Sheepherders making lots of money in Moo Town?

Hah. Got a belly laugh this morning when I read the paper. Old “Bubba” Engen, mayor of Moo Town Missoula, stuck his foot so far in his mouth his toes was tickling his tonsils. And every wanker liberal is scratching his or her hairy head to figure out how they can help out this sheepherder make more money while they’re walking up to the peace sign with their dog.

The articles about a sheepherder up on Mount Jumbo and how he makes $800 a month doing his job all day, around $2 an hour they figure, and the reporter was saying how the sheepherder wants more money and the rancher who hired him is about ready to shut his operation down because sheep ranching don’t pay anymore.

Have to say at least the reporter got all the story. Could have been a whiner about how the poor mexican ain’t making much money, but the rancher was able to get in that the situation is a hell of a lot more complicated than most city folk know. It’s the cost of gas and taxes and he’s even loosing a lamb a day to an old coyote with pups. But the reporter does hammer away at the money thing, saying that even though he gets room and board he’s making less then college interns while those big wigs in the city government are raking it in.

Another time that city folk just don’t get it. Ranching just don’t pay anything, for the workers and lots of time for the ranchers, too, unless you inherit a whole bunch of land. But the mexican kinda knows how to work the press. The reporter has him rattling off some mexican about how he don’t et paid much and he don’t get no help up there.

But old Bubba says he’s going to look into it for next year. Hah. “Maybe there are other ways that we can approach this. Yeah, it’s not much dough – that’s for sure.” So now I can see the mayor of Moo Town decreeing that any sheepherder in town will be subsidized to the tune of the minimum wage, which is $6.35 an hour. What’s going to happen with that? Hell, if he gets minimum for all those hours, it will go to overtime, too, and pretty soon that sheepherder will be driving a brand new truck.

And then, every other sheepherder in the state and prolly Mexico too will be heading to Moo Town since they can make more money here.

Now, before you get a burr up your armpit, realize that sheepherding is ranch work, and it don’t pay much if anything. Look in the paper and you’ll see adds for sheepherders for the same pay. The rancher says that he’s paying more than most. There are all kinds of ranch workers in Montana that don’t get paid shit.

You have to know that farming and ranching is still the number one industry in Montana. But maybe soon it won’t be, with all the hippie and californicating turists coming through town and the Hell’s Angel’s, too, so maybe it will be turism and then maybe some body will start a business where you can come by a sheepherder for a paid turism vacation. I’d like to see that. If you read this and make a million bucks offa that idea, give me a cut, won’t you?

Hell, maybe some of them drunks hanging around at the courthouse that the paper has been writing about are sheepherders just back in town. I seen sheepherders do that all the time, get out of camp and in town and tie one on real good. Maybe we could pay them minimum wage to get out there and shake off the drink and work.

Hell, maybe Obama will jump in and say we should pay the sheepherders more money. I see he jumped in on the Plum Creek land deal, saying that the government and Plum Creek should be more up front with the deal they’re working out. Everybody says that, but it took Obama to be a real politician to bring that up since he was in Butte for the 4th. He’s just another politician. All them peace sign liberals were swearing he’d be different. Wake up and smell the espresso, hippies. Ain’t nothing new in politics.

When he hell is Engen up for election? Maybe he’s fishing for votes, too? He needs to drop some poundage to be in the running – hah, if he could run – for mayor again. Maybe he should run in the marathons in a few weeks. That would get him a hell of a lot more votes than trying to get a sheepherder a few more bucks.

Life’s a bitch sometime. That sheepherder ain’t doing too bad. He’s doing better than the drunks laying on the sidewalks that everyone don’t want to deal with. He’s making a lot more money than he would in old mexico, and he even says that he’s on hard times there, so he came here.

I don’t think you could get a white guy to heard sheep. That’s the funny part. None of them liberals would be caught dead herding sheep, but they can feel better about it if we pay the mexicans a little more. And then we can use the story in the paper to get elected again.

So long for now suckers, and don’t forget to vote.