RANCHING “WILDWOOD WEED?”
Remember the song by Jim Stafford recorded in 1974? If you don’t — check out this link (not all lyrics were used in this particular rendition):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyQi-1Z2tN8
Here are the full lyrics:
The wildwood flower grew wild on the farm
And we never knowed what it was called
Some said it was a flower and some said it was weed
I didn’t gave it much thought…
One day I was out there talking to my brother
Reached down for a weed to chew on
Things got fuzzy and things got blurry
And then everything was gone
I Didn’t know what happened
But I knew it beat the hell out of sniffin’ burlap
I come to and my brother was there
And he said, ‘What’s wrong with your eyes?’
I said, ‘I don’t know, I was chewing on a weed’
He said, ‘Let me give it a try’
We spent the rest of that day and most of that night
Trying to find my brother, Bill
Caught up with him ’bout six o’clock the next mornin’
Naked, swinging on the windmill
He said he flew up there
I had to fly up and get him down
He was about half crazy
The very next day we picked a bunch of them weeds
And put ’em in the sun to dry
Then we mashed ’em up and we cleaned ’em all
And put ’em in the corncob pipe
Smokin’ them wildwood flowers got to be a habit
We didn’t see no harm
We thought it was kind of handy
Take a trip and never leave the farm
A big ol’ puff on the wildwood weed
Next thing you know
We’s just wandering behind the little animals
All good things gotta come to an end
And it’s the same with the wildwood weed
One day this feller from Washington come by
And he spied us and he turned white as a sheet
And he dug and he burned
And he burned and he dug
And he killed all our cute little weeds
Then he drove away
We just smiled and waved
Sittin’ there on that sack of seeds
Y’all come back now, ya hear
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There isn’t much point in commenting about something unless the subject matter is understood by all viewers. Although most viewers of this website are LDPOA (Lake Don Pedro Owners’ Association) property owners and LDPCSD (Lake Don Pedro Community Services District) –aka- water company customers and receive the local Foothill Express newspaper, not all viewers do. Without first reading the most recent contribution by Emery Ross under in his column, Ranching Don Pedro, they couldn’t possibly understand my comments and attempts at humor.
Here’s Emery’s article entitled: “Low-flying helicopter spooks the livestock”
“Our calf crop this year consists mostly of bull calves. In the evening when it gets cool, they race and chase. Real bad boys.
On June 8, a helicopter was low-flying in the area, hovering over houses and fields, obviously looking for someone or something, like marijuana plants. This activity, of course, scattered the bad boys during the day.
The pilots of the helicopter must have been city boys, because they were flying very low, back and forth over fields of cows. If there were any green material in the field, cows would have trampled it or tried to eat it. Back in the 1960s, hippies would make marijuana brownies, happily eating the weed.
Flying low over cattle makes no sense to a rancher or a mamma cow.
A call to the Sheriff’s Office revealed what I should have already known: “Call the FAA.”
The FAA wants the N number on the fuselage of low-flying aircraft. If you can see it, naturally.
These elusive pot plots likely are not fenced. Wouldn’t the deer eat the plants in remote areas? They eat everything else.
Deer and cows are pretty smart when it comes to avoiding toxic plants. Maybe it is toxic.
In Washington DC, lawmakers are concerned about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) making overflights of cattle in Kansas, looking for clean water violations. Congress says it is an invasion of privacy issue. So what was that on June 8?
When called on the carpet over the flights, Director David Bloomberg, an EPA spokesman for the Washington DC office, said that area overflights are a cost-effective tool, reducing the need for on-site inspectors.
The EPA confirmed that it only uses overflights in certain states. California is not one of them. Well, that narrows the overflight down to pot busters, I guess.
The helicopter spent some time hovering over the vegetable garden of LDPCSD Director Mark Skoien. If they are worried about his garden, I’ll bring the bad boys over and they will decimate it is about 15 minutes. Tomato plants may look like pot from 50 feet above, whipping wildly from rotor downwash.
