Ranches

John Kidder and West R Lee have been comparing the size of their ..... ranches.
Reminded me of this tale.

Three cowboy-looking guys are sitting at a bar. They get to talking and learn they're all Texas landowners. The first one says, "Yep, got me a spread of 100,000 acres."

Second one says, "Well, heck, Tex! That ain't nothin'. Got me a spread of 200,000 acres."

The third fella just nods approvingly, but doesn't say anything. So the first two cowboys get around to asking him outright, "How 'bout it, Tex? How big's your spread."

The quiet Texan says, "Well, Boys, I only got about 50 acres, myself."

Tex 1 and Tex 2 nearly fall off their stools laughing. "50 lousy acres! Hell, Tex, you can't run no kinda herd on a meager 50 acres! What the heck do you call this itty-bitty spread anyway?!"

"Well", says Tex 3 calmly, "Most folks just call it downtown Dallas."

I like that one Mark. I think the "King Ranch" was a mere 1,000,000 acres or more many years ago. Around 850,000 now I believe. Downtown Dallas is worth a little more than that I'm sure.

West

Ya'll want to talk about individuals holding Huge tracts of land Check Out Les Schwabb.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Schwab

He's a sleeper, been buying up Oregon farm & rangeland for a 110 years. Rumor is he actually makes money buying this land & keeping it out of Agricultural production statistics. Has some kind of "Legal and Proper" Federal Tax Scam working & owns hundreds of parcels.

Most every creek bottom & river valley is inaccessible, posted by a Les Schwab corporate subsidiary. It's a pain because you can't walk up to the barn & ask the farmer for permission to fish the stretch of river behind his pastures. Ain't nobody there !!!

Reminds me of a Mad Magazine parody of Bonanza. Father Cartwright tells a wagon load of starving pioneers on their way west, "You got just six months to get off my land."