Serving all of Eastern Laramie County since 1908
Serving all of Eastern Laramie County since 1908
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"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!" We've all heard that phrase before. And it's likely we learned it at a very young age. Kids can be brutal with insults and name-calling. When I was a kid, there weren't classes, or counselors, or programs, or school assemblies to help me deal with being called names or being "bullied". It was just a part of growing up. I still remember most of the words these bullies said to this day. They were words that we don't use in...
Confusion. And deceit. The world is full of it. With the passing of every election cycle, it seems to me that it continually worsens. Rather than telling the truth and being forthright with the American people, candidates use fear mongering tactics and deception to create confusion. Although trillions of bits of information are at our fingertips in our modern society, it is increasingly difficult to disseminate the truth from the falsities and inaccuracies. There is so much misinformation, even...
It's nearly 2am, again, and I find myself engulfed in work that must be done, no matter the day or the time. September is always a hard month on the farm. The past few weeks, we have been pushing hard to cultivate fields, plant wheat, harvest chickpeas, harvest millet, and ship grain. Honestly, that's just the tip of the projects, as there are multiple things intertwined so that everything operates in a functional and productive manner. And that's just on the farm. Dry crop farming in...
I've sat down several times this past month to write this column. Each time it's been a different topic, and each time I was interrupted by something at the farm that was more pressing at that moment. First, I thought, "I'll just write more about politics. Afterall, it's a heated election year and I should take the few words I have to help enlighten the topics of politicians, political agendas, and the power of our voice through our vote. In this seemingly tumultuous time, what could be more...
It's the season again. I'm a farmer, so I primarily run my life depending on which season it is. Typically, while everyone else is on camping trips and hanging out at the lake during the summer season, we are working. You can't grow much here in Wyoming during the 5 to 6 months of winter we get to enjoy each year, so we must seize the moment. Summer means tilling, planting, harvesting, and a whole lot of other things that take up nearly every minute. There's honestly just not much downtime. It...
It's hard to leave the farm. Especially in the summer. It seems like there is always work to do, no matter how much progress we've made. I decided long ago that if I let our farm dictate our personal life, we'd never leave. Over the years, we've made a very conscious effort to take short trips away from the hustle and bustle of our operation, to enjoy our boys and our time together as family in a different environment, all while hopefully exposing our boys to a world outside of where we live. My...
I love Spring. Call me crazy, but cool, foggy, drizzly days are some of my favorites. I love stepping outside after a spring rain and smelling the air. It smells perfect. The sweetness from the blossoms on the apple trees and the aroma from the fresh flowers. The fresh, wholesome smell of newly plowed soil. The clean scent of newly mowed grass and the feel of the moist, dense air. As I look around my farm, I see so many wonderful sights. I see a robin sitting on her three perfectly shaped blue...
"This is freaking me out, Ron!", exclaimed Cristy. In retrospect, driving blindly in the night as we inched along some random road in a classic Western Wyoming blizzard was probably not the wisest choice we had ever made, especially at the age of 18 with no way to contact anyone if we had trouble. But then again, it was part of the adventure and we just needed to persevere a little bit longer. My fellow state FFA officer, Cristy Dicklich, and I were traveling around the state presenting...
I hate the wind. In over 50 years as a Wyoming resident, I have always detested it. As a farmer, it is heartbreaking to observe the life-giving soil moisture disappear as the wind wreaks havoc on the fields we will be planting soon. Each morning, I listen to my friend, Don Day, hoping that he will offer me a reprieve from the elements and reassure me that rain is on its way. There is no doubt that living in Wyoming has plenty advantages. Unfortunately, the weather isn't always among them. I...
We've all heard the saying that, "A country that cannot feed itself, cannot secure itself." But what does that actually mean? In short, it means the more we depend on other countries to produce the things we can produce in this country, the more vulnerable we become to relying on other countries to provide us with what might arguably be the most important thing any of us do on a daily basis: eat. If we don't have a reliable, plentiful, and safe food supply, we are ALL in trouble. It's easy to...
Recently the Wyoming Supreme Court issued a public censure of a Cheyenne attorney who was the lead prosecutor in a case against an Albin farm owner, her son and two contractors who were present when DCI agents stormed a farm northeast of Albin. This attorney and the Laramie County DA office claimed that these individuals were conspiring to grow, possess and distribute marijuana. Despite overwhelming evidence disproving the claim, they refused to recognize the crop as hemp. In its findings, the Supreme Court confirmed that “In the course of t...
Grow hemp and you'll get rich! Profits of $20,000 to $30,000 per acre are possible. Well, not to be Debbie Downer, but any scheme that portrays itself as a "get rich quick" proposition, more than likely deserves a fair amount of scrutiny. As many of you know, I have been a proponent of legalizing the production of hemp in Wyoming. Along with two other colleagues, I was the first to present a case compelling enough to the legislature, that the first bill in Wyoming history was passed in 2017 to...