Well this is it.  I’m at the airport headed for Texas.  Tammy and I had a nice supper and she dropped me off at airport.

We did a lot of reflecting on the past 12 days today.  It has been the most rewarding hardest work we have done since last time.  It feels good to be plum wore out at the end of the day from doing real work, not from talking or flying on a plane.

There have been some changes since the last time we were here. I saw some real nice upgrades on facilities that really improved the availability of feed and water for these newly weaned calves.  I really missed a couple of guys that are no longer on the crew, but their life is going on as well as the ranch is surviving without them.  I was very surprised at how good the calves weaned and how much change the guys had made in their behavior.  I learned that my style of horsemanship might not work for Parker Ranch horses and the way they ride.  I understand and even though I won’t change the way I work horses, I have no hard feelings.  We tried and it didn’t work very well.

I made some mistakes along the way.  I am really seeing the challenges of dealing with big crews and boss’s.  I really believe that everything in life is about pressure, and we need to learn driving pressure, drawing pressure and maintaining pressure. This may be more important to get good at with people than animals.

If you try to drive Stockmanship before someone is ready for the pressure, it just doesn’t seem to work.  I feel the first step is to draw people to an idea, get them hooked on, and then you can use the proper amount of driving pressure, then develop the curiosity to maintain the draw.

For me I have my own style to try to do this.  I just don’t think it works to shove it down someone’s throat.  The mistake I made is using the wrong pressure on some people, but that’s how you learn.  Most of them put up with me and we learned from each other.  The other thing that is important before you start is to make sure everyone in charge wants what you are going to try to do.

I visited a horse operation today, and the crew there didn’t agree with some of the bosses ideas, and when the boss was away they did what they thought was right.

This is why I feel it’s important to make sure you draw the change, and make sure it works for everyone, or you will have discontent and you won’t get the buy in you need to make it work.

I have been watching people for years that get real interested in a certain horseman and the style of horsemanship they present.  They are “drawn” to it until they will drive you crazy.  Folks that are followers of Bud Williams are the same way.  It is like a religion.  The folks that decide it is good and are passionate about it want to get everything they can learn.

Other people feel we are crazy and don’t believe in the horsemanship or Stockmanship that some are so passionate about.  I think it is important to be able to show why it is a good thing and have the skills when showing it to make sure it works and make some kind of sense.

So to everyone at Parker Ranch, a big thank you for all the hospitality and effort you put out to make us feel so welcome.  Tammy and I love the culture, the food, the people, the animals and the land in Hawaii.

I hope those of you from other parts of the world enjoyed our little glimpse of our life for a few weeks on this great ranch.

Ill leave you with this you tube video as a tribute to the Poniolo culture.

Jason Van Tassel and I headed up to Wakii to “prowl” on the calves we turned out yesterday.  That’s a term Ron Gill uses for checking cattle and Jason mentioned how he liked that term, and I Agee.  My old boss at Sieben Ranch, Clark Atkinson used the same term.

I was worried the heifers would be walking the fences, as we didn’t get them out and settled as good as I would have liked the day before.  We rode up where we could see them, and they were all bedded down or grazing and looking real content.  We rode to them and they weren’t concerned at all.  We did just the opposite of what I thought we were going to do.  We got them up and drifted them up to water.  Jason thought it would be good to prepare them for the gather for shipping in a month, by teaching them to move.  Good thinking.

We just happened to be in the same pasture that started this whole process three years ago, when rode over a hill, the cattle saw us and ran like a heard of antelope, and we had a hard time getting them stopped.  That day started this whole process.

We rode to the steers and same thing.  They were real content and the grass was better in this pasture and they were all in the lush spots grazing or laying down.  We picked them up and drifted them towards water.

We talked cattle and ranch and family and religion and morals and people and how it all tied together.  It was a very relaxed and enjoyable few hours spent enjoying the results of what we set out to do three years ago.

We rode back to the pens and one of the “what nots”, small calves that don’t fit the bunch, that were still in the corral bawled and we thought he was needing attention, so we got our ropes down.

About the time we got one necked it started raining really hard, and two grown men, that had just been discussing how smart and what good stockman we were, were getting soaked, roping cattle that didn’t need to be roped, for no real reason but that we enjoyed it(even though I was not roping very good).

We were actually doing some good.  The young horse I was riding needed it.  He was got real good after holding a few calves.  Jason and I got better at settling a calf on the end a rope by the proper release of pressure.  Jason needed to do something he does not get to do much, as this style of roping is not very popular here.  I got to rope with my “skin rope” which is the  poniolo name for a reata, on my Hawaii tree saddle.  When we were done we were soaked, muddy, and satisfied.  A good hour spent.

