Author: Educated Cowpuncher

American by birth and the Grace of God, a Patriot by choice. I have worked in Agriculture all my life, punching cattle for 27 plus years. Currently I own and operate a goat rental business, travelling Kansas using goats to manage weeds, brush and invasive trees. I have a BS in Animal Science from Kansas State University. In my spare time I write Cowboy Poetry and I am working on my educational book about raising meat goats. I raise ABCA registered Border Collies and AQHA horses (from time to time I raise a colt).

First Lady Jill Biden: Abuser

Event he Democrats are agreeing that Joe Biden is not on top of his game, in fact the 80-year-old is declining quite rapidly. It has been evident since he moved into the White House, tripping and falling, missing his marks, bumbling his speeches and generally exhibiting extreme aging. With every elected resident of the White House we witness rapid aging, that is the nature of the position but with Uncle Joe, it is very clear that he is in more than rapid aging, he is in extreme decline. It is this writer’s opinion that if the Democrat party cannot come up with a strong candidate, they will lose the whole party to the Communist party. But I digress. The real topic is Jill Biden, former babysitter, now wife of Joe.

How can Jill Biden, a wife, allow her husband to be in the spotlight when it is obviously clear he is not up to the task? Every speaking engagement he bumbles something unintelligible or something so off course the crowd just nervously smiles. He is incompetent! Yet this woman allows her husband to be pushed into the spotlight and made a fool of!

Joe sucking on Jill’s finger

How can a wife who truly loves her man, treat him this way? How can anyone in Washington D.C. wave this off as anything short of elder abuse? I remember when Ronald Regan was President and they started questioning his mental capacity. Oh MY GOODNESS! The press went crazy, they made a big ta-do about it. The lamestream media is SILENT when Uncle Joe stumbles or says something NO ONE can make out.

Happily, Joe’s failing mental capacity is what is going to get him off on the illegal Hunter Biden business deals that implicate Joe. Poor Joe, a man who has lied all his life and still been able to screw the American Public with his Socialist agenda. Remember he LIED about the car wreck of his first wife. It was SHE who drove in front of the truck not the opposite. Joe’s narrative ruined that truck driver’s life. Joe’s continuous lies and agenda have ruined the American People’s lives by treasonous dealings with China and Iran and many others.

The next question is, Does Jill Biden really believe she can push Joe into the spotlight much longer? Do they dope him up and train him to say as they want? Jill Biden is a dangerous woman if she is part of this deal. Abuser yes, hater of America, you betcha! How long are we going to allow this to go on?

Joe with then babysitter, Jill

It Isn’t Just the Jews They are After

Did you know that 1 in 7 Christians are persecuted world wide? Did you know that 1 in 5 Christians are persecuted in Africa and 2 in 5 Christians are persecuted in Asia? Why don’t we hear about this on the lamestream media? I believe it is because like the Jews who the terrorist organization called Hamas, is also targeting Christianity for elimination. We are talking religious persecution on steroids.

Most commonly, governments are targeting the Christians but more and more you see Islamists (Islam is a political ideology that uses religion as a way to operate.) killing Christians. In addition to killing Christians, many are forcibly displaced and became refugees. According to Open Doors.org, “Islamic extremism continues to cause the most persecution (31 nations), especially in sub-Sahara Africa where Open Doors fears Nigeria will soon trigger ‘a vast humanitarian catastrophe” across the continent.”

Open Doors list the top eleven countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian: #1 North Korea, #2 Somalia, 3 Yemen, 4 Eritrea (a country along the Red Sea), 5 Libya, 6 Nigeria, 7 Pakistan, 8 Iran, 9 Afghanistan, 10 Sudan, 11 India

The places where Christians face the most violence are: Nigeria, Pakistan, Cameroon, India, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Myanmar, Colombia and Niger. What is frightening is that even Mexico is in the top 40 list!

Open Doors reports that between October 2021 and September 2022, the number of Christians martyred are as follows and list the numbers! Some are estimated (denoted by *) because these are conservative numbers.

