It’s gotta be my Backhoe, yes it surely is my John Deere 310 and I can just feel the environmentalists that know me shudder. They all thought that I was on their side, well if you give me a few paragraphs to explain about all the different tools and grazing animals that I use to steward the V6, I think you will understand my logic.

I just finished watching a documentary about Winston Churchill and the risk he took to go against all odds, that any good betting man would give no chance, that his plan would succeed.

I would like all of you that are reading this blog to now visualize that you are no longer looking at your cell phone screen but your standing with legs spread slightly and ready to put a nickel in the coin slot of a 1950s or 1960s Pinball Machine. Nickel is in and the machine comes alive with lights on and a bell rings and up pops a shiny one inch chrome plated ball in the lower right hand corner of the playing field.

What would cause me to have a satisfied mind? I guess it’s a lot like counting your blessings. I’m sitting at our kitchen table that seats eight and at our kitchen counter, 10 more are squeezed together for my grandaughter Sammy’s 21st birthday party.

I still graze the Little Cholame and its close surroundings but only in the dormant winter times and I do it in moderation. So what I see happening is the formation of a community of green growing things that are complex in their makeup but moderate in their demands, meaning that each has a place in helping to create an environment where a symbiotic community can thrive.

Throughout the next couple of weeks, there would be more changes that if we wanted to be annoyed we could but I could hardly wait to see this “diamond in the rough” as it emerged into an elegant homey place where 42 would sit down outside on a beautifully warm afternoon Christmas Day to celebrate the birth of Christ and eat till stuffed.

It’s a nice thought but then, how do you pay all your bills if you give it all away? I’m trying to answer that age old question when an outdoor fly decides he wants to be an indoor house fly. Not wanting this interloper in my house I had to search in the pantry for my fly swatter that I thought I wouldn’t need until next summer. My next thought was to ask myself what have I got to blog about at this moment in time? Really nothing.

With my two tacos settled in my stomach, I was ready to sing something. I would have never considered doing this in my youth for what would my friends think, but at my age now it’s become quite easy to pump myself up with one of my favorite sayings: “What you think about me is none of my business.”

I’m looking at the pen of unbranded calves, it looks like 120 or so have been worked and about 20 are left to be worked so I’m thinking I can’t cause too much havoc if I enter the fray and throw a few loops. When I was younger, I would never in a million years guess that I would still be around after 88 years, as my family tree doesn’t have longevity as one of its inherited characteristics.

Zee and I built a house big enough to entertain in, but history proved that we have been poor entertainers as I probably can count the get-togethers we’ve had since 1975 on my fingers. But this has all changed this year when Lilly said that she and Mike had invited 31 for Thanksgiving dinner and could we use our house for the celebration.

Our songs of the 50s as I remember were sung mostly by Perry Como, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby. The sounds came mostly from big bands with lots of horns, drums and a piano. “So what? Your era is no longer relevant.” Well, I think the songs of my era are still very important and we need a big dose of them right now!

A conservation Easement is a strictly voluntary agreement between a rancher, a farmer, or an absentee owner of land who want to see that the land they own will remain as one parcel and the right to subdivide will be extinguished. I think most all governments agree that maintaining open space on a permanent basis is a good thing. When my wife and I placed a conservation easement on our V6 Ranch the I.R.S. said that we had devalued the ranch by half, but that was in 2001.

So, as I see it right now, we earthlings have a Carbon based society and parallel to our society we have an emerging Silicone society and we don’t know how to manage it. My hope is that fair minded people will prevail and there will be a God that I can talk to every night and a Bill of Rights much like we have today. What lies ahead only time will tell. But I’m going to cast my vote for the leader who will choose the Sunny Side of the Street. 

My cell phone has Siri to tell me how to spell and define a word. It’s a word that I have heard of but have never used before, because it has a mean spirited sound to it. Narcissistic according to Siri means having an excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one’s self appearance.

But what I do know right now is, we need to be less dogmatic and self righteous. So let’s start by gobbling up a good helping of love and laughter, being decent to one another and restoring law and order. I believe if we are curious enough there is that place between obesity and skinny where nobody gets the whole loaf and we might find we don’t need so much stuff like the happy hungry children of Tanzania.

I awoke yesterday to what had all the trappings of being an ordinary day as my circle of life gets ever smaller. I’m still able to pull up my pants from the standing position and slide into my low top tennis shoes, no more cowboy boots.

I’ve just spent time walking down the main gravel street of our Little Cholame Creek observing all the goings on and it’s left me with a serious case of the “warm fuzzies.” Now that’s my kind of truth. 

It took 33 years for me to notice that my most important crop was always here and living here quite happily, but was in need of a little sprucing up. The V6 needed to wear its grass a little longer and any bald spots needed some extra protection. Most all of the ranch trees look very satisfied with their lot in life except for the Valley Oaks that have tried for years to compete with a farmer and his plow and his desire to grow a grain crop.

So are you ready now for our photo journey down The Little Cholame Creek? Look, look in every direction there’s so many different trees, willows, cottonwoods, a few valley oaks, cat tails, and an entourage of little frogs, bugs, birds, and many more.