Archive for January, 2009

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No rest for a laid-off Mr. Mom cowboy journalist

January 31, 2009

My first week of freedom has left me wondering how I ever had time for a part-time newspaper editing job.

Monday was a trip to Pueblo for supplies and equipment, including a new Kodak ESP 3 scanner-printer-copier.

By Tuesday I was getting e-mails regarding my word-manufacturing business.

“Any progress on that write-up for the pamphlet?”

“Where are we with the book?”

And then there was the matter of a calf that needed to be delivered to a buyer, and a cow that needed to be treated by the vet for something called “lumpjaw,” which is an abscess in the jaw bone.

So I’ve been busier than I wanted to be.

Thursday I was Mr. Mom Cowboy Journalist. I got my son Harrison ready for his day and delivered him to daycare/preschool. Then it was back to the ranch where I rounded up the cattle, and with the help of neighbor and artist Lorie Merfeld Batson, sorted and loaded the calf and cow.

That afternoon I hauled the calf to the folks we sold her to, dropped off the cow at the vet, drove back to the preschool to pick up my son. Quite often, after school the kids like to play on the playground and so we did the playground thing. Then it was back to the vet to fetch the cow, and on home to unload and unhitch the trailer.

Back at the house, it was time to make dinner.

After all that I was up until 10:30 writing copy for the aforementioned pamphlet.

So much for being laid off.

An Amish buggy driver traveling on Colfax Lane south of Westcliffe. Road crews have recently put up signs to warn motorists of the slower moving vehicles on area roads.
An Amish buggy driver traveling on Colfax Lane south of Westcliffe. Road crews have recently put up signs to warn motorists of the slower moving vehicles on area roads.

Posted in General, Ranching | 3 Comments »

Some elk with my coffee

January 28, 2009

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One of the things about living in the mountains is you never know what you might see while surveying your back 40 after your first cup of coffee in the morning. Today it was a half-dozen elk grazing on the adjoining property to the east. Never mind that I had a private-land-only elk license that was good for all of December — elk were nowhere to be found then. But they are here now so I had to rush in for the camera and caught a couple photos by zooming and stabilizing my rest on the deck railing. Oh well, it’s not like there’s a meat shortage around here with a steer in the freezer.

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It’s a wrap

January 28, 2009

We had our first taste of our own grassfed beef tonight. The meat from this animal had been aging at the Chop Shop for two weeks to the day. I stopped by there this morning and explained one concern I had to Jeff the butcher.

This steer had been somewhat of a wild thing (you can read about one of my adventures with him here.) and actually ran away twice. The second time he went over the mountain and got mixed in with another cattle herd on Hosa Flats where the rancher suggested I just leave him for the summer. The only problem was when those folks rounded up their animals they didn’t call me and my steer took a trailer ride to Penrose. So I had to fetch him back up the mountain.

Since this animal was such a runner I wondered if the meat would be any good and asked Jeff if I might give a small cut a try before he cut and wrapped the whole critter. There was always the option of turning the entire animal into hamburger or jerky if the flavor was off or the meat turned out to be too tough.

Jeff carved off a piece of bottom round, a cut of meat that is notorious for being on the tough side and is usually made into a roast or stew meat. He then cut this into some small chops.

This evening I pan-seared these chops with just sea salt and pepper and served them up with some simple sautéed mushrooms. The beef was great. For bottom round it was actually fairly tender, and the flavor was really good, and clean. It’s a wrap.

Posted in Ranching, Real food nutrition | 2 Comments »

Time to move on

January 25, 2009

Back in 1985 Jim McMahon was leading the Chicago Bears to a Superbowl Championship and raising hell with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle over headbands he was pictured wearing. Meanwhile at The Pueblo Chieftain Managing Editor/General Manager Barclay Jameson had ordered all employees have their mugshots taken and placed on file.

I was a bit of a hell-raiser myself, though not very original. So when it came my turn to face the camera I was wearing a “Barclay” headband and dark glasses. I think it was photographer Dean Miller who was assigned to take the mugshots.barclay1

Now, I got along with Barclay just fine, actually very well. I was even his teaching assistant when he was a guest prof at what was then University of Southern Colorado. But Barclay was better known for his “chain-of-command” style of management than for his tolerance for flip behavior and smart-assery, so I didn’t really know how he would take this joke.