Nigeria-5,014,
Name withHeld: 100*
Mozambique: 100*
Democratic Republic of Congo; 100*
Central African Republic: 61
Myanmar: 42
Colombia: 21
India: 17
Mexico: 14
Honduras: 14
Pakistan:12

It isn’t just individual Christians who are under attack, it is the churches. It isn’t unusual about what China is doing to Christians as it is common to hear about people thrown into prisons. Yet the churches still thrive under these threats! Thank God for that as people are hungry for the Word of God. However, China tops the list for the most estimated churches closed from Oct 21-Sept 22, with a conservative estimate of at least 1,000 churches closed. Nigeria, Myanmar, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Angola are estimated at at least 100 churches closed and India closed 67, Mexico closed 42, Colombia closed 37 and Nicaragua closed 31 churches. WHY?

Why is Christianity targeted along with Jews? My belief is that because both religions are based upon the same God and those targeting them fear the TRUTH. In any way shape or form you look at things, Jews are number one on the list and Christians are next. WAKE UP people!

It’s Time for Joe to Go

Joe Biden recently celebrated his 81st birthday. We all know he is the liar-in-chief but now he has become the depends man. It depends on what time of the day he speaks total gibberish, or not, or it depends on whether or not he will fall, OR if Hunter’s money laundering schemes can be tied to Joe, or better yet it the family has purchased stock in the Depends diaper company. Whatever may happen the whole world knows the good old pervert Uncle Joe is living on borrowed time. His mind has been gone for some time but the DemocRat Party is starting to turn on him. They all know how dangerous the situation is and they are sadly struggling to figure out how to oust him from office before the elections and find a suitable candidate that isn’t compromised in some way shape or form.

We all know Joe is guilty of treason with Hunter’s money laundering games. Joe’s buddy-buddy ties to China and the Ukraine are plain to see in spite of what the lamestream media tries to hide or deny. Even his policies are proving to be dangerous and no one who thinks logically will deny that his weakened physical and mental state has put the whole country in danger.

Even other countries who rely on out strength are worried and silent. The attack on Israel by terrorists is proof that Donald Trump was right, a weak United States has endangered our allies. With open borders, we have countless Islamic terrorists just waiting for orders to attack. Where do I get my information on that? It is pure logic. There have been reports of bad people from China, Iran, and other countries who support terrorists crossing the border. “Military aged men” reports have been made several times. A strategist could easily see these dangers. And let’s not get started on the many domestic requirements he has mandated through Executive Orders from the very first day of his administration. This man has wanted to bring us down for ages. He wants the elite to not be threatened by entrepreneurs who are gathering wealth from their own businesses and investments. He truly wants one world government and a two class citizenry, the elites and the slave laborers known as the working class. It is Time for Joe to GO!

Biblical History of the Palestinians

Recently I watched a documentary on the Palestinian people. The documentary explained the ins and outs of why Israel was called Palestine for about 600 years. It was basically to demean the Jews living there. It was basically a tactic the Romans used when they held control of the Land of Israel., There was no formal Palestinian government only the Roman government. No coins were issued for Palestine which is one of the things a formal government does. The documentary also found DNA from the remains of a baby that was found in the now Gaza strip. The DNA is from a Philistine/Palestinian, but the DNA matched that of the DNA of remains found on the island of CRETE! Curiosity got the better of me, so I gathered some of my late father’s Bibles, Encyclopedias of the Bible and other books he had and started digging. It didn’t take me long to find a lot of information and I will share that with you, now. This will be a long commentary, so bear with me.

The Naves Topical Bible: A Digest of the Holy Scriptures on page 957, lists Biblical references and a few notes about these people who are supposedly the ancestors of modern Palestinians. They are called the ‘descendants of Mizraim’ in Genesis 10:6-14. They are mentioned as being descended from Ham, Noah’s son who Noah cursed for looking upon his naked body when he (Noah) lay passed out from being drunk. So, from the beginning, these people are cursed. From the Hamites (sons of Ham) comes Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan. Cush was the father of Nimrod who was a mighty warrior. We are looking at people who were bad to the bone so-to-speak and from Canaan clans were bad people.

