Just returned from a sun filled, real western ranch vacation with real people no less. I had a chance to talk with real people who live in the so-called “fly-over” part of the country between the nutty west coast and the wacky east coast. These are the people that make the country work. They are self reliant and don’t depend on government to make things work for them. No whiners here in Wyoming. They provide the food that we city slickers put on the table. And oh yes, they cut down trees so that we can build our fancy homes and houses.
Kathy’s cousin has a ranch near the Black Hills of S. Dakota just across the state line in Wyoming. Sprawling prairies, tall Ponderosa Pines reaching upward from rocky soil, black hills, mountain goats, antelope, deer, wild turkeys and elk. All this is about 50 miles from Mt. Rushmore and Devil’s Tower. We rode horses and four wheelers until our rear ends were chapped. But I don’t mind stretching my hemorrhoids with a work out riding one of God’s greatest creatures, the horse, slowly winding up through beautiful canyons of fragrant sage grass, wild flowers, alfalfa and blue skies. We gathered eggs from the hen house, roasted a pig, shot prairie dogs (who actually harm the land and cattle) and hiked along the creek that runs through 5000 acres of seemingly untouched land. All this land is taken care of and treated like a well tended garden by …you guessed it, the environmental haters, global warmers, and polluters known as humans.
Actually, if I were king for a day, I’d have live FOX news coverage (ok CNN too) interview my wife’s cousin Doug. Doug along with his wife owns and runs a log mill in Hulett Wyoming called BearLodge. He could explain to all the dopes out there and loony tree huggers about the real environmentalists and how they work to save trees and forests in a responsible way. They are people like Doug Mills who treats the forest with respect and prunes them so they are more productive and less likely to be overcrowded and flare up in flames by lightning strikes. Not because some government agency is telling them to do so, but because they understand the importance of preserving and tending God’s creation. Proper, responsible, logging produces more trees, healthier trees that are more productive as well as increases available grazing land for their sheep and cattle. People like Doug who started his own wood “pellet” manufacturing facility on site where tons of saw dust are recycled and packaged that could be sent around the world to help heat homes in the winter. Nothing is wasted. And what’s more, it didn’t require government mandates to make it happen. It was good common sense and a spirit of entrepreneurship and capitalism that drives the men and women like Doug and Dena. It’s a family affair too. Their 2 boys and a girl (below ages 12) have been fully trained to run the mill if they needed to. They load carts, run the machines, sweep up, and bag pellets (I hope OSHA doesn’t find out) and also milk the cows. The government so-called environmentalists who have little experience in actually saving and growing trees are clueless when it comes to responsible forestry. All they know is what some pin headed professor in our liberal schools tell them or what they read from a book. My suggestion is for them to ask people like Doug, his parents, and Dena’s parents who have been doing this for many many years and who know how to grow everything from garden vegetables to Pondersa Pines.
But all this is symptomatic of what is going on in Washington today. From the President on down to the cabinet appointments, not a single person there has ever held a real job. They are all policy wonks and life long politicians educated at liberal northeast universities and have held government jobs their entire career. They need to meet and hear people like the Mill’s family explain a few things about life.
More about our trip to the Rodeo later.
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