...and I have the farm of a guy who got the T-shirt. He had built a small feedlot complete with a Blue Tombstone, around 1971. Really never recovered from what the mid '70s did to him and eventually ended up having to sell out. Nice people, good friends, and distantly related. Hard to see life be so difficult for them for those years.

We were just starting farming in the early 80's & bought the place from Land Bank's inventory of foreclosed properties. Paid roughly 1/3 of what  it would have been worth in 1971.

So much of EVERYTHING we do depends on timing which we don't understand until after the fact, and luck....here's an excerpt from the end of a calving poem I wrote years ago:

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"If you're lucky you'll save a few calves from the mud,
Or from freezing to death in the snow,
Or from new moms who'd just as soon kill them as feed them
And when you do, that's when you'll know..."

"That you're the king of the world--that you did it all--
You're hard working, good looking, and smart.
In fact, any minute you expect Hollywood to call--
No audition, they'll just give you the part."

"But I hope in the midst of kissin' up to yourself
You'll remember to give God His due.
Because the glow of your 'brilliance' makes it hard to see
That the world don't revolve around you..."

"That's when you're set up for a lesson about life--
The way a windshield and bug get in touch.
You'll soon learn that life's about God more than you,
And what you do only counts for so much."
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