of my head was one summer me and a buddy were rodeoin up in Kansas where they used to have a good run of 5 or 6 rodeos after Cheyenne. I had a 94 chevy truck with a slide in Capri rodeo camper. We had the back window of the truck taken out and a rubber boot put in that attached the window frame of the truck to the camper and made an airtight seal so you could crawl over the seat and into the camper freely.
I had been driving for way longer than my share and my travlin parter was watching a movie. After repeated requests to swap were ignored I decided I was done driving and I wanted to get in the back and watch a movie too.
Before I tell you what happened next, I will tell you that the roads in highways in Kansas are not like the winding things we have here in Texas, they go in straight lines. I will also thell you that my 1994 chevy silvarado was well equipped with tilt, power windows, and CRUISE CONTROL.
Not sure if you can see where this is going but I was young, stupid, and impatient. Instead of waiting for my lazy traveling partner to trade out, I rushed into a foolish decision like I had so many times before and so many times since. This particular bad decision was to turn on the cruise control and attach a pair of leather boot ties to the steering wheel at 10 and 2 and attempt to drive remotely. Once I got them tied I tested them by steering the truck with them for a mile or so from the saftey of the drivers seat. Once I was comfortable with the fact that I could pilot the big diesel beast, I carefully climbed over the seat and popped into the camper backwards while continuing to steer. My buddy was laying in the bed over the cab and paying close attention to the movie and didn't notice my presence even though I was in sight if he would have just looked down. As I sat on the lower bed sideways trying to steer with leather ties and look as comfortable as I could. I finally said 'hey can you rewind it?" I still remember the look on his face as he tried to figure out who was driving. Needless to say he relived me and took his turn after a good bit of cursing and swearing.
I think back to a lot of the things I did when I was younger at it makes me thankful to God for the grace he showed me by letting me live through some of them.
This has been about 15 years or so, in some ways I know I've grown but in others I am still the same. God teaches me lessons all the time but only a small percentage get through but he hasn't gave up on me yet. Thank you Lord for you favor and protection even though I haven't earned it.
As I sit here thinking about patience I wonder why God didn't choose to bless my with alot of it. I can think of a ton of times it's almost got me in trouble.
One time off the top of my head was one summer me and a buddy were rodeoin up in Kansas where they used to have a good run of 5 or 6 rodeos after Cheyenne. I had a 94 chevy truck with a slide in Capri rodeo camper. We had the back window of the truck taken out and a rubber boot put in that attached the window frame of the truck to the camper and made an airtight seal so you could crawl over the seat and into the camper freely.
I had been driving for way longer than my share and my travlin parter was watching a movie. After repeated requests to swap were ignored I decided I was done driving and I wanted to get in the back and watch a movie too.
Before I tell you what happened next, I will tell you that the roads in highways in Kansas are not like the winding things we have here in Texas, they go in straight lines. I will also thell you that my 1994 chevy silvarado was well equipped with tilt, power windows, and CRUISE CONTROL.
Not sure if you can see where this is going but I was young, stupid, and impatient. Instead of waiting for my lazy traveling partner to trade out, I rushed into a foolish decision like I had so many times before and so many times since. This particular bad decision was to turn on the cruise control and attach a pair of leather boot ties to the steering wheel at 10 and 2 and attempt to drive remotely. Once I got them tied I tested them by steering the truck with them for a mile or so from the saftey of the drivers seat. Once I was comfortable with the fact that I could pilot the big diesel beast, I carefully climbed over the seat and popped into the camper backwards while continuing to steer. My buddy was laying in the bed over the cab and paying close attention to the movie and didn't notice my presence even though I was in sight if he would have just looked down. As I sat on the lower bed sideways trying to steer with leather ties and look as comfortable as I could. I finally said 'hey can you rewind it?" I still remember the look on his face as he tried to figure out who was driving. Needless to say he relived me and took his turn after a good bit of cursing and swearing.
I think back to a lot of the things I did when I was younger at it makes me thankful to God for the grace he showed me by letting me live through some of them.
This has been about 15 years or so, in some ways I know I've grown but in others I am still the same. God teaches me lessons all the time but only a small percentage get through but he hasn't gave up on me yet. Thank you Lord for you favor and protection even though I haven't earned it.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Politically Correct Christmas
This politically correct stuff is gnawing on my last nerve. I am having a hard time understanding it? Where did it come from and what for? I tell you guys it doesn’t sit well with me and I am not buying it. I know you want to hear some funny cowboyin’ stories but I have been thinking a lot about this and I wanted to write down some of my thoughts. Christmas political correctness is a farce. Here are a few of my concerns:
They say the ideal behind this stuff is so that people who don’t believe in Christmas won’t get their feeling hurt??? WTH. Let’s think about this. Who in the world gets their feelings hurt about seeing something they don’t agree with? Think about this question really hard. Do you honestly think it offends anyone to hear the word “Christmas”. Be honest. Even the most hardcore atheists? No, I don’t think it does. I think that atheistism by definition is a dull and pointless life devoid of any reason for hope, happiness, or meaning. Where as normal people would spend this time being thankful for the true reason for Christmas, these people are trying to artificially add meaning by eliminating our freedoms.
I do not have any exact number so I am going to make an educated guess that 80% of Americans believe in Christmas. Of the other 20% that do not believe in Christmas lets say that 75% of them aren’t offended by it, and 25% are. If we crunch those numbers we have roughly 95% of the population who do not claim to be offended by Christmas. And I feel this is extremely high but according to these figures 5% of the population claim to be offended by Christmas.
