Ok, all you ND cattle ranching Baboons. You have until December 31 to renew your cattle brands. 91% have been renewed already. About 1,900 brands will lapse at the end of December. If you don’t renew on time, another rancher could take over your brand! Send your renewal into the Stockmen’s Office in Bismarck as soon as you can!
The Christmas season is busy enough, and then there are these extra things that need to be done. We paid our property taxes early to save $128. We renewed our professional licenses. We made sure our church pledge was all paid.
I am amazed by the number of cattle brands in my State. I would love to know their history, and who designed them. I have never attended a branding. They are real social events. It would be fun to incorporate a brand into signing my professional reports in addition to my signature. Wouldn’t that confuse the insurance companies! I would need to consult an artist to design one for me.
What design elements would you use in your brand? What do you need to accomplish before the end of the year? Are you happy with your signature?
Trail Baboon 
1.Probably a stylish version of my initials written in cursive (that’s how I initial documents like car loans.
2.Get the damn book to the publisher!
3.Some days yes, other days it feels like I’ve never signed a thing in my life. 😦
4. What was the question? Oh . . . never mind.
Chris in Owatonna
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When my daughter first got her call out your way, Renee, the ranchers decided she needed to know about their lives. So one day she went on a cattle drive (No, she was not riding a horse), one day she went to a branding, and a third day she rode in a combine. She loved it all. They thought she was going to be squemish about the dust and dirt but especially the branding. Not my daughter. She did impress them.
Before the end of the year I need to sort out the chaos of Sandy’s insurance and social secuirty. $60.10 appeared in our account today. But we are still short by a couple hundred, by the infiormation they have sent me. So far I just watch and in a month or so they sort things out. I needed to sort out things with the BC/BS plan she left and the Medica plan she joined on 12/1.
My brand would use as little metal as possible against the hide, maybe something like an upper case theta, to which I have another connection. I would go for omega but it looks like a horse shoe so I doubt it would be approved.
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Your daughter should have her own brand—and branding iron.
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I think my brand would be like my favorite earrings – start like Clyde with the Theta symbol, θ , only rounder, and add a little singing bird on the crossbar branch.
Before end of year I have a bunch of stuff to sort out with our UU Board of Directors – possibly a zoom meeting to organize. Uffda.
Otherwise, just fun stuff like baking my wreath bread to take to Christmas morning brunch, Oh, and get some Christmas cards off if time allows.
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My signature is fine, I guess. But my handwriting in general is getting more and more like my grandma Sterling’s, which means less legible with time. This must skip a generation, because my mom had beautiful writing.
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VS, thank you for the special cards.
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Her cards are her signature, aren’t they?
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Always a highlight of the Christmas mail!
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And this one was especially pretty.
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Thank you all… they are a joy to make so I’m glad that I have special folks to share them with
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Signature: I have signed it so many thousands and thousands of times I don’t think about it. I notice it on something old every so often. It has changed little. I used to avoid the middle intial, seems pretensious for such an uncommon name, but the world forces it on me. Everyone wants it in my name and signature. For awhile I flirted with getting the world to call me by my middle name, but I would have to move to a place where nobody knows me for that to work. i would have been C. Lewis and not Clyde L. Glad I did not. It would have caused confusion. I like the name Lewis, which was my father’s name, but that has little to do with my appreciation of the name.
Sandy decided when she got married she would use her maiden name as her middle name, so Sandra S. instead of Sandra M. Oh, the confusion that caused. She remembered where it was what. I know government things require the M. Most of her medical things are the S. I try to get away with no middle intial for her. But many forms require it.
Sandra’s maiden name means snail. Love that.
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I always think that women should keep their names if they marry. it makes things so much easier, although when we moved out here, people tended to think we weren’t married, and that was sort of scandalous for some. They could understand that more easily than my decision to keep my last name, though. that was just plain weird to them.
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Having my own name has never been a problem at all. What drives me nuts is the old custom of MRS JOHN SMITH rather than allowing the woman any identity apart from being a wife.
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Every woman in the old church cookbook from my grandma is designated as Mrs His Name. Makes me twitch.
