Ranch Notes
by Mike Moutoux, Western & Corporate Entertainer & Cowboy Poet
Ranch
Notes February
This month, I thought it would be nice to
pass along some cattle-working advice I’ve picked up from Jerry. Now and
then he passes along a little gem that I try to write down so I can
remember it. “You have to think like a cow”, he tells me. “You have to
feel what they’re feeling”. This comes up when we are trying to move a
bunch into the corrals. Push them too fast and they won’t settle down
and find the opening. Give them too much room and they’ll try to double
back. It takes some teamwork too and you have to trust the other guy to
be where they need to be. You have to be alert and feel everything going
on.
“The time to turn back a cow is before she
makes up her mind. Let her know you’re there.” Sometimes when we are
moving a herd, there will be one or two that just don’t like what’s
going on and they constantly test you. Watch them close and stay where
they can see that you are there to turn them back into the herd. Saves a
bunch of time and aggravation.
“The idea is, to get the cows to do what
you want, but let them think it’s their idea.” I’ve heard this
advice applied to human relationships as well. You can influence people
in subtle ways and get them to do what you want just like working cows.
One or these groups (either cows or say your spouse or your boss), is
being taken advantage of, I’m just not sure which.
The whole idea behind these tips is of
course to move cattle without a lot stress on them or for cowboys. These
tidbits often are shouted over the noise of bawling cattle and through
the dust and often sting like criticism, but I appreciate the help. I
know it’s advice passed along by a guy who has seen and done it all for
a long time. From a guy who can think like cow. Thanks, Jerry.
Ranch Notes December
Times are getting hard at the ranch as
very little grass grew this year. The monsoon rains were late and poor,
so Jerry has had to sell off some cows and buy a lot of extra feed. Many
other ranches in the area have done the same. I only worked one day the
entire month. Like most work days, it was a busy one. On this day, I
worked with Jerry and another young fella who must have told me three
times” I hate horses”. From the looks of things his ride for the day,
Whitey Man, didn’t like him much either.
We gathered a couple of small pastures and
fed the weanlings there to get them accustomed to coming in for the
extra feed and then went off to work up the cows we had gathered the day
before. (See November notes). We vaccinated the cows and took them back
to their pasture. These return drives are easy in that the critters are
more behaved as they are ready and willing to go home to their own
pasture. That makes the work more like a stroll through the countryside
than work. You can talk to the other riders more and just enjoy the
scenery and the company.
I rode Charley all day; he really likes to
trot everywhere, I have to ask him for a walk. He’ll cover a lot of
ground that way with little effort on the rider’s part. A lot of horses
will slow down on you when you trot and you have to bump them to keep
them going. Not Charley. I still have a red spot on my back from the day
he tossed me more than a month ago, but a horse that likes to cover
ground like him almost makes you forget his faults. Almost.
Ranch
Notes November
It’s been a very busy month as we finish
vaccinating cows, weaning calves, shipping, and the never-ending fence
repairs. Several days stand out for me: the first was the day I rode the
boss’s horse, Joe. The horse and I were finishing a drive and almost had
our herd to the corrals when the cows gave us a time. They saw the
corrals and wanted to go every which way but that way. Joe is the kind
of cow-horse that takes that sort of thing personally. Eventually we got
the cows closer to the corrals and the boss helped us push them in. He
said, “Those cows probably taught you more in 15 minutes than I have in
three years.” Not true, but I was glad I had a good horse under me. Joe
knows cows.
The second day I was on the notorious
Charley, (see October Notes), when we had a similar deal. Four head
trotted off away from the herd we were moving and were making their
escape where no one but I could see them. No choice but to gallop after
them on a horse I know has a habit of ignoring commands at a lope! We
were dodging yuccas, and prickly cholla cactus with each of us fighting
for control. I won that round and we got the critters stopped and headed
back in the right direction as help arrived. Score one for me for a
change. Here’s a picture of Charley and I during a calmer moment. The
tall plants in the background are yuccas.