A day or so later, as the editors gathered for the daily meeting, Barclay walked sternly toward me. I feared perhaps I had gone too far and braced for the worst. When he got up close, with just a trace of a smile, he said: “I know you, you’re Jim McMahon.”

I wouldn’t say I felt like I had cracked any sort of veneer, but was glad he could see the humor. And I think I had made my point: Of course he didn’t need a mugshot to remember my name.

Well, I’m done. I finished my last evening of editing for The Chieftain on Friday and honestly I’m still trying to sort out how I feel about that. All the other times I’ve left there I’d frankly been unhappy over something and quitting was liberating. This time, having been laid off due to economics, the feeling is somewhat deflating . . . but there’s a hint of liberation as well.

Over the years at the paper I’ve made a lot of friends and we’ve had a lot of fun. I could write a comedy based on some of my experiences there. This is tempered by the serious nature of some stories that stand out in my mind, and there have been many over the years. What’s next? I’m not sure. It’s time to move on, but there is still a little bit of hell-raiser in me.

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Winter sunset

January 22, 2009

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The Sangre de Cristo range peeks up above a low ridge — only 9,000 feet — as photographed from Bear Basin Ranch at sunset this evening at about 5 p.m.

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Newspapers: Made in America, but for how long?

January 18, 2009

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The Pueblo Chieftain copy desk, as photographed Feb. 15, 1984, by John Jaques (left to right, and oddly in order of departure from the Chieftain): Ken Noblit, Patrick “Mad Dog” O’Grady, Eric McFail, and myself. The bell was a fixture on the copy desk for a while and would be struck with a resounding gong whenever anyone made an error, missed an error or cracked a bad joke.  It drove the rest of the newsroom to the same level of insanity as those who worked on the copy desk.

The demise of the American newspaper is an interesting lesson in economics. Often we hear the complaint that American workers don’t actually make anything anymore.  This is not true of newspaper workers who make something every day. In fact, they make something new every day.

These workers are reporters and photographers who gather the news, the editors who check their work, the graphics designers who present it, advertising sales representatives who work with their customers to create messages to sell goods and services; the various production and press personnel who get all of this stuff onto plates and eventually on newsprint. All work in a synchronized dynamic assembly line of sorts to create a product that — although it appears under the same nameplate each day — is unique to that day it is published.

If you’ve ever been involved in this process you realize that each day is truly something of a miracle. But now newspapers in communities all over the country are announcing huge debts, layoffs and impending closure. Unfortunately, like the auto industry, a failure to embrace technology, adapt and change is sending the American newspaper the way of all those other fine goods that were “Made in America.”

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Posted in General | 3 Comments »

More good news for trees

January 15, 2009

As reported in the Denver Post, commercial printer National Hirschfeld closed its doors this week, laying off 250 employees. The company had been in business for more than a century — since 1907 — and handled accounts that included the Denver Broncos and the National Western Stock Show.

Apparently customers like that weren’t enough to keep the company open in today’s economy.

The printing plant’s closing grabbed my attention not only because I just lost my job in the newspaper business, but also because I’ve done a fair amount of business with National Hirschfeld over the last decade.

My own book, “Pack Burro Stories,” was printed by C&M Press, which was merged into the National Hirschfeld company in 2005.

In addition, for about 10 years I published books by Phil Maffetone, including “In Fitness and In Health” and his series of ABCs health booklets through the company, and also printed the first edition of Phil’s newsletter, The Maffetone Report, on its press.

I have seen the sign of the times, and it’s on the Internet. I suppose this all bodes well for trees.

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Posted in General | 2 Comments »

Local food vs. nutrition

January 14, 2009

I’ve been reading Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle — A Year of Food Life.” In this book, Kingsolver and her family basically pick up and move from Tucson, Ariz., to Virgina in order to spend a year eating only food grown by themselves or by other producers in their local area.

