September

September 1-7, 2003: No Guests

Monday, September 1, 2003
Frank and I trailered out to Canyon Creek and started gathering cattle. We got a bunch of about 50 pushed to Juniper tank and not wanting them to drift off Frank who was riding Kitten stayed there to hold them. I was on Gambler and we started working the north end of S.S. Basin. We rode our butts off, back and forth and finally two hours later we had a hundred more pushed down to Juniper tank. We spent the next hour sorting the unbranded pairs out from the rest, getting 32 separated. Then started the others back towards the Loco gate. It was a tough push with just the two of us and that large a herd. Our horses worked really well and hard. It took about two hours to go three miles but we finally got them through the gate and down to Big Loco tank. We got home about 7pm.

Hi 69, lo 46 rain all around but only a sprinkle on us. As we were driving home we came into an area where the hail was an inch deep. Coming down the driveway there was water running everywhere. Maggie reported heavy hail and over an inch of rain in 30 min.

Tuesday, September 2, 2003
Frank rode from the H.Q. and worked the Little Fence Spring area gathering up 25 head and pushed them down to Snow Lake trap where he waited for me. I trailered out to Loco pasture where I rode the east fence finding all three gates wide open. I gathered 40 head that were along T Bar Canyon back into Loco. It was a tough gather, the area is steep and rocky with two side canyons separating the cattle. None of them wanted to leave. I was a bit pissed off when I got done. I was riding Doc and he did as good a job as you could ever ask. As I headed back to the trailer I saw three guys on four wheelers having lunch under a tree, I stopped to advise them to close all gates they came through or saw open. I thought I recognized one of them but didn’t want to make a fool of myself so I asked where they were from. Two were from California and the other Michigan. I asked if he was from the Detroit area and he said he was. Then I knew he was who I thought he was. I reminded him I had met him a few years ago when he had a flat tire. It was 1970’s rocker Ted Nuggent. The other two introduced themselves, you could have bowled me over when one shook my hand saying he was Sammy Hagar of the band Van Halen. He sure didn’t look like he did back in the 80’s! Just no telling who you might meet out here in the wilds. I chatted with them for awhile then went on my way to pick up Frank. It was a beautiful day, no wind, hi 65,lo 47 with very few clouds.

I’m not sure if I have ever mentioned our cat Billy, Billy The Cat. As most of you know I am no fan of cats but he’s special. Maggie found him when he was a day old and raised him on a bottle. He use to sleep in her shirt pocket when she worked, was about three inches long. He is now huge, one of the biggest cats I’ve known, and beautiful, black with four white socks, white whiskers and a stripe down his nose. He’s the best hunter I have seen, always leaving new presents for us on the porch each morning. Well anyway last night I awoke to a the sound of banging and wailing, I got out of bed and turned on the lights to see what was up. I woke Maggie up with my laughter when I found him wandering around the house bumping into walls with a tissue box stuck on his head, it was so damn funny I had to take a picture before I relieved him of his burden. He was extremely embarrassed.

Wednesday September 3, 2003
Frank rode with the Forest Service today who wanted to check our range and make sure we had cattle in the right place. They left here about 9am, spent most of the time driving in the truck and riding a little bit. By 1:30pm they were headed back to their office.

Lyndsey rode out on Preacher to go over the Little Fence spring area one more time. I had a gut feeling about her being out alone on a young horse and I was right. She got bucked off pretty hard about an hour out. She landed on her neck and back but being the class A tough cowgirl she is she climbed back on, gathered five pairs and pushed them two hours to Snow Lake trap. There she met up with Frank and the two of them loaded up panels we had there and set up a new branding pen out in Loco pasture to use when we brand the cattle Frank and I left in Loco the other day. They got home about 6pm.

Maggie and I drove to Socorro to meet with my lawyer and the D.A. She was assaulted in April and as usually happens was too scared to press charges against the guy after his threats. But now her fear has turned to anger.
Thursday September 4, 2003

Maggie, Lyndsey, Frank and I trailered out to Canyon Creek to gather the unbranded pairs there. We were riding by 10am after the hour long drive out there and gathered a lot more cattle than we had left there. We arrived at the branding pen about 4pm with 75 head and spent an hour sorting out the ones that needed working. Storms were looming all around us and it was a rush to get them branded before the rain got us. I have a great crew, in less than two hours we had branded 37 calves. The last bunch we did in a light rain getting wet and covered in mud. Just as we were letting them out of the pen and back to their mommas one of the many lightning strikes zapped so close it was a blinding white light and blast of simultaneous thunder. The electricity made the steel panels rattle and spark and our hair stand up and nerves tingle. We then mounted back up and pushed the cattle to Big Loco tank in a driving rain that made the cattle move even slower than usual. Soaked to the bone even with slickers we got in the truck, cranked the heater on high and headed home, getting there about 8pm. Ahh the romance of the cowboy life.