Ranch
Notes October
We’re
into the Fall works now; getting things ready for moving cattle which
means some fence repairs here and there, shoeing horses and gathering
pastures. The cattle are sorted, and we are preg-checking cows, giving
vaccinations, and moving some to different pastures. The monsoon season
didn’t put much rain at the ranch and the cows sure could have used some
new green grass. Seems we are always keeping our fingers crossed for
some rain. Gives you strange calluses wishing all the time.
On a
sort of exciting/scary note, Jerry asked me to take one of the horses,
Charley, out for ride to tire him a little so we could shoe him. The
horse is real friendly in the corrals, but I led around for a bit to see
how he behaved. Then I climbed on and had him walk for a short while and
then we loped off up a sandy draw, which tires them out quicker than
riding on hard ground. He wanted to turn back to the barn, but we worked
that out and finally turned and headed back across a hill dotted with
clumps of Bear grass. Bear grass is a kind of yucca that grows with long
arcing leaves in clumps about four feet high. A hill of it is like a
maze that is usually fun to ride through.
We
were dodging clumps and I asked him to go right of one, but Charley
veered left catching me completely off guard, Turns out, he went left
and I went right without him. I don’t remember flying through the air at
all. Too bad, I might have collected some images for a song or poem. I
don’t even remember hitting the ground. At some point I was up again, a
little dazed and bit bunged up. Charley was standing about 100 yards
away and my first thought was, “I hope he didn’t step on one of my reins
and break it.”
I
caught him and rode him back feeling a little sorer all the time. The
following morning, multiple bruises started showing up in various shades
of purple. Judging by the number of them, I must have bounced two or
three times hitting every rock possible. Lots of cowboy poems and
stories include lines like, “luckily a rock broke my fall.” We all laugh
at the line, but next time I hear that, I will smile to myself and
think, “when you fall off a horse in New Mexico, there just aren’t too
many soft spots to land in.”
Back
at the corrals, I had to explain why my face was all skinned up and then
we put those shoes on Charley. No sympathy from the boss who has seen
lots of horse wrecks in his day. Treated me like just another cowboy.
The
next morning, on my day off, he called to see how I was doing. Said he
got to thinking that I might feel worse. Said something about us older
guys taking longer to heal, or something like that. No sympathy for
Mike, the cowboy, but I did get a little for Mike, the old guy. Older
and wiser.
Ranch
Notes September
I had several exciting episodes this
month; two on the same day. When an unbranded calf wandered into the
ranch yard one morning, Jerry decided to go ahead and push it into the
corrals nearby. I grabbed the easiest horse to get to which was one of
the new horses that Jerry has been riding, Woodrow. Holy Smokes! This
horse has a high degree of built in excitability that I didn’t realize.
I stayed in the saddle, but Jerry noticed that I was having a time
keeping him settled down. We got the calf and I got a riding lesson
about jumping on unfamiliar horses.
Earlier,
we were in the process of branding a small group of calves. Jerry ropes
and I flank them down. He usually dismounts to help tie them up so we
can tie another one too and then we process them. This day he decided to
let me tie them up alone. It’s harder, but doable. Especially the small
ones. I had just slipped Jerry’s rope off when this Big one got
up on me and took off. I did what I could to stay with him and tried to
throw him down again. We bounced around about half way across the corral
before I got the grip I wanted and heaved him down. Well, he bounced up
like a two hundred pound rubber ball and was gone leaving me completely
out of breath. The calf wasn’t breathing hard at all. Nice to be young
and in shape! If I was either I might have got him. Jerry re-roped him
and we got him that time.
Very little rain has fallen and grass is
greening up here and there. Rabbit bush and prairies zinnias are
blooming so there is some color out there. Best sighting of the month
was a bobcat I got a brief look at while we were out looking for cows.
Just a brown blur with a little white-tipped tail. I told Jerry I had
seen him and he said he had seen a track earlier that he knew wasn’t a
coyote. He doesn’t miss much. Not out there.
Ranch
Notes August
I haven’t been at the ranch much this
month; they’ve had a bunch of personal things to take care of down there
that has kept them running around. It’s been dry and there have been two
more lightning-caused grass fires on nearby ranches. Everyone is hoping
that the remainder of monsoon season will be a lot wetter than the first
half. The dirt tanks where cattle water are drying up and the grass
really needs some more rain for it to get going.