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My mother also used her maiden name as her middle name and it was never an issue. I wonder why?
In fact it was so engrained that my brothers had to ask me what her real middle name was. One of my dad’s sisters asked me on the way back from the cemetery what her middle initial stood for and seemed surprised when I told her, so I guess it was not common practice (which I had always assumed).
My guess is that keeping her own name would have been unacceptable at the time, and this was as close as she could get. She had a degree and professional credentials with that name. Why wouldn’t she use it?
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I dropped off the last of the work for 2021 yesterday.
This morning I sent off the last 2 invoices, so this topic is really speaking to me.
I have a few “neighborhood” centered errands to do and those are about to happen (before the snow and wind really kick in).
There is the usual EOY effort to get the house in some state of habitation (and not just a workroom). Other than Steve’s wreath on the porch, I have done no decorating, no baking. I’d really like to get after some of that.
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Does the s&h come back home for the holidays?
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well, he lives in downtown St Paul and took his mattress, so no,
He’s travelling to be with his girlfriend’s family (everybody vaxxed, boosted, and I dropped off a 2-step COVID test for him on Saturday), then will be home for New Year’s.
Works out perfectly as it gives me some “recovery and restoration” time as well as time to decorate and food prep.
I was rather tickled that he requested some specific decorations for the apartment.
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Rise and Shine Baboons,
Today my brand would be the broken heart emoji. My heart was broken when I was a very young child by my father’s illness, but I learned that a broken heart just keeps on beating. All the recent extended family conflict is distressing, but I know we will go on, and maybe the wounds of my poor sister will even heal.
Meanwhile, before the end of the year I will become obsessed with the weather as we prepare to travel SW for the winter. I especially keep my eye on big swirling weather systems off the coast of California because those become snowstorms in Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico which we attempt to avoid. WE will tuck a small Christmas celebration in there, then take the Christmas tree to the basement. I have to start making lists of stuff to pack, as well.
My signature is, at this point, illegible.
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Despite how often I have signed my name it is legible. Harmon Killebrew used to lecture young Twins to always make their autographs legible. That it was showing repsect to the people who asked. Many of them did and still do.
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So the news is that I do have glaucoma. It is very early in the process and treatable with eye drops. I just finished my work day then will go get the prescription. Didn’t see that one coming.
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My brother in law the Ear Nose and Throat specialist has it. It runs in the family, though Husband has avoided it to date. It is treatable.
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He has had it for years.
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He is 60.
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1. I think I’d like a K with the stem of the K forming the stem of a white pine tree and the branches of the tree coming out on the sides around the branches of the K. I thought of a Circle K or a Rocking K but I’m sure those are already taken.
2. I have nothing left to do before the end of the year. Suddenly I feel like there is either something left horribly undone or I am very lucky. One or the other. I’m leaning toward being lucky.
3. I’m usually happy with my signature but I don’t like being rushed. My name is a bit long so it takes me a few seconds to write it out. It seems people don’t even have the patience to wait for someone to sign something.
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Antsy, antsy. My last stray comment is about banner image. The Hereford is an atractive animal, although this is not the best example. Docile animals for the most part. Even the bulls, which are beautiful, can be docile. But only an idiot trusts a bull.
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flying lowercase tim but i’m opposed to branding
i’ll microchip mine and give them a collar
end of the year … write a few checks to make sure i’m broke for taxes and start one of my new business
need to get ein number from sec of state
tomorrow is deadline personally set so i can get checking acct etc up by 12/31
signature is correct tim or mt depending on document
i used to make it a scrawl in one smooth easy motion but today it’s recognizable
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I forget (if I ever knew) – what’s mt?
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michael timothy.
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My handwriting was never good, and my signature is becoming more illegible as the years pass. Arthritis in my thumbs doesn’t help much.
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Renee, if you lived in Japan, your wish for a brand as your signature would be granted. Traditionally, the Japanese use personal signature stamps, called hanko, in lieu of a written signature. The hanko designs are usually made up of characters forming part or all of a person’s name but configured uniquely. For official documents, like contracts or your professional reports, the hanko are registered.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
https://www.realestate-tokyo.com/living-in-tokyo/japanese-culture/hanko-inkan/
My signature is acceptable unless I think about it.
