It is not only children who run away. Grown people do it, too. With children, we're apt to call it an act of defiance. With a grown man, we're at a loss to explain it. But I strongly suspect it is a cry of pain.
The Man Who Ran Away, first broadcast over CBS Radio Mystery Theater on October 2, 1975.
We've decided to add an adjacent ranch to our holdings, some 10,000
acres. The owners wanted $1,000 an acre for it but there have been no
takers for years because there's not a lot that can be done with it
-- limited livestock grazing potential is about it, plus, with care, one annual crop of alfalfa hay, probably mostly Grade 2, some Grade 1 -- so they
were happy to have us take it off their hands for a comparatively modest
sum.
But it does have water, and water in the west is more valuable than gold
and silver. But we'll put this acreage in a conservation reserve
program (lower taxes!) and leave the water where nature wants it. We'll
also do a lot of restoration work planting native vegetation to help
re-establish a flourishing ecosystem.-1.jpg)
As
we completed the sale, the owners of a 6,000-acre ranch adjacent to our
new holdings came to us offering a very reasonable price for their
ranch. It was inherited land they did not know what do do with and
wanted to be rid of. We were happy to acquire it and for
now, at least, also put it in a conservation reserve program.
So in
total we've added some 25 square miles to our fiefdom. There's lots of
game on the new land. Aside from some roads and a few other
improvements, most of it looks just as it did before the white man
came. That is, unless you are a botanist and can recognize all the
invasive species. And spot the changes caused by a lowered water table
and hard-panning in a few places.
One
reason for the eagerness to sell ranch land is the collapse in beef
prices during the Covid restaurant restrictions. Prices have come back
somewhat, but now there's a war on cattle and other livestock production
because it's supposedly bad for the planet. So people are nervous
about having so much marginally productive lands on their hands, lands
that are still taxed and involve potential legal liabilities for all 
sorts
of things and require insurance to help protect against those. But for
us the additional land has real benefits. One of these is security.
It's not a problem yet and our neighbors are good people, but since the
governments, federal, state and local, no longer feel it necessary to
enforce civil peace or prosecute criminals, we have to be practical and
prepare for what may come. The more we can isolate ourselves and our
assets from the wider world the better off we should be. So, at no
little cost, obvious access roads are being obliterated and
surveillance and monitoring equipment is being installed. And soon there
will be only one way to easily enter our land and it will be double-gated
and guarded. Once you pass through that second gate you are safe in
your person and property. Isn't that worth a lot?
