Country Savvy

Tonight, I was flipping channels on TV, and stopped to listen to the Oak Ridge Boys sing some gospel music.  I really don’t know why, but something in what they were singing made me think of  my Grandmother’s house.  I was remembering  the one and only picture on the wall.  There was an 8 by 10 glittery picture of Jesus over the door to the kitchen from the living room. There may have been a picture in the bedroom off the kitchen, but it is very vague to me.  The picture of Jesus was one that was popular many years ago and has probably graced many homes.  Jesus was surrounded by a glow to show the grace of Heaven, and that old cheap picture was a guiding light in my Grandmother’s home.

Let me give you a little history of the house from the eyes of a child.  My Grandparents had eight children, the youngest is only 6 years older than me.  I don’t know how many were still living at home when they bought this four room house, but in my short years, I know there were still 4 or 5 still living at home.  This house was an adobe with thick walls, a tin roof (no insulation), no bathroom and no hot water.  I remember when they put in the bathroom, a tub and a toilet. It was an added on and in the corner off the lean to enclosed porch.  The kitchen had a large sink with only a single rabbit ear faucet on the cold water. The cook stove had eight burners, four coal/wood and four gas.  It had a big oven under each side.  Since the gas was not hooked up, we burned a lot of wood and coal.  My Grandmother was a master at cooking on that old stove.  And since there was no hot water tank, all the hot water was heated on that stove. There were several large pots (some were water bath canners) to heat the water for a bath.  Once the water was hot, it had to be carried to the bathroom without spilling.  Also in the kitchen was a small cabinet attached to the sink.  It was about 4 foot long, this held all the dishes.  Also, there were 2 ice boxes (the kind you had to put ice into for it to be cold), a 5 ft round table and chairs.  The interior wall were also adobe, so the heat from the kitchen stayed in the kitchen, winter and summer.

The living room was fairly large (to a child), and in the winter was heated by a coal oil stove.  It heated the corner it was in nicely.  It was great to come in from the cold and stand between it and the wall.   And when all the family showed up, it could get a little warm.  I slept many nights on the floor of that living room. (When all the family showed up, all the kids slept on the floor).

Going from the living room to the kitchen over the years had worn the wood floors to the point that they were springy when you walked through that door.  And I remember when they put double windows (not to be confused with double pane windows of today) in the house.  The locks on the door were the same on every old house in town.  A single skelton key would open half the doors in town.

The single most endearing memory is not the phyical description, but the good times and the sad times in that house. We were family and we were blessed by having a Grandmother that loved everyone and welcomed everyone into that house.

I could go on and on, but then instead of a blog, this would be a book.  Maybe a book that should be written, I don’t know.

I hope that you have fond memories of your Grandmother’s House.

I received an email yesterday that got me to thinking.  The email was about an old man in a hospital or nursing home, who was being cared for by nurses.  I don’t know how many of you have seen old people in nursing homes or really understand the treatment they receive.  Yes, they have to be bathed, some require help eating and leave a real mess, they are given medications, and all the other care necessary to maintain life.  But how many care givers really look at them and realize that once they were real functional people like you and I.  How many of us give these old people the empathy they deserve.  How many of us will treat them with respect as we would a more healthy, useful person.  They all were and still are useful living persons.  Even the most feeble, who cannot communicate well, cannot control their bodily functions, who cannot feed themselves serve a useful purpose.  From them we should learn humility, patience, and we should learn to soften our hearts, because, some day, they are us.

Now we all think that someday we will die.  We do not know when, but as we get older, we realize that it could be tomorrow, next week or next year.  Only God knows when we will die and how we will die.  When I was young and in the Marine Corps, I was not sure I would live to be 30.  Then as I worked through a profession, I was not sure I would live to collect retirement and Social Security.  I have lived through all this and have many wonderful life experiences, and I have a lot of bad life experiences.  That is life.  But as I approach 70 years of age, just how many more years will I live?  How many more useful years will I live?  I cannot answer these questions, nor do I want to.  What I do want is the ability to enjoy the remaining years, to be active and to be humble.  I want to enjoy my family, I want to enjoy learning and growing into an old man gracefully.  I want to be able to accept the fact that I lived my life as it was destined to be.  I cannot regret things I didn’t get done, nor can I regret the lack of accomplishments.  I lived the life I was supposed to live and I am happy with it.

I think I would say, we should accomplish what we think we should when we are young, but be prepared to accept what life deals us.  We all live a life for a reason, whether it be a drug ridden homeless person, or a President. And when we die, it will be by God’s will, not ours.

And yes, I would like to live a few more years, but I will enjoy each day as it comes with no regrets. And should I live to the point where I become one of those in a nursing home, I would hope that I will be treated with respect and receive care from professionals who have a little empathy.

God Bless you all

Many of you may have noted that I have not made a post in awhile.  I have been very busy and for me, the Internet is a thing I do when time allows.  Because of that, I have been catching up on twitter, email and news. All this brings me to what I want to discuss today.  I have noted on twitter that several people advocate for grass fed beef.

I think this is well and good, but being a small time beef producer in an area of the country that has only had an inch of rain in almost a year, it leaves me with little choice but to supplement feed my cattle. I know that in some parts of the country, cattle stay fat year around, have grass that is nutritious and require little if any supplemental feed.  If this were true in the west, we would all make money and be happy, but the truth is, in the west we have many producers of supplemental feeds because it is necessary to maintain healthy cattle that will produce a calf every year. (Also, I think we would have more trouble with animal rights people).

For those of you who think that a cow can eat only grass and make meat, we need to get a few things straight.  It takes protein in the grass to produce meat.  A cow can eat a ton of straw colored grass and not get enough protein to sustain life. I have seen cows eat bark from trees, pull up yucca plants to eat the roots, browse on weeds and various types of brush.  And if they are hungry, they will eat loco weed and other types of weeds, some of which will either make them sick or kill them outright.

There are several types of supplemental feeds that help keep a cow healthy.  Some are all natural, and some are not.  By the time it is processed by the cow, you still have all natural beef. The only difference is that some will taste a little different than others based on what they are fed. Then, there is the breed of beef.  Different breeds will produce different taste to their meat also.  Some have yellow fat, some white, some have belly fat, some back fat.  The fat is what makes most meats provide the taste, good or bad.  Some beef have no marbling and others have a lot.  I raise Texas Longhorn, which is very lean, low in cholesterol and low in marbling.  The Texas Longhorn has belly fat.  It is tender when cooked right but does taste a little different than say a Hereford.

I know people who prefer milk breeds to a beef breed.  Others that prefer beef breeds. So I guess, taste is more derived from the breed than is derived from the fact that it is grass fed or not. There are many different types of grass and all are not equal.

I will take my Longhorn lean beef and you can have what you want, but I will supplement feed as necessary for the health of the cow always.