The Digest also calls them CHERETHITES from 1 Samuel 30:14-16, which means they were Philistines. Another note lists them as CAPHTORIM and through other online sources I found several references to these people being from North East Africa, so they could be a group from Egypt but prior to that they are thought to have originated from Cyprus, Crete, or Cappadocia which of all things, if you look on a map, is in the Mediterranean Sea near Macedonia!

Where I got a lot of information was from The Layman’s Bible Encyclopedia, pages 618-619. I will quote the two paragraphs here. “A people who held the coastal area of southern Palestine and were frequently at war with the Israelites in the period of the judges and the early years of the monarchy. The land which they inhabited was called Philistia and contained five major cities: Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath. Each of these cities was governed by a tyrant.

Although of Aegean origin, the Philistines assimilated much of the religion and culture common to most of the inhabitants of Canaan. (See Canaan) They held a local monopoly on the smelting of iron, a fact which gave them no little military advantage over their enemies. Although not especially numerous, the Philitines were well-disciplined, skillful warriors whose superior weapons and chariots enabled them to pose a serious threat to the nation of Israel. In about 1050 BC, near Aphek, at the edge of the coastal plain, the Philistines cut the Israelite army to pieces, captured the ark of the covenant, and destroyed the central shrine at Shiloh, King Saul was able to recoup some of Israel’s losses; it was David, however, who finally broke the power of the Philistia and reduced them to a vassal state.”

In the Bible, the story of the Philistines taking the Ark of the Covenant resulted in plagues upon them until the Ark was returned to the people of Israel. After reading this information and knowing they were a cursed people, tracing back to Noah’s son Ham, is it a wonder to anyone that these people are cursed?

Let’s move on to the true origins of where these people came from. It cannot be agreed upon if they originated from Cyprus, Crete or Cappadocia. So, let’s do some thinking here. After the flood and Noah cursing his youngest son, Ham, the sons of Noah dispersed across the land and some of them ended up travelling by sea to areas away from the Land of Israel. Remember, we don’t really know where Noah’s ark landed but it is suggested possibly in modern Iraq. So, the sons of Noah scattered and went forth and multiplied. The curse of Ham followed, and it carries through to today, so it would seem. We see the Philistines who are supposedly modern-day Palestinians.

Remember God’s promise to Abraham? Genesis 12: 2-3 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” This promise is from the time of Abraham until the end of time.

Now, why do the Palestinians want to destroy Israel? The answer is, in my opinion, not all of them want to because Israel allows the Palestinians to come work in Israel. Israel supplies electricity, internet and water for this Gaza strip that has done nothing for itself. It has beautiful beaches along the Mediterranean Sea and yet they don’t have fancy buildings and tourism. Hamas is in control of Gaza…HAMas…..Could it be that the cursed sons of Ham wants to destroy his brother Shem (from Shem came the Semites) because of jealousy. This is a story of ancient times meeting up with modern times. Hamas needs to be cut off from the world so Israel can continue so that those who bless Israel will also be blessed. You destroy Israel and we all fall under a curse of God.

Just as a side note, if you look at the photo of the map of Israel, Palestine or the state of Philistine NEVER WAS from the “river (Jordan River) to the sea”. Like Representative Rashida Tlaib and the Anti-Semites are pushing for. So what is Ham wanting to do? Erase Israel. Nope that ain’t happening on my watch.

POST NOTE: I was called out that I was wrong about all this by a woman who stated that the Philistines are Arabs and descend from Abraham, a Semite (the clan of Noah’s son, Shem). WELL, yes they do, I agree. BUT they also descend from have a mother’s bloodline. Proofs of the people of Cyprus and Crete migrating to North east Africa (Egypt) is well known. The handmaiden of Abraham’s wife Sarah, was an Egyptian, so, where did her ancestors come from? Ishmael (the son of Abraham and Hagar the Egyptian) was the father of Arabs, it is true. We saw a daughter of Ham the cursed people crossed on a son of Shem. Wouldn’t it be logical to say that a family carrying the curse of Noah carry through? I will stand by my original statement that they are a cursed people.

