Opinion

prairie grass two brown colts race toward the lone oak ___________________ school bell the new student’s quiet gaze .

As you have undoubtedly seen in in this edition of the newspaper, there is a great deal of Ag news. As you probably know (if you’ve been reading my column), we’ve been working on an Ag tab (insert) for the spring. There will also be an Ag “wrap-up” in the fall.

As we hit the midpoint of January we have expanded our reach into the world of Agriculture news. The number one request over the last couple of years was to have more local content. Since about June, we’ve only had 2 or 3 stories that weren’t local. Even then, those were stories that had local impact.

“What’s your name,” he asked with a curious look on his face. He was cute, personable, and probably six years old. “Do you know my name?” he continued. “Do you know what I like?” His questions were coming at me faster than I could respond. I wanted to ask him if he had a good Christmas, but I waited him out. “I like red snow cones, do you?” Then, he took off in a whirlwind of motion and I smiled as I watched him run to his mom. Here we were in January, the middle of winter, and the kid is thinking about snow cones. I’m sure there must be some lesson involved?

Victor, age 75, wants to relieve his family from having to make decisions regarding his medical care in the event that he suffers a terminal illness, irreversible condition, coma or is likely to die within a short period of time unless he has extraordinary life-sustaining treatment. What can he do to relieve his loved ones of the burden of making the decision to withhold this life-sustaining treatment?

Come on, now. Things could be worse.

Lester, a widower, age 75, owns a ranch with 350 acres which he purchased fifty years ago. The property has greatly appreciated in value over time. His will leaves the property to his son and daughter in equal shares. However, Lester has considered selling the property now because he may no longer be able to live alone on the ranch and care for it. The problem with selling now is that he will incur substantial capital gains tax on the difference between what he paid for the property and its current value.

sunset a coypu watches my every move — falling snow across my face blows childhood memories .

For my first ‘Stuff’ of the year I am going to briefly (subjective) talk about football, and more specifically, the recent Bowl games. First, there are more football Bowl games than ever before with more mediocre teams participating in each one.

The air was crisp and cold with just wind enough to go straight through you and the mist that fell kept me feeling wet and chilled. Dawn was another forty minutes away, but my horses were hungry and restless. As I moved through the shed row tossing hay into mangers and pouring feed into bins the cattle milled and bawled and the horses whinnied and blew through their noses. The goats made their presence known and reared up on the stall gate to make sure I didn’t forget their munchies.