I got a nice surprise when I got home.  One of my favorite people in the world to be around was coming over for supper with his family.  Bill Ferreira lived with us in Montana for several years.  He has a life philosophy that I really enjoy.

He also happened to be the one that created the skin rope I used earlier.  He brought some reins he is working on to show us.  He is creating usable art out of the hides of the very animals that they will be used to help manage.  It is to good of quality to hang on a wall.

Bill and his wife Ali, have twins that are 4 years old, and we really are proud to have them as friends.  Bill was a great influence on our kids, and it is great to see him so happy.  Ali lights up the room with happy!

Today was a much more relaxed and laid back day then the past ten.  It was just what I needed.

Livestock meeting at headquarters started day.  We watched the drone video of gathering and sorting Mannys herd on Tuesday.  It was an amazing way to see it and really showed what position did when gathering and showed how effective different styles of sorting worked.  We had some real lively discussion, and Keoki Wood and I had the most lively.  I really admire how passionate he is about the ranch and getting the most out of the crew.  I even named a gate in the lead up at Wakii pens for him.  It is always there to help, sometimes gets in the way and is a pain in the behind, but it would not work if it wasn’t there.

It was a good meeting and it did what Keoki, Jason, and I wanted in engaging everyone in talking and working on what will improve cattle handling.  Manny Souza whose herd we worked really thought it out before work day, and set it up for the crew to learn from the drone video and work his cattle effectively.

After the meeting we were surprised with a breakfast at “Hawaii Style Cafe”.  Great place to eat and we all laughed and had fun.  I had “loco moco” which is a bed of rice ,brown gravy, two hamburger patties, two eggs covered in rich brown gravy.  A real stick to your ribs breakfast.  Brian and Isaak had Oxtail soup, and I am having it next time.  If you are ever in Waimea, you need to go to Hawaii Style Cafe, but bring cash because they don’t take credit cards.

Time to get to work.  Saddled our horses and Jason picked us up and. We met Brandon and Neal and we went and got some big finishing steers out of the neighbors.  The grass is greener on the other side of the fence in Hawaii too.

Jason is in charge of the Grass finishing enterprise that Parker Ranch.  This is a big reason they have us come over and spend time.  They need these cattle gentle and handling proper to get the kind of performance they are looking for.  The biggest challenge the Hawaii cattle industry has is marketing.  They have to ship cattle to the mainland, and that is very expensive, or they can finish and sell on the island.  The problem with that is harvest capacity.  They have lots of demand, lots of cattle, but very limited harvest capacity.  Even paradise has challenges, but Jason keeps working at it.

Went back to breaking pens, switched horses and headed to Isaak’s to turn calves out to pasture.  I having been riding a horse for DeeDee Burtleman, who from what I can see is the one thing that keeps the whole livestock department at Parker Ranch together and working as a team, came up to help us, and see how her  Munstah was doing.

I made a  mistake putting the heifers out the gate into the pasture and the ended up going the wrong direction.  I got that stopped, but then it put me out of position to get to the lead and they got movement and I couldn’t get them shut downs so they walked instead of grazed.

We then went and took the steers out.  They had to be trailed for about a half mile to the gate through a pasture. I took them out of the pen and Tammy, Isaak and DeeDee toook the lead.  They got them to the corner and held up without much trouble, and some things were learned about checking up movement before it gets started.

Just as I got there with the back of the steers, the heifers were coming around to the corner of the pasture so I went and got them stopped and held the up and got some of the movement out.  They started grazing and stayed pretty good, but as soon as I left, they were on the move again.  This is why it is so important to keep that movement checked up.

The steers we’re grazing happily and some were bedding down, so Isaak and I went and opens the gate and as the started through checked them up and stopped movement before it started the whole bunch grazed their way into the pasture and we stayed in front and kept the minds on grazing and not walking.  That’s the key.  If they pick their head up and start walking the whole bunch wants to walk and the forget about grazing and it is very difficult to change there mind back to grazing.  This is why working with them to get them to hook on and slow the feet down and stop is so important when working with calves.

It was also nice that right where we placed them was some real nice grass and water was just in front of them.

It was real rewarding to look back as we rode over the hill and to see every calf with is head down grazing and a content as could be.  Four days ago their world had been turned upside down.  Every thing changed for them.  The cow is gone, their diet is changed, they went from wide open space to confined in a pen, and intensive interaction with humans than ever before.  We owe it to these wonderful creatures to do the best we can.  This is why we do what we do.  For these calves to go through this change in there life, and to expect them to stay healthy and content, we owe it to them and ourselves to get better at everything we do with them.  As I looked at those calves and thought about how we helped them through the last four days, I feel good about what I do, the great people I get to work with, and the great industry we call Ranching.