REFERENCES:

NAVE’S TOPICAL BIBLE: A Digest of The Holy Scriptures by Orville J. Nave, A.M., D.D, LL.D., Chaplain in the Army of the United States. The Southwestern Company Nashville, Tennessee Copyright by The Southwestern Company 1962.

We Are Not Safe

Hamas attacked Israel, they also have said they will attack Americans but their targets are American Christians, then Americans. How do I know? Just listen to their spew and you can figure it out. Add to that that our open border since Uncle Joe the traitor Biden has been in the White House and you have the plans for attacks on American Soil! Jews and Christians need to step up and prepare against attacks and we can’t be backing down when it comes to fighting what we believe in !

Recently, In California, a Jewish man was at a pro-Israel demonstration and a man from an antisemite group hit him and cause him to fall, hitting his head and he died of a blunt forced head injury. The antisemite won’t be charged as a murderer and this won’t be considered a hate crime! This is from the most current information I have gathered. YET had it been a Jew attacking the Pro-Hamas demonstrator, the Jew would be charged with a hate crime!

WHY are people who attack Christians and Jews not charged with hate crimes? Why are out college campuses full of protests against Israel? Why? Palestine only existed on paper for about 600 years, long after Israel had the land Abraham was given. They never came from the land where modern day Israel is, in fact, Palestinians or the Philistines came from the island nation of CRETE! Research and DNA can prove that! Yet the narrative in the United States and around the world is pushing that Palestinians have a right to the land in Gaza. NOPE NOPE NOPE! That ain’t gonna happen people!

Jesus said those who follow Him will be persecuted for His sake. Well, here we go folks! Christians are not safe in our own country that was founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs. We are being attacked verbally and physically at times and the government overlooks these crimes of hate. When we stand up and fight, t hey will call us the haters. If there is a time to pray for Israel and Christians, it is now because no one will be safe if this continues. Spiritual warfare is our hope through Jesus Christ.

ARBEIT MACHT FREI

I imagine this might be one of my more controversial opinions or commentaries but here we go. The title of this commentary are the words that were on the entrance gate to Dachau prison camp. They simply mean “Work Will Set You Free”. In reality, the Jews and any other prisoners who walked through those gates eventually were murdered until the U.S Allies freed them from their nightmare.

IN the summer of 1992, my parents and my family visited Dachau prison camp, something that I had read about and my parents had told me about what they had heard about it as they were children during World War II. Our family went to prison camps, cemeteries and war memorials in Germany to pay respects to those who died, both soldier and the true victims of Hitler’s ‘solution’. As we visited Dachau, which is mostly open space with some representative barracks (the originals were full of disease and had to be burned down), the ‘showers’ and the new crematory that thank God, hadn’t been used when the U.S. Troops rescued the inhabitants of the prison.

As we neared the showers and the new crematorium, I could smell what could only be described as the smell of burnt hair but there was more to it. Mind you, this was 1992 and the camp had been liberated on April 29, 1945. I could still smell the smell of dead bodies 47 years after they were killed! Can you imagine the smell in 1945? How did the German citizens not know what was going on with that stench? But what I found so profound was a flower garden near the showers with the blackest soil I had ever seen. It was made of ashes! From those ashes came life! Symbolic of the Jewish people who came back and built the State of Israel in their homeland of their Father Abraham!

