HAT TIPS
Hello,
I enjoy reading. Papers, books, cereal boxes, dirty magazines, fishing books, and on and on. But I think my favorite are the books by Ben K. Green. He was an old horse trader and country vet in South Texas back a generation or two ago.
His books included “Horse Tradin’,” “More Horse Trading,” and a bunch more. One of my favorites was “A Thousand Miles of Mustanging.” At one time, I had all of the books, but through my generosity and complete lack of recall, I don’t remember who I borrowed them to. But Carm replaced most of them this past Christmas. So I’m getting them reread.
And this past week I surpassed Ben. I did 2,000 miles of mustanging. Of course, I suppose it was easier in a power stroke pickup than on horseback. But I made the 2,000 miles. Started out I had to go to a meeting in Council Bluffs. That’s not near here. It was a meeting on how to feed cattle, with a dose of marriage counseling thrown in. I don’t know how they figured that the two went hand in hand, but I guess I figured Shirley could use it and I could use the cattle feeding stuff.
After we went to the meeting in Council Bluffs we had to back-track a couple hundred miles and pick up a beef. And try to figure out a way to keep it frozen for a day or so. We did figure it out but it didn’t work. That’s another reason for the counseling. When you haul 800 pounds of thawing meat around the northern plains. After we got the meat loaded we took off for western Nebraska to look at a couple of horses. That’s why I needed the marriage counseling. Horse deals cause a lot of strife in families throughout the world.
Then we headed for Valentine for supper. Then home in a blizzard. Well, at least home in a snow shower. Then headed for Miles City for a cow sale. One quick stop, 14 hours, at the Bison and then home again, home again, jiggity jig. Two thousand miles of meat, cows, and horses.
It was a good trip. A business trip. And I learned a lot. Never travel with your wife. There is something to be said about separate vacations. One morning when we were checking out of the motel in Council Bluffs, we noticed a couple just parting at the door. Evidently he was a local businessman who was going to be gone a day or two. He gave his wife a big hug and kissed her passionately on the lips. Shirley looked at me and asked how come I never did that. I said I would like to, but I didn’t even know the woman. More counseling is down the road I guess.
Later,
Dean