According to the people pushing Politically Corectness the motivation behind their movement is to keep people from being offended. Lets see how they are doing. According to our number 95% of the population is not offended by Christmas and 5% are. (The claim that they are truly offended is being credited to them for the sake of argument. I really don’t think they are.)
So forcing the removal of the world “Christmas”, and all other anti-Christmas warfare, that is done in the name of reducing the total sum of offended people, is in turn offending 95% of people to make 5% feel good!
Yes that’s correct, logic tells us that IF they are 100% successful they will have a 95% failure rate if their goal is to put and end to offensiveness. The people doing this are supposed to be the true intellects of our time, politicians, college professers, dignitaries and social engineers. If a dumb cowboy like me can easily show how much of a failure they are IF their goals are truley what they proclaim then they are all diots. I don't think they are.
So what am I saying? Here’s where I may loose some of you, Politically Correctness is a scheme to take away the liberties of the weak-minded and lazy. Does anyone know the origins of Political Correctness? Who originally developed it and what was its purpose?
I looked it up. It was developed at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany, which was founded in 1923 and came to be known as the "Frankfurt School." It was a group of thinkers who pulled together to find a solution to the biggest problem facing the implementers of communism in Russia.
The problem? Why wasn't communism spreading?
Their answer? Because Western Civilization was in its way.
What was the problem with Western Civilization? Its belief in the individual, that an individual could develop valid ideas. At the root of communism was the theory that all valid ideas come from the effect of the social group of the masses. The individual is nothing and they believed that the only way for communism to advance was to help Western Civilization to destroy itself. How to do that? Undermine its foundations by chipping away at the rights of those annoying individuals.
How? Change their speech and thought patterns by spreading the idea that vocalizing your beliefs is disrespectful to others and must be avoided to make up for past inequities and injustices.
In Russia they decided to just outright put an end to all things religious. How did that work for them? It didn’t; they crumpled. What they should have done was do it slowly piece by piece. This way there may be a little complaining and grumbling but nothing too dramatic. No uprisings or revolts. Sounds kinda like Christmas in the US right now doesn’t it.
They know if they take away our liberties a little at a time, that we are too lazy to do anything or too stupid to see it coming. I hope we aren’t either…
Do you have any stories of Christmas Politically Correctness please share them below. Click ‘Post Comment”. Then select “Name/URL” from the drop down list. I’d Love to hear your story, and don’t forget to share this Blog.
Jeremy
They say the ideal behind this stuff is so that people who don’t believe in Christmas won’t get their feeling hurt??? WTH. Let’s think about this. Who in the world gets their feelings hurt about seeing something they don’t agree with? Think about this question really hard. Do you honestly think it offends anyone to hear the word “Christmas”. Be honest. Even the most hardcore atheists? No, I don’t think it does. I think that atheistism by definition is a dull and pointless life devoid of any reason for hope, happiness, or meaning. Where as normal people would spend this time being thankful for the true reason for Christmas, these people are trying to artificially add meaning by eliminating our freedoms.
I do not have any exact number so I am going to make an educated guess that 80% of Americans believe in Christmas. Of the other 20% that do not believe in Christmas lets say that 75% of them aren’t offended by it, and 25% are. If we crunch those numbers we have roughly 95% of the population who do not claim to be offended by Christmas. And I feel this is extremely high but according to these figures 5% of the population claim to be offended by Christmas.
According to the people pushing Politically Corectness the motivation behind their movement is to keep people from being offended. Lets see how they are doing. According to our number 95% of the population is not offended by Christmas and 5% are. (The claim that they are truly offended is being credited to them for the sake of argument. I really don’t think they are.)
So forcing the removal of the world “Christmas”, and all other anti-Christmas warfare, that is done in the name of reducing the total sum of offended people, is in turn offending 95% of people to make 5% feel good!
Yes that’s correct, logic tells us that IF they are 100% successful they will have a 95% failure rate if their goal is to put and end to offensiveness. The people doing this are supposed to be the true intellects of our time, politicians, college professers, dignitaries and social engineers. If a dumb cowboy like me can easily show how much of a failure they are IF their goals are truley what they proclaim then they are all diots. I don't think they are.
So what am I saying? Here’s where I may loose some of you, Politically Correctness is a scheme to take away the liberties of the weak-minded and lazy. Does anyone know the origins of Political Correctness? Who originally developed it and what was its purpose?
I looked it up. It was developed at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany, which was founded in 1923 and came to be known as the "Frankfurt School." It was a group of thinkers who pulled together to find a solution to the biggest problem facing the implementers of communism in Russia.
The problem? Why wasn't communism spreading?
Their answer? Because Western Civilization was in its way.
What was the problem with Western Civilization? Its belief in the individual, that an individual could develop valid ideas. At the root of communism was the theory that all valid ideas come from the effect of the social group of the masses. The individual is nothing and they believed that the only way for communism to advance was to help Western Civilization to destroy itself. How to do that? Undermine its foundations by chipping away at the rights of those annoying individuals.
How? Change their speech and thought patterns by spreading the idea that vocalizing your beliefs is disrespectful to others and must be avoided to make up for past inequities and injustices.