We spent one day date-branding heifers and
another gathering a pasture and branding the calves. Still riding Barlow
and he’s getting the hang of this cow-work. He’s cutting better and neck
reining a little. I’m trying to get him to walk faster and we won’t have
to trot so much. He does have a nice slow trot and a nice slow lope.
I don’t believe I’ve mentioned the lizards
we see all the time and there are a bunch. We see whiptails all the
time, earless lizards, horned toads, and once in a while a collared
lizard, which are just like little dinosaurs to me. Here’s a photo of
one taken while I was turning some cows out one afternoon.
Ranch
Notes July
Two of Jerry’s oldest grandkids, Charlie
and Foster, were down for an extended stay so we worked together on some
fence and corral projects. They were a lot of fun and I miss them a bit
now that they are back home. They are a lot like me when I was their
age; chasing lizards, examining insects, and enjoying all the other
distractions of nature. The ranch of course is full of these
distractions.
Late in the month, lightning struck a
yucca, (often the tallest things around) and started a grass fire, which
burned about 100 acres on a neighboring ranch. The fire went through a
fence and burned about a dozen wooden posts. Local firefighters got it
out by 2 AM and Jerry and I were out first thing fixing the fence. By
all accounts the fire seemed pretty impressive at night. We ran into
some firefighters who were out the next day and one said when he was
headed to the ranch that night he thought the fire line was ten miles
long.
Our monsoon season brings rain, but also
brings these dry lightning strikes. The grass is just starting to green
up in some low places, but more rain is needed to get the pastures
greening up. We talk about rain a lot down here; as you might imagine.
We were shoeing horses (a job that
requires a good sharp rasp), and Jerry retold a story I’ve always liked.
A cowboy is using the edge of a file to turn some horseshoe nails and
the rancher sees this and yells, “Hey, I fired a guy twenty years ago
for doing that to a file!” Without looking up the cowboy replies, “Yeah,
it’s the same file, too."
Ranch
Notes June
June
has been an interesting month; there is much to talk about. We are
bottle-feeding an orphaned calf. This picture was taken when he was two
or three days old. His mother died shortly after birth but he did get
some of that important early milk. Follows us around when we’re in the
corral where he stays. Very cute little Hereford.
Jerry
has added two new horses to the work string: he’s riding Woodrow and I’m
riding Barlow much of the time now. Here’s a picture of Barlow. We took
the two horses for a ride on one of my days off because I wanted to see
a part of the ranch Jerry’s family used to own. It includes a valley
with some running water in it that is unusual for that part of the
county. They called it the Cienega, which in Spanish means “a marshy
place”. We rode up to the ruins of an old building that pre-dates the
ranch. The outline of the foundation is there, but the only thing
standing is the base of the adobe
chimney.
Jerry doesn’t know any more about it. Very old for sure and I’m thinking
made by the Spanish. The Spanish history of he area predates the Anglos
by quite a bit. The photo shows the chimney, the riderless horse is
Barlow. It was a great ride and I’m glad we got it worked out.
Probably the biggest news is that Jerry’s mom, Evelyn, passed away this
month. She was 90. I guess she was quite a force on the ranch until just
a few yeas ago. I did not know her then and sure would have enjoyed
hearing her stories. Jerry has a bunch of his own and if I’m lucky, I’ll
get to hear many more in the years ahead.
Ranch
Notes May
We’ve started branding at the ranch,
mixing that in with other chores. One memorable day included three close
encounters that give you a glimpse at this cowboy’s workday.
The first involved an over-protective cow
that we had in a corral so we could brand her calf. She took a run at me
and I found myself vaulting over the top of the corral with the
athleticism of a much younger man. Jerry even commented on my agility.
The ability to clear fences in a single bound is relative when a
700-pound cow is intent on running you over.
The next close encounter was with a
rattlesnake coiled up in the pile of logs I was splitting for Jerry. I
had made several trips into the pile already when I noticed the 3-footer
lying there. I now have his rattle in my collection. I’m supposed to
making earrings for Emily with them, but so far they are just sitting on
a shelf. The snake never rattled or gave any indication that he was
aware of me, but sure could have nailed me if he wanted to.
