Cowman’s Christmas List

1. New baler twine to tie up last year’s five-buckle overshoes.
2. Something to kill Canadian thistle.
3. A hot shot that works for more than a morning.
4. A dog that does more good out of the pickup than in it.
5. A cattle buyer who admits he likes your calves.
6. A feedlot customer with a bottomless wallet.
7. A molasses salesman who thinks your hay will be adequate without his $200/ton supplement.
8. A vet who suggest you buy your vaccine at the co-op.
9. A teenage daughter who thinks her allowance is too high.
10. A son-in-law with a steady job.
11. A Christmas day freak snowfall that blankets the mountains and your front yard but leaves the

       cow lot dry as a bone.

12. An implement dealer who insists on being paid in bales of hay.
13. A banker who inadvertently has gotten your financial statement mixed up with Jeff Bezos.
14. A son who can rope and ride, loves to work and doesn’t plan on going to vet school.
15. A wife who rubs your back.
16. The time, occasionally, to enjoy what you do for a living.
17. A loving God who doesn’t look down at you every time and say, “Oh, well, I can’t win ‘em all.”

Baxter Black is a cowboy poet, former large-animal veterinarian and entertainer of the agricultural masses. Learn more at www.baxterblack.com.