Range Management Can Be Fun

Blue Bonnets

Belted Galloways and Regenerative Agriculture

The Belted Galloway

Part of the homestead plan is to feed our family, along with that we hope to have an excess of meat to sell to help fund the Reds college. 

In 2014 we bought two young Belted Galloway heifers, in May 2015 I sold the donkeys and bought a cow/calf Dexter pair. I had read good things about both, and specifically good things about raising them both here in Texas. Nearly a year later the Galloways are proving to be the better fit for us. 

The Galloways did amazing on what was really scrub pasture the first year here. The superiority of the Galloways was very apparent after the Dexters joined the herd. The Galloways stayed fat and happy on the scrub whereas the Dexter struggled a bit. 

The other advantage, for me at least is the Galloways are naturally polled, meaning they are born without horns. Momma Dexter is a great mom, but when she gets excited about the feed bucket, that I've taught them all to follow, I get a bit nervous.

New Used Tractor

Massey Ferguson 135

Well, I finally broke down and bought a fixer-upper tractor. She runs. Leaks fuel when shut down, probably needs the carb rebuilt. I replaced the cap, wires, and coil. Immediately it ran better. I've gone through and replaced the radiator hoses that were pretty much all at the end of their serviceable life.

I've replaced the metal oil filter cartridge with a twist on. The front tires will need replaced in the next year. She's not much to look at but 43 horses of getting stuff done, and she's all mine. She's easy to work on, straight forward, and intuitively put together. That and there's a YouTube video for just about everything out there.

So far I'm digging her. Hopefully she'll work out well for the farm. I'll keep updates coming for folks who're looking for an older tractor. I spent almost a year and a half on Craigslist getting to know the market for used tractors (I was lucky enough to borrow my neighbors tractor the couple times I needed to brush hog) and knew a good deal when I saw it on a tractor that is prized for it's simplicity, ease of maintenance, and solid availability of parts (NAPA in this tractor's case).

An Old NCO Eating Dinner Alone

You don't know me, often I don't get to say thank you. This had never happened to me before I moved to Texas. Since moving here though it's happened at least once a month, sometimes much more.

I've been alone, I've been in a large group, I've been with another old crusty NCO, but you don't know me.

I'm an old man in a young man's business. I'm weathered, rough around the edges, knuckle dragging dinosaur in a profession that hasn't changed in many ways from its inception in the Roman Legion. On the other hand as a social experiment nothing is the same as when I first put on the uniform, but you don't know me.

I swear too much, I'm more comfortable among other men of my ilk than eating alone in a crowd of strangers. I've spent 4 of the last 5 years away from my wife and our kids. It's my lot in life, and am so blessed to have a wife that understands my calling. My love of country. Dedication to the Ideal that is America, or my view of it anyway, Family, Duty, Honor, but you don't know me.

We'll probably never get to sit down and visit, but I want you to know how humbled I am by that meal you bought me. You don't know me, but you went out of your way to be kind. You don't know me, but you went out of your way to sacrifice your means to pick up a meal for me, or a group of us.

I'm so proud to wear the uniform, I have the best gig in the world, I work with men who'd I kill for, die for, live for. I won the lottery to be in Texas, to be part of a flying unit, each day is a blessing. You don't know me, you'll probably never read this, but on the slim chance you ever bought an old NCO a meal know it means the world to him. Thank you.