The close encounter of the third kind
involved a calf that Jerry wanted to brand that had wandered into the
barnyard. Deciding to use the nearby squeeze chute for the job, Jerry
ordered me into the back of the chute and told me to run my knee up
between the calf’s legs so it wouldn’t sit down while he did the rest of
the job. The calf let fly with a load of green goo with my knee catching
the entire load. Jerry must have felt a little guilty because he called
Emily with instructions for getting the stain out while I was on my way
home. “Use cold water,” he said. Works on blood stains too! I learn all
sorts of interesting things down there.
These close encounters aren’t going to be
made into a movie, but they sure make the hours go by quickly. And
though the hours may pass quickly, the moments linger in my mind for
quite a while. Wow, that might make a good line for a poem…
It’s been dry, but a few things are
growing on last year’s rain they have stored up. Beargrass flower stalks
are pushing up through their mounds of leaves, as are a few yuccas,
which will all bloom very soon. Some of the best blooms so far belong to
the hedgehog cacti, which are almost invisible underfoot except when
they are flowering. Then they are hard not to notice. Here’s a
photo I got off my horse to shoot.
April
2009 Ranch Notes
April has been a month of odd jobs. We’re
still working on rebuilding a corral and now have most of the posts set.
The weather has been pretty nice for that kind of work. We’re still
feeding in a few pastures; the cattle sure pay attention when we pull in
now. Some even come trotting up which sure makes future round ups
easier.
On an un-related note, my wife was talking
to Jerry about writing a poem about the old ranch truck. I told her it
didn’t seem right to make fun of another man’s tuck no matter how
dilapidated it might be. Hearing that, he told me to go ahead. I’m still
not sure; that old ¾ ton gets used for everything and rarely lets us
down. Would I drive it to a high school reunion? Not even if it were
washed and waxed! It’s almost embarrassing to be around, yet practical
and almost lovable. Kind of like some people I know.
Ranch
Notes March
March has been a month of ranch
improvements; which is a way of saying hard physical labor on fencing.
We’ve been digging postholes for some 6-inch pipe and setting them in
concrete. All of them by hand as the power auger makes the holes too big
and then requires more concrete to fill. Jerry will weld old windmill
sucker rod in between the posts demonstrating again that nothing on the
ranch is wasted. His family has been recycling long before modern
environmentalists started separating their glass from their plastic.
We were looking at a horse when Jerry
passed along this old saying:
One white foot, buy him
Two white feet, try him
Three white feet, be on the sly
Four white feet, pass him by
This, I’ve learned is one of the horse
superstitions that has been around awhile. The old cowboys didn’t blog
on the Internet, so it’s been difficult finding out where this one comes
from. When I poked around, I found out that there was another camp that
preferred a horse with 4 stockings which gives us this:
One white foot, keep him not a day
Two white feet, send him far away
Three white feet, sell to friend
Four white feet, keep him to the end
Personally, my favorite color is quarter
horse and I don’t care how many stockings he has; but the horse
superstitions sure make you look and think.
February
We’ve
been moving cattle around; getting some yearlings together and first
year heifers a little closer to the home corrals where Jerry can keep a
closer eye on them. We’ve also been doing some vaccinating so I thought
I would include a photo of a squeeze chute.
This
steel cage allows us to safely hold a large animal and give it shots and
whatever else we want to do like de-horning or attaching an ear tag. The
trick is to catch the head as they enter—some will try to beat you since
they’ve been caught before. Others are pretty complacent having been
through this before and discovering that it’s a temporary inconvenience.
You don’t always know what they’re thinking until the last second.
On
one of these days, we only had Jerry’s horse, Klondike with us. I rode
him to gather a pasture and we got the yearlings into the corrals I had
one that did not want to go into the second corral, Dealing with him, I
quickly discovered how quick Klondike was. He didn’t wait for me to tell
him what to do and if it weren’t for that saddle horn I would have
fallen off. The other thing I discovered was how much I prefer the feel
of my saddle to Jerry’s. Three years ago I would have sworn my saddle
and my butt were not a good combination, but now I love my saddle. The
question then, is: do people’s butts and their saddles start to look
alike after awhile like some people and their pets or long-time married
couples? If so, is this an improvement for my backside? Only my wife
knows for sure!