Hi 67 lo 49.

Friday September 5, 2003
Frank and Lyndsey went and broke down the camp at Snow Canyon, this took the better part of the day. I loaded Gambler up and trailered out to Gilita ridge to try and find a dozen or so cattle that we had only seen when we were in a truck or when it was too late in the day to gather them. Luck was with me as I found them all pretty quick and started them down towards Snow Lake trap. Every thing was going well till I was on a steep stretch of road on a razor back ridge where there was no place else to be but in the road. Along comes a pickup truck of hunters the other way and of course they gave us no right of way and started through the herd blowing their horn. The cattle scattered. Some went down a canyon on one side and the others down the other side. Then the hunters stopped and had the balls to ask me if I had seen any Elk! I spent the next two hours gathering the cattle from one canyon and pushing them to the trap then going all the way back up about a mile to hunt the others. It took over and hour to find them almost back where I had started. What should have been an easy day job took till about 6pm thanks to the rudeness of a couple yahoos from Idaho. It rained hard the last hour, Gambler and I were mighty happy to see the trailer and head home.

Hi 58 lo 45

Saturday September 6, 2003
Frank and Lyndsey have the weekend off. I trailered out to Canyon Creek and rode another loop through there getting in another 6 pairs that we missed last week. It rained all afternoon as has become usual now. The rains came late but they have come well.

Hi 63 lo 42

Sunday September 7, 2003
I drove to Datil to look at some hay at a fellas farm out there, it was some really nice stuff and the price is right. We will start hauling some in here towards the end of next week. I fear with the late rains it may bode that an early snow season will be upon us and I don’t want to get caught short supplied or hauling it up the mountain with snowy roads. I then drove to Magdalena where I picked up a new horse that my vet wanted to get rid of due to lack of room for him. He seems like a nice sort of guy, about 15 hands, sorrel with four white socks and a blaze. I ran into heavy rain on the way home, had to pull off the road for a few minuets. Got home about 7pm.
Creek is doing well and healing up, I pulled some of his stitches and turned him out of his stall. He’s now in the hospital pen with Dakota. The orphaned heifer we have here at the house has really gentled down nicely, a pretty black we call Pepper. She has become so set on our chore routine that if we are a minute late feeding she sets to hollering for us.

Hi 61 lo 39 we have had a fire almost every night now for the last few days, it’s time to get out and get some wood cut.

September 14-20, 2003: No Guests

Sunday, September 14, 2003
The entire week has been spent working fence. It’s nothing too exciting to do much less read about. Our goal is to have the entire trap fence, shipping pens and water lots in tiptop shape before gather so we aren’t trying to fix things as we are sorting and shipping. I have said this for years but finally we have the time to do it. The beginning of the week was really wet, Monday thru Wednesday, long soaking rains that really did the range wonders. We got a total of 1 and 1/4 inches over three days.
We have to wear rubber boots in the corral there is so much mud, the grass is knee high around the place and you get soaked just walking to the barn, but I’m sure not complaining. The lower country around here is in bad shape, my accountant told me that at his ranch just south of Albq. He’s only had .6 inches of rain since April. He never stopped feeding hay since last winter.
Thursday the bees that live in the roof of our house near the chimney swarmed. It’s an annual event and a sight to see. The top four feet of the chimney was covered with thousands of bees, so thick you couldn’t see the stone. I told Maggie that frost would be here within the week. I was right it was that night. Woke to heavy frost and a temp. of 29, burrrr to damn early for that.
Friday and Saturday Frank and I built a new fence, it was the toughest fencing I have ever done. We were closing off a canyon to keep cattle out of a Riparian area {stream}. We wanted to fence the narrowest part but of course that meant the steepest. To walk in it was about a mile from where we could park the truck down to the chosen spot in the canyon. We had a lot of material to get in there and it was no place a packhorse could go so we got adventurous. One side of the canyon was terraced with four 75-yard wide steps with 70-foot drops of rim rock between them. We got our climbing ropes out and set to work. It was a chore lowering the posts and 80 lb rolls of wire down; also the 40 lb post driver and all the hands tools. Then we climbed down and worked, we would work a section then lower it all down to the next level. It was grueling; I was so relieved when the last stay was wired into place. It took two full days but we built a heck of a nice fence. It’s one of those fences you look at and think to yourself how you pity the poor S.O.B. who had to build it.
I wasn’t horse back all week so today I took Gambler out for a quick ride through Loco pasture. We were out about five hours and saw lots of cattle scattered all over the place just as they should be. The last couple days have been those bright, clear, glorious fall days we all love. Hi’s in the mid 60’s with lows in the upper 30’s. The aspen are just starting to get a tinge of color and the bull elk are bugling around the house at night.