In Russia they decided to just outright put an end to all things religious. How did that work for them? It didn’t; they crumpled. What they should have done was do it slowly piece by piece. This way there may be a little complaining and grumbling but nothing too dramatic. No uprisings or revolts. Sounds kinda like Christmas in the US right now doesn’t it.
They know if they take away our liberties a little at a time, that we are too lazy to do anything or too stupid to see it coming. I hope we aren’t either…
Do you have any stories of Christmas Politically Correctness please share them below. Click ‘Post Comment”. Then select “Name/URL” from the drop down list. I’d Love to hear your story, and don’t forget to share this Blog.
Jeremy
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
My Horse Cash
Cash, Cash, Cash, where to begin. Let me start of by saying I love Cash
he is probably the best horse I have ever owned. If I could clone one of my horses and have a set of five of them to haul to rodeos I would clone Cash. He is laid back and almost lazy. When I first got him I wasn’t really excited about him because I didn’t think he would have enough speed and heart to be a pickup horse; I was wrong. I am not even sure what made me try him in the first place because I would have swore he would be too slow and lazy. But I did. He took to it like a duck to water, he never goes any faster than he needs too but he always goes as fast as he needs to. He loves to please. Once he figures out what you want him to do he will give it everything he has.
Cash and I have a great relationship. I sometimes show him some favoritism over the other horses. When I come to get him he always comes right up to me just to say HI. Believe it or not this horse loves me, which is more than I can say for some of my other horses.
He never gets too excited and has this kinda curious, mischievous personality. A month or two ago we were working the Trinity Valley Exhibition PRCA rodeo in Liberty TX.
Cash and I were hugged up next to the fence during the calf roping and pushing the calves out of the arena after the committee men would untie them after the judges counts of the required 6 seconds that the calf must stay tied. Anyway Cash is used to eating unusual treats as Jenna, my 6 year old, feeds him gummy bears, animals crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches etc.
If you have ever been to the rodeo arena in Trinity Texas you know how narrow the arena is, it was for this reason that I had him parallel to the fence pushed up tight to take up as little real estate as possible. You may also know that the important people get to sit in box seats right up close and personal to all the action. This layout and my horses position meant Cash’s head was about 12 inches from some fancy pants local businessman’s lap in which he held a paper plate full of nachos with that runny bright yellow nacho cheese you buy in the 20 lb tin can at Sam’s. As I was watching the roper run down the line Cash was trying to make his plans to steal the nachos. After a few seconds of horse planning he made his move. He knew he would get in trouble so he was going to rely on stealthy speed to quickly turn his head sideways and stick his head through the bars and grabs the fancy pants business man’s nachos and retract his head though the fence with a mouth full of nachos before anyone could stop him…His plan worked perfectly. He executed and was successful. What his horse planning didn’t allow for was the temperature of the runny yellow Sam’s cheese. It was hot. Have you ever wondered what a horse would do with a mouth full of hot nachos? I will tell you. He opened his lips and held the nachos with his front teeth and stated sling his head up and down. Have you ever wondered what hot bright yellow runny Sam’s cheese will do when a horse has a mouth full and sling his head up and down 12 inches from a fancy pants business man? You guessed it. It went every where!
,
I love him, he loves me…so what’s the problem you ask. Despite our mutual love and adoration of each other, he is the most annoying horse I have ever owned. Cash has a mind of his own. He goes where he wants, when he wants with no regard for fences or boundaries.
If you tie him to a trailer he will untie himself with his lips. If you put him in a trap he will open the gate and walk out. If you put him in a pasture he will jump the fence.
He’s not crazy or wild, he’s not trying to escape work or find a new home. He just wants to be somewhere other than where I put him. During the summer when we are rodeoing every week he stays in a two acre trap with the four other pickup horses. When we have a long break between rodeo’s (like right now) the pickup horses get turned out to the pasture.
While Cash is a very intelligent horse he doesn’t see the big picture. When he stays where I put him he gets treated like a king, he gets the best hay and I top his feed off with a cup of rice bran every morning and evening. Rolling pasture and a running spring fed creek down at the bottom of a deep ravine for fresh water. There are some protein tubs, mineral blocks and slat blocks, and a sandy place for him to roll under the shade trees. I picked this place out to build a horse pen because I know it was the best place for him.
The problem comes in later. When his feed tub is empty and I’m not around he leaves. He gets out of his pasture and walks off, he doesn’t go far but he does get out none the less. Not off the ranch just out of his pasture.
When he gets out he is in a place I never meant for him to be, there are rusty tractor implements, stacks of old cattle panels, moldy cow hay that will make a horse sick, old lumber with nails stick out, etc. All kinds of dangers.
The funny thing is, is that Cash is really good at getting out of his pasture but can’t hardly ever get back in, even when he wants to. So when he gets out he misses his morning feed because the other horses eat his share before he can find his way back in. I usually put him back and sometimes he stays long enough to get his evening feed, sometimes he doesn’t. If he gets out during the day he misses his evening feed to.
Like I said he doesn’t see the big picture. If he could see beyond his own little world, he would know that if he just trusted me he would be safer, healthier, and in a better condition to fulfill his purpose.
A horse like Cash is an athlete, trained and conditioned for a specific purpose. The protein tubs help rebuild his muscles and heal microscopic tears in his muscles that grow back to increase his muscle size and strength, the minerals in the mineral blocks help his body process the food he takes in, the extra rice bran on his feed provide him with fat and sugars that give him the burst of speed and energy to do his job. His feed tub is at the top of the hill and his water source is at the bottom of a deep ravine climbing up and down the hill between his food and water works his muscles and keeps him in good cardiovascular condition.
