An Idahoan shows Bundy what a real Western rancher is

[eridani]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/16/1292565/-An-Idahoan-shows-Bundy-what-a-real-Western-rancher-is

Being a Westerner and the daughter and granddaughter of cattle ranchers, I think it's about time that the non-crazy Western ranchers get some equal national media time. Because they're not all federal government-hating, "wise use," sagebrush rebelling, gun-toting crazies—even in a state like Idaho. One of Idaho's most influential cattle ranchers and conservationists is proof of that. His name was Bud Purdy, and in his 96 years, he became sort of a legend in the state. Unfortunately, he passed away this week, but this remembrance from the Idaho Stateman's Rocky Barker tells the story.

Purdy, 96, led the ranching industry into rest and rotation grazing on public lands that both protected the range and improved cattle production. He duck-hunted and skied with Ernest Hemingway and hosted Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper at his Picabo Ranch.
He helped start the Idaho Cattle Association, led the University of Idaho Foundation as president and was chairman of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry. In addition to the ranch, he and his late wife Ruth owned the Picabo Store, the Picabo Elevator and Silver Creek Supply, a seed business. […]

Purdy donated a 3,500-acre conservation easement on all of the ranch along Silver Creek in the 1990s to the Nature Conservancy, adjacent to its own Silver Creek Preserve. Purdy didn’t even take the tax break on the easement valued at $7 million. […]

He loved the cattle business, he explained to writer, producer and author Steve Stuebner in an article in 2012 for the Idaho Rangeland Commission (which he co-founded). "Every morning, you get up and do something different," he said. "You turn out on the range and ride a horse every day. Even now, I go out and make sure the water is OK, check the fences and make sure the gates are closed.

"It's just a constant going out there and doing it," Purdy said. "I was never a cowboy, but I've ridden a million miles."

[progressoid]

1. Video. k/r

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. I'm picturing a bunch of rednecks with guns doing the 'City Slickers' dude ranch thing....

....and being seen as complete idiots with their damn guns.

"Hey!"

"What?"

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

"Nuthin'. Just target practice on an empty can of beans."

"The cattle all ran off from the sound of the shooting."

(The rednecks look back and forth at each other and then grin) "You mean a STAMPEDE?"

[trof]

3. K&R

[mopinko]

4. he's my new hero.

i posted this on my little farm page.
i think the land equation is about 10 acres to my square foot. but i think we agree on most everything.