Almost Gypsy Soul

I am nearly at a loss for words here folks. After watching a FOX News video about the protest going on where college kids are demanding free tuition and student loan forgiveness, I'm at a loss. At what point did we become a nation of entitled, spoiled brats? Now I have my own ideas about how and when this came about, but really when? how? why? I feel strongly about the way I was raised . Hell I didn't even know we were in poverty growing up until just a few years ago. I was raised to make my own decisions and own the consequences of those decisions. Anyway back to the actual free college and student loan forgiveness. As such, I took a few concurrent college/high school classes while I was in high school. If I earned good grades, those credit hours were paid for by my high school. I then chose to go to a small 4 year college on an academic and basketball scholarship. I worked my ass off to earn grades that allowed me to keep that scholarship for 4 years of undergraduate study....

Remember that old saying "you don't know what you have until its gone"?  Well I feel it ringing true lately. Although my sentiment is more as its coming back into my life little by little I realize how much I have missed it. All those things that can be found at the end of a dirt road makes my little heart go boom, boom. Since I've became a big kid, I've had to live in town thus making me realize how much I miss the country life. Since I've lost weight and became active again, making me realize how much I miss the outdoors. Its the simple things in life that make me most happy. So what has been making my heart go boom, boom the last few months? Branding Jello Shots and all day horseback rides Playing with puppies for hours! Singletrack Shipping calves Spending the day hunting with The Retired Guy

via Yahoo Images #neverforget #USA and congratulations to Football Fan and The Boy From Texas on their bouncing baby boy, The Baby From Texas, who arrived last night!

They say "if we all threw our problems in a pile, we'd look at everyone else's and grab ours back". Its easy to get down on our lives, that everything isn't just perfect, or the way we thought it should be. Maybe we don't have the perfect kids, maybe our dog barks too much, maybe we don't have the family we thought we would, or the job, or the house, maybe we don't live where we thought we should. All in all, these problems are pretty trivial. Its easy to get caught up in what we don't have, but maybe we should look around and be thankful for what we do have. The stuff, the opportunities, the love, the fact that we woke up this morning. Just be thankful because life just isn't that bad. I truly believe we are responsible for our own happiness and although its easy to get stuck in a rut, drug down by negative thoughts. We can overcome our mind by looking for sunshine, looking for good. Its always there, we just gotta open our eyes and hea...

Jealousy is something that I never want to feel of others. I mean sure its there, the small things like I wish I had that snowboard or I wish I could wear those super cute tights and make them look good, but I honestly never, ever want to be so jealous of someone that it makes me miserable. So miserable that I can't see the world really turning outside my head and what I think I know. We know that if we are that miserable with ourselves and our feelings of jealousy....we are bound to be making those around us miserable too. We've all been there at one time or another....the jelouslee and the jealousor and neither one is a fun role to play. Jealously can feel like a lot of different things...it can look like a lot of different things. It looks ridiculous, it looks like low self esteem, if feels like inadequacy, it looks like anger, it feels like humiliation, it feels like high school.  and its a vicious cycle that is tough to break. And when someone is jealous of you? How...

Some days come and some days go But someday never gets here. Someday is just a dream away. Someday is always next year. Someday we’ll all go fishing. I’m taking my family with me. Heading to that lunker lake Where that trophy is bound to be. Someday we’ll all raft the river Or maybe paddle by canoe. We’ll soak up fun and challenge. There’s nothing we won’t do. Someday I’m heading up north Or maybe I’ll head west. Take my son on that dream hunt Where hunting is the best. We’ll go by boat. We’ll go by plane Or maybe mule or horse. Somewhere where big game is big, In the wilderness of course. Someday I’ll win big in the lotto. And when my ship comes in, I’ll find the time. I’ll find the money. I’ll be gone with the wind. But, something says there’s work to do And bills that must be paid. That time and money can’t be found. They both must be made. So, the time had come for action. Someday would soon be here. I’d go for broke. I’d make my move....

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is charged with managing public lands for multiple use which includes the management of "wild" horse herds. When I wrote my original post in response to a news story that was ran by NBC News, I decided that in order to further educate myself, as I encouraged all my readers to do, I needed to attend a wild horse gather. And I did just that. Last week I attended the Salt Wells Herd Management Area (HMA) gather, where BLM estimated that approximately 150 head would be removed from the range. Throughout the entire month of gather, an expected 700 head would be removed. This sounds like alot right? Consider that this covers an area that is nearly 2.5 million acres and 700 head isn't all that much. I'll be honest, the gather was pretty much what I expected and not all that exciting. We were a good mile away from the trap and we waited for a long time before horses started coming in. The ran pretty far from us and there were no incidents...

Welcome to Soul Food Friday, grab the button (its at the bottom of my blogpage), link-up and share what feeds your soul. It can be anything! Don't sweat the small stuff! Yet its the small stuff that makes things ok. What can turn my day around in an instant? The 5Cs of small stuff: Coke (fountain of course) Coffee Country Stuff   Color Cuddly doogs   What turns your day around? Does it start with a C?

It used to be that Friday night was reserved for grabbing a few beers after school to go home and get ready to go out on the Strip, usually closing down the bar and hitting up the MacDonalds on the way home (in the early hours of "tomorrow"). But I think its safe to say I've outgrown that stage as I'm usually in my sweats before I'd even be leaving the house in the "old" days. You really want to impress this girl with a Friday night? How about a Taken marathon and drinking whiskey and diet before heading to bed at a decent hour. I'm there. Or maybe hours on hours of Phase 10 with some friends in the trailer park? Count me in! How about a little fire while sitting around on coolers bag chairs (much more comfortable) with some cornhole. Can't get me away . Want to go all out? How about a small town dance. Done deal. And there you have it.....big Friday nights!