I’ve listened to testimony of former concentration camp survivors, read of Treblinka, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Ravensbruck (the women’s camp). I’ve read why Hitler wanted to eliminate the Jews from the world and he did a pretty good job of killing 6 MILLION. The reason? Antisemitism, or rather HATRED of a people. After World War II, the world swore they would not forget, yet not quite 80 years later, people around the world are calling for the murder of all the Jewish people in the world, roughly .2% of the world’s population. We are supposedly a civilized society now but calling for the murder of Jews is not civilized. Why are these Antisemites so fearful of the Jews? What is so important for the Land of Israel to be taken from the Jewish people and given to terrorists? Do they fear t he people or do they fear their God who said “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.” Do they really believe by murdering all the Jews (and they are targeting Christians next they say) they will get rid of a people’s God?

The United States of America fought to free the Jews and yet the largest protests are coming from New York City where many Jews moved after the war. They built businesses, hired people and New York was prosperous because of them. Yet, we see hate crimes against Jews by those promoting a Palestinian state when there is absolutely NO PROOF from artifacts that proved Palestine even was a true state. Oh sure, the area of Israel was part of an area called Palestine for a short time but it has always been the Land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Land of the Jews.

Anyone in the United States calling for a two state solution in Israel is wanting terrorists to continue to attack the Jewish state and that cannot continue. Anyone who is an Antisemite should be called out as a person promoting hate crimes. The only way to produce a peaceful Israel State is to get rid of the terrorist organization (a group of people who admit they want to destroy a people).

Israel only seeks to protect its people which also include Arabs and Muslims living in Israel. No other army in the world warns the civilians that they need to evacuate an area so that they can go after the bad guys. Yet Hamas uses women and children as pawns and refuses to let them escape. Well duh! If Hamas refuses to let them go, there are going to be dead women and children! Get your heads out of the sand people!

We already know that Hamas is in the United States, why else would Antisemitism be running wild here? Hamas WILL target Jews in the US and they are going after anyone who supports the Jewish people….Christians! Are you a Christian? Are you ready to die protecting our brothers and sisters of Israel? You better be ready to fight because it is going to happen it is just a matter of time. I stand with Israel, the children of Abraham who were promised to him. Will you stand with them?

They Just Don’t Understand

My family doesn’t understand me. My whole adult life I have worked in the Agriculture industry, mainly Livestock Production, and Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University is specifically in Livestock Production Management. The long and short of it is, that piece of paper tells you that I am a “glorified ” (tongue in cheek as we way that0 cowboy in the girl kind of way. I have spent long hours working with livestock, patching barbed wire fences, calving out cattle, kidding out goats, training horses and dogs and running tractors, feed trucks, payloaders and skid steer loaders.

With my goat rental business, I camp out on the prairie with my goats at each job site, roughing the weather: hot and cold, storms and snow. People are impressed with my ability to live like I do in the summer and even in the snow. I seem to thrive living like this and truth be told, IF I could live year round camping out, I think I would prefer it to living in a house. Heck, there was a few months when I was in Oregon that I lived in a barn. I DON’T need much to be happy and a peace.

There is a freedom that few understand when it comes to living outside. I sleep better, even when it is hot. All I have to doo cool off at night is wet a sheet down and lay it on top of me. By morning, I am usually in my sleeping bag, cold from the temperature change in the evaporation of the water. But that is how the old timers used to live! What I do is nothing new!

There is more to living outside, like a cowboy. There is a sky of stars at night, the song of the prairie and those amazing sunrises and sunsets that are never the same! The sound of the animals, not only the wildlife like coyotes, it is the sound of the goats or cattle as they sleep. There is a rhythm in their breathing that lulls me to sleep.

My family doesn’t get my lifestyle, very few understand it at all. City slickers have no clue what they are missing and my readers probably can’t comprehend what I am trying to convey but that peacefulness I get living like I do, you can’t imitate it unless you actually participate.

Sleeping on the ground (I have 2 sleeping bags for cushion and one to sleep in) I sleep better than in a bed. It is hard to explain but there is a benefit called ‘grounding’ and since I started sleeping on the ground, I feel better inside. I’ve lost a lot of inflammation and my body seems to work better. It is probably all the fresh air as well.

