Stacia Couch
Happy birthday, Jess!
Today is Jess’s birthday. While most people might take some time off, maybe eat a steak dinner with their friends, catch a movie, Jess is not “most people.” Instead, Jess is on a plane to New Mexico to speak at the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association Convention on Friday.
And with an introduction like this (see below), who can blame him? And don’t worry about him for a second, he’s having a blast. Happy birthday, Jess.
—-
Email Blast From: Caren Cowan
Sent: Dec 10, 2008 5:19 PM
Subject: What’s the latest with COOL?
Come to the Joint Stockmen’s Convention and find out! Jess Peterson who owns the Washington D.C. lobbying firm Western Strategies will be providing the most up to date information available during the Joint Stockmen’s Promotion & Marketing Committee at 3:00 pm on Friday, December 12. He will also have information on the WTO litigation and the US Senate bill aimed at reforming the beef checkoff.
Come on… there’s still room for you!
Caren Cowan
Executive Director
New Mexico Cattle Growers Association
Mailing address: POB 7517 / Albuquerque NM 87194
Physical address: 2231 Rio Grande Blvd NW / Albuquerque NM 87104
—–
Yes, it’s still October 31
From there I had a brief stop in Rapid City to see a few friends working hard on in preparation for election night. Once again I would go into detail, but again Ms. Couch has advised me that, while I might stray a bit in my travels, I should not in my writing.
Did you think I had enough gear?
My trip was far from over as I headed back out on the road, destination: Rapid City. My next stop was Rays Western Wear. I needed to pick up a Montana Silversmith briefcase. [From the editor: if Jess is going to have to carry a briefcase around while wearing that suit, it better be a a piece of Montana pride!] Like everything there is more to the story here, but my editor coaches me to be brief and concise on my first round of blog postings. So I will just say to all you readers, if you are driving I90 to Rapid City, you better stop in at Rays Western Wear and be prepared for service and western hospitality that warms your heart and lightens your pocket book! Yes, Deb and the crew are the best, and I am still not sure how I went in to pick up a briefcase and came out with a new cowboy hat. If you want to know the story, you will have to stop in at Rays Western Wear! Call ‘em before you do at: 605-787-4702 and ask for Deb McPherson!
Why (oh why) me?
Sitting in the kitchen at Jess’s family ranch after this year’s branding (his hundredth or so, my first), I marveled at how Jess must feel going back and forth like this – one day in the city talking as his job and the next day here physically working as his job. It seemed to me that he could be good at one or the other, that he could only love one or the other. So I asked him. Essentially he said he needed both. Essentially he said one cannot exist without the other. Essentially he said that what I see outside the windows (wide open space, a couple of working horses, the calves they had just branded) and that what I felt inside the house (camaraderie between family and friends, the ability to laugh over the day’s minor mishaps, pure physical exhaustion from hard work)—that it could all be in danger without someone pounding the streets in DC talking about it, without someone voicing the concerns and needs of all families and small businesses in rural America.
The fact that the “someone pounding the streets” happens to be him still baffles him, I think. 
And the fact that I am driven to help and support him still baffles me. After all, what do I know about it? I live in DC and grew up in a subdivision in the suburbs in the South. The first time I rode a horse, it threw me; it took me 17 years to try again. The sum total of my experience in Jess’s “other world” is that my grandfather farmed in northern Indiana, which to me meant only that he woke up very early in the mornings and he had a farmer’s tan. Once my grandmother sent me a picture of cows in a field with “these are the cows we will slaughter this year” inscribed on the back. That’s it.
Now I connect to rural America through Jess, in simple ways like carefully reading his ramblings and the news he finds relevant, like adding and subtracting commas, and like studying the Farm Bill, carbon offsets, foot and mouth disease and more. Now, I look forward to helping Jess share his adventures and maybe I can even help convince other unlikely people like myself to advocate for rural America. But enough about me, let’s go find Jess…
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- Naomi on Burgers, burgers and a trip to NY
- Stacia Couch on And it’s day 2… USCA Fly-in
- Naomi on Shopping out west
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