Saturday, September 20, 2003
Had our court hearing on the 15th, got our equipment back provided I paid $200.00 for house cleaning at the lower H.Q. Heck it’s worth 200 to have some one clean the house. After that Maggie and I went to Albq. where we went to the state fair, then she flew to Dallas to see family and friends and have a trunk sale {That’s a jewelry sale for you know nothing guys out there}. I picked up 200 bales of good cow hay on my way home. The rest of the week was again spent on fencing; we are starting to see the end of it finally. Frank worked a couple days cutting cedar stays, while Lyndsey and I worked the drift fences into the shipping pens. Then we worked the west and north fences of the north trap and started on the shipping pens themselves. Fencing is not as simple as you would think; there is an art to it. You have to always be looking ahead to the next section, making corrections to the wire height as it corresponds to the terrain. There is a certain direction you have to twist the wire clips, you have to stretch the wire tight enough but not too tight, and watch out for flying wire when you do get it too tight. Places that get a lot of pressure from cattle or where they congregate you need to put in extra stays. Where the fence crosses a ditch or low spot you need to build a “dead man” using a heavy rock to hold the wire down. Some places you can’t get a post in the ground at all, there you set a tripod of T posts to hold it up. It’s a real pain in the ass.
The good news is beef prices are the highest in history. Of course this comes during a year of my smallest and lightest calf crop. Between the early drought last year that set all my cattle to get bred late, the change in my breeding calendar causing a lot of cows not to get bred at all so they get on track with a later calving time next year, and the damn wolves I will be lucky to have a 50% calf crop. I guess I shouldn’t complain, better than having less calves when the prices are poor. Hopefully what I lose in numbers I will make up in higher prices and get enough to pay this years bills so I can start piling them up for next year.
The weather has been just too nice; his in the mid 60’s lows in the mid 30’s.
The days are clear, no clouds, no wind, just perfect.

September 28-October 4, 2003 Fall Ranch Week

Monday September 29, 2003
Finally some help arrives! A big crew this week, ten folks.

Dean and Alan from Va. are back for visit number six. The rest of the crew is all first timers. They are Fred from Ga. and his buddy Peter AKA Pedro from Ma. Sisters Wendy and Cindy from WI. Randy from MD. John and Shirley from N.C. And Bob from TX. I knew the crew was good to go when most came down to help me unload 200 bales of hay as soon as they got here.

Today was a get right at it day. We needed to be at Snow Canyon Camp for the evening and had a few places to ride along the way. Lyndsey took a crew and rode through the Little Fence Spring area where they gathered about 25 head and put them through the silver gate into 7HL pasture. Fall gather has begun! They then rode down the long ridge towards the lake and checked for any strays as they went. They got into camp about 5pm.

Frank took the rest of the crew into the North trap and gathered up Banana Horns and his little bunch of gals who had somehow gotten in there. They pushed them out into 7HL to clear the trap for cattle later in the week. Then they rode south along T Bar Canyon checking that area finding a dozen head along the way, which they sorted into the Snow Lake trap when they got to the bottom. They got in about 6pm. It was a long first day. I spent the day hauling gear and horses in the truck and then rode some fence in the afternoon waiting for the crew to get in.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003
There were a lot of cattle which had showed up in the trap over the past couple weeks so we gathered them this morning and sorted out a half dozen that needed branding. It wasn’t that many but everyone got a taste of whittling and sizzling calves. We were done about 2pm and after the long day yesterday and the fact we couldn’t really start a new job that late in the day we called it one. The afternoon was spent around camp throwing horseshoes and swapping tales. The weather couldn’t have been better. After a warm night in the 40’s and a sweet fall day of about 68 it was just about perfect.

