It’s time to pay tribute to my livestock trailer who I have undying respect for, for never yelling “whoa!” in a bad place and always being able to show up. But at the age of 52 years, my accountant thinks it’s time for him to be taken off my depreciation schedule.

I know the ideas that I have found to be valid come from my ever-stronger belief in Mother Nature’s management style. I want to give my thoughts on the direction the V6 should be traveling in the future as I find myself in a position philosophically where I no longer own the ranch but the V6 owns me.

I think that risk-taking is inherent in most humans.

In an ever increasing wild and woolly cattle market, I decided that the V6 Ranch needed to diversify.

What we need for the survival of humanity is a paradigm shift (a fundamental change in approach or understanding) towards a more ethical treatment of land. A more community minded interest in the health of the ground around us.

When I speak of the big four I’m talking about the four biggest meat packing houses that harvest 85% of the beef we eat in our country. With this kind of leverage they are able to strong arm you the consumer and me the producer at the same time.

My dictionary says that logic is a way of reasoning that can be correct or incorrect by the use of faulty information. So, where does a steward of the land look for the truth, when there’s so much misinformation that has to be sifted through, to find a logical beginning place?

I think bare ground is first and ranch roads are second in line for their ability to change the face of a ranch from beautiful to ugly. I believe that if a steward of the land treats his or her roads as “what a nice blessing to have, I can drive over every square inch of my land,” you are no longer a steward but a lazy oof.

I believe every living thing spends their lives living in a bell shaped curve which gives all different life forms a chance to live within the confines of the center of their bell curve, all the way out to the extremes on either side as the bottom of the bell widens out.

I could never have perceived this new way to understand the whole without first giving myself permission to constantly reinvent myself to consider what is true and makes sense.

I have always believed wholeheartedly that the “outside of a horse is good for the inside of a person” and this past week this quote has certainly proved to be true.

Seems like everyone these days is on a diet of one kind or another so I thought I would throw in my two cents worth about my latest diet.

The year is 1953 and I’m about ready to graduate from Palo Alto High School. So let me tell you a little bit about my class.

Basic Cow: $699.95

Loading and unloading: $35.75

Full on 4 stomachs digester:$179.25

Two tone exterior hair coat: $142.10

Etc, etc, etc

A short poem by Jack Varian

It’s all in the eyes of the beholder. Surely this is an easy way to pick a fight with almost anybody as “proper” and “balance” are such subjective words when used to describe the way we in agriculture care for the land.

I used to brag about our Cholame Valley because of its surrounding mountains the wind seldom blew, but not so this year. As of this 25th day of March 2021 the wind is blowing a gale and has driven me back to the comfort of my house.

…Finally, with a most beautiful roof in place it was time to call for the house painter and the many good days as well as a few days of blunders all were done and I could say "I’m glad we built the Dream House".

The 1970s were a time of cattle prices that were getting better and rainfall that produced good grass on the range, big hay crops in the valley and with the blessings from my accountant Zee and I decided to build our dream house on the view site we had saved. Sound out the bugle call it was time to start drawing plans, get a building permit and collect all the used materials that would be needed to build “The Dream”.

I’m sitting here in my recliner chair with a warm glow stirring around in my being. Zee and I just finished watching a movie by the name of The Goodbye Girl that washed away all my normal worries for a couple of hours like when is it going to rain? Is my brand new venture into the world of turning Chicken Pullets into hens that lay eggs worthy?