Column: Rennie Phillips: Practice (4/3/21)

It’s been a lot of years ago I tried to learn how to rope. I had grown up on a ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska around cattle and horses, so it was something one simply learned how to do. The guys at the rodeos and such would rope this way, but it was totally different than Dad. He roped way different, so I remember Dad taking the time to explain why he roped this certain way at that particular time. Most of the time Dad was roping horses. It seemed like we always had some horses that needed to be broken or gentled or worked on. Dad would geld the stud colts at about a year old. He’d also have to catch them, if they got cut and needed stitching up.

Dad liked to rope the front two feet of a horse to get it to stop at the sound of “Whoa” or “Who” where the “o” is pronounced like the letter. Dad would rope their front feet and yell “who” and, after taking a tumble or two when Dad said “who,” they would freeze. Well there was a certain way of throwing the loop if the horse was running clockwise in the corral and a totally different way of throwing the loop if the horse was running counter-clockwise. Same with roping the horse by the head. A different loop was required depending on which way the horse was running and different loop if the horse was standing. Dad spent hours showing me how to rope horses.

So I’d practice and practice and practice. I never was good at it, but it was enjoyable. So Mick and I’d practice on the bucket calves or the milk cows and now and then on a horse Dad came up with. This was before the time that the nylon ropes came out, so all Dad and I and Mick used was grass ropes or manila ropes. But it took practice, not just roping a make-believe horse or cow, but years spent in life roping everything. Mick and I came along on the end of the horse culture so it wasn’t as important as it was in Dad’s time.

Most everything gets better and easier with practice. By the time we learn how to raise up kids, we are grandparents. By the time we learn how to really be proficient and skilled at a job, we retire. It’s like we learn and learn and then retire and put our skills and education on a back burner.

Down through the years, we have had a few cats get pregnant and raise babies. The first batch or two are usually goners. The momma cat is trying to figure out how to raise them and keep them safe and feed them and generally be a good mother. It is a figuring out the process and a learn-on-the-go experience. A few new mommas get it, but most fail and lose most if not all the new kittens. We’ve had mommas continually move their babies and finally end up losing them because of exposure to the cold. They just don’t know how. We’ve tried to help them or keep the babies inside the shop or a tunnel, but sooner or later they slip them out, and they get wet or cold. Usually after a little practice, they figure it out and do pretty good.

Some gals and guys grow up cooking. I would say most don’t have a clue as to how to really cook. They might be able to heat a hot dog or fry an egg or pop a pizza in the oven, but that’s about all. Not many will be able to bake bread or fix a roast or many of the other cooking tasks. Most of the time it takes practice. The best way is to have someone who can cook lead the way and teach. But this holds true for most things. But it takes practice.

It’s a lot easier to garden with someone who has gardened and knows how to lead the way. Every year when I start my plants from seed, some of the seed fails to germinate for who knows what reason. But most of what I know has been gained by trial and error. Just a couple weeks ago, I planted probably 15 to 20 different varieties of tomatoes with all the varieties germinating. However, some of the varieties didn’t germinate very well. It could be the seed or my soil or moisture or temperature or who knows why. I can kind of control the soil and moisture and temperature to a degree, but even then not totally. Years ago it was frustrating, and it bothered me. Now I pretty much sluff it off and go on.

The first time I sat down beside an old milk cow and tried to hand-milk one, it didn’t go too well. I maybe got a little milk but not much. Jerseys have really little teats, so you can’t get your whole hand around them and you have to strip them to milk them. You kind of put the teat in between your thumb and pointer finger and squeeze them together and slide it down the teat. If it’s done right, milk will come out. It might take a time or two, but you will get the ability to get a cow milked. How fast is another question. Speed comes with practice. Well kind of. I think there were times when Mick and I and maybe Dad slacked off and let Mom do most of the milking. Practice is essential.

The more you read the easier it is to read. With some practice you can learn to read faster and faster. When I first took typing back at Arthur High School, I couldn’t remember where the “a” was or the “b” or the numbers. The numbers were awful. But with time, it got easier and easier. I didn’t have to look for such and such letter. My fingers knew where they were. When I started to fly fish back in the 1950s, I wasn’t very good. I’m still not, but now I know how to if I’ll just do it the right way. I get lazy and don’t execute. Back in Nebraska we had hydra forks that we fed the hay to the cattle. It was basically a backhoe only we used it to scatter hay. There was no joy stick, but numerous levers. I was thinking six sticks to learn. At first you just pushed and pulled and learned by trial and error. In time with practice it was automatic.

Practice is the key to most if not all things in our world today. If we start out “knowing it all,” most likely we won’t make much of a worker. I have a really hard time being around a know-it-all. However, if we start out hungry to learn and willing to practice, we just might become an invaluable person in our world today. It doesn’t matter if it’s work or pleasure, like fishing. The know-it-alls are in for a rough beginning. Be humble enough to ask for help and then wise enough to learn and practice. Life as a whole is practicing living as we go and making corrections on the fly.