2nd aNNuaL PNW YounG CaTTLemen's ConferencE

Excitin' news Y'all...the grand inauguration of the Pacific Northwest Young Cattlemen's Conference was such a thriving hit last year.....we are bringin' it BacK!

Save the Date(s)! ...Friday, January 21, 2011 and Saturday, January 22, 2011, be in Pendleton, Oregon Friday mornin' and soon you'll be bound for Boardman & Baker City, OR. See the links below for more tour details which includes stops at Pacific Ethanol, Beef Northwest Boardman Feedlot, Port of Morrow, McKenzie Ranch, and more.

Please find further details below or at Young WA Cattlemen and be sure to register prior to January 14th!



2010 PNW YCC Attendees

RFD-TV short segment feauturing interviews from last year's attendees: Ben Carpenter, Ryan Rademacher, & Jenna Feusner as well as highlights of the two days!

BeeF inforMatiON DAY --- Grant County, WA

~FREE Beef Information DAY~

 Grant County Beef Information Day, Wednesday December 15th 2010 show up with your BesT bOOts at the George Community Center in grand ol' George, Washington! Join in on the learnin' at 9:25 AM and stay until 2:45 PM. Get your fill of listenin' from local and regional speakers with expertise in cattle health, beef quality, and agriculture commodity transportation will be featured.

Individuals involved in any segment of beef cattle production are invited to attend, and participants need not be a member of the Grant County Cattlemen or resident of Grant County to attend. The program is organized by Washington State University Extension and the Grant County Cattlemen’s and Cattlewomen’s Associations.

Once you've had your fill of fReE coFFee & DONutS you'll be ready to saddle up for the mornin' session. Receive training & certification in the Western Beef Quality Assurance program and a presentation about improving heifer reproduction rates. After you've refueled with plenty of tasty beef  hit the trail hard for an afternoon learnin how to spruce up your operation's management plan with results that can be tasted! Just before you hit the open road, do you have what it takes to be legal on WA roads with your trucks, trailers, & farm equipment? The WSP CV Division will tell you how to keep your operation in the clear!

Tip your hat to the Grant County Cattlemen & Cattlewomen for cookin' up a FreE beef lunch! There is no registration fee to participate in the day’s activities, but ya better get your seat claimed before DEC 10th, 5:00 PM by callin' WSU Grant/Adams Extension 509-754-2011 Ext. 413.

(Read the entire NeWs ReLeAsE curtosy of the YWCA)

CrazY cowBoy DrEAm

Crazy Cowboy Dream

“The miles that I have traveled, the places I have seen

Just won’t let me put a saddle on this Crazy Cowboy Dream”¹

          

A few days ago I took my niece up on the invitation to join her at school for “hot lunch”. When your nephew and nieces range in age from 13 down to 7, it is easy to see the GIANT handwriting on the wall. Those pending teenage years have the possibility to make those invitations a thing of the past ! A scheduling conflict resulted in the need to move our original lunch date from the coveted “salad bar” day to a standard “hot lunch” day. Have no fear, this school brought it’s noon hour A-Game. My nephew and nieces attend a private Catholic School in Yakima. Most of the teachers recognize me by now as I have been picking up at least 1 child a year for going on a decade! Despite what most folks would consider a less-than-friendly locale, the school proves friendly & welcoming to the weary lunch maven or afternoon courier. On this recent voyage I found myself likening their school to a small, rural town. The kind of town where the lunch is hot, the smiles are warm, & crazy cowboy dreams are still dreamed.

Back at the cafeteria my small town euphoria was kindly interrupted by a sweet voice, “Aunt Jenna, would you like milk?” Don’t tell the health officials, but typically the only time I reach for milk is when it comes served as a double in a tall glass with ice, a few choice ingredients, and a name that sounds suspiciously like a famous handgun!  On this day, nostalgia won as chocolate milk beckoned its way to my tray. As I found my way back to a table surrounded by 11 year old girls and not a boy in sight, I found myself wondering when that fateful day arrived so many years ago that took away the choice of chocolate milk and took our crazy cowboy dreams right along with it.