[Linking up  with Jeannett at Life Rearranged ] Well, I'm please to report that I'm getting better at this Instagram thing, after I called my little sister and had her explain #hashtags to me. I know I'm unwise beyond my years. And one thing I learned last week on #hashtags, one must be careful, they might be misunderstood. So what's been on my Instagram lately? Hashtags here included #oklahomaorbust #mrandmrs #weddingcrashers #crapstablecallingmyname and where is the confusion you ask? Hashtags for these worn out tenny runners....#stretchingthelegs #longlegproblems #oklahomaorbust #turboprop #goodbyeoklahoma #bringyourownpumpkin #scary #halloween and I apparently wasn't feeling very creative on Halloween Eve. What's on your Instagram?

While I was on furlough, I splurged and drove to Logan so my baby sister could buy me dinner. We managed to stay busy all weekend and didn't spend a ton of money. Win. Little Sister and I took the doogs for a little walk because I wanted to hike the fall colors. Unfortunately, we were probably a couple weeks late for the high colors, but the lower colors were amazing. We were about 3 miles in when we hit snow, but we made it all the way to White Pine Lake in Logan Canyon. Nine miles later, humans and dogs were tired, but it was a great hike! We celebrated with a 2,000 calorie meal at Texas Roadhouse and 9 holes of golf. Since pictures are worth 1,000 words, I'll just leave you with a few images. *Woof* Tylie checking in for a little fact checking on the human. We walked 9 miles and my legs are short enough, I trotted alot. I feel bad for that little pain in the you know what cousin of mine.....her legs are like 2 inches long. Sometimes my human goes a little crazy, ...

We all spend too much time on FB, that is correct, I'm including you in this we.....I don't want to be alone so I automatically group everyone into the "too much time on FB" group. Sorry if I offend. I recently "liked" American Cattlemen on FB because of this photo that was shared on my newsfeed. If you don't think this photo is awesome, well then we just probably can't be friends anymore. So anyway, I had to like American Cattlemen on FB after this photo and now my newsfeed is filled with awesome ag pictures all day......and I love it! There sure are a lot of talented ag folks out there!!! I've included a few of my favorites from stalking browsing the American Cattlemen page. Obviously I didn't take any of these and have done my best to give credit to the photographer. All of the pics are from the American Cattlemen FB page from followers. I look forward to seeing new pictures posted to their page each day....it just might be the...

Well, if you have watched the news at all since the beginning of October you know that I have ALOT of time to watch the news. I am was a federal employee with the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA), who now has to figure out how to spend my days without spending money while Congress continues to not talk to each other about the horrible situation that America has realized. BUT what you probably haven't seen on the news is the awful devastation that South Dakota farmers and ranchers are still trying to assess. Early reports estimate regional cattle losses to be about 5%, with some ranchers losing 20-50% of their herd. Do you know what this means for these guys? It could be the end of their ranch without help. And where should help be coming from? Well normally that would be a task that FSA would be charged with, except we are all at home on furlough and Congress has once again failed to enact a Farm Bill that would contain disaster programs to assis...

When I tell people I work for the Farm Service Agency, I either get a knowing nod like "oh you are one of those government employees" or I get a "what do you actually do?". I've started leading off with working for the US Department of Agriculture because most people have actually heard of that that. We are a small agency within USDA that administers the farm subsidy, disaster and some insurance programs of the Farm Bill. The farm bill is made up of 15 different titles addressing different areas. The 15 titles or parts of the Farm Bill are , the ones that are bolded are the only ones that I directly work with through FSA. Commodity - provides income support to growers of select commodities Conservation - provides funding for farm environmental stewardship thought programs that improve management practices, retire less productive land and protect natural resources Agricultural Trade & Food Aid - funds US agriculture export a...

Grab the button, link up and share what feeds your soul! In a world that is so fast paced, running from activity to activity. Someone always needing something from us. Cell phone ringing and buzzing with text messages. TVs blaring in the background. Doing less with more. Eating dinner on the go or not eating dinner at all. Sometimes all I need is 2 seconds to pause, to breathe, to look around at God's creation and know.....simplicity feeds my soul. I don't always feel like I have enough of it and I have to remind myself to keep it simple often, its the simple things in life that really mean the most. The Cowboy's Prayer Oh Lord, I've never lived where churches grow.             I loved creation better as it stood         That day You finished it so long ago             And looked upon Your work and called it good.  ...

I knew that my remaining soldiers mail stop date was coming up soon, so his final care package was around the Fourth of July and celebrating his return to America. I wanted to think of something that I hadn't done before and finally settled on American Classics theme. All my planning was sabotaged by my inability to find Cracker Jacks in this stinkin' town. I see them all the time now.....ggggrrrrrr. American Classics or subsitutes in some cases are: Cracker Jacks Fiddle Faddle Rootbeer Beef jerky sticks Apple pie Dubble Bubble Shell peanuts Sunflower seeds Jack Daniels BBQ sauce Wrap it up with some fun flags and streamers and wa-lah a little bit of America in the Sandbox! 'MERICA! I recently recieved a FB message from him and I must say his thankfulness and sincerity brought tears to my eyes. It is such an honor to be able to support those who sacrifice so much for our freedom. Its humbling to be reminded that small acts of kindness can go s...