FLYING A RANCH – Pinedale, Wyoming,

FLYING A RANCH – Pinedale, Wyoming

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A popular guest ranch, the Flying A Ranch vacation spot is located in the mountains of Wyoming and offers the ideal guest ranch getaway for adults. More luxurious than an old west dude ranch vacation, your vacation at the Flying A guest and dude ranch resort includes the traditional and the contemporary.

You will remember your Wyoming ranch vacation like a movie. Not just a Wyoming dude ranch, Flying A will clear your mind like blank celluloid then impregnate it with not just images but the smell of crisp morning air, the saunter of your horse moving up the trail, and the calls of elk, hawks, and the dinner bell. The premier Wyoming vacation spot, The Flying A will create memories well beyond what you expect from a Wyoming ranch vacation.

For Complete Details on This Beautiful Guest Ranch, Please Be Sure to Visit Their Website

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Rural Broadband

by Steph Larsen of Blog for Rural America

We all know that farm life can be dangerous. I’m pleasantly surprised to have all my limbs and sustained no major injuries in the last 4 months since I moved onto a 12-acre farm. It wasn’t climbing the windmill, driving the tractor, or sawing wood that had me most concerned so far.

No, it was our attempts to get high speed internet access.

I’m a pretty heavy internet user – everything from streaming radio programs and videos to working from home. For me, internet is as necessary as electricity or gas.

The saga has included many phone calls and voicemails, numerous trips by technicians to our house, and arguments over distance to the house or how many trees we needed to cut down. We had to wait for the 10 foot high snow drifts to melt and were delayed for a few days when we lost electricity due to an ice storm.

They said we needed a utility pole to mount the internet receiver on, we asked, “How high?” They decided 30 feet was sufficient, so we bartered with our neighbors for a pole and borrowed the auger to dig 5 feet down. My naivety was obvious when I thought two relatively strong adults could hoist it up without machinery – not that we didn’t try.

Our 1960’s era Farmall 460 tractor performed admirably, and in

Gold Prospecting and Dreams of the Mother Lode

from The Cotton Boll Conspiracy

With gold trading for more than $1,100 an ounce, small-time prospecting is back in favor.

In a number of areas throughout the Rockies and Western US, individuals are purchasing picks and pans with hopes of striking it rich, according to an article in The Economist. One of those towns which has seen an uptick in prospectors in Goldfield, Az.

Goldfield was a leading gold mining hub in the 1850s after the California Gold Rush subsided. After several big finds, Goldfield was for a while America’s second-largest producer.

Bob Schoose, Goldfield’s mayor, owns two mines; the Black Queen and the Mammoth, according to The Economist.

“Every week he sees newcomers, mostly unemployed or bankrupt company owners arriving in the hope of finding gold,” according to the publication. “He and other locals call them dreamers. ‘They buy picks or pans, camp out near the river but few last more than two weeks.’”

Even though the price of gold has jumped from $350 an ounce in 2002 to its current level, John Mathis of the Thunderbird Global Financial Services Centre in Glendale, Az., said the idea of striking it rich by panning along a mountain stream or inside a small mine shaft are often more fantasy than reality.

“To confirm there are worthwhile deposits of gold, expensive tests must be done, he says. Getting the digging and processing equipment to the site costs millions, and then tons of gold must be produced and preferably other valuable minerals must also be present for a mine to be profitable,” according to the publication.

The Key To The Cowboy Way Of Life

from Campfire Cowboy Ministries by Kevin

There is a crisis developing in our world today. It is something that I believe will ultimately be the downfall of a way of life that this country was built upon. Once this ideal is lost, it is almost impossible to recover. With each generation, fewer and fewer people believe in this ideology. I am sad to say that unless we start making sure that we abide by this diminishing value ourselves and making sure that we teach our kids by example, the lost art of “keepin’ your word” will become extinct.

About ten years ago, I was out of work and my life savings was quickly running out. One hundred and seventy-five dollars doesn’t last as long as it used to. I had made it stretch for nearly six weeks. I went for a job interview with a nationally known company that required a college degree. I didn’t have a college degree, but they kept calling me back.

During this process, I had another lead on a job. I went for the interview and was offered a job that would pay the bills and allow me to eat one Vienna sausage a day. I told the owner of this business that I had a chance at another job that would pay me over twice what he was offering. I had already started the interview process with this other company and I would let him know if I didn’t get it. He understood completely, wished me well, and left the job offer on the table if I chose to take it.