January
Two,
sort of related projects have kept us busy this month: weaning last
year’s calves and fence repairs. The newly weaned calves will of course
want to get back to their mothers so after gathering up a pasture and
separating those big calves, we haul them to a different pasture.
They’ll find a weak spot in a fence if we don’t find them first.
The
boss has a 4-wheeler now and it’s a handy thing for the small repairs.
We strap on a few tools and head for the fence. Saves time and gas, I’m
sure. One morning we were at the top of a hill and could actually hear
traffic miles away on Hwy. 90. It’s pretty unusual to hear traffic at
the ranch—I wasn’t sure what I was hearing at first. The hours go by
pretty quick working on a fence; we can talk while we work much of the
time. The weather has been really nice and we are working in our
lightweight jackets.
Ran
into one of the young men who sometimes work at the ranch at the local
feed store. He was one of he teenagers who inspired the humorous poem,
“Teenagers at the Ranch”. We’ve had quite a few of them work on and off
over the last year. Jerry is pretty generous about taking them on time
to time. I’ve enjoyed them all.
December
We’ve been gathering up
first year heifers and moving them closer to the home corrals and
separating some of the bigger calves from their mothers so we’ve been
doing a good bit of horse work. While cutting out what we wanted in the
corrals one afternoon, my horse slipped and fell and I was on the ground
before I knew what had happened. Neither of us were hurt so I climbed
back on and we finished the job. It was a sober reminder of how easily
and quickly one could get hurt doing what we do sometimes.
While I’m being sober,
one afternoon we were coming down the road and got a good look at some
ravens chasing a Golden Eagle. Turns out the whole bunch were feeding on
one of the first year heifers that died while giving birth. So we lost
the heifer and the calf. Life on the ranch can be exciting and romantic,
but those days and moments are mixed with the sad and sobering ones that
we take as they come and move on.
On a lighter note, at
least one of the barn cats has discovered that I keep a few snacks in a
pack for the days when we don’t come in for lunch. I had the pack inside
a pickup truck and as I passed by I saw one of them helping itself to my
stash. Ate all my beef jerky and was working on my peanuts and chocolate
when I chased it off.
November
The Fall works are winding down; we’ve
done the last of the vaccinating as far as I can tell and branded a
few more calves. We had a pair of big ones one morning. Jerry roped
the first one by just one leg and I got the calf under control okay.
Sometimes the big ones are the calmest. As we let him up, Jerry
remarked, “Oh, that was the small one” Sure enough, the bigger of
the two was next. Jerry caught both legs this time, but the calf was
almost impossible to roll onto his side. While I wrestled the calf,
Jerry offered suggestions and I finally rolled the calf over. I was
whupped and about out of breath by the time it was over.
Later in the month, I was putting out
some salt blocks and ran into a quail hunter. He had collected a
nice mixed bag of Gambel’s and Scaled Quail. The latter are pretty
interesting things and sit real tight until you almost step on them.
The weather has been pretty mild and
we are taking our vests and jackets off by mid-morning. It’s my
favorite time of year; the air is dry and clear and the haze of
summer is gone. Mountains that once seemed out of focus now are
clear and full of details not seen for a while.
October
We’ve been
enjoying some great weather as we get into our fall works. Started
with some fence repairs and shoed the horses and then got busy with
the fall works. Rounding up every pasture to vaccinate the cows and
bulls and to do some sorting of yearlings. Jerry will preg-check a
cow now and then and the time goes by pretty quick. Takes most of a
morning to round them up and the rest of the day to get them through
the corrals for the rest of the work. We use a squeeze chute to hold
the animals securely while we administer shots and trade their old
ear tag for a new one. I asked Jerry when they started using the
chutes and he said it was sometime in the early 50’s.
Saw four javelinas one morning; we don’t see them very often at the
ranch. Fascinating things, really. I’d rather see a few of them than
all those snakes we saw last month.
September
Jerry has declared war
on the cockleburs that have sprung up in some of the sandy washes.