Wednesday, September 31, 2003
We were at it in pretty good time this morning gathering all the cattle in the trap and along the lake. We started up Loco canyon with about 90 head. The canyon is pretty rough the first half mile or so and things got a bit mixed up. In a crooked turn of the canyon with rocky sides the cattle went up a nasty place and about half got away. Part of the crew held what we had left while Lyndsey and a few others went around and up and got the breakaways stopped a few hundred feet higher up. Doesn’t sound like a great distance but it wasn’t easy getting them down. Frank, Bob and Pedro who had been out on a search mission heard the cry for help and got there to assist in getting the cattle down and then we all stuck together after that. We got lined out and the canyon got easier and things went just like they should from there. About mid afternoon we got up the mountain and to Big Loco tank where we let the cattle drift for the night. Lindsey’s horse had gone lame so she talked some outfitters with a trailer camped nearby into giving her and her horse a lift back to our camp. Dean got his wrangler badge leading a group of riders back down the canyon and on to camp. Frank took part of the crew north and east to check one corner of the pasture along the wilderness area while I took another crew to check the southwest corner. It was great viewing out there. I love taking folks up and cresting the top of Loco Mtn. and hearing what they say as the wilderness spreads out for miles before them. The aspen on the tall peaks are changing fast and the other subtle colors of fall are all peaking. Franks crew saw a couple big mule deer bucks and a bull elk and his harem but no cattle. My crew saw 20 turkeys, a couple doe deer and found two pair of cattle, which we pushed out to Big Loco tank. The calves we found were some of the nicest I had seen, solid, square and black about 450 pounds. If only I had a couple hundred like that.
Another perfect fall day about 65 a few clouds. The nights have been unusually warm, making it nice to be in camp.

It was a long day, I was glad we took a short one yesterday.

Thursday, October 1, 2003
We split into three groups today and made our way up Loco Mtn. Frank went over the top, Lyndsey with a few riders took a couple pairs of cattle back up the canyon and I went south along the long slope the mountain makes along the Middle fork canyon. It was a perfectly executed plan. A lot of country got covered, a lot of cattle gathered and we all got to Loco Meadows at the same time. We held about 150 cattle on the water and the riders formed a loose circle around them as Lyndsey, Frank and I cut out pairs. Our criteria was they had to be steer calves over 400 pounds. It took about an hour but with good help by the holders and shufflers we had no wreaks and soon had about 30 pairs ready to trail over the mountains about six miles and put them into 7HL at the Twin Tanks gate. It was a long push with slow cattle, but the crew were pro herd handlers and we got there in as good a time as you can pushing cows. We put them through the gate about 6pm and headed back to camp. The trail down from there is short but it’s pretty steep. Fred asked if it was “Man from Snowy River” steep, almost.

Last night we did have a bit of ice on things and the campfire was sure crowded this morning. About 30 over night but today was nice about 60 with a bit of a breeze.

Friday, October 2, 2003
A cold rain overnight, not a lot but just enough to get things chilly. The forecast was for continued rain through out the day and that dissuaded a few riders. They stayed and helped Tawnya and Frank break camp. Lyndsey and Alan took the seven extra horses and pushed them back to the H.Q. making a quick trip of the 6 miles. Cindy, Wendy, Bob, Randy, Pedro and Fred followed me up T Bar Canyon to gather what we had put into 7HL over the last couple days and push them to the north trap. The canyon is beautiful any time of year but right now with the Choke Cherry bushes flaming red, the aspen yellow and the flowers still out, it was awesome.

We came out into T bar Valley and soon spotted all our cattle scattered around in four or five groups within a mile of the intersection with 7HL canyon. I assigned jobs to the riders and sent them out. They started off a bit shaky but over the next two hours they pulled themselves together and we soon had everything gathered up and headed west. We had 49 cows 31 calves and two bulls. It was a slow push home and the number of people to cows was perfect. Everyone had a job to do and was kept busy doing it. They rain was all around us but stayed away till the last mile when it blew up. We stopped and put on the slickers but of course it ended within five minuets. We got the cattle through the gate and called it a job well done. We got into H.Q. at about 4:30pm leaving time for a much-needed shower and beer before a big steak feed. It was a great crew who got a good start on the fall gather. The campfire stories were wild, varied and long-winded, the laughter from which I’m sure ran off most of the wildlife within miles.