One of the great blessings life throws our way are the times when a philosophical theme of one kind or another takes residence in our mind. This philosophical battle invokes pondering that may last for days, weeks, even months. As we drive to and from the kids’ school, ride through that group of pairs, or fix the familiar fence line we may not even realize what our brain fervently ponders day after day. If we are lucky we will reach the pinnacle of all great pondering…the much lofted after revelation. Cattle ranchers are blessed to be an intricate part of nature that includes few others. They are able to take in the wide open spaces, fresh air, understand the delicate balance of all life that surrounds them. All that oneness with nature is great but let’s face it; 'em ranchers are slightly scant on human interaction! It has been a long time since they saddled up to a lunchroom table with their chocolate milk, unless you count those bi-yearly trips to the sale barn cafe!  However, this lifestyle makes them far from short on philosophical ponderings or even a profound revelation now and again. Rather than send our ranchers to “Mingling 101” down at the local Eagles, let’s keep them out on the range & tap into that pondering mind. How intriguing it is to sit down at the lunch table and hear a group of folks whose crazy cowboy dreams may very well be alive and kickin’.

My penchant is strong for anything that takes me back to a time when the worry was less and the “living and doing” was more. Typically that means a great deal of enthusiasm at every 2/$1.00 candy rack where the packaging hasn’t changed since Reagan was in office. However, if you look beyond the Cinnamon Bears, Bubbletape, & Slurpees you just might catch a glimpse of the “good ole days”. The Good Ole Days are not limited to the 1880s or the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We all have our very own version of good ole days. That school lunchroom with its choice of “white milk or chocolate” is just one small peek into our glorious yesteryears. Those days when our minds were full enough to be present yet empty enough to dream.

Someone reminded me this week of the saying about doers and dreamers. My personal rendition goes something like “There are three types of people in this world: Dreamers, Doers, and those that let others do the dreaming and the doing.” I believe we cannot successfully do until we have successfully dreamed. When is the last time you let yourself dream or even turned those dreams into something you did? We all know that no one has successfully ever kept us down without our consent but sometimes it takes a good hot lunch, carton of milk, and a kickball game to remind us to start living our crazy cowboy dreams.

“....The miles that I have traveled, the places I have seen

Just won’t let me put a saddle on this Crazy Cowboy Dream”¹

(¹ Robert Earl Keen. “Crazy Cowboy Dream.” Bigger Piece of Sky. MP3. Koch Records, 2004.)

Originally published in WCA Ketch Pen November 2010. 

Heart Like a MuLe

An early evening perched on my family’s deck left my gaze to rest upon what I have long thought to be the most striking animal in the corral. As the sun set slowly behind Mt. Clements, the coloring of this animal was brought to life before my eyes. The sky’s gold and orange hues set off the rich chocolate dorsal stripe, surrounded by an almost brindle colored coat. The animal gazed up at me and I swore our eyes locked for a few fleeting seconds. Those soft eyes left me wondering what past such a beautiful creature was holding onto. Over the last year I have been intrigued over how something so rare and beautiful on the outside could be so fragile and complex on the inside. You see, this animal was not just another normal four-legged creature that had found its way onto my family’s abode. This was a mule. In fact, it was the first mule to ever have found a home here. “Mule” seemed to be its name, and in the nearly two years since he’s moved in he had come as far as almost allowing me to pet him! Dear family friends were kind enough to loan him to us in hopes we could lure him out of shell with TLC and more than a dose of trust. As I have not been the one footing the feed bill, “Mule” is of no bother to me. His “beautiful” bray always supplies me with one of those from-the-belly laughs and typically when I needed a laugh the most. His rare coloring gives a girl all the eye candy she could ask for, so as far as I am concerned he can put his feet up and stay awhile longer.