When he leaves his pen he leaves all of these things that I have planned for him to help him be the best he can be at what he does. He doesn’t understand, he knows if he get out he can go stand around a round bale and not have to graze, he can drink out of the tank and not have to go up and down the hills, he can rub his head on that old rusty set of discs. He may think his life is better but it hurts his performance and lowers his potential. Almost every time gets new cuts and scratches, and gets into things he shouldn’t.
Him getting out drives me nuts but he is MY horse and I love him. I wonder if this is how God feels about me sometime? Think about it...
he is probably the best horse I have ever owned. If I could clone one of my horses and have a set of five of them to haul to rodeos I would clone Cash. He is laid back and almost lazy. When I first got him I wasn’t really excited about him because I didn’t think he would have enough speed and heart to be a pickup horse; I was wrong. I am not even sure what made me try him in the first place because I would have swore he would be too slow and lazy. But I did. He took to it like a duck to water, he never goes any faster than he needs too but he always goes as fast as he needs to. He loves to please. Once he figures out what you want him to do he will give it everything he has.
Cash and I have a great relationship. I sometimes show him some favoritism over the other horses. When I come to get him he always comes right up to me just to say HI. Believe it or not this horse loves me, which is more than I can say for some of my other horses.
He never gets too excited and has this kinda curious, mischievous personality. A month or two ago we were working the Trinity Valley Exhibition PRCA rodeo in Liberty TX.
Cash and I were hugged up next to the fence during the calf roping and pushing the calves out of the arena after the committee men would untie them after the judges counts of the required 6 seconds that the calf must stay tied. Anyway Cash is used to eating unusual treats as Jenna, my 6 year old, feeds him gummy bears, animals crackers, grilled cheese sandwiches etc.
If you have ever been to the rodeo arena in Trinity Texas you know how narrow the arena is, it was for this reason that I had him parallel to the fence pushed up tight to take up as little real estate as possible. You may also know that the important people get to sit in box seats right up close and personal to all the action. This layout and my horses position meant Cash’s head was about 12 inches from some fancy pants local businessman’s lap in which he held a paper plate full of nachos with that runny bright yellow nacho cheese you buy in the 20 lb tin can at Sam’s. As I was watching the roper run down the line Cash was trying to make his plans to steal the nachos. After a few seconds of horse planning he made his move. He knew he would get in trouble so he was going to rely on stealthy speed to quickly turn his head sideways and stick his head through the bars and grabs the fancy pants business man’s nachos and retract his head though the fence with a mouth full of nachos before anyone could stop him…His plan worked perfectly. He executed and was successful. What his horse planning didn’t allow for was the temperature of the runny yellow Sam’s cheese. It was hot. Have you ever wondered what a horse would do with a mouth full of hot nachos? I will tell you. He opened his lips and held the nachos with his front teeth and stated sling his head up and down. Have you ever wondered what hot bright yellow runny Sam’s cheese will do when a horse has a mouth full and sling his head up and down 12 inches from a fancy pants business man? You guessed it. It went every where!
,
Anna and Cash
I love him, he loves me…so what’s the problem you ask. Despite our mutual love and adoration of each other, he is the most annoying horse I have ever owned. Cash has a mind of his own. He goes where he wants, when he wants with no regard for fences or boundaries.
If you tie him to a trailer he will untie himself with his lips. If you put him in a trap he will open the gate and walk out. If you put him in a pasture he will jump the fence.
He’s not crazy or wild, he’s not trying to escape work or find a new home. He just wants to be somewhere other than where I put him. During the summer when we are rodeoing every week he stays in a two acre trap with the four other pickup horses. When we have a long break between rodeo’s (like right now) the pickup horses get turned out to the pasture.
While Cash is a very intelligent horse he doesn’t see the big picture. When he stays where I put him he gets treated like a king, he gets the best hay and I top his feed off with a cup of rice bran every morning and evening. Rolling pasture and a running spring fed creek down at the bottom of a deep ravine for fresh water. There are some protein tubs, mineral blocks and slat blocks, and a sandy place for him to roll under the shade trees. I picked this place out to build a horse pen because I know it was the best place for him.
The problem comes in later. When his feed tub is empty and I’m not around he leaves. He gets out of his pasture and walks off, he doesn’t go far but he does get out none the less. Not off the ranch just out of his pasture.
When he gets out he is in a place I never meant for him to be, there are rusty tractor implements, stacks of old cattle panels, moldy cow hay that will make a horse sick, old lumber with nails stick out, etc. All kinds of dangers.
Me and Cash and Chad Horaist at the Special Needs Rodeo in Marshall TX
The funny thing is, is that Cash is really good at getting out of his pasture but can’t hardly ever get back in, even when he wants to. So when he gets out he misses his morning feed because the other horses eat his share before he can find his way back in. I usually put him back and sometimes he stays long enough to get his evening feed, sometimes he doesn’t. If he gets out during the day he misses his evening feed to.
Like I said he doesn’t see the big picture. If he could see beyond his own little world, he would know that if he just trusted me he would be safer, healthier, and in a better condition to fulfill his purpose.
