, if you're one of those cowboys stuck with the herd out around somewhere around hayes or between celina and hayes, you're starting to get a little anxious about how this winter is starting to turn out. this is december. it doesn't get much better, and the line across here once again freezing. christmas wasn't worth celebrating once because the high on christmas day in fort riley got up to about five degrees below zero. now, during that burwinter too, this was accompanied by high winds and snow, so not only freezing temperatures. kind of makes me think this last february was pretty mild, and this was january, and it just doesn't get much better. by the time spring came, the texas cattlemen who had herds out there, they had lost anywhere from 70 to 90% of their herds, and about the only thing that they were able to harvest were the hides. the newspaper accounts here in lawrence record shipments of just cars filled with cattle hides going back to the tanneries. that was all that was left that the cattlemen could salvage out of this particular winter. so once again, what are the connections