One day while out painting by the shop, “Mule” decided to rest his head over the nearby gate and keep me company, from a distance he felt was safe of course. Looking over at this creature that wanted so badly to trust but couldn’t unbury his past, I got to pondering about what path folks leave behind and the path that remains in the distance. As the mule loudly beckoned for my attention I looked up once more and begin to wonder just where one crosses over from the heart of a horse into the heart of a mule.

As I have journeyed through this writing experience with the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, some very drastic changes have occurred in my life, but more importantly in my soul. My recent WCA Ketch Pen sabbatical was not unintentional. For those of you that may tune into my blog now and again, you will have possibly noted the change. Anticipating a move to Texas, I quietly changed my blog from the Young Washington Cattlemen’s Association to The Sagebrush Chronicles. This name change was about more than just a potential location change, it granted me the freedom to dive deeper into philosophical ramblings without fear of remaining politically and socially neutral. My writing is something that seems to come from whatever journey my mind and soul is adventuring down. Great for a blog, not great for newspaper deadlines or an audience featuring a load of cattlemen and women that may be used to a slightly stauncher read. After many months of being left high and dry come Ketch Pen time, I came to a bold decision. As just a volunteer writer for a non-profit organization, I decided I was going deep. After all, aren’t all of us trudging up the same trail in life? That inevitable trail that seems to be left off of any map.

That very trail would be the one God and I have been climbing up the past few months, ice pick and all. I honestly acknowledge my recent articles have come up short on bovine related content. The cattle industry has not left my mind entirely; however, due to other circumstances it has only received the occasional nod in its direction from me. Less than two months ago I said goodbye to my job at Farm Credit and pointed my rig west on I-90 for what I hoped would be the last of my weekly Spokane-Selah commute. After a pit-stop in Lind, WA for the annual Combine Derby, I arrived in the Wenas with less than 5 weeks until I was bound for Fort Worth, TX! Last February I boldly applied for a one year Ranch Management Program at Texas Christian University. After inundating the professors of the Ranch Management Program with a lengthy auto-biography I was summoned for an interview. So, mid-April I was once again hitched up on the Southwest wagon, destination Fort Worth. Less than two weeks after my interview I had an official acceptance letter in my hands and the world as my oyster. Once I figured out a well-timed departure from my corporate career, I had just enough days left in Washington State to sell and pay off my car, sell most of my belongings, and find room in a rental rig for my *extensive* wardrobe, minus any winter item containing wool or insulation of course!

Then, that fateful morning dawned with a financial aid wake-up call. This well-oiled, smooth running plan thus far had seemingly been crafted by someone far wiser than me and months back I gave that wise leader the reins to this stubborn mule. God had the ability to change the plan at any time and this time I vowed to be willing to bend and so it seemed our “come to Jesus” talk had arrived. Would I “have the faith” and bend or would I stubbornly stand my ground and continue forward on this southbound trail I desperately wanted to travel? This time, I relinquished control, ignored what the world might say and have been hanging on ever since.

How many of you have sat around the kitchen table late at night wringing your hands through your hair facing a similar situation? God changed the plan mid-game and now what were you to do? The haystacks all caught fire, cows were stolen, Federal grazing stripped from your hands, a family member passed, your “income earner” lost their job...the scenarios seem endless. Well there are really only two options in times of unknown; we can view a change in the trail we were on as an opportunity or a dead-end. With those as my options, it seems I once again find myself picking up my crazy heart and giving it one more try.¹ Over the last decade I have found myself in more situations than I would have ever dreamed possible where I asked God, “So I guess we’re adding THIS to the mix?” Would the world see those bumps in the road as blessings? Well...probably not, they would probably just see a trail-block. But the world has the heart of a horse. Sometimes life is complicated, it is deep, it is not to be understood in the present, if understood ever. Sometimes, life requires the heart of a mule.