Nearly a month went by. I had another two interviews with the big company, but they still hadn’t made a decision. Somehow I was still in the running for it despite the college degree requirement. Finally, after waiting as long as I could, I called the owner of the other company that I had interviewed with and asked if the job was still available. He told me I could start the next day. I thanked him and told him that I would do him a good job.

Two hours later, the big company called me. They congratulated me on being the first one to ever be hired without a college degree. The reason it took so long was because of that reason. My application and interviews had gone nearly to the top of the company. They had made an exception for me.

There was dead silence on the other end of the phone when I told them, “I just took a job.” I told them what I would be making and they were offering double the annual salary. That was a lot of money for an young cowboy. But in the end I told them, “That man offered me a job, waited over a month, and hired me anyways. I told him that I would do a good job and I’m going to.” One of the hardest things I have ever had to say was, “My word is worth more than your money.” I hung up the phone and imagined the financial road ahead of me had just gone from dust, to gold, to dust again.

A little while later, they called back and offered me nearly triple what my annual salary would be. After I still refused, I hung up the phone and nearly puked out my Vienna sausage that I ate for lunch.

Life was very painful for me that year. But in the end, it had worked out for the best. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t fun. There were many hungry nights and many more “goodbyes” said to my friends as they went out on the town and I stayed home. God loves it when we stand by our word. Looking back, I probably wasn’t mature enough to make that much money. I learned that money isn’t everything, but your word is.
Three things to expect when you keep your word:

1. It’s never, ever easy – Anything of value to a man is gained through hard work, sacrifice, and a never give up attitude. As King George would put it, “Easy come, easy go.”
2. Integrity can be given away, but it can’t be bought back – There are magical moments that will come in your life when this will be severely tested. It doesn’t matter if it’s with your job, your kids, your wife, or anyone else, you sometimes only have one opportunity to do the right thing.
3. It will always be rewarded – This reward may come from the understanding to never do something again. Keeping your word may sometimes lead to disaster. Unless your kids or someone else was watching and understood that you did it because you said you would. In that case, I would call it a success. But we don’t keep our word for a reward. We keep it because of who we are–and that’s what is rewarding.

With all these things in mind, remember to keep from going around and telling people that you will do this or that if you know you won’t be able to keep those promises. If you keep your word, you will become known as a person of integrity, trustworthy, honest, and admirable. These are the things our children should learn are important. Don’t let this Cowboy Way of Life go extinct.

Find a Niche for Your Farm

Here’s some useful tips and possible products for starting a niche market farm.

Simple steps to creating a niche product:

• Look up your nearest agricultural extension agent; their goal is to help you find the right niche for your enterprise, www.CSREES.usda.gov/Extension/
• Take local ag workshops and classes offered through your county’s extension office.
• Visit farms within your county/region to get a feel for what is and isn’t in production.
• Visit gourmet food stores to learn about the products other people are producing. Gourmet food stores and cooperatives are great places for ideas.
• Determine the space you have to work with, the time you can devote to farming, and your retail market accessibility.
• Once you’ve found your niche product, research the ins and outs of producing it. Visit farmers in other states who might offer you personal advice. Norma Burns visited a lavender farm in Virginia before purchasing her first lavender plants. The farmer was quick to tell her what had and had not worked for him, giving her hands-on information that informed and improved her process tremendously.
• Create a business plan that includes costs for creating value-added products. Will you need to purchase canners (jams and jellies), distillation units (essential oils), larger ovens (baked goods), or find a processing plant for your animal products? Include those costs in your initial set-up.
• Get growing!

List of products/services that fill a niche:

• Bottled milk and ice cream
• Hay for horses
• Homestead cheese
• Pastured pork
• Free-range chickens
• Grassfed beef and lambs
• Organic vegetables
• “High-quality” (emphasis intentional) mushrooms, other than shiitakes
• Truffles
• Freshwater prawns
• In-tank (live) tilapia
• Horse boarding
• Landscape ornamentals
• Herbs
• Community Supported Agriculture (CSA food shares)
• Local organic wheat
• Deer corn
• Bees and honey products
• Composting
• Vermicomposting (composting with worms)
• Growing mats (of sedum) or green roofs
• Fruit orchards (selling fresh and dried fruits and juices)
• Nuts
• Growing seed for seed companies
• Generating solar energy for urban neighbors
• Season extension and year-round production in high tunnels. Meaning you could have product to sell during under-supplied seasons.

Saving America’s Living Legends

Adoptions offer a chance of survival to wild horses and burros through the Bureau of Land Management program.