This article was written in 2020. At the time we were knee-deep in C-19 while up to our chin’s with sad-and-sorry three-letter agencies who’s CEO’s – scientist and disease “experts” couldn’t manage the make-up counter at your local Rite Aid (stupid smart people!).
We watched and did little or nothing as these same people along with more useful idiots (mainstream media and primarily Democrat politicians) told us to stay home, give up Constitutional rights, shut down a worldwide economy thus deciding what was an “Essential Business”.
Please advise me as to which legal business that feeds a family is non-essential?
Of course, we now know the lockdowns were the absolute worst thing we could have done.
All these agencies have now been thoroughly discredited, realizing two years after the fact they’re incompetence only lengthened the infection rate from what could have been a few months in 2020 to even today.
Finally, the stacks of lawsuits against these agencies are now entering courts and the discovery stages to find out that they colluded with governments and tech companies to delete and sensor anything that did not fit their narrative, which all long was heading towards a make-believe vac that would produce billions in revenue despite the fact it did nothing to stop the spread of C-19. I won’t even touch on the hundreds of thousands of adverse effects and deaths and still counting caused by the make believe vac, that were swept under the CDC’s carpets. Hence the Lawsuits!
Left in the wake of these shutdowns in which little was being produced while governments printed money, they don’t have to pay people to stay home and produce nothing–you guessed it: inflation. More money chasing fewer goods is the very definition of inflation. Nice job Brandon and staff!
Worse than that, we’re now just realizing the collateral damage all these shutdowns have done to people, and especially kids who were locked out schools then brought back only to keep their faces covered with useless masks. These sad and sorry placebos were “The cu de Grace” of the C-19 experience. With not one credible study proving they do anything other than create a perfect environment for all sorts of bacteria.
I suspect some of you reading this fell hook line and sinker believing they actually worked and still might be working. I say this with a wry smile and only because you’ve read this far along: insanity defined is continuing a behavior or pattern despite knowing it doesn’t work! Please, please stop feeding misinformation through a poor example. Leave the masks for surgeons, automotive painters, and bad guys preparing to rob a bank–in 1875!
The honest truth is, at the end of the day we all got a bird’s eye view of two years’ worth of government healthcare. And man, what a sh*^#tshow it’s been! Nevertheless, many of us were still out there: virus be dammed, hats pulled down and spurs turned inwards getting er done.
On these particular gathers, Gunner and myself had our eyes on the cattle but my mind was pondering this idea of “Work”. If you’re not already mad at me for the above comments, saddle up and ride along, enjoy the article. If you are mad, reposition your mask and scroll on to another post.
“Day Work”
This term is commonly used in western circles. It refers to hiring a cowboy or cowgirl for a days’ worth of work. There are still cowboys and cowgirls for hire–I personally know a few, and I’ve been one at times. Unfortunately, the restrictions now placed on employers via bureaucratic nightmares like EDD, workman’s comp, SS, and the leftist ACLU (not to mention injury lawyers), have made it darn near impossible to hire someone for a day or twos work–at least above the table. These very policies have made the homeless community unemployable, despite the fact the very people behind these restrictions and regulations (liberal Democrats) claim to be helping the homeless!
In the ranching community, “Day Work” now tends to be performed by friends, neighboring ranchers, and family. As things transition here at our ranch from a full training facility to the stabling program, I have a bit more time available affording me a chance at “Day Work” helping other ranches. This past week Bren and I were busy helping two different ranches gather their cattle to beat the weekend’s forecasted storms. At the Gaiser Ranch near Chinese Camp, we helped bring back the same cattle we had kicked out into their Red Hills brush allotment last month. A day later in Knights Ferry we helped our friend Dave and his partner Ron gather several hundred pairs in order to pregnancy check and vaccinate the future moms (using a real vaccine).
When a person arrives at one of these gatherings for the first time it can be exciting. There are lots going on and if you love the whole “Cowboy Deal”, man it’s right up your alley! It may not, though, be right up your horse’s alley, especially if they’ve never been around so much activity–not to mention the cows and bulls! After a few times doing this work given the fact you didn’t create a bunch of wrecks on a previous visit and you’ve been asked back, a person starts to understand this work is real for the folks you’re helping.
At both ranches last week, these folks make they’re living raising livestock. When you pick out meat at Costco all nicely wrapped and ready to be put into your fridge, remember it once hovered over four hooves, was covered with hair, and was managed by a rancher.
The “realness” I mentioned can be seen in the faces of the ones who do this for a living.There is a professionalism in how they go about their work. It’s apparent in how they’ve developed the horses as well to do a day’s work, rather than the “horse itself” being all the work, like yours or mine might be if we showed up unprepared. A rider depends on the horse to get a job done, while the horse learns to depend on the rider’s judgement in the process. No one in this crowd is hoping their “horse takes care of them” –they let the work itself take care of things and out of it comes an incredible partnership in which horse and rider share mutual responsibility.
