The Beauty of Hard Work Paid Off

This past week held one of Jackson County's biggest attractions.  Yes, the Jackson County Fair was in full swing from Monday to Thursday packed with little youngsters ready to display their projects. Fair week is hands down the busiest week of summer. 

Elizabeth would you help me? Elizabeth what do I do? Elizabeth can you do this?  Being one of the oldest 4-Hers, I was asked to help by some of the younger members.  My nine year old sister was one of the 4-Hers who asked for my help showing her steer.  I showed her how to properly set up her steer and we discussed what the judge would be looking for in showmanship. She ended up getting a blue in showmanship and she won her heat in the Middleweight Crossbred class.  

When it came time to sell Thursday night, I got a little emotional. Not only because of all the time and effort I put into my steer but also because the eleven years I had been in 4-H were coming to a close. I went into the selling ring with a smile on my face and walked out with tears in my eyes. I walked back to my sister and a family friend, who were getting ready to sell,  to be supportive and help them if they needed help.  While walking back I saw my little friend crying so I went up and gave her a big hug. She was just sad for the end. I trudged on to find my sister so I could walk up with her. My sister walked right into the ring with a huge smile on her face but walked out with tears in her eyes. When my sister got done selling she came right up to me and told me, "I was just like you." 

(This is a picture of my sister and her steer she named Between right before the sale.)


At the time it was just a simple piece of advice that was offered for the younger children, however looking back at those long hours put into 4-H projects I realized that the time had paid off to the fullest.  The minutes and hours spent helping each of the 4-Hers could possibly impact them as future agriculturalists.  Sometimes we don't truly think about our actions and how they can affect the future generations.  How can we strive to make the best better? How do we make our actions count for the future agriculturists? How do we make our hard work pay off?

Back Where I Come From

Yesterday a friend and I traveled to Saline in the early afternoon to help support our home town boys basketball team that had made it to the 4A state tournament for the first time in 16 years. This was something that my friend and I had never experienced because when we were in high school our team never made it past the first round of sub state. We thought this would be a once and a life time opportunity for us to see our boys play at this tournament, which intrigued us to make the journey to Salina that day.

After arriving in Salina at the Bicentennial Center that day it was obvious that we were not the only ones that saw the importance and value of this game. There were over two hundred students from back home in attendance as well as school faculty, parents of players, local business owners and even parents that did not have students playing. The turn out from our home town was mind blowing to think that this many people were out to support their town in such an extraordinary event.

I did not know our students let alone our town had that much pride in our school to come out with that kind of numbers to support the team. This reminded me how people remember where they came from. This is something we all must keep in mind as we move up in high school, go on to college, enter the industry, move on to another job or relocate. There were once people and organizations that made an impact that pushed us to where we are and what we have today. Remember to give back to these people or organizations as we progress in our lives.

The Boot

One day I found myself staring blankly at a pair of my Horse Power Anderson Beans. As I stared endlessly at them I slowly started to recognize all the imperfect details about them, all the scuffs and the little crack lines that where starting to form in the leather. At this moment I never thought of these imperfections as bad attributes to my boots. They reminded me of the scuffs and cracked leather on myself, but these are not imperfections. They are the marks left on my existence of the ones that have changed my life. 

As I thought of the people that have impacted me, I picked up the boot and looked every inch of it over. Once I had turned it over to reveal the soles of the boot, I was met with some dirt that was adhering to the crevasse where the sole and heel meet. This led me to think of the many dusty paths that these boots have crossed. If these pieces of dust were still holding on to my boot, is it possible that the same dusty path I walked on still held a boot print left by me? 

As we think of all of those who have left marks on us, try to imagine those that we have imprinted as well. The path that we take is determined all by ourselves, there are people that impact us and help direct our paths, but it all depends if we use what they gave us or not. The next time you put on your boots think about the path you are going to take that will possibly lead you to your next scuff or allow you to leave another imprint in the dirt. 