I’ve been a fan of Kingsolver for years. Her essay collection “High Tide in Tucson” and novel “Animal Dreams” are my favorites. In general I like “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” as well, though it brings up an interesting dilemma.

While nobody can deny the environmental and nutritional benefits of eating locally as much as possible, it brings up questions of possible health consequences of doing without certain foods — good nutrition vs. environmental awareness, and good nutritition vs. less than ideal nutrition.

Kingsolver correctly argues that there is more nutrition in vegetables grown fresh and picked just that day. However, when you know broccoli, for example, contains compounds that help prevent cancer do you want to limit your intake to only when it is in season in your geographical area? Nutritionwise, even well-traveled broccoli seems better than no broccoli at all.

Then there is the question of foods like avocados, grapefruit, almonds, cocoa, olive oil, fish oil — all of which have powerful nutriceutical properties, but just don’t grow in most areas of the United States regardless of the season.

While I do avoid most foods produced out of this country, the real issue is not necessarily our system of transporting food, but rather the fuel we use to do it. 

I have not finished the book, but it’s already struck me that while Kingsolver’s quest to eat locally is a noble cause, it’s just not practical for most people (few of us have the opportunity to own a farm and work it full-time) and perhaps nutritionally ill-advised. I think rather than one family going to such an extreme, a bigger difference could be made if every family made it a priority to buy some locally produced food, even it it is just one regularly consumed item. Better yet, some people may have the time and space for a garden, or to raise some animals for food.

This morning two beeves from our natural beef herd — a Freemartin heifer and a steer — were pasture-harvested by the owner of the local butcher shop, The Chop Shop. I’ve hunted since I was a young boy and have put many big game animals in the freezer myself, but since I had actually been charged with the care and feeding of these cattle I asked the butcher if it would be OK if I were not present when he actually killed them.

I showed up shortly after the animals had been sent to that lush pasture in the sky and watched as the carcasses were hoisted, gutted, skinned, halved and hanged in a refrigerated trailer. After aging for two weeks, the meat will be packaged, frozen and ready to eat. Food doesn’t get much more local than that.

Posted in Real food nutrition | 1 Comment »

Striking a chord

January 12, 2009

I’ve been truly stunned by the number of visits to Hardscrabble Times since writing this past week of my impending layoff from The Pueblo Chieftain. Apparently this has struck a chord with folks as 2.6 million people, a fair number of them journalists, lost their jobs in the past year.

I probably have the world record for quitting the Chieftain, having left on my own at least four times. So it’s somewhat ironic that I would also be the first person laid off. But the decision was based on seniority and I didn’t have any because it starts over when you quit and come back.

I intend to finish my final two weeks with the dignity of hard work and set an example for others who will surely follow me out the door. But I also want to have a little fun with it too.

Burros on the Web

A number of people also have come to the site looking for more information on burros and burro training, as well as equipment. Look for more information on this subject in the near future as well as a longer essay on the saddle donkey phenomenon that recently appeared in Colorado Central magazine. In the meantime, here are a couple of great burro links that everyone should check out:

The art of packing firewood on burros

A whimsical riff on the bookmobile

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Fuel for the fire

January 10, 2009

As the snow began to fall today, I built a pretty big bonfire in the fire pit. Since the ground was already covered with snow and more fresh powder was falling it was safe to light up some branches and old papers that had been accumulating like so much psychic baggage.

Since we changed out the real woodstove for a propane faux woodstove four years ago, it’s been more difficult to dispose of bank and credit card statements and other “sensitive materials.” I had a bag of such papers stored up for an outdoor fire — and also last year’s well-cured Yule tree — so soon a cheery blaze was cracking. As I pulled the papers out to feed the flames, I couldn’t help but notice several blue Chieftain pay stubs among the fuel and the symbolism was not lost on me one day after being told I’m being laid off.

My son Harrison was very intrigued by the flames and watched intensely. There is something about an outdoor fire that tugs at the primal instinct inside all of us.

The experience was very cleansing, and afterward I dashed off through the snow for a five-mile run.

This evening I went outside to make sure the fire was out. The storm had left, leaving the night brighter than the day with a big moon reflecting off the snow and from the snow-laden branches of the surrounding pines.

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

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