I just talked to a lady whom I found out is a 7 generation
rancher in Colorado whose Great Great Great Granddaddy fought Indians for the land she
owns and who now…can’t do much of anything with it. She has over 160 acres left
of the ranch in Boulder and some of those same people who claim to want all
those afore mentioned things, have been the ones giving her the most problems.
As she said, “What all those things used to be called?… Just good ranching/farming,
pure and simple. It’s what we all did back then.” This lady is another one of
us…Texas refugees in exile out of Colorado and it’s ever over reaching
legislative government. She’s smart as a whip and an RN…knows her meds like the
back of her hand and knows what her rights are on her land. She’s been told by
Colorado that she can’t have a road through her property that her Great
Granddaddy put in with his wagon wheels.
It literally is “grandfathered in”…hope that one makes you smile, it did
for me!
But now, it’s got to be specialized and those who go to the
extremes to get the paperwork will charge you an arm and a leg when many still
do it that way, but are vilified as if they were some big money making scheme
and often lumped in with all the corporations and big farmers/ranchers rather than
seeing we are just small and local and doing this because…well…because “It’s
always been done this way”. I often
wonder if all the hype is just another big money making scheme by those who are
industrializing the natural foods and making it their own industry. Doesn’t
anyone know that those companies who produce those products ALSO go through the
government for their inspections? That baaad government which rules us and
dictates, can be seen as good or bad by either political views and for my
money, it’s gotten all too complicated these days.
So, I hope to do a little series on how to get back to basics
in our lives. What this will come from is nothing on the internet…because
believe me, I’ve found the only thing you can google are those things that are
amongst most of the hype. Proof in point, it was common knowledge by ranchers
and farmers that you didn’t feed your dog raw meat as it kicks in the natural
instincts and that can spell trouble when you have livestock. All farmers and
ranchers from yesteryear would feed cooked food and table scraps. My heavens…did
I just say table scraps? Yes, I did and these days you would find most
complaining that you must feed your dog this or that brand of dry dog food for
many reasons. But, it’s okay to feed raw meat…yes sirie…you won’t find any
articles against it, at least I couldn’t.
We also fed our livestock much of what was over produced. If
our chickens laid more eggs than we could eat or sell, we’d cook them for our
dogs & cats. If our milk cow produced more milk than we could use or sell,
we fed that to our dogs and cats. If there was still some left over and corn or
other grains that we had left over…then, it became sour mash and it was fed to
our hogs. Perfect life cycle, perfectly “Green” before that word was ever
invented to stand out on its own as a meaning. Did you also know in many areas
this is illegal? Yes…and often, so is getting left over food from a local
restaurant and yet, it is equally talked about amongst those who are “organic”
farmers and it’s all of a sudden a new idea! I about laugh myself over into my
hands at times reading this stuff.
Life for the farmer/rancher was all about recycling. Most
inventions today come from that type of knowledge…all y’all would be surprised.
Now, we have science
and yes…they’ve done some really scary things to many of our food products.
But, that may or may not be able to be changed. First, as far as GMO’s go…I was
in college at the age of 17, in 1973 and was in many Organic Ag classes. I can
tell you, on the internet you will find that wheat was GMO’d in the 1980’s.
But, in our class…we knew they already had gmo’s in our fields and being
produced for the public. It wasn’t wide spread yet and most people didn’t even
know about it. So, if you’ve been alive since 1973…you already have that in
your system, so if you are worried about genetically modifying you or your
children’s systems…it’s too late. Second, there is a small problem that I so
far haven’t seen tackled to my satisfaction and that is cross contamination. It
is nearly impossible to keep from it.
But what I will tell you is that you can start to control the
small things. Let’s be more like the ranchers/farmers of yesteryear and control
those things within our reach. We can move forward after we’ve controlled the
small things that truly DO have an effect on our environment, our lives, our
health and so much more! We all have to start somewhere and we can’t go back. We
don’t want to buy into a huge industry these days of health foods, either…because
we’ll just be going back to what we already have and paying mightily for it.
Let’s get back to the basics of our great granddaddy’s by thinking more like
they would to get ourselves out of this situation. If more of us did that,
rather than trying to reinvent the wheel…we truly will be grassroots and we
really will be able to stop the “big machines” of corporations.
Remember…corporations get there because they know how to advertise and know how
to hit you below the belt. I also was a Sound Engineer and worked in that
industry at Paramount Studios and Las Vegas Recording Studio. I also took many
courses in Advertising and how to sell a product. What you are reading in
reverse of the corporate farmer/ranching industry is NOT small time local
farmers. But, more that it is the NEW, large corporation machine in the “health
food” industry.
Keep looking for my simple life blog spots which will most
likely be interspersed in my regular ranch info. Thanks for being a part of the
Silver Spur Ranch readers. God Bless and don’t take any wooden nickels! For
y’all who are too young to know what that means, simply…don’t be fooled!
Elvira…at the Bates Bunkhouse…Happy Trails!