Anger Management Vaquero Style

Just the other day I had arrived back to my college home, the Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity, in a great mood.  I had been at a district selection day interviewing some outstanding members and had just sat down in front of my desk to look at my list of to do’s.  This list made the Iliad look short, and put made my disposition switch from happy and jovial to a mood that resembled Britney Spears after she was given a sparkly mauve sports car, rather than the sparkly pink one she wanted.  Is now a good time to mention I have a bit of a temper I inherited from my father?  Just as I was about to go all CAPS LOCK on my desk, and anything within reach, I found a picture of my little brother and remembered a time when this attitude could very well have put me in the E.R

          I had a similar mood switch one day when we were fertility testing bulls back home.  I had plans that evening, but even before we were done with the bulls my father kindly kept adding things on to my to do list for the day, causing that good ol’ Smith temper to begin to kick in.  About the time my blood was at approximately 212 degrees, a bull balked momentarily in the alley.  In my state I reacted by giving him a hard (we are talking UFC fighter hard here) slap to the rump.  Apparently he was in an equally bad mood and responded by kicking back at me and catching me right below the rib cage.  This kick lifted me off the ground spun me around and landed me on my stomach.  Now, I can quote the entire movie 8 seconds when it is muted so the reality of a rib through a lung or heart is something I know well.  As soon as I felt myself rocket skyward I thought to myself “I’m dead, I’m gonna hit and not get up!”  Miraculously I came out of it with nothing more than some severe bruising to my stomach and area where my Abs are supposed to be and was able to keep on working.  By letting my attitude control my actions I made what could have been a fatal decision.

          I’m not saying that I always control my attitude, nobody truly can we are all human and we all make mistakes.  However that doesn’t mean we can’t try and keep calm and react in a more civilized manner.  So the next time you find yourself about to go off like a bad baking soda experiment in science class, think of the possible outcomes, grab a hold of your attitude and bear down and ride it rather than letting it stomp you into the ground, remember not to slap that “bull” that is your emotions on the rump.

         

         

         

         

         

         

Small Town USA

         Returning home after completing my first semester of college was not only a great relief and an opportunity to play cowboy for a couple weeks, but also an opportunity to pick up some very inspirational material from one of those amazing individuals who live in the “small town usa’s” we all know so well.

          It was the day after one of the first good snows of the year, which meant I got to spend my day happily bouncing around in my work truck, drinking coffee, and showing up Blake Shelton and Brantley Gilbert during some intense in-truck karaoke.  I was almost done moving a set of cane bales (still caffeinated to the max and having a grand time) when I noticed a truck at the bottom of a steep hill, off of the highway.  Now at first glance nothing really seemed amiss about this scene until I saw the skid marks that left the highway and covered the length of the hill.  I also looked more closely as the truck was sitting, and thought to myself, “ hmm I’m pretty sure there is supposed to be a fence there…and over there”  So after I unloaded my bale I went into ranch hand EMT mode and scaled (aka slid uncoordinatedly) down the hill to make sure everyone was alright.  An older gentleman and his daughter greeted me and informed that they were both ok, and that he was sorry for going through not one but two, count em two! Of my fences. 

          After I was informed that he had help coming I went about hauling my last couple bales and rounding up fence supplies.  When I got to the now truck free crash site this same older gentleman came down the hill from his now somehow miraculously drivable truck.  Without saying a thing he whipped out a pair of fencing pliers identical to mine and began helping me fix the gaping holes in my fences.  He stayed to help until the fence was tight enough to play banjo chords on, all while carrying on a quality casual conversation.  He stayed to help even though I had told him he didn’t need to, and even though it was extra time out of his day.

          This man truly embodied what it meant to be a quality, hard working, and honest person.  He is one of those men most people would scoff at, proudly sporting oily work clothes, and beat up down at the heels work boots…and driving his big (and might I add in my eyes absolutely beautiful) diesel truck.  That is people would raise their noses around him, until they saw how solid his core values were.  Values like FAMILY, INTEGRITY, FORTITUDE, OPTOMISM, A HARD WORK ETHIC…and of course an immeasurable amount of MENTAL TOUGHNESS.  I mean the guy works long hard hours every day and stayed to help me fix fence with no gloves in frigid weather! pretty darn tough in my book. 

          So the next time you are faced with a challenge, be it a mental obstacle, a physically grueling task, or a situation where you should do the right thing: think of what that outstanding man I met that day in the snow would do, think of what those solid core feelings are urging you to do.