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...by Alicia, on May 5th, 2012 
Hal and I became fans of Cream of the West products when we lived in Idaho. We relocated back to upstate New York in 2002 after Hal found himself jobless after 32 years working as a Quality Assurance Engineer for a company when they consolidated and moved to Pittsburgh. He brought back boxes of cereal and kept them in the freezer; it represented his touch of the West.
One day in January 2012, with box in hand, Hal talked with Alicia and said, “I’m excited about planting the seed and the opportunity to represent you and help you get a market started in the North East”. With Alicia’s blessing, Hal planted the first “seed” at the local Hannaford Supermarket. To date, he’s contacted over a dozen major food and restaurant chains on the East Coast, including Trader Joe’s, Fresh Market, Publix, Denny’s and Whole Foods, to name a few.
Hal and I believe in the “personal touch” approach and present a “double whammy” when representing Cream of the West as a team. After Hal explains the benefit of the Cream of the West products, I add a feminine touch by explaining what the “all Natural” benefit of the Cream of the West products mean to me, which adds a new dimension beyond just another “sales pitch”.
We are sold on the excellence and integrity of the Cream of the West product line and its management team and staff, and are excited and proud to be East Coast representatives for Cream of the West.
~Hal & Pat Oakes
P.S. We feel SO very lucky that Pat and Hal have chosen to make Cream of the West their personal mission. With their dedication and perserverance, we have no doubt they’ll land an account soon. We’ve dubbed them “The Mighty Oakes!”
~Alicia
...by Susan, on May 4th, 2012 Well, spring has sprung here on the ranch. The birds have all found their nesting grounds and are starting to pair off. Calving is in full swing and Grandma Kay has moved her horses back to their home in Bozeman for summer riding!
This week while we were out making our rounds we saw birds, birds, and more birds. Above: a curlew just landing, a robin, Steve feeding in the tractor, a red-winged blackbird, and a couple beautiful heifers and calves.
And my mother-in-law, Kay, and good friend, Shelley, drove over from Bozeman to take Kay’s horses home. We winter the horses here in Two Dot so that Kay doesn’t have to feed them every day. So after a delightful lunch at the Two Dot Bar, we headed back to the ranch to load them up! Above: Steve and Shelley haltering and walking the horses to the stock trailer, and Shelley and Kay before heading back to Bozeman.
...by Susan, on March 26th, 2012 Alicia, Ann and I recently returned from an awesome trip to Anaheim, California, where we attended Natural Products Expo West. Due to the generosity of the Montana Department of Agriculture, our booth host, we were given the opportunity to join with several other Montana businesses to display and promote our quality and locally made products to the masses!
In the spirit of southern California, we bring you West Katella Avenue; Alicia and I in our booth at the show; the Anaheim Convention Center sporting an NPEW banner; palm trees in front of the convention center; Alicia and Ann; the Pacific washing over my feet; and a beautiful ocean sunset.
...by Alicia, on January 28th, 2012 
Richard, my husband, is a late arrival into the cell phone age. Among his many reasons for refusing to use a cell phone were: they don’t float in irrigation ditches; there’s no reception on the ranch; he couldn’t hear on it; and the tiny keyboard didn’t fit his fingers. All that changed when iPhone 4s and Siri entered his life. He totally fell under her spell. Before I knew it, she was going everywhere with him as his personal assistant. But, even Siri has a learning curve. For example Richard took her with him to check on the cows the other day. When he spotted a sick cow who needed doctoring, he said: “Siri, make a note to doctor Green 2.15.” And, Siri dutifully wrote: Dr. Green 2:15. Obviously, she’s a city girl who doesn’t know about cow’s ear tag identification. Lucky for me, she too has a thing or two to learn about agriculture.
...by Alicia, on January 19th, 2012 Along with a roomful of friends and neighbors, I attended the Agriculture Appreciation Days dinner sponsored by the Harlowton Chamber of Commerce. The speaker raised some issues and cited statistics that left us all disheartened. While there were plenty of boots under the table and cowboy hats on the rack at our dinner, we were told that less than 2% of Americans are engaged in agriculture production. This translates to fewer and fewer adults and children with any first-hand knowledge of where their food comes from or what it takes to produce it.
When the speaker told us about the The Department of Labor’s proposed regulations limiting the kinds of work children can do on farms, I became truly concerned. As proposed, any children under the age of 16—unless they live on an unincorporated family farm—can not work around livestock or operate any farm equipment.* While the Department describes these regulations on kids and agriculture in terms of safety, farmers and ranchers view them as an attack on the rural way of life.
The result—whether intended or unintended—would drastically alter a farmer’s ability to pass on his store of knowledge and passion for the farming/ranching lifestyle to the next generation. Under the guise of safety, the ‘hands on’ learning–so essential to becoming a farmer or rancher–would be taken out of the farmer’s hands. “We taught these children to be safe,” stated a farm wife and mother. “We taught them … how we did things on the farm, and we also instilled the passion for the farm. So the family farms are not dying, that we would continue to pass them on.” *
I left the meeting very worried about this misguided regulation. Will an over-zealous governmental concern for safety, coupled with a lack of understanding of farm culture, rob our children of the chance to fully experience farm life? Will our extended family be excluded from spending summers working at the ranch? My concern was underscored when the following email hit our ‘InBox’. It was sent by my husband’s ‘city cousin’, now in his seventies:
“Tonight I somehow was led to describe for Chris the root [cellar], across the alfalfa field from the Moe Ranch- a memory from my childhood. Then my first arrival on the train in the middle of the night, probably in 1945. The milking of the cows, the shearing of the sheep at the Vestal place in the mountains. Big breakfasts, I was forced to eat liver. Riding horses with a purpose. Fishing in the river. I googled. Amazingly here it is together with this beautiful picture of Audun and Carol and the Stone House itself. I am in tears, good tears.. J.”
The Moe Ranch, thankfully, is still intact and being operated by my husband, who learned the rudiments of his profession at his father (Audun’s) side. Soon, his son will take over, having learned in the same way. But what of the city cousins—the 98% who don’t live on a family farm? The experiences cited in the above email, plus many more, would no longer be allowed under the proposed regulations!
What a shame if a Wii farm simulation becomes the only way that our next generations can gain an understanding of agriculture and the rural way of life!
*For complete text, go to: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/28/144385356/proposed-child-labor-rules-could-alter-farm-life
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