I hope everyone reading this has had a great Holiday season. We certainly have, and it’s even better now that I don’t have to skin buffalo for a few days! Actually, I don’t mind it, although was ready to be through for a bit as I finished caping a big bull for a mount yesterday. Those things are like something out of the Pleistocene! Their hide runs about a quarter inch thick in most places, except over the hump where it’s more like ¾”. Truly impressive specimens, they are…

The other project du jour was and remains another website job (plus of course catching up on the Telegraph!), and so we remain in a state of extremes, from high to no-tech.
Not to complain! I feel like the luckiest guy on earth.
First thing out at the harvest pasture the other morning one of the guides, Wayne, responded to my greeting and inquiry as to his state of affairs without a moment’s hesitation; “I’m living the dream!”
That’s been stuck in my head since. It sounds kind of corny, but it’s the truth.
Through luck and/or providence we’ve managed to stumble into the improbable blend of the Old and New Wests. From skinning buffalo and farming a working museum of sorts, to utilizing the incalculable power of the internet… oddly enough, the skill sets can be remarkably similar. Sheer persistence, and occasionally blind luck both come in handy.

We must have gotten the former from our homesteader ancestors, and we’re thankful for the latter regardless of source. Although I’m awed, at times, at the opportunities we’re presented. You know the saying, though; “to whom much is given, is much required”.
I’m fine with that. Have grown to like it, in fact. Except this is no dream…

Of course the “dream” can involve a good deal of hard work. That’s how it’s supposed to be, right? It’s hard to say which end of the technological spectrum is more problematic, although wait… there’s no question which one pisses me off worse! Computers, and some of these tech devices in general, have grown problematic to the point that I’m amazed anyone gets ‘em to work (or perhaps this is the one area where I’m unlucky). We recently endured a long-overdue computer upgrade. You’d think with a functioning high-speed network, transferring the files and settings off the old one should be at least somewhat painless?
Guess again. It’s a good thing I decided to buy local this time, as it took two trips to the wizards at Re-Compute, and much wailing and gnashing of teeth by myself before Windows had been once again more or less beaten into submission. One issue, an inexplicable inability to send or receive e-mail on a particular account (that functioned just fine at first after the transfer) stumped various ISP support types all over the globe, and even the locals, until a last-gasp re-boot fixed it, for no apparent reason. That one shot parts of about three days. Yes, it can be an awful lot like making old farm machinery work. You just keep trying things…

What astounds me; is this was on a locally built computer, with only the programs we need and use installed. Your average grandpa who orders one from Dell or Gateway, or picks one up at Costco or wherever… those come pre-loaded with more crap than you can imagine, and it’s all running in the background, constantly checking for updates and figuring out new ways to interfere with all the other programs doing the same thing, while all he wants to do is e-mail the kids and surf the net! In my Mother-in-law’s recent experience it can take a daughter parts of three days (is this a recurrent time frame?) to get it set up even for that!
Oddly enough, I’ve skinned buffalo for several tech guys in recent weeks, and they concur that things are out of hand. E-mail, in particular… with the levels of spam anymore, you have to be running some sort of filter (I highly recommend Mailwasher), not to mention firewalls, anti-virus and anti-spyware. I think most people just leave the thing the way it’s set up when they get it, and so it’s no wonder that many of my legitimate business e-mails to existing customers don’t make it through anymore. In fact, we’re back to plain old snail mail for invoicing and such, mostly. As recently as last year, we e-mailed a significant portion of them, but that was then, this is now…
But hey, not to rant on endlessly like some crabby old reprobate. Not on this New Year’s Eve, the last day of ’06, because we’ve also experienced the upside of computerization in astounding ways over the last year.