Whatever my family thinks of me, it doesn’t matter because my life is my own and as long as I am happy, that is what truly matters. However, there is a more important aspect to living outside. I can commune with God on a level that few comprehend and that is worth more than any fancy house and big plush bed could ever be worth. Living simply as I do, I can appreciate the little things in life that truly matter. I am not missing anything, I have more than most, I get to live life and see life as it should be, simple and free.

Proposed Solar Farm Doesn’t Make Sense

I just read an article about a proposed solar farm that was presented to the Saline County Commission (Saline County, Kansas). The Company, Shasta Power is an Oregon based power company that wants to come to Kansas, to build a 1,000 acre project on county owned land that has been designated by the individual who left the land to the county to be used for agricultural purposes. I have so many red flags from this article that dare not go into them all. However, I will share my thoughts on many.

First red flag is an Oregon power company coming to Kansas with no word on who would benefit by the power generated. Am I too presumptuous to think that no Kansas homes will benefit? The second flag is that the proposed size is not known but would be between 1,050 – 1,450 acres. That equates to about 2.26 sections of land at the largest proposed area.

I think what concerns me the most is that they want all this land for 30-35 years and this project would only generate 150 megawatts that would power only about 3,800 homes! Where is the efficiency in that? Oh sure let’s take out two and a quarter sections of land to provide power to 3,800 homes! I do not see this as a good use of land when crops on that land could provide. I did a little figuring and that 1,450 acres of land can produce about 2,738,000 loaves of bread per year! Multiply that by 35 years and that is over 95 MILLION loaves of bread. How many households would those loaves feed?

The above figuring was based on an article I read from this site. My math might be a little off but not by much. https://www.commongrainalliance.org/growing-grain/acres-loaf-bread

A huge flag is that this project will only have about 300 TEMPORARY jobs. I thought renewable energy was supposed to be big in permanent jobs. But worst yet they have plans to decommission the WHOLE thing in 30-35 years! What is renewable about that?

The last flag I will comment on is that this proposal is to use land that was given to the county for agricultural use. While this project is a ‘solar farm’ it by no means grows product for consumption, which in my training in animal science means some type of food. Energy or rather energy from the sun is only a component of photosynthesis and the carbon cycle to produce either plant or animal protein. This (solar farm) is NO FARMING/AGRICULTURE!

Now the biggest question I have is: WHY ARE OTHER COUNTIES IN KANSAS NOT ALLOWING SOLAR FARMS IN THEIR COUNTIES? There is a reason and you should QUESTION EVERYTHING!

https://salinapost.com/posts/e74744c0-255e-453b-83b9-51557137da81

Kansas Cowboy Poetry

June 9, 2023 was the finals for the State of Kansas Cowboy Poetry Contest that was held at the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, Kansas. There were two division of poetry; Serious and Humorous. There were 17 cowboy and cowgirl poets from three states who were set to battle it out with spinning of yarns that rhymed. First place in the Serious division was Kye Rieff from Missouri and First place in the Humorous division was Mary Powell, that’s right, little ole me! I also got 3rd place in the Serious division with my Prairie Song poem. Best yet was that the winners got two free tickets to the Symphony on the Flint Hills, on June 10th and the opportunity to perform after the Symphony at the story circle, which was right beside the path that people took to head back across the prairie to their vehicles. We had a captive audience. I also had a photo opportunity with cowboy musician Jeff Davidson, Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Mike Beam and Ron Wilson, Kansas Poet Lariat (not laureate) .

So what is so big about cowboy poetry? Well it is a far cry from the poetry that sophisticated people listen to in the coffee houses that drum up ideas of the 1070’s flower child poetry about injustice, hate and love. Cowboy poetry is story put to rhyme that is either serious in nature or humorous. Mainly it is about life and those of us who perform cowboy poetry have lots of stories to tell about life, cowboy work, farming, and an occasional political comment. The fun is in the rhyme and presentation…that’s right it is performance poetry. Storyteller are really what the poets are but add the rhyme and the poetry fun begins. Great cowboy poets like the late Baxter Black, made cowboy poetry a thing when he and Waddie Mitchell performed on Johnny Carson.

