Jack’s Blog
Read about everyday ranch life and the ramblings and ponderings of an 80-something year old rancher, Jack Varian
God, Science & Water
What the hell has water got to do with God and Science anyway? Well I’m not real positive myself but it struck me that it can be a way for me to explain how God and Science can complement each other, leaving me with a satisfied mind.
I'm right in style!
What brought me to realize that I’m a real fashion plate this October, 2018. That I am dressed to the 9’s. My awakening to the fact, happened this evening. After taking of my work shoes I could find but one of my slippers that I haven’t worn since last winter. Autumn has arrived!
People are two sided but some have a third side to their humanity
My dad once told me that simplest solutions are usually the best . So I think I’ll barge right into your consciousness with part of a solution to help whatever ails a body. We are all born with two sides for sure, but some get a 3rd side that make up our mortal bodies.
I’VE JUST GOT TO GET OUT OF THIS PLACE: A MEMOIR
Have you ever wondered what life before the day of your birth was like?
Guess who is my favorite mentor?
For some reason or another there seems to be lots of discussions out in social media land, on our TV’s and talk shows about mentoring and how valuable it can be especially for our youth. The right person at the right time can turn a young persons life around.
This is about being decent
I’ve always liked the word decent because, for me, it has so many ways that you can be “fair and kind.” But I wanted to be sure that my definition of decent and my Webster’s New World Dictionary agreed.
Growing Old Gracefully
Now that’s a nice thought. For me it has an innocence that says “could it really be.” So I think I’ll take a trip where reality lives and see what’s really going on. There I find myself getting out of bed and taking inventory of all my body parts and find that I’m still solidly in the house of the living but with a body that shows some obvious signs of wear and tear.
I’ve just added a new ranch to the V6 by the use of a 6 mile long hose.
Please stay with me a minute before you think I’ve slipped a cog. I’ve got 2 pastures on the ranch each about 2,000 acre, that because of the quality of their grass that grows there, it’s not my favorite place to be with my cattle, during the “green season", that’s the time when our cattle are adding on most of their total weight for the year in just 100 days of Spring. So I want my cattle to be out where my best grass lives.
Finding Gratification in Our Uniqueness
Because each of us are born differently never to be replicated again and in that difference, we each have the chance to revel and grow in our own uniqueness and if you want to, you can change a Sow’s Ear into a Silk Purse.
I’m getting out of word prison today
I like this replacement word perception it’s somewhat mystical and sheds light into the writers inner workings. So let’s all escape now from those feelings that the word blog incites in a person. And instead become perceptive/ so blog you can now fade into obscurity.
Time Consuming
My crushing right hand was now bleeding on my side of the bed. How appropriate to end this saga with my wife saying “let me put a Band-Aid on that cut” While I still need a clock radio, this time I’ve left the selection to my daughter Lilly and Amazon. It will be here in 2 days. What happens if this new clock is no better? Then the antique store will be my next stop.
A Day at the Mid State Fair
Any way I smell barbecue steak about to be served followed up with some very good looking layer cakes and because it’s an election year we’re sure to have a few folks that are running for some or another elected office. Then the honoring of the cattleman and cattle women of the year and then the chance to visit with old friends that I haven’t seen since last year. For me it’s a day well spent.
“Parkfield Magic”
What is it? It’s sure not your customary magic show that you would see as a stage spectacle in Las Vegas. The kind that makes you say “Wow, that’s impossible!” No, this is the kind of magic that lives in your imagination and if you let it in, it will show your spirit a better way to live in the moment.
TODAY I’M GOING TO HAVE LOVE THOUGHTS AND WHEN TOMORROW BECOMES TODAY I’M GOING TO HAVE LOVE THOUGHTs
For me, getting started in the morning is always the scariest time. Seems that all my “doubt thoughts” are at work in full force. I don’t know why it’s so hard sometimes, to not just think but to actually feel that a good day is coming. I know that opening the ‘Love door’ is more powerful than opening the ‘sad door’.
HEALING AN ABUSED AQUIFER
Little did I know that something as little used and more likely not used at all on most farms and ranches, would be a Sounder. It’s a device that measures the depth to water by dropping a special cable that is marked in one foot increments and when lowered down a water well and touches water a high pitched annoying sound is emitted.
IT’S CATTLE BRANDING TIME
For me it’s one of my favorite times of the year. A time to help a neighbor or he or she will help you. A time to get together with old friends and maybe meet some new ones. A time to climb onto my saddle and rope a calf or two and over the course of the day the branding crew will usually rope and brand 100 to 300 head of calves and administer several vaccines to prevent some of the more common cattle diseases.
WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT ANYWAY
Like Gravity, Love gathers like minded species together for companionship, safety and if you didn’t have a group of 2 or more you couldn’t have gossip. Most living things need some external heat to keep the life fires alive.
TO WASH OR NOT TO WASH THAT IS THE QUESTION
I’ve just finished reading an article that speaks to my “this can’t be so,” side of my mind. It seems that some genius in our U.S. Health Department has decided that if an Avocado falls from its tree and makes contact with the ground it can no longer be sold to we consumers because it has been polluted by making contact with said ground.
BOB THE LION HEARTED
What do all dogs love to eat? Steak, that’s what, and boy did he. 3 feedings of steak later and a good nights sleep was the cure. Thursday morning Bob awoke a little bit wobbly but solidly with the living and with a grateful look on his face he said” Never yell whoa in a bad place”
WATER IS THE LIFE BLOOD OF OUR RANCH
Water being fundamental to life has surely brought out the best in “we the people” and the absolute worst in “we the people”. I find myself in a very unique position as caretaker of 20,000 acres of California grassland situated at the head of the Little Cholame Creek, a tributary to the Salinas River.