I’ve been riding and starting horses for the public since 2005 and yet to find much better in the way of forming a solid relationship with a horse than doing ranch work, especially when cattle’s involved.
Roping’s, sorting’s, and clinic’s where we learn about ranch work are fine, but they’re a faraway substitute for the real thing. Some of these workshops worry more about the gear and the correct fold in your hats brim than the work itself. On these ranches, no one’s judged by their hat or stitch count of their bosal. They’re far more impressed by the work being done and how it’s being done.
If we must talk about gear, there’s a reason for the gear the ranching community uses and the saddles they ride. Because it works! Not because they saw someone on RFD-TV riding in or using it. The chinks and chaps they wear look nice and clean,,,,once. But now have a heavily worn appearance, which in this cowboy’s eyes look far better than anything hanging in someone’s trailer rarely ever put on. There’s pride taken in how they work with each other as a team. Pride taken in how they manage their livestock. Pride taken in their Horsemanship. Both of these ranches have folks riding for them who are willing to share their knowledge.
Although Bren and I have pushed cows around in the past, it’s the understanding of where to be and, more importantly, where not to be that defines whether a person is useful or just in the way. We thank them for their patience. This “Realness” I speak of is contagious and you can seriously be infected by it.
So, I’m trailing these two bulls out of the Red Hills who had no interest in walking fast, straight or on the trail. Between trips in and out of the brush attempting to get them lined out, I started to think about “Work” and just what it means to people, especially now with so many in this country having been told to stay home while the government pays you not to work. Just how much is work connected to our very existence? Many famous people have put down their thoughts on “Work”. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” In the book of Genesis, the first thing God does with Adam is give him a job: taking care of the garden. It’s not long before He realizes the project’s too big and He creates women as a “helpmate”, thus proving this work thing fits both men’s and women’s spirit and souls. Work gives our lives meaning, fulfillment and ultimately a sense of accomplishment and self-worth which leads to inner peace.
I mentioned the homeless situation in this country earlier and it’s far more complex than a cowboy in Chinese Camp should consider grappling with. But Ray Charles could see one aspect that’s completely missing is the concept of work! One of the most successful programs to date for helping people has been Habitat for Humanity. Why? Because it not only offers a person the chance at home ownership, it offers that person a chance at dignity through their own efforts: that being the work. If you continually “do” for someone who can “do” for themselves, they might indeed accept your charity. But in the end they will hate and despise you for it because you stole from them in the process: their dignity!
Almost 70 years of social services, welfare, and now “entitlement” failures have proved out this basic truth. Work provides a mental state of preparation and anticipation. Any job needs to be thought out, considered and planned. All these things engage the mind. Handouts do not offer any of this.
“You will never plough a field successfully until you have first turned it over and over in your mind” – Irish Proverb
I’m still trailing those two bulls. If you’re a person in favor of “handouts and free stuff”, you’re probably mad by now.
I’m going to shift over in my saddle before I go any further (that should give you the chance to trot on by (scroll on to another post). OK, I’m better now. Anyone still riding with me?
Instead of Federal, State, local government providing all sorts of housing for the homeless, they might instead drop off a load of lumber, nails, and hammers. Let’s follow that lumber with some carpenters who care too much for their fellow man than to just give them something for nothing (I know several who’d be happy to help out). Let’s give these homeless folks a chance to not only build housing but build on their self-worth and dignity.
“Happiness is the real sense of fulfillment that comes from hard work”- Joseph Barbara
It’s also interesting how work sets a standard which quickly exposes the slackers in a society, tribe, even in nature. Check out the workings of a beehive if you don’t believe me. It wouldn’t be long before the “Work” would soon weed out the homeless only interested in staying stoned and not helping–which sadly is about 99%! Rather than hand them clean needles or now crack pipes in which to die from, let’s hand them a toolbelt and a second chance at life! Of course we’d have to head off and tie down all the before mentioned government organizations supported by, you guessed it, liberal Democrats, who claim to help these folks but in reality keep them chained down and dependent on government handouts. “Two Wraps and a Huey!”
The call for folks to stay home and not work quite possibly will prove out to be far more damaging to Americans than the CV-19 which holds a 99.7% recovery rate could ever possibly be. For many, this time of doing nothing is an enemy to their mental and physical state in no way helpful.
“Idle Hoofs are the devil’s Workshop” –Richard Winters
Well, those bulls are finally in the coral along with the other couple hundred head. I’m climbing off my horse at the stock tank so he can get a drink- he’s tired by now. Not only from this “Day’s Work” but listening to me rant! If you’re still there, after your pony gets a drink, tie ‘em up and I’ll see you at lunch!