A horse like Cash is an athlete, trained and conditioned for a specific purpose. The protein tubs help rebuild his muscles and heal microscopic tears in his muscles that grow back to increase his muscle size and strength, the minerals in the mineral blocks help his body process the food he takes in, the extra rice bran on his feed provide him with fat and sugars that give him the burst of speed and energy to do his job. His feed tub is at the top of the hill and his water source is at the bottom of a deep ravine climbing up and down the hill between his food and water works his muscles and keeps him in good cardiovascular condition.
When he leaves his pen he leaves all of these things that I have planned for him to help him be the best he can be at what he does. He doesn’t understand, he knows if he get out he can go stand around a round bale and not have to graze, he can drink out of the tank and not have to go up and down the hills, he can rub his head on that old rusty set of discs. He may think his life is better but it hurts his performance and lowers his potential. Almost every time gets new cuts and scratches, and gets into things he shouldn’t.
Him getting out drives me nuts but he is MY horse and I love him. I wonder if this is how God feels about me sometime? Think about it...
Monday, December 12, 2011
How Embarassing!
Ok, so there we were making laps around the arena wide open. My horse tied to a bucking horse with me along for the ride. If you can’t imagine it was quiet a helpless and embarrassing feeling. The only thing I could do was to leave to comfort of my 15” leather saddle and make my way up my horses neck to get the rein unsnapped. After a couple laps I got up there and managed to get the rein unsnapped, and everything went back to normal.
Again you may ask, That’s a funny story but what’s your point? Don’t you know telling this story makes you look stupid?
My point In this story and the previous one about the Wal-Mart pit stop, was pride. As I get older and try to think back on things and learn from past mistakes. I have noticed at times in my life when I start getting cocky, arrogant, or think to highly of my self. I always get humbled.
I am not genius or scholar but I try to read my Bible and learn from it. I like to read the Old Testament stories. One theme that pops out to me, I guess because I can relate, is the stories of God’s people and thier PRIDE. Sometimes I think they were so stupid. They would follow God and obey him and he would bless them, when he blessed them they would get prideful because of the blessings. When they would get prideful he would punish them. After he punished them they would humble themselves, he would bless them, they would get cocky, he would smite them. This happened over and over for thousands of years.
A couple things I took out of those stories, 1. God hates Pride. 2. God wants to bless his people. 3. God disciplines his people. James 4:6 says “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Like I said I can relate because my life has always been like those people. Just in these two quick examples. God blessed me by letting me make a good ride at a big rodeo, I got cocky, he humbled me. God blessed me by letting me get the call to move up to start picking up the professional rodeos, I got to thinking to highly of myself and God humbled me.
On one hand its nice to know God loves you enough to discipline you, but on the other hand being humbled is not a very good feeling. So what should we do? The older I get the less I care about getting embarrassed, shoot I use public bathrooms now without even wiping off the toilet seat or closing the stall door! I guess what I am saying is that I try not to take myself too seriously anymore. That’s why I can tell these embarrassing stories on this blog for thousands of people to read. I’ll tell you what, it’s a pretty good feeling not to worry about impressing other people or building yourself up. Matthew 23:12 says: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbled himself will be exalted.”
If you’re a Christian God wants you to be humble, when it boils down to it the question is; do you want to humble yourself or do you want him to do it? I have tried it both ways and I like humbling myself better.
My horse gets home from Vegas tonight. I’m excited to see him. I am having some problems with one of my other horses. Cash has been giving me fits lately. Cash is probably the best horse I have ever owned in my life. He is 6 years old and he is the friendliest, most gentle kids horse you have ever seen. You can take him to a team roping and win on him. The kids can ride him in the playdays. I use him to rope bulls and pickup saddle broncs and sometimes barebacks on. He does anything you want with hesitation everytime.
I am going to leave you with some pics of cash, and I’ll tell you why we aren’t getting along next time.
This is Cash and Miss Rodeo a NFR Saddle Bronc horse.
This is Me, Cash, and Jacobs Crawley up north somewhere.
Colton and Cash at one of his youth ranch rodeos.
Quote of the Day:
From Mere Christianity by C S Lewis
"I now come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all other morals. There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others."
Here is a Link . Please click this link to share this with you facebook friends. Thanks
Click here to Share
Again you may ask, That’s a funny story but what’s your point? Don’t you know telling this story makes you look stupid?
My point In this story and the previous one about the Wal-Mart pit stop, was pride. As I get older and try to think back on things and learn from past mistakes. I have noticed at times in my life when I start getting cocky, arrogant, or think to highly of my self. I always get humbled.
I am not genius or scholar but I try to read my Bible and learn from it. I like to read the Old Testament stories. One theme that pops out to me, I guess because I can relate, is the stories of God’s people and thier PRIDE. Sometimes I think they were so stupid. They would follow God and obey him and he would bless them, when he blessed them they would get prideful because of the blessings. When they would get prideful he would punish them. After he punished them they would humble themselves, he would bless them, they would get cocky, he would smite them. This happened over and over for thousands of years.
A couple things I took out of those stories, 1. God hates Pride. 2. God wants to bless his people. 3. God disciplines his people. James 4:6 says “But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Like I said I can relate because my life has always been like those people. Just in these two quick examples. God blessed me by letting me make a good ride at a big rodeo, I got cocky, he humbled me. God blessed me by letting me get the call to move up to start picking up the professional rodeos, I got to thinking to highly of myself and God humbled me.