 (¹ Bingham, Ryan. “The Weary Kind.” Crazy Heart. MP3. New West Records, 2010.)

Originally published: Washington Cattlemen's Association Sept 2010 Ketch Pen

RFD TV Cattlemen to Cattlemen: PNW Young Cattlemen's Conference

We are so LuCKy to have a 5 minute feature appear on this week's RFD TV Cattlemen to Cattlemen show!! Thanks C2C for such an amazing segment on our tour and on our PNW Cattle Industry! :)

Ma'am where's the emergency stop button?

Am I the only one that feels like I'm on a treadmill, or even worse a rat wheel and I can't get off? Whew! I actually think I'm starting to exhaust MYSELF these days-and if you know me then you know I passed you a long ways back! :) So much goes on in a day, that sometimes I feel like a week went by. So just some brief little tidbits of really exciting changes, things to come, and buzz on the "street"!

**Well, a brief snippet from Bloomberg today-Argentina may need to import beef for the first time EVER due to a couple year long drought they've been dealing with! I hate to celebrate one man's curse, but it is another man's blessing. If only we could be so lucky, especially if we can export some of our product to them! :) Fingers Crossed!!! These foreign export markets are absolutely essential to our industry-increases sales in a downward home economy but also these other countries will eat up parts of the carcass that Americans wouldn't dream of touching! I know I got a good wave of excitement this afternoon when I read the article!

**Officially joined the "Cattle Knowledge Team" of my company this week. My first conference call is Friday afternoon so I'm excited for what I'm to hear from across our 4 state region & also nervous for the work and mental challenges headed my way! This will be a GREAT resource for me personally to help build my all encompassing of every level of the industry and a big win for the YWCA venture & WCA as well. I hope WA cattlemen will be a great resource for me to share with others what our cattlemen's need, hopes, and fears are!

**Talked with a WSU Alum this weekend who has been eagerly wanting to get more involved with the WCA, and helping with the YWCA! That is literally an answer to my prayers. I can't do this alone folks. I was hoping to plant a little tiny seed of enthusiasm & watch it grow! I would love and NEED all the help I can get. I've never started a brand new charter group before and its daunting! I'm not artistic or super creative in the design department so bonus points if someone out there is! :) Thank you Lacy for wanting to get on board and be game for whatever I throw your way!!!

**I spoke with Kirsten this evening, the gal we are designating as the Student Director of the YWCA this year! Cows bellowing in the background, and kids hollering proved she was calling me in between showing and herdsmanship duties at her cattle show in Lynden! Kirsten has been so supportive, EXCITED and willing to help in any way since the very first day I asked her early last spring if she thought there would be any interest for youth in a college presence of the WCA! I only needed that one person who was looking for a group like this to be involved in and I could test my idea & I found my person! I love that those that have stepped up are game for an adventure that hasn't been tried before-they'll be mistakes, and falls, and hard paths to cut but they are just as excited to try as I am and that is all you need for success! :)

**I've been in contact with the NCBA Young Producer's Council leadership this week as they contacted all of us who showed interest in being a media contact for our individual states! They are starting a YPC Blog, a YPC twitter, encouraging everyone to get their MBA (Masters of Beef Advocacy degree) and then setting up webinar courses for us on further media training and policy briefing! I am SO excited for whats to come with this media outreach group. I only wish I could just focus on this stuff all day long....those dang day jobs sure do get in the way sometimes! :) More to come on this awesome venture from the NCBA YPC!

**BIG THINGS are happening every day through the MBA graduates, YCC Alum, YPC members-look for us. We are out there on every social network site posting FACTUAL information on the beef industry, responding to false stories, urban myths, and rumors on blogs, newspapers, television, and radio.

**My next goal is to get some Team Zip gear and try to get my rusty old hips to run some races here in the next year! (Ssshhh...just don't tell my physical therapists!!) They have a great blog on here: Team Zip The Power of Protein!