It’s the new year of 2026. Looking back at 2025 reveals mixed results for agriculture and ranching. For sure, 2025 had to be close to the best year, if not the best, for raising beef cattle, sheep, and meat goats. I don’t raise any of the three anymore, but I sure can’t recall any time when selling prices for all these species has been so high for so long.
On the opposite side of coin, 2025 was pretty much a downer for folks who raise any kind of grain. Selling prices for about all grains were in the dumper all year — and price prospects for 2026 aren’t promising either.
Here in the Fly-Over States where most readers of my column reside the “aggie weather” for 2025 wuz a mixed bag, too. The good side wuz that a lot of territory got enuf moisture to take it out extreme drought conditions. The bad side wuz that in some areas too much rains, floods, and high winds did a lot of damage. A few places stayed dry, too.
As for me personally here at Damphewer Acres, 2025 wuz an excellent year. The summer wuzn’t too hot. The winter wuzn’t too cold. Spring and fall were better than normal. And, thanks to abundant water from my excellent well, all my gardening efforts paid off with abundant production.
Agriculture is always a gamble for producers, but they keep making that gamble and the result is a populations that worries more about over-weight than hunger and starvation.
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The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which sadly has published its final issue, says that an old Polish tradition suggests that rising early on New Year’s Day sets the tone for the rest of the year. Plus, it says if you touch the floor first with your right foot upon waking, you’re going to have a year filled with good luck. You’re literally starting the year on the “right” foot.
So, I hope you got out of bed on New Year’s Day early and put your right foot on the floor first. It never hurts to give superstition an honest try.
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I mentioned earlier about gambling. Well, sports gambling wuz a topic of conversation this morning at our Old Geezers’ Gathering and Gabfest. After we all agreed that sports betting probably does more harm than good, because it puts doubt in peoples’ minds that players might be cheating so that someone can cash in a wager.
That’s when my fishing buddy, ol’ Kastin Crankitt, recalled a wagering game from his years in the U.S. Air Force. He said he wuz stationed at a location with plenty of warm weather and flies.
So, he and friends when they were gathered at a friendly bar, they would each put a dollar bill on the bar and watch for a fly to land on one of the bills. Whoever owned the dollar bill that the fly landed on won all the bills wagered. Kastin said that wuz one form of betting that couldn’t be cheated at.
That’s when I said, “If I’d been there, I’d have smeared jelly on my dollar bill.”
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My friends from Texas, Mr. and Mrs. Wright deLaws, stopped by for an overnight visit on Dec. 27. Wright is a retired Nebraska state senator. They moved to Texas last year, but spent Christmas with their daughter and family who lives near Des Moines.
We had a great visit and Wright told me that his kids got him a “Senior GPS gadget” for a Christmas present.
When I asked him what he liked best about his new GPS, he replied, “Well, it tells me how to get to my destinations and then tells me why I went there.”
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He also told me about a new breed of dog that wuz sure to become a fad in rural America. He said the breed is a cross between a Shih Tzu and a bulldog. The Shih Tzu genes provides friendliness and the bull dog genes provide toughness and protectiveness. The new breed’s name is American Bullshihtz.
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Wright also passed along a joke that made me laugh. He said that an elderly rural couple were seated close to the front of the rural church and the preacher wuz delivering to his congregants a Christmas-themed sermon.
During the middle of the sermon, the wife of the couple leaned over and quietly whispered into her husband’s ear, “I just passed some gas. But it was a silent one.”
Her hubby leaned over and whispered to her, “You need to turn up your hearing aid.”
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I’m not much on making New Year’s resolutions, because I never follow through on them. But, for 2026, I’ll give resolutions another try. These are some I’ll try to do.
I resolve to keep writing this column into it’s 53 year.
I resolve to keep gabbing with my old geezer buddies.
I resolve to try and get my new Man Cave appropriately decorated when it gets finished.
I resolve to keep gardening for another year if my old body can do it.
I resolve to keep playing cards daily with my good wife Nevah.
I resolve to maintain my sense of humor.
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Words of wisdom to start 2026: “Don’t believe the world owes you a living. It owes you nuthin’. It wuz here first.” Have a good ‘un.
