“Squirrel!” If you’ve seen Disney’s animated film, “Up,” then you realize the world of meaning behind what seems like a simple noun. It’s that tendency to get distracted by something that looks or smells or tastes so fascinating that you immediately stop mid-sentence and go screaming off down the rabbit hole in a different mental direction. And your dear host has that characteristic in spades, because nearly everything seems to be interesting. Yes, that makes me the dog. And I won’t Squirrel again by running down the “Harry Met Sally” reference, but those of you who get that one, really get it. The distraction of curiosity can be both positive and negative, because it leads to some really amazing topics, but sometimes has you lost in those little blue links in Wikipedia until your spouse says, “Honey, it’s 2:00 a.m. Time to put down the iPad and go to sleep.”
It also has you going to the National Western, visiting the draft horse shows, then drawn to the barns to talk to the good people at Y-Bar Hitch with the Suffolk Punches that looked great in the ring, invited to Gunnison to the rodeo later that year, finagling travel 6 months later to film the hitch-up for the parade at 5:00 a.m., quizzing Ken Spann during the process about haying with horses and teamsters, and being invited to speak with a local legend - the father of the person we originally went to film (okay, Ken’s “invited” is more like “Elara wrangled…”).
But that curiosity brought us to a truly wonderful conversation, and we deeply enjoyed our time with Lee Spann, lifelong and dedicated rancher of Spann Ranches, Inc., in Gunnison, Colorado. This man was able to stay focused on continuing a 140-year-old tradition, sustaining a family ranch in a challenging climate. He has personally brought beef to our food supply for over 80 years. He's not a commercial for trucks, or tobacco, or even beef itself. He is the real deal, people. And Lee, this squirrel thanks you.
Links to get you started…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford
https://www.facebook.com/Spann-Ranches-Inc-319821818056441/
https://www.facebook.com/ybarhitch/
https://www.cattlemensdays.com/
https://nationalwestern.com/
http://www.liveauctions.tv/ViewEmbedVideoChat.aspx?AuctionID=7905
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Disambiguation
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098635/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
http://www.liveauctions.tv/ViewEmbedVideoChat.aspx?AuctionID=7901