Last year we ran a bunch of yearlings through a squeeze chute so
that we could comb the burrs out. This year we are killing the
plants any way we can. It would be a pretty dull chore if it weren’t
for the rattlesnakes that also like those washes. In one day, I
almost stepped on one, almost sat on another, and believe I almost
touched another with my hand as I was pulling weeds from the very
patch it crawled out of. And I was being cautious. I asked Jerry if
he would apply first aid if I had sat on the one and he said I would
have been on my own. Nice to know where a fella stands.
The best day was when I got to ride Joe, one of the horses that
Jerry usually uses. Turns out Joe has the best trot of any horse on
the ranch. That sure makes for a pleasant ride. We spent much of
that day looking over the fences and then gathering the mares in
that pasture. Jerry took them later to a neighbor who has nice
stallion.
Here’s a good look at a black tailed rattlesnake. My good friend,
Bob Pelham, took the photo. His posture says, “Don’t tread on me. Or
sit on me!”
August
We are well into the monsoon season
and that is always a special time for everyone a round here. Rain
becomes a big topic of conversation, as the rains can be both very
spotty and very heavy at times. Jerry likes to tell the story about
a guy who accidentally left a double barrel shotgun leaning against
a fence one day when it rained. When he went to get it the next day,
one barrel was full of water and the other barrel was dry!
Rain seems to bring the snakes out
too. The ranch dog was bit on the nose and has since recovered. I
came close to stepping on one. That diamondback is now a hatband
that I sewed up myself. I figger a hatband won’t be biting any cows,
horses or little dogs. The rains have been spotty with the north
half of the ranch getting more rain than the south. It’s almost
magic how the brown landscape changes to green in just a few days
after a good rain. The monsoon clouds are spectacular—I should be
taking more photos than I do.
We have been seeing some antelope; the
best was when we jumped a young one while moving some yearlings. It
appeared to be less than a week old. That little thing popped up out
of the grass and ran pretty fast for such a little thing. We had
seen his mother lurking around so they probably got together after
we went by. There’s always a lot to see out here. One rare creature
was a Montezuma Quail I saw on the way in to work. If you have never
seen one, look him up in a bird book. Great bird.
July
A few inches of rain has
fallen and most of the pastures got a share of it. Things are
greening up all over, but as usual a little more rain would be a
good thing. It’s not unusual to get rain in one spot and none just
across a fence. The yuccas are blooming and I believe that they are
the most spectacular of all state flowers. The flower stalks can be
6 feet long and just full of creamy white flowers. When heavy rains
fall, they make the arroyos run and that means fence repairs
wherever the arroyos cut across a fence line. We’ve done a little
fence work and some road repairs.
We unloaded a semi-truck
full of hay this month and Jerry brought in some teenagers to help
with that. I was sure glad to see them. Took us about 6 hours.
After the hay and the
fence work it was nice to get out and work some cattle. We gathered
up a few unbranded calves and got in a branding one day. Just a
perfect day. We had some company, a nice young man named Wes to
help. While he rode Whitey Man, I rode R.B. We’re usually too busy
to take photos, but I got Wes to shoot a couple of me on this nice
looking black horse. Way in the background are some yuccas
silhouetted against that blue New Mexico sky.
May June
We’ve been doing a lot of
branding; we’ll gather a pasture and brand whatever is in there.
The gathering takes longer than the branding usually. It’s been
pretty dry so we are still doing some supplemental feeding. It’s
also been windy. On one of the windiest days, I stashed my hat
so I wouldn’t have to chase it, but Jerry managed to keep his
on. I asked him how he did it and he said, “ I pulled it down
real tight and folded my ears up.”
Monsoon season will be here
soon—most folks believe July 4 is the day we start to expect the
rains. Many of the cactus plants out here have already bloomed
or are blooming right now. The chollas are putting on a good
show this year, but most things are waiting for the rains.
The colt that was born two years
ago is now away from his mother and is in the home corrals where
Jerry has started his training. Right now, the colt is learning
to give in to the pressure of a rope. Jerry says he’s coming
along nicely.
