Hell of a Day

Well ready or not, summer is here.  Graduations happening all over, the first heat wave heading our way, the last of the local cattle being shipped and our 2026 JNB Ranch Beef is in the cooler. 

My lab Ripp is ready for the summer – looking cool!

Thank you to our customers who are tasting our beef for the first time this year and a special thank you to our past customers who come back year after year.  The beef is being processed now, and everyone should have their first steak on the grill in the next two weeks.  The beef looks terrific this year and I can’t wait to fire up my grill.

Here are the cuts you might expect from your beef purchase, but Jack will cut it anyway you want.

Get on the list for 2027

It was a very mild winter this year and we got plenty of rain to make it a good grass year.  The beef steers we held back this year are as solid as can be and all the calves born this coming September will be from a 100% certified Black Angus sires.

Who’s your daddy?

All calves born on JNB Ranch in 2026 will have a 100% Black Angus sire with outstanding EPD’s

Here’s the new member of our herd = Leachman LCHMN GATOR EPD Details

Again, this year we are doing a limited number of beef steers for our family, friends and best customers. Past customers get first choice to buy again.  Unfortunately, live cattle weight, grain, slaughter and butcher are all up so expect an increase for the 2027 beef.  I will update the website as we get closer to 2027.

There’s lots of stories in the news these days around foreign and domestic beef, the New World Screwworm, feedlot shenanigans, hormones and antibiotics.  You can rest assured that our beef is 100% natural and born and raised on our ranch right here in San Benito County with nothing but pasture grass and a grain finish, never any growth hormones or antibiotics in our finished beef. 

So, fire up that grill!!!

As summer approaches all the green fades into rolling gold-colored hills and there is a stillness that settles into our little valley here.  The sunsets are epic and on the best nights the Milky Way streaks across the sky so bright you’re almost surprised it has been right up there the whole time.  The days are warm and sometimes hotter than warm, but the nights are almost always pleasant as the heat escapes and the cold air pours in.  There’s a scientific name for this, but I sat in the back row of my science class so don't ask me, AI it!

"hell of a day"

I like this saying and find myself saying it increasingly often at the end of my days.  I say it with a positive twist, mostly.  One of extreme gratitude of another day lived.  One of appreciation of family and friends.  And one with the tiniest wisdom we all start receiving when we finally start to see clearer what we glossed over in our youth.  Even the hard days I am thankful for because really, a lot is what we make of each day, and the older I get the less bullshit I tend to put up with. 

Maybe Kris Kristofferson nailed it in his song To Beat the Devil 

"And you can still hear me signing to the people who don't listen............."

Bing Videos

I’ve said it before, but Connie and I feel extremely lucky to be a part of this community.  We are heading into the 10^th year on the ranch this July.  This spring I was asked by a couple of folks if I would help gather some cattle on a neighbor’s ranch as they got ready to ship their cattle.   I saw some good sun rises and it’s hard to put it in words how I felt, but here goes – I wrote this to a cattleman I know in Montana named Scott because, he knows.  I decided to share it out loud

 "I helped ship three trucks of stockers yesterday.  Average weight 809 lbs heading to OR.  That guy has three more days of shipping over this coming week.  How I felt that morning as we gathered is hard to put into words.  There were just three of us. The rancher, the cowboy and me.  We rode out at dawn and gathered about 300 steers.  It was a pretty flat parcel of land but foggy as heck.  So foggy I could hardly see the rancher in the middle as I rode to one side.  Nothing crazy and I'm sure these guys had done this a thousand times before but not me.  As the sun came up and the fog started to give way and the steers began to come together and the silhouette of the cowboy on a high knoll all came together………well, that’s where I leave it because there is no way, no words of any kind and even more so, nobody in my past friendships except I believe you Scott, that can even imagine a better morning.  I don’t know if I’ll ever tell another soul about that experience because it will probably just be wasted. 

 It was a hell of a day!

This one's for you Connie.

 Thanks for sharing this life with me. 

Bing Videos

I saw this picture somewhere along the way that reminded me of Connie, Horse Shorty and Dog Levi.

I am old enough to remember the Bicentennial in 1976.  Boy that seems like a long time ago, but time has gone by in the blink of an eye and here we are 50 years later.   50 years, let that sink in Gen X'ers.  I felt very patriotic back then (as I do now).   Enjoy the summer everyone and let's celebrate 250 years of the greatest nation on earth with style. 

"Honoring the past, celebrating the present, inspiring the future."