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Ooh, I like that!
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That would work great for me!
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oh I want one of those!
My signature very much depends on how much abuse my hands have been through (as does all my handwriting).
Right now it staggers, by mid-January it will be far better.
Like tim, I wouldn’t brand an animal.
But I’m pretty sure my coat-of-arms would be a crossed knittiing needle and wooden spoon, with 2 cats rampant as supporters.
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Not sure what my brand would be….probably incorporate something musical (eighth note, treble clef, fermata) along with an initial.
I don’t have anything pressing to complete before the end of the year. All out of town gifts have been mailed in plenty of time, others wrapped, Christmas cards done yesterday, will make rice pudding on Thursday (my usual contribution to Christas Eve supper), and no longer bake Christmas cookies. I usually undecorated my house 3 or 4 days after Christmas and do a thorough cleaning at the same time.
My handwriting has always been small and neat. It becomes messy if I try to write larger. My written signature (13 letters without middle initial) is about 1.5 inches long, 1/4 inch tall, and very legible – part of my neatnik personality, I guess. In the days when I paid mostly by check, many merchants made a big deal about how small and neat my writing was – even had a couple hand the check back to me for a signature. For a long time now I print instead of write in cursive. Some people think it is typing. When traveling, I could put a lot on a postcard. One downside was having a hard time filling a blue book essay exam – I might need only a couple of pages which could be interpreted to mean I didn’t know my subject very well. An upside to small writing is that pretty much no one can forge my signature successfully.
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…Christmas Eve supper………undecorate……
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Merry Winter Solstice!
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Yes! I’m going to put on The Christmas Revels, which I taped of MPR decades ago. They don’t seem to play it anymore as part of their holiday stuff.
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I don’t need a brand. As a vegetarian I don’t need an actual branding iron and in today’s world I don’t need to be branded. Just too much to keep track of.
After divorce from wasband number one, I did sit in a bar with a friend for a couple of hours and wrote my name over and over again until I got a signature that I liked. And that’s the one that I still use to this day. A girlfriend of mine found a stamp set that really looks like it was custom-made with part of my signature and I love that. But not enough to have a brand made out of it.
And as for what’s left to do I’m pretty much done and have been for a while. The only things left are a few deliveries and a lot more cookie eating. Twin Cities baboons who want to stop by will be sent home with cookies!!
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Evening-
I didn’t know there was that much involved with having a brand.
I don’t know what mine would be. Never really thought about it. I’ll so some bookwork before the end of the year; gotta pay a couple bills yet, and I do have to sign some papers at the implement dealer to get a purchase on this years expenses. But otherwise we’re sitting pretty good.
First batch of Amish Friendship Bread just about to come out. Hope we did it right!
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Ben, your fowl need a brand (mmmm, the smell of hot burning feathers!). How about a fried chicken leg brand?
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I think they need necklaces with charms on them.
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Little silver gizzard charms.
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ooo- burning feathers! haha
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Her home had another covid positive so now we cannot visit on Christmas. The manager told me, which I knew, that they cannot stop me from going in, but I believe in the protocols. The manager told me several times that they cannot stop me. So I got the implication. I may go in briefly tomorrow, or maybe Friday.
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And after spending the day in battle with Bc/bS I got a letter that my data from my ex eye dr that my data there was breached. It was a cold and indifferent letter full of incorrect and incomplete information on how to deal with it, from my ex dr mrs trumpite
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I have been working on training for the tax season, so I still have some gifts and wrapping to attend to. Also plan to make charitable contributions before year’s end.
My signature is particularly illegible when I’m ask to sign an electronic screen with my finger. I do a cursive L and an R, each followed by slightly squiggly lines. No one has a legible signature on one of those screens.
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The last Skibo Castle Ginger Crunch and Lingonberry-topped Brussels cookies are baked. Tomorrow night I ice the lebkuchen, and it all gets packed in the car for Thursday’s trip to Brookings. The weather seems promising.
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Bon voyage! Safe journey!
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I have a whole work day left, but I am so excited for a break from work !
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