On one hand its nice to know God loves you enough to discipline you, but on the other hand being humbled is not a very good feeling. So what should we do? The older I get the less I care about getting embarrassed, shoot I use public bathrooms now without even wiping off the toilet seat or closing the stall door! I guess what I am saying is that I try not to take myself too seriously anymore. That’s why I can tell these embarrassing stories on this blog for thousands of people to read. I’ll tell you what, it’s a pretty good feeling not to worry about impressing other people or building yourself up. Matthew 23:12 says: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbled himself will be exalted.”
If you’re a Christian God wants you to be humble, when it boils down to it the question is; do you want to humble yourself or do you want him to do it? I have tried it both ways and I like humbling myself better.
My horse gets home from Vegas tonight. I’m excited to see him. I am having some problems with one of my other horses. Cash has been giving me fits lately. Cash is probably the best horse I have ever owned in my life. He is 6 years old and he is the friendliest, most gentle kids horse you have ever seen. You can take him to a team roping and win on him. The kids can ride him in the playdays. I use him to rope bulls and pickup saddle broncs and sometimes barebacks on. He does anything you want with hesitation everytime.
I am going to leave you with some pics of cash, and I’ll tell you why we aren’t getting along next time.
Quote of the Day:
From Mere Christianity by C S Lewis
"I now come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all other morals. There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others."
Here is a Link . Please click this link to share this with you facebook friends. Thanks
Click here to Share
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sorry Folks but I am about to head to church so I am taking the day off to rest, we're just relaxing at home enjoying free weekends, my rodeos start back up in about 3 weeks so I am trying to enjoy as much time with my family as possible. Have a great Sunday! I'll put up a new post tomorrow .
The Second Advent Candle
If you're using an advent wreath, this week the second candle is lit in addition to the first.
Amid all the beauty of Christmas decorations and services, it's a very dark thing that necessitated the incarnation - our sin. I think most of us rarely dwell on our sin, but when we do it could overwhelm us because of the guilt and penalty it justly brings us. Our Savior Jesus is the only hope for redemption - for not receiving what we deserve. Instead, God gives us the gift of His Son; Jesus willingly gives Himself to stand in the dock in our stead. That is the most infinitely valuable gift for all of us.
Psalm 130:1-8
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.
The Second Advent Candle
If you're using an advent wreath, this week the second candle is lit in addition to the first.
Amid all the beauty of Christmas decorations and services, it's a very dark thing that necessitated the incarnation - our sin. I think most of us rarely dwell on our sin, but when we do it could overwhelm us because of the guilt and penalty it justly brings us. Our Savior Jesus is the only hope for redemption - for not receiving what we deserve. Instead, God gives us the gift of His Son; Jesus willingly gives Himself to stand in the dock in our stead. That is the most infinitely valuable gift for all of us.
Psalm 130:1-8
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel
from all its iniquities.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Big Heads and Bowed Up Chests
So…In my hasty attempt to escape the confines of the Poo-Dungeon unnoticed, I left so fast that when I jerked up my pants I brought the 20 papers seat covers up too. They somehow got caught in the waist of my pants and were trailing behind like a big circular dog tail as I was making for the exit. Another detail you must know to fully appreciate to magnitude of my embarrassment, was the fact that before these seat covers hitched a ride on my butt, they seemed to have skimmed the water in the toilet on their way up. I don’t want to be too gross and run anybody off, but you have to understand there was no #2 in the potty but there was some #1. The #1 that was in the potty soaked into the paper toilet cover which were now dripping on the backs of my wranglers as I scouted the isles of Wal-Mart look for my people.
To summarize I walked into, that Wal-Mart thinking I was a pretty tough cowboy and trying to make myself readily available in case anyone recognized me and wanted my autograph. I had just spurred a rank dude in the neck at one of the biggest rodeos there is and my chest was bowed up with pride like a banny rooster. 15 minutes later I walked out trying to hide with my head down wondering if anybody saw me dragging the pee drenched toiletries behind.
“Yes its is funny story, but what’s your point?” Let me tell you another quick one to see if you make the connection. About three or four years ago I got the call to come Pickup Broncs at my first PRCA rodeo. Not only was it a PRCA rodoeo but it was for the PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year who everyone knows has the best bareback horses in the world. I was pretty nervous and excited, I knew this particular stock contractor was very picky about the way you handle his bucking horses. I must admit to you people that being called on to pickup for such a guy in a pretty good feeling. He has bucking horses worth more than my house and he wouldn’t trust just anyone work his rodeo. These types of thoughts began to swirl around in my head, as they did I think my head got a little bigger. In retrospect the scripture in Romans 12:3 comes to mind. You don’t have to look it up now we’ll get back to that.
Let me pause right here for just a second to share one of my favorite feelings with you. Some of you may be able to relate others make think I’m crazy. I’ll set the stage, spring time outdoor Fair & Rodeo with the farris wheel and Zipper as a back drop, The smell of funnel cakes and baby power on the horse flanks, ballons and laughing people. In the midst of all this you get on your horse buckle on you Dodge Pickup man chaps and follow the American flag through the grand entry. I’ll just say this, its a good feeling!
Back to the story, rodeo time was upon us. The stands were full of people and the chutes were full of bareback horses. Again it’s a pretty good feeling. I remember this well, my horse and I were on the left side, the first bareback rider, in the first perf, of my first PRCA rodeo, circled around to the right and was set up for me to go in. The rider bucked off at the whistle so I just needed to get the flank. I knew this horse was a colt.