Cowboy poetry can have you gasping for air when you are laughing so hard your ribs hurt or it can bring tears to your eyes or twinge your heart. It is a small genre of poetry that has a long history of cowboys in the 1800’s who turned many of the poems into songs we know as cowboy music, after all, that is what a song is, poetry put to music.

There are Cowboy Poetry Gatherings that occur across the country and the biggest is at Elko, Nevada. Several are in the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Texas and Oklahoma. Kansas used to have a National Cowboy Poetry Rodeo but the rights were sold a few years back and it moved out west. I am trying to organize a Gathering for September 29-30th, 2023 at Fredonia, Kansas that is in conjunction with the Wilson County Old Iron Days Celebration that is September 27-30th. We want to have a contest and hand out belt buckles for the poets but we also want to invite Cowboy Musicians, Artists and chuckwagons to come as well. I am also looking for sponsors of buckles and to help fund the chuckwagon feed. If you would like to help, send me an email at ducessoftheprairie@yahoo.com.

So, what was my winning and third place poems about? My first place original poem was called FULL MOON AT NOON.

Full Moon at Noon

We chased the cattle along the river and up into the timber,

At least that is what I remember.

The cattle were wild, they had long ears and long horns,

We had to keep some distance, or our cowponies would get gored.

Slim to the high side and Sue took the low,

She whispered back to me that she had to go.

I pushed the cattle onward, to give her some time,

She needed some privacy and a good place to hide.

The guys were all ahead and all was all clear,

Until Suzie’s horse spooked an old buck deer.

I didn’t hear the screams for help that she needed,

The damage was done, all the cowboys had seen it.

Her horse had lunged, and the saddle horn caught her belt buckle,

The sight we all seen, made us all chuckle.

Upside down on the side of the horse she exposed,

Her bare backside this runaway rode.

I imagined her shame in all of her glory,

I rode hard to catch her runaway pony.

She was upside down nearly touching the ground when I stopped the escape,

She rode with me blushing back to the gate.

“I’ll never live it down,” she sobbed all ashamed,

I reassured her everything would be okay.

I glared at the men, and no one said a word back at the pens,

But the boss man sure had a great big grin.

I waited for it, I knew it was coming,

A bare backside in the timber, a snide remark would be humming.

But no one spoke of Suzie’s accident then,

And no one spoke of it, when to dinner we headed in.

Her face was scarlet all through the meal,

I tried to reassure her it was really no big deal.

BUT, when we finished out meal, the boss sang us a tune,

“I never believed I ever see a full moon at noon!”

My Third Place Poem

Prairie Song

Come to the Prairie, where the Tallgrass grows,

Marvel as it dances, when the Southwind blows.

Watch a prairie sunrise, rainbow color hues,

Shines a picture perfect, good morning to you.

Hear the quail and meadowlark sing their morning song,

Melodies of nature, as you ride along.

See the cattle grazing where bison once roamed?

One of the many reasons I call the Kansas Prairie home.

Springtime on the prairie brings fire to burn the land,

Leaving the ashes, to warm the ground, new life is at hand.

Over yonder are the wheat fields a waving sea of green,

By mid-summer they are a golden harvest to be seen.

Listen to the thunder as it echoes across the hills,

Bringing rain and thunderstorms for your senses to thrill.

Feel history on the prairie, of pioneers who broke the sod,

They lived by their hopes and the Grace of God.

Fat cattle are gathered and shipped to feedlot pens,

A sure sign when the grazing season ends.

Walk on the prairie as fall begins to bloom,

The land reassures us colder days are coming soon.

Shiver as the cold wind from northern lands do blow,

Black clouds and cold frosts bring the winter snow.

Hear the night song gently whisper the horizons to turn to gray,

Sending forth the order of the ending of the day,

Watch as the nighttime brings stars to fill the sky,

Gives you time to wonder at the day and all the reasons why.

