Country Philosopher

My father was a very smart man, and somewhat of a country philosopher. He was a Dairy Farmer, Building Contractor and Rancher and had a lot of sayings he would use to teach me some of life’s lessons. Sort of like Will Rodgers but with perhaps a bit more colorful language at times. It was his way of getting you to think, rather than just follow instructions. He was perfectly content watching me go about a task and royally screw it up, and then smile and say, “Well, did you learn anything?” When asked to do a job I hadn’t done before, I would say to him, “Dad, I’ve never done that before.” He’d usually respond by saying “Go ahead, you can’t learn any younger.”

So when Jackley and I decided to build a ranch from scratch, and market beef, it just didn’t occur to me that we couldn’t do it. That was 16-years ago and I suppose if Dad was to show up now and ask if I had learned anything, I’d have to say "yeah, ‘cause you can’t learn any younger." George