Osage County: A Whole Other Country

As chairman of the House Ag committee, I get a lot of opportunities to speak at some pretty interesting places. Most recently, I was called to deliver the keynote address at the Osage County Cattlemen’s meeting and annual summer tour in Pawhuska. The “Osage”, as they call it, is more of a region and it is where many of the historic Oklahoma ranches are located. Their county Cattlemen’s Association is as big as many state associations. It was amazing to view the sea of grass, lush and green from recent rain, that sprawls out over thousands of acres of what some would call the “epicenter” of the Oklahoma ranching industry. We got a chance to visit with many old friends and made several new ones. It was interesting to sit at a table with legends like Frederick Drummond. I did not get a head count at the luncheon but I would say there were well over 150 people.

The Osage is definitely a place where cowboys abound. It is not unusual to see folks wearing stovepipe boots with jeans tucked in the top and big roweled spurs. Anywhere you go in that area, you will see trailers with horses saddled and ready to go. The luncheon was especially memorable for me because not only did I address everything from ranch owners to hired hands, but also in the drawing, won a pair of John Israel handmade spurs. I found out right after I won that drawing that those spurs are a coveted item in the Osage. They were not fancy or buffed to a shine, but sure enough working spurs. Apparently, any cowboy worth his salt owns a pair and I was offered $500 for that pair of spurs before I got out of the building. Needless to say, they are not for sale.

We had a great barbeque and consumed some more beef. That night, they had an outdoor dance and, once again, the dress code was jeans, boots and palm leaf hats. Shorts and flip-flops were rare at that event. It was quite a time. That night, I rolled out my bed roll at Representative Eddie Fields’ place. The next morning, we loaded up and went on the ranch tour. The only thing more memorable than the beautiful grass of the Osage was the stifling humidity. As I said earlier, they have had a tremendous amount of rain and while it has really kicked off the grass, it made it tough to breathe. One interesting note is that many of the large land holders have started running government-sponsored wild horses. It is interesting that they are over 18,000 wild mustangs in Osage County alone. While many question the validity of that federal program, it has provided a great deal of steady income for many Osage ranchers. It was a tour of some of the greatest grass in the world combined with a history lesson and some great people. It is an amazing part of the world and for me; it was a huge honor to be asked to be a small part of that program. If you like cattle and ranch country, I would recommend a visit.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the capitol, please do not hesitate to send an email to donarmes@house.gov or call me at 1-800-522-8502.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:


“Ride like there’s no tomorrow, because you never know if there will be one!”

A Blank Spot in the Calendar

Last Thursday as I was looking at the impending holiday weekend, the thought struck me “how in the heck does it get to be Fourth of July so quickly every year?” I can remember in my school teaching days, you looked at the end of school as a swinging of the chute gate when the kids were turned loose and teachers could breathe for a minute and try to regroup and lay some knowledge on them again in the fall. I am finding session to be much like that but with much more of a syncopated rhythm. It seems like every year, I look forward to the end of session almost like a kid anticipating the end of school. You have visions of lazy summer afternoons with your feet hanging off the dock and a cane pole and bobber waiting on a fish to bite with a big glass of lemonade at your side and basically nothing to do. It kind of reminds me of the visions of sugar plums dancing in the children’s heads in the poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. We have these visions, dreams, fantasies if you will, and I am hear to tell ya that ain’t how it works.
What usually happens to me is I realize how much I have left undone during that very intense four months that we call “session”. So, what normally happens is that nice little vision gets shattered in a million pieces about the first Monday of being back home. The “honey-do” list alone requires a staff of professional organizers, not to mention the farm chores that I put off as well as numerous other business-oriented tasks that have been screaming for my attention when I just could not focus on anything other than the Capitol. June was a blur last year and that was easy to explain because of the tragic loss of my assistant, Ashley Pena, and you all know that story. This year, although the circumstances were much different and not near as sad, it seems like I look up and it is the Fourth of July once again. I am seeing a pattern and I’m not sure that the communists don’t have some kind of plot to steal away all of my “Junes” and I certainly don’t know how to fix it. I do know that there sure seems to be a blank spot in my calendar. I guess a year just seems to have 11 months in Don Armes’ world because once again, June was filled with a flurry of activity and while I know we made some progress, I was busy every single day. I sure seems like it just disappeared.
This year, what would have been wheat harvest, turned into hay baling and of course, as anybody who has ever baled wheat hay can tell ya, a lot of that happens at night to take advantage of moisture. Of course, when you’re as behind as I was, you try to fill both the day and the night. I enjoy the Fourth of July, the family time, the lake and the cookouts. It always seems like when the Fourth of July hits, it puts the rest of summer on fast forward and if you didn’t play in June then sure have to “hurry up and play” the next two months. I can’t believe that I’m saying what I’m saying. Hurry up and play? I guess that does sound kind of crazy, doesn’t it? I think that for at least the next few minutes, I’m gonna go back to that Norman Rockwell picture in my mind of the kid in overalls with his feet dangling in the water and a cane pole and bobber with a glass on lemonade beside him. I’m gonna enjoy that little respite in my mind before my phone rings again and jars me out of the unrealistic fantasy.
I hope that everyone had a good weekend and enjoyed that precious time with family and friends and that the rest of your summer is enjoyable. Try to balance work and play, family and all the other things in your equation because in my world, it’s a never-ending battle. As some say, “that’s just how I roll”. Dadgummit, there’s the phone..

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call
1-800-522-8502 or send an e-mail to donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” -James Dent