March-April
We’ve been busy with all sorts of
things: feeding cattle, gathering and sorting for branding and
shipping, shoeing the horses. On one of our round-ups, Jerry passed
along this advice: “The idea is to get the cows to do what you want,
but to let them think it’s their idea.” Seems I’ve heard that same
idea used as a way to manipulate people too. One of these groups is
being insulted, but which?
On a sad note, we had observed a first
year heifer standing over what appeared to be a stillborn calf one
morning. She was still there later in the day so we drove her in to
get a drink. She went right back to her dead calf and stayed with
him long after the ravens had gathered around them. I told Jerry
that I usually didn’t feel sympathy for cows, but that this one
deserved something. I think he agreed. I eventually wrote a poem
about her. Sort of a tribute to her handling of her loss. Write me
and I’ll send it to you.
The weather has pretty darn nice
except for the days when the winds blow hard. I’ve learned it takes
about two days to get the sand out of your eyes for every two hours
spent out there in that kind of wind. Gets in your ears and nose
pretty good too. On a good blustery day, it can take three men to
shut a barbed wire gate!
February
We’ve been working on some fencing
projects including the manufacture of our own stays made from willow
trees. We cut the trees into the length we need, split the logs and
peel the bark to make stays that will go between the fence posts. I
figure we’re doing it the same way the pioneering ranchers did it.
We’ve been doing some supplemental feeding, and some cattle work:
branding calves, vaccinating cows, and separating yearlings. The
weather has been very nice and we’ve been working in just
shirtsleeves a few days.
We’re also seeing some green out here in the pastures with some
filaree and bloodweed coming on in places. Saw some ducks on the
tanks and a falcon one day, and it looks like a red-tailed hawk will
be nesting up on the windmill again this year. Spring is a-coming
for sure.
January
The weather has been great for working and we’ve been busy with all
sorts of projects. Some days are spent gathering cattle so we can
vaccinate them, but we’ve also been cutting firewood and working on
fencing projects. One of the fence projects involved pulling out and
replacing an entire ½ mile section of fence where we will be keeping
some yearlings for a while. Branding has begun and that will
continue off and on now right through summer. We’re also doing a
little supplemental feeding, and shifting cows around.
I’ve been riding Whitey Man a lot and remarked to Jerry that he
seems to be enjoying the work a lot more lately. “Are you putting
something extra in his rations?” I asked him. “No,” he replied, “I
think it’s the cooler weather.” We’ll be enjoying the milder
weather for awhile and it will be nice to have an eager horse under
me.
December.
Most of the yearlings have been sold now, which required some more
gathering and sorting. We do all that on horseback, which makes the
work enjoyable--- all those open spaces and just the boss and I most
days. I recall a morning ride to gather a pasture, and when we
topped a low hill we could see a small herd in a draw spread out in
the morning light and looking like a painting below us. I remarked
on how pretty they looked to Jerry and he just smiled.
The weather has been unusually warm and we finally got some rain,
which is always a blessing down here. In an average year, the ranch
gets about 15 inches of precipitation. In some of the pastures we’ve
seen filaree and a little blue loco weed; seems early, maybe because
of the weather. We’re also seeing some new calves so we’ve got some
branding to do when time allows.
The ranch’s resident kit foxes are putting in regular appearances at
their den site and we always look for them when we go by. And I’m
pretty sure I saw a pair of phainopeplas near the buildings; these
are neat birds with crests on their heads that are not very common
around here. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them and see if I can
confirm that.
October-November
We
began our Fall cattle work in mid-October and that means gathering up
the cattle and bring them in bunches to a corral so we can vaccinate
the cows and bulls. As we process those animals, my boss, Jerry, will
check some of the cows to determine if they are pregnant and how far
along they are. There is some sorting going on and some of the cattle
have been moved to different pastures. We are also weighing the
yearlings and Jerry hopes to sell some of them yet this fall if he
can.
The
weather has been fantastic; in the morning when we ride out, it’s cool
enough to want a jacket, but by 10:00 AM, we are down to long-sleeved
shirts. By noon, the lizards are out. We see quail and antelope every
day, and this week I’ve seen a Golden Eagle a couple of times. We
could always use some rain out here; I hope we get some before the
cold weather gets here.