If the DEA wants to save money, they can use ten little Angus bulls. It would be similar to the theme song from the TV show COPS: Pot growers, whatcha gonna do when the baby bull bad boys come for you (and your green plants). Emery Ross may be contacted at ranchingdonpedro@yahoo.com.”
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WOW. What can one say? I guess that it raises far more questions than it was evidently intended to answer. Foremost, has the author himself consumed toxic vegetation? lol
PILOTS MUST HAVE BEEN CITY BOYS?
Good Heavens, if the aircraft were indeed tasked with locating “someone or something like marijuana plants” where the pilots may have been raised is immaterial because they were simply doing their job. More importantly, why would Mr. Ross assume this mysterious helicopter was looking for green material on his fenced ranch property or his neighbor’s place?
YOU WILL RECALL ANOTHER ROSS ARTICLE
Mr. Ross in the May issue of the Foothill Express wrote a piece on toxic plants (“State gets involved after cattle die from eating toxins”) which he believed were responsible for a sudden loss of livestock (they died) on his ranch. Recall he even offered to identify particular weed plants for people if they would email him (presumably with photos of the suspicious vegetation).
Ross also stated:
“Having a large number of cattle die at one time is a state emergency, triggering events beyond a rancher’s control and prompting visits to the ranch from multiple state agencies.”
CHECKING FOR REASONS CATTLE DIED?
Maybe the helicopter had nothing to do with suspected marijuana cultivation, which Emery obviously believes was the activity taking place? I guess it could be possible that some state or federal department or agency was looking for a possible clue or explanation as to why Emery claims to have lost 11 cows (15 if you count unborn calves) to some mysterious illness.
There are also some other reasonable explanations which might include activities by CalFire, CHP, Sheriff and search and rescue. Maybe a private outfit that contracts with other entities such as irrigation districts that must check for ditch and canal integrity and water loss? Telephone company transmission lines or mapping for a feasible DSL extension route?
What about this article I found in the MARIPOSA GAZETTE?
The mystery helicopter that spent several hours flying very low over the county on Friday, June 15 has been identified. Utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric has been using Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) equipment mounted on this aircraft to spot potential trouble. “It picks up hot spots,” spokesperson Nicole Liebelt said. “Then we can send crews out to make repairs—before there’s any wildfire or power outage.” PG&E | Contributed
Maybe something similar to this was going on June 8th? Had this occurred two weeks later on Friday June 22nd it would have been thought related to the recent homicide investigation occurring approximately ¾ of a mile from the Ross Ranch on Hormiga Way. Perhaps it was just a pilot friend of a resident who desired some aerial photographs of their property improvements? (I’d like some images of my place depicting the 87’ x 87’ Tarantula weed-eaten and Round-Up’d on the hillside. Ahhh, come-on….just a couple of good photos? The image on Google Earth isn’t that good. …..
I have a very large suspicious looking Japanese Maple tree too- LOL! But on a
serious side, Lord knows how many illegal searches have been conducted by inexperienced officers because of the similarity in leaf pattern between the Japanese Maple and cannabis?)
WHY SPECIFICALLY MENTION HIS NEIGHBOR?
Who knows what happened out there, but regardless, why would Emery Ross mention his good friend, neighbor, and fellow CSD director’s name? Was it an attempt to “cultivate” some free political advertising for him before the November election for LDPCSD directors? Maybe Emery and Mark just wanted those who may have seen this helicopter to know that nothing illegal was taking place on their respective properties? Surely such a “crack-pot” idea would never germinate within the community?
ASSISTANCE APPEARS TO BE WARRANTED
Someone needs to counsel this man before a helicopter equipped with a large net indeed attempts to “Round him up” as he zig-zags madly across his ranch on his ATV searching for the elusive Santa Teresa monster. LOL
Perhaps we are all over-looking a perfectly logical and sensible explanation:
Maybe the cows and Santa Teresa monster have secretly been making other types of brownies?
My best to you and yours, Lew
ps:
WHAT’S HE GONNA DO IF THEY COME FOR MOOOOO?
lol 