SIDE NOTE: For those of you that don’t know, a colt is a younger horse that hasn’t had a lot of experience with rodeos, bucking, or pickupmen. If you handle a bucking horse correctly as they get more experienced they learn that the pickup men bring relief by getting the cowboy off and removing the flank, so they will come to you or at least let you come to them without trying to duck behind you, cut back or out run you. Colts don’t understand this and have to be handled differently. You don’t want to whoop and holler at a colt, or chase them around. This will ruin the horses and cause you to become unemployed. We basically try to keep the horse moving and quietly sneak in and remove the cowboy and flank, then move away towards the centerof the arena and let the horse follow you out.
Ok, first horse bucks the guy off at the whistle and circles around me, and I quietly move in as she comes out of the corner. Everything goes good. I trip the flank then start pull off towards the center of the arena to give the horse some room and let her come off the fence and leave quietly out of the arena. As I did this the clown was up in front of us and climbed up on the fence so he didn’t get ran over. Apparently colts don’t like clowns with big red wigs standing on fences. The guy I was picking up with was doing a great job of pushing the bronc from behind to keep him from setting up and ducking behind me. Long story short, the bucking horse ducked under my horses head and ran through my roping rein. I don’t what to boar you with the technicalities of picking up bareback horses or roping reins, but essentially this meant the reins I used to control my horse were attached to the bucking horse and I had no way of controlling anything as the bucking horse bolted and ran off while my horse was attached…See Ya Monday! Just below this is some bottons and it says Reccomend on Google. Please click on the little button that looks like the Facebook 'F' and share with your friends. Thanks
Friday, December 9, 2011
Consequences and Pride
Welcome back sorry for the cliff hanger ending, oh an the run-on sentences. It was my first blog and I wanted to make sure you came back. So the ending…The ending was ugly, it was ugly because of the beginning. Confused? The wreck was the logical conclusion to a path of events set in motion by 3 individuals making bad decisions based on fear, laziness, and impatience.
If the bull would have made the right decision he would have came into the pen for feed and been standing around a hay bale right now, but he made a decision based on fear. If the horse would have kept tracking the bull instead of getting tired and trying to duck out he would have been on the same side of the tree as the bull, but he made a decision based on laziness. If I would have been more patient I would have not had to go rope the bull in the first place, I made a decision based on impatience.
So there we all were fixing to hit the end of the rope and face the consequences of our bad decisions’. As you can imagine the rope got tight and things got wild. The 600lb bull got jerked over like a roping calf. The horse went down on his face like a Muslim on a mat at 3:00pm, and I would have flown off like a bronc rider in the 6 th round of the NFR if it hadn’t been for the rope which was tied off to the horn and crossing over my right thigh and around and under the horse holding me on like a seatbelt. Good news is we all lived, Thank you Lord!, and hopefully we are all a little wiser.
But it makes me think; I can think back to a lot of the wrecks in my life and track them back to a bad decision, sometimes based on fear like the bull, laziness like the horse or impatience like the jockey. Just food for thought.
I know my Blogs are going to be too long, but all that was just the end of the first blog, So now I have to start today’s. If this is too much reading for you feel free to go to concession stand and take a break or buy some weezers or something then come back.
Back in the Mid 90’s when I was on my PRCA rookie card I had a few, shall we say, personality flaws. One of which was my adamant fear of…umm…going number 2 in public bathrooms. I drove my traveling partner’s nuts having to find woods whenever I needed to go. This wasn’t too bad of a problem except when your rodeoing in the Midwest where they don’t have “woods”. One such occasion happen one year in Cheyenne Wyoming. 2 or 3 day runs weren’t so bad because I could hold it but in thoses days Cheyenne was a two header and you would be up like Saturday and Thursday or something like that so you had to hang out for a while and maybe go to Spanish Fork, Utah or another nearby rodeo.
Anyway, point being I couldn’t hold it that long and there wasn’t a lot of thick forests up there on the plains to use. I had run into this problem before and had come up with some creative solutions, for example, finding a crowded parking lot and ducking down in between cars. Yes I know it was wrong, and looking back I feel bad and I am sorry for the people that slipped down getting into their cars. But it was just on of those things that had to be done.
Well, this time was different I had rode a pretty hard to ride horse of Charlie Battles earlier in the day and was placing in the round at the Daddy of them All’. I had an aire of confidence about me. I though to myself “ You aren’t a permit holder anymore you need to get this problem under control”. So I decided to use the public bathroom at the Walmart there in town.
Here is a pic for the ride eariler that day.
I felt kinda like the bull in the previous story not wanting to go in the pen but I did it, I went into the bathroom nervous as barrel horse in the alley (Those thing will kill you by the way). I picked the cleanest stall and went in, locked the door, closed my eyes, and took a death breath (after a brief coughing and gaging spell I figured the deep breath was a mistake, Wal-Mart bathrooms stink!) and decided I was just going to do it. On the wall in the back of the stall was the box that held those little paper toilet seat covers. I honestly had no idea what they were or what they were used for. I quickly figured it out. But I decided I wasn’t going to just use one I wanted to be extra careful so I pulled out about 20 of them and put them on the seat. I turned around and sat down hoping I could get this over with muey pronto. I didn’t think I could do it, I was looking for an excuse to blow outta there and go find some trees. After a short time I heard steps outside the door. I am beading up with sweat on my forehead like a fat guy at a buffet. I remember saying “Lord Please let them pass on by I don’t need any company right now!” No such luck. Soon as the guy came in I was checking out. This was the most uncomfortable bathroom in the world and I wasn’t staying for a second longer so I jumped up jerked up my pants and was working on my buckle as headed out the door. I felt such a relief to get outta that stinky little dungeon of a bathroom, I was all the way back to my rodeo buddies before I noticed the back pants being wet, when I realized what it was I could feel my face getting red, and my head getting hot….TO BE CONTINUED. Don’t forget to hit the like button up top.