This old/new west “dream” wouldn’t be happening without it. In fact, we just searched our Quicken records looking for a place we used to buy maple sugar. Those go back to ’95, and we probably had a computer for a bit before we Quickened, although likely not by much as I despised paper bookwork even worse than the modern version. Those thoughts not only trigger flashbacks of ledger books <shudder…> but memories of when our satellite TV system up at the farm got fried by lightning, and then what was left was shredded in one of Cut Bank’s screaming gales, and we spent the insurance money on our first computer. An incalculably superior investment, don’t you agree?
The power of the internet manifested itself as never before during the past election. Without the blogs, there’s no question (in my mind, anyway) that Jon Tester wouldn’t have squeaked out a win over Conrad Burns. Perhaps I’m atypical, as I don’t watch TV and get the bulk of my news over the net, but open discussions of the issues of the day on places like the New West Network, not to mention thousands of blogs hosted by people of every persuasion imaginable, it changes the “landscape”. Things can happen SO fast, it’s astounding, and leaves the conventional media completely in the dust.
Here’s an example. What, you thought I’d get through this year-end column without bringing up wild bison?! Be serious…
On New West recently there was an extremely interesting discussion about USDA’s brucellosis eradication policies. In this case, it was triggered by a position taken by cattlemen’s group R-Calf (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund) urging Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns to pursue brucellosis eradication in Yellowstone “by multiple means”.
Now of course, eradicating brucellosis would be great. No one I know is against that. Let’s eradicate cheatgrass and knapweed too, not to mention the common cold and a host of other far more serious ailments!
The problem with brucellosis eradication in the Greater Yellowstone Area is that it would involve huge capture/test/slaughter operations. We’re talking about Yellowstone Park here, and we’re not talking about just bison. Oh, no, we’d have to capture all the elk, too!
But no problem, we’ll just round ‘em up, eh? Can’t be that much different than a herd of cows, can it?

Reporter Brodie Farquhar wrote an article about R-Calf’s position that ran on New West and in the Casper, WY Star-Tribune. I’d urge you to read it, and perhaps especially the comments, including some from yours truly. R-Calf 's position was skinned and quartered, I’d say. Eviscerated. But they came back with a “response”, from Dr. R.M. Thornsberry. Again, take a look, especially at the comments. I don’t believe I have ever seen an argument so completely shut down. Among other things, Thornsberry’s somewhat condescending tone was answered by George Vincent; “Dr. Thornsberry, you must think we without veterinary degrees are too stupid not to see the inconsistencies in your argument.” Vincent then proceeds to totally dismantle Thornsberry’s position.
The only feeble response is that we “have to keep the bison inside Yellowstone until brucellosis is eradicated.”
In a span of minutes, those positions were completely trashed. Utterly discredited and refuted. I hope Dennis McDonald, head of R-Calf (and to my astonishment, head of the Montana Democratic Party) took note. I know the Governor was not even slightly amused by the R-Calf episode. <update> Based on my son's conversation with the Governor on his 1/10/07 Goverment class tour of the Legislature, I am no longer as confident about the Governor's position on these matters.
That’s the risk; open your big mouth on the net, and you might get cut to ribbons. The upside is people rapidly learn to thoroughly think out their positions, because public humiliation just isn’t all that neat, and best avoided. There’s a few blogs that continue to spew rabid viewpoints, but by and large, most of them are pretty reasoned. They may disagree with each other, but their opinions are subject to intense scrutiny, which when met and answered greatly strengthens one’s position.
If nothing else, writing your thoughts down sharpens communicative ability, and I have come across some great writing in the most unlikely of places. Justin, for one, of What I Think (as if you give a damn!) singlehandedly shot down the myth that rednecks can’t write.
So, it’s just words on a page (or screen as it may be) but they can carry incredible power. And anyone is free to contribute. Here locally, at least the Billings Gazette has gone fully interactive, allowing comments which often eclipse the articles themselves. What an incredible public forum! Nothing like this has existed till now, where people can respond and make their opinions known more or less instantly. If their ideas are sound, they have just influenced public opinion and maybe even history in some small way. If hare-brained, well, try to keep a sense of humor about it, eh?
Again, we’re incredibly thankful for these and all the other opportunities we’re presented. Here’s sincere hopes that ’06 was at least half as kind to you as it was us, and all the best in ’07.

Happy New Year!