How can they just take off and occupy a federal buildingfor extended periods? Most of these guys look and act middle class/working class. Who is paying the family bills if daddy is playing militia solider?
Oh, no, he lost his foster kids and his biggest concern is the income! Don’t you feel sorry for them now!!??!!one!
Back a while ago did you wonder the same on the “Occupy” movement, or of the “BLM” movement ?
I wonder the same when ever I hear of any group doing such type of things, no matter which side.
I think those were largely younger people, probably living off of their parents. In any case, your response really isn’t an answer to astro’s question.
For the ones that actually are making a living off ranching, the middle of winter isn’t very busy. They bring the cattle down from the mountain grazing land usually in the late fall sometime and the cows just sort of hang out at the rancher’s own fields until early summer. There’ll be work to do around calving in the spring, but during the winter all they really need to do is roll a bale of hay out for them every so often, so nothing a wife or a teenaged kid can’t handle on their own.
Libertarians are like cats, completly dependent on others but utterly convinced of their own independence.
I am so stealing that.
Feel free. I did. 
Wtf…I think I found my new calling in life! Jiminy cricket, I didn’t know you could make that much from fostering!
Plus, free labor for his ranch!
They aren’t nearly as cute, and their antics are much less amusing.
Better off de-clawed and neutered?
I imagine it’s much like the Tea Party movement where a disproportionate amount of them receive government assistance due to disability or social security.
In many case no one may be paying their bills. The Bundys currently owe over a million dollars for unpaid grazing fees. It’s a common trait among them to refuse to pay taxes. Many manage to scrape buy working under the table or doing seasonal work.
Poor is a very common trait among them.
They may find sitting around a bird sanctuary drinking beer and being nuisances is more entertaining then sitting around at home doing the same thing.
Here is a short article that came up in my google search:
It makes me wonder…how do they explain the fact that they’re accepting government assistance but…at the same time protesting the government? I know this is more about land issues but at the same time, it seems to be getting less and less about that and more about the government being a ‘tyranny’ to them.
You might want to think twice about that 
So you need to say “pampered housecats” instead of cats.
Pretty much the same people who paid Occupy Pittsburgh and like movements; folks out there with jobs who don’t care to do the actual protests.
What the hell are you talking about? And how does that relate to the question at hand? And where is your evidence in either case?
I took a couple of vacation days to go demonstrate with Occupy.
I was cognizant of the irony there.
I suspect most ranches aren’t single-man operations. I’m sure they have business partners, hired hands, family members, etc that work the ranch, too. And, as GreasyJack pointed out, there is less work in the winter. I bet they can leave one of them in charge of the day-to-day operations. And if there is really a question that only the protester can answer, they do have phones.