Night owls tell their stories and startle you when they hoot,

Next comes the scavengers snooping around to find some loot.

Hear the coyotes yipping, calling for their mate.

See the moon? She’s rising as the night gets late.

And so, it is the Prairie, as it sings its song every day,

Come live on it and learn its many ways.

Now my song is over my secrets I have told,

I love this prairie more & more as each year I grow old.

Have a great day!

Walmart’s Assault on Senior Citizens

This past Wednesday, my mother and I were at Walmart in Independence, Kansas. When we went to checkout, there were TWO checkers with several people in line, waiting. Of course almost all the folks in the line were senior citizens and some didn’t look like they could stand very long without becoming exhausted. The comments in the lines were as follows:

“I won’t use self-checkout. I don’t work here and they won’t give us a discount for checking ourselves out.”

“I don’t know how to use them.” said another.

“I don’t use a debit or credit card.” said another, unaware she could use cash.

“I don’t even have a smart phone, how could I ever figure out doing my own checkout?”

As a person who used to work in customer service, I found the long lines unacceptable and I yelled out, “We need some more checkers!” Everyone who had made comments smiled at me. We waited about five minutes and then my mother yelled out the same as I did. Pretty soon the intercom was alive with “Associates are needed at checkout.” When no one came, I waited a few minutes then called the store for the manager. When the operator asked what the call pertained to, I told her about the checker issue. She replied she had made two requests for help but no one came. I insisted on speaking with the manager.

One of the managers took my call and I told her the situation and tried to pander to me. I wasn’t having it. I told her there was no excuse. She said they didn’t have enough help, yet I had seen associates standing around chatting about nothing. I’ve even overheard comments from associates calling customers “lazy” for not using self-checkout. Wake up Walmart! Customers do not come to shop and checkout our own purchases! I’ve got fresh produce that doesn’t have a bar code!

I’ve visited with associates from other Walmarts and they have had to shut down self-checkouts after 10PM to cut down on theft as their highest thefts were occurring at night through self-check. HMMM Maybe that should open the eyes of Walmart but it doesn’t as they push to make all Walmarts self-checkout. If they won’t give a 10% discount for checking my own purchases out. When I have used self-check (which is rare), I always ask the associate where the 10% discount button is so I can credit myself for checking my own purchases.

For those who live with credit and debit cards and want to get out faster, self-check is the way to go but for those of us who grew up with grocery shopping as a social outing, the lack of communication during check out is impersonal and demeaning. We Seniors aren’t lazy, many of us just don’t want to get in trouble for messing up a machine or some of us may have trouble sacking our items in the bags. Some of us have trouble understanding what the computer is asking. IN other words, it is humiliating to try to figure out machines with others waiting their turn to check out. Besides that, what ever happened to customer service?

Several folks in those long lines over heard me telling my mom that we needed to start going to the grocery store instead of using Walmart any more. I told her we could order our dog food through Chewy.com since Walmart doesn’t always have the dog food we need. Others chimed in and agreed and they said they were shopping more and more with the local grocery store and just pop into Walmart for certain things the grocery store doesn’t have.

Walmart has pushed out the local grocery stores in many communities. They’ve also pushed out many small mom and pop shops that provided personalized services in their hardware, sewing, plumbing, and other specialty stores. It is sad that Walmart is now disenfranchising the Senior Citizens of this country by refusing them a no hassle checkout.

I see a time when Walmart loses when the People have had enough of lack of product on the shelf and limited purchases because of the New World Order game they are following. Local producers will be the winners and as people get tired of the Walmart Way of treating their customers poorly. I have already limited my needs from Walmart, now if I could just get Mom to agree. We can find another way to interact with People instead of going to Walmart. As soon as Walmart goes complete self-checkout, I see a huge drop in their sales, mainly from Senior Citizens.

Sorry, Not Sorry Walmart. Your customer service SUCKS!