The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Many years ago I attended a small, two room school about four miles from our ranch house. We didn’t have many neighbors so two rooms was enough for the eight or 10 kids spread out over four or five...

You have no doubt noticed that I write about the funny things that happen to me. It’s easy to do because I don’t have to make anything up and who would know more about it than me? I was there....

Everywhere I turn, I have heard a lot about the wonder of technology. It has worked itself into our lives, like it or not. Ironically, agriculture, usually one of the last bastions to resist change,...

Well, Thanksgiving is over, didn’t get around to writing about it, mostly because I ate too much and slept through most of it. I’m sure you didn’t have that same problem. However, with that...

I guess you could say I have been “flipped off.” Now, depending on how your mind works, you may think Sue popped the clutch on the pickup while I was feeding off the flatbed. Some might assume...

Well, winter is here. I said I could hardly wait for it to get here. Boy, was that a stupid thing to say. I have to wonder just what was I thinking of. I do, however know what I was not thinking of. I...

I just realized Fall and Winter are when I truly enjoy rodeoing the most. “What’s that?” you say. How can I enjoy rodeoing in our region in the fall and winter? There are no rodeos then....

Thanksgiving is coming up soon. I’m not sure if it is a national tradition to use the occasion to stop for a moment and think of the things we are thankful for or not. At our house, however,...

Partnerships. I will be the first to admit this is a strange title for an “Under The Wire.” Truth of the matter is, for some reason this morning while driving across our Sandhills pasture this...

This story is very hard to write because I am, in a way, having to retract a statement I have made quite often the past few months. Even worse I must “throw in the towel," “wave the white flag...

Once again, winter looms ahead. That means it’s time to switch from straw to felt hats, “T” shirts to long sleeves and jackets and for a cowboy, the most difficult change of all. Fall means...

The shiny new four wheel drive pickup rolled into the yard. As Rancher Smith walked up to the driver’s side window he was greeted by a big jovial smiling face. “Howdy, I’m your new neighbor acro...

I have never considered myself a superstitious person, in fact I have made fun of friends who believed in any type of that behavior. I will admit, however, if it is genetically heritable, I may have...

Growing up in Eastern Colorado there were two things I had little, if no, experience with and never developed a like for. Deep water and high places. In a region with about 12 inches of annual precipi...

I have lost track of how many columns I’ve written about my dislike of computers. Well, here is one more. Everywhere I turn there is a story about A.I. No, not the kind of AI we livestock people...

A few weeks ago I wrote an “Under The Wire” in which I complained about my on going battle with weeds here on the Hodgson Rancho. It included descriptions of moving, spraying, chopping with a...

Fall is a wonderful time of the year. Trees turn wonderful colors, night begin to become longer and cooler, days are shortened a few seconds every day and best of all the frosts that accompany fall...

Some things in this world don’t require much explanation for them to make sense to just about anyone. On the other side of the coin, there are certain situations that are difficult to explain to...

One of life’s great mysteries is how a father and mother can produce two children and have them be so different. I also wonder how some couples had a particular child and even wanted to chance havin...

How often have you asked someone “How are you doing?” and received a reply of, “I’m doing OK but I wish someone would shut off this wind!” I find this notable because rarely does anyone want...

I have often said everything I know about people I learned from a cow. Today, however, I am writing about something I doubt even a cow could understand. We all have heard about “Test Tube Meat,"...

Long time “Under the Wire” readers are by now aware of my propensity towards accidents and injuries. The truth of the matter is, new readers won’t have to read very many of these columns to...

A recent, rare, Hodgson family vacation via automobile, drew me from the familiar flatlands of Eastern Colorado to an area so starkly different, it could have been the moon as far as I knew. In fact,...

Folks like us who make a big part of their living off the land develop an appreciation not only for how it serves us but also for those who took care of it before we came along. As a student, I will...

In the past when a cowboy got ready to leave for a rodeo, he loaded old Dobbin in the trailer, crawled into his truck and pulled onto the super slab. Today, nothing really has changed, except for one...