June 6-12, 2004: Summer Ranch Week

Monday, June 7, 2004

Seven folks making up the crew this week, they include Monika, Norbert, and Garret from El Paso. Tabitha from Indiana, H.J. from Colorado, Jose from Long Island, and George from New Jersey.

Today was a working Shakedown ride lasting about five hours. Lyndsey and John each took out a group. They first gathered some cattle from the Burnt Cabin area, about forty head and moved them back towards the north side of the pasture getting them away from the wolf area.

Then they rode through checking that all the rest were in places they should be. On the way home they gathered the south trap getting in the cattle we put there week before last to worm and brand. The day was getting late and the wind was blowing so much we didn’t want to risk a branding fire so the cattle were put on the water lot and held for the night so we can brand them in the calm of morning.

It was a pretty hot day, shade temp. was 80, sunfactor in the mid 90’s. Gusty wind in the afternoon. Overnight low was about 40.

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

We got the cattle into the pens right after breakfast and started branding. I have to say this was the slowest crew we have had in a long time. Seemed everyone had their own plan and did not listen to instructions very well. So John, Lyndsey and I just stood back and kept our mouths shut and let them try to do it their own way. It didn’t work so well. Finally they realized they might need some instruction, it wasn’t as easy as watching the rodeo on TV. So we stepped in and threw out some advice. They finally listened and got things going. It did take about three hours to get eleven calves branded though. Tabitha was the top roper getting five calves in her loop. The mugging of the calves was indeed an entertainment we could have sold tickets to see. Piles of people on the calves, calves on the people, it was a sideshow.

We eventually got done with the calves and ran the cows through the chute and wormed them all. Now that got done pretty fast I was pleased at how they all worked together and paid attention to what was going on.

We got done with that corral work about 12:30pm. And headed to the cookhouse for lunch. It was too late to ride out and get any of the work done that was on our list so we did some manual labor around here. One crew went with John and headed to Cowcamp to take down some tents and collect gear we had left out there last week. With six people helping it went quick and easy. Lyndsey took a couple folks with her on a trip to Snow Lake dropping off stuff at the dumpster and checking where the bulls were so we could gather them at the end of the week. It’s time the bulls were put in with the cows. Once everyone was back they pitched in hanging tents in the barn and putting away camping gear. All this work was over by 5pm. That’s about the time the horseshoe game started. It was the first time in a long while that we all took a day off from riding, but tomorrow we will head out into 7HL hunting up some strays that were left there from spring gather. During the riding around for Posse Week we saw quite a few we had missed. I thought we had done a bang up job gathering but always some slip through the gather. I figure there are about forty head we need to get in.

Not as hot as yesterday, shade temp. was 75 sunfactor in the upper 80’s. Tabitha and Garrett slept by the campfire and said it was really cold, it was chilly, a low of 42.

Wednesday, June 9, 2004

I took the crew out into 7HL hunting the strays today. Lyndsey and John dropped us off at the Cowcamp gate and we headed east from there into Pitchfork pasture. We rode all the way to Doubtful tank before we found cattle, just three pairs which we eased along back into 7HL and on down to T Bar Tank. They were getting tired so we left them there and went up onto Telegraph Mesa. Way up at the north end we found a bunch of the ones we were looking for. We gathered up 24 pairs and 8 dry cows. We only got them about three miles to Nedra tank where some of the calves gave out. We left them there for the night and will go back in the morning and hope they haven’t traveled too far.

It was a long day of riding, about 23 miles and all of it in a hard wind. It blew and blew and blew. I hate the wind! Hi of only 77, lo was 40 sunny skies.

Thursday, June 10, 2004

We headed out early and it was a day of good luck. We went out through Snake gate and right there we found the cattle we had left the day before. We quick gathered them all up and within two hours had them into Negrito pasture.

From there we took a couple hour pleasure ride to Snow Lake where we hoped to find some bulls to trailer back to Negrito pasture and put in with the cows. It’s time to get a little romance going on here. Lyndsey and John drove trailers to the lake and met us there; they reported the bulls we were looking for were all in one bunch in the shade of a big pine near the lake. A ten-minute ride and we had them headed to the loading pen. The day was working perfectly, until I found a dead cow which put a bit of a damper on my mood.

We got the bulls penned along with a few cows, which we sorted out and then had the cussing time of getting the bulls loaded. John and I drove them to Dog Spring where when they got off the trailers they announced their arrival with bellows and hollers letting the girls know the boys were back in town.

We then drove back to the lake and trailered all the riders and horses home along with a couple big calves that we weaned from their moms.

A bit of wind today, nothing like yesterday though. Hi was 79, sunfactor was 90 after a chilly night low of 27.

Friday, June 11, 2004

The horses had the days mixed up or just wanted to play hooky. I started riding at 5:30 am looking for them and only found six. My guess was that they had taken off to N Bar Park about three miles from the ranch, one of their favorite hangouts on weekends. I got there and sure enough there they were all looking surprised to see me. It was 9am before I got them home. Even with the late start, we were in the saddle pretty darn fast and on the range working by 10:15. We gathered all the cattle we had branded on Monday out of the south trap and into Negrito pasture. I left the crew with John to go hunt strays as I had some office stuff to deal with.

They rode to Elladeane in 7HL pasture and soon had almost thirty head gathered up which they took to the silver gate and put them into Negrito pasture. They were all home about 5pm, a very successful day! Very successful week!

Hi was about 80 sunfactor of 90 very little wind. Lo was 40.