Jeremy
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Wild times at the Rocking W
Welcome to my first ever blog post. I really don’t know anything about blogs except for the fact that you type stuff and people can respond. The reason I am starting one is kinda selfish. My memory has been getting pretty bad over the past few years and the only way I can remember things is if I see them in writing or pictures of them. I don’t really remember events I remember pictures of events or stories about the events. I know it’s kinda weird.
I don’t know how many of you have ever done ranch or cowboy work, but most of the time you are alone and doing monotonous tasks, this gives you a lot of time to think about things. I plan on using this blog to write some of these things down and to keep track of some of the wild things that happen to me and how God faithfully takes care of me. I do not know how exciting it will be for the reader, but I will do my best but if it bores you, I will not be mad if you choose not to read. I also know a lot of you get pretty anal over spelling and grammar, if so this blog might not be the place for you! So take it or leave it. I make to guarantees about the quality or entertainment value of said blog.
Lets get started, Whats going on around here…I have had a break from rodeos for about the last 3 or 4 weeks, I turned out my pickup horses and have been enjoying the time at home. For the last two weeks (with the exception of a few days in Vegas!) we have been trying to gather the rouge cattle that wouldn’t pen when we weaned. For those of you that don’t know every fall we pen all of our cattle and sort the calves, which by this time are around 400#, off of there mommas and start them on feed.
We typically don’t feed the cows much during the summer because the grass is pretty good. This means the cows aren’t really used to coming in the pens and it takes several weeks of feeding them to get them used to coming in. Once they are in the pen we close the gate and use horses to separate the mommas from their babies.
This is all fine and dandy but there are always some wilder cows and calves that would rather starve to death or kill you than come into the pen. Thus are current situation. We have to get the calves off their mommas pretty quick because as the calf grows and the grass looses quality the momma losses a bunch of weight producing milk for the calf and subsequently goes into the hard winter months skinnier than she should.
There are a couple ways to handle the task, since this is getting pretty long I will just share how we do it. We Rope em’. Rope em, jerk em town, tie their feet, then drag them into the trailer. This procedure has it pros and cons. One of the cons is that it makes the wild cows that won’t come in the pen even wilder but I will admit it is a lot of fun!
Over the past few weeks I have roped probably 25 or so. Its kinda a wild dangerous job catching these mean rascals. A couple of years ago one of my pickup horses broke his leg doing this and I had to shoot him, since then I do not use my pickup horses, I only use colts, if possible.
The decision to use a colt instead of good horse has its pro’s and cons too. A good horse knows what your doing and what is expected from him when it gets wild. A colt doesn’t.
Last week before I left for Vegas I was on the trail of a particularly angry yearling bull weighing in at about 600# and I was riding a colt that was kinda acting up. I didn’t want to loose the bull once I caught him due to an ill-behaved horse so I had my roped tied of to the saddle horn. I caught the bull and stopped him and then things started going south. The bull turned around and stated hooking the horse I was on. While this was going on I made a rookie mistake and let the horse step over the rope.
For those of you that don’t know what this means let me take a second to explain. You have a 35 ft rope. One end is around the neck of a 600lb bull and the other is tied to the saddle horn. Normally this is what you want, but imagine if you will what it would be like if the colt your riding steps over the rope while there is a bunch of slack in it and one horse leg is on one side of the rope and the other horse leg is on the other side, now envision what happens when the bull takes off again and the rope gets tight!!!
So the bull turns to run off again, and I know once that rope got tight we were gonna all be in a mess, so my solution was to not let the rope get tight and try to fish it out from under my horses legs at a full run. Bull takes off, I take off in full pursuit determined to keep slack in the rope until it was safely out form under the horses leg.
We are in a beautiful 200 acre pasture with rolling hills and a few big oaks dotting the landscape. It was one such tree that made my day get worse in a hurry. I don’t know if any of you have ever tried to fish the rope out from under your horses legs at a full run but I will tell you this: Sometimes you can kinda peel off in one direction and the horse will step out of it, but this was not of those times. The bull was so fast and the horse was so tired I was having a hard time gaining enough ground to get ample slack for the horse to step out of it. Trying to get it out with barley any slack is not easy. It takes concentration and your full undivided attention. So as my horse is running wide open tied to a bull who is also running wide open through the beautiful hills of the rocking w ranch, I am leaned over diligently giving all my attention to the tangled mess of rope underneath my horses feet and I didn’t notice the tree. Unbeknownst to me there in our immediate trajectory was a pretty little blackjack oak. Its been there for 20 years and I never really noticed it and as I was leaning over working on the rope I still didn’t, notice it that is. The bull went left, the horse went right. We were still tied together, still at a dead run, and the rope was still under the horses legs…TO BE CONTINUED. In the mean time feel free to use the comment section below to predict the outcome, or leave any comments.
Jeremy
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