August 8-14: Summer Ranch Week

Monday, August 9, 2004

I ended up going to Albq. to help haul the next crew and gear, got a chance to stop in town and get my haircut and buy a couple new wheels for the trucks around here. Some how we have “misplaced” four wheels that act as our spares.

We have a pretty small crew this week as far as this year goes. We had a couple cancellations so only seven guests. Jo from Wales is spending a second week with us. Hebert from Brooklyn is here for his second time, he brought along his friend Dennis this year. First timers are Joan, Tina, and Margarite all from Ill. who came together then there is Sherry also from Ill who came on her own.

Today, the crew riding in three groups went out on a stray hunt/shakedown ride into 7HL. They found a few head and put them through the Silver gate before heading home. It was just a quick warm up for things to come this week as we change pastures and stay out in camp so we wanted to have a good working outfit for everyone so we didn’t have to change saddles or horses while at camp. I spent the day out working on the fence I was planning to get done last week. At one point a big thunderhead was a couple miles east of me, lightning every minute or two. It made me a bit nervous as I worked on the highest ridge holding miles of barbed wires in my hands. It took me most of the day to get the hole fixed and I also put out some salt in preparation for the cattle move this week.

Hi was 72, lo 48 light rain here and there.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

I had an early morning meeting with the Forest Service about some fence problems I had. Hell I didn’t need them to tell me I had fence problems. It all came out that I had to work a stretch of fence up on Bearwallow Mountain in the next couple weeks to make them happy. It’s a terrible bit of fence strung through the black timber, it’s also a waste of time as every good blow of wind brings down more deadfall, but I guess I’ll get some help in here and do it the next week we don’t have guests.

The crew headed into Negrito pasture to start the gather, I met them just as they were getting started.

We worked in two groups, Lyndsey had one and John the other. I just kinda drifted between the two helping who ever needed it. We gathered the Rock Mesa and Dog Spring areas all meeting at Little Fence Spring about 1pm . We had 75 adult cows plus calves when we headed off the ridge road towards Snow Lake . It didn’t go easy from the start. We had Otis a big old bull who has replaced Banana Horns as my least favorite. He was out there in front trying to turn the cows back. The ridge was to narrow and too thickly timbered to do anything but yell and push. It was a bit easier when we got to the bottom and we had a bit more room to spread out over the canyon floor. Finally about 4pm we got them into Snow Lake trap and let them drift. We then headed to camp and called it a day.

Hi 73 lo 50

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

We were out in good time working all the cattle in the trap looking for unbranded calves. There had been a lot of cattle when we got here yesterday so we were picking through about 125 pairs. It took awhile but we did a really fine job of it getting in very few we didn’t really need. In short order we had the cows cut off leaving 28 calves in the corral to be branded. The thunderheads were threatening all around and about half way through it started raining turning the corral into a muddy mess. Dennis and Hebert were the champion muggers and they came out looking like they’d been in a mud-wrestling match. I guess they had now that I think about it.

Joan did a great job on the fire keeping the irons hot in spite of the rain. Everyone tried their hand at roping and everyone caught a few.

We got done about 3pm and headed up to camp tired, muddy and laughing. For the next couple hours there was a steady line of travelers to the pond for a little clothes washing and swimming.

For the first time we had gnats, they were terrible around suppertime at camp.

Obviously I didn’t work this crew hard enough; they were up late carrying on around the campfire filling the canyon with laughter. I promised I wouldn’t write about the subjects of conversation or games that were played. I had gone to bed early and was mighty glad when they finally did.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

We gathered everything in the trap and headed east towards Loco Meadows. The first couple miles went well but then we headed into Loco canyon. Near the mouth of the canyon the sides narrow in until the trail is only a cow width wide, here the cattle all came to a stop balling up and going nowhere. We hollered and yelled and yelled and hollered. Cows started turning back, calves started climbing the rock walls, it was a mess. Finally we got some brave ones to go through and the rest followed along but not before we were all hoarse from hollering.

We later named that spot “ The gates of hell” because like that proverbial place no one wants to go through. The canyon from there on gets better and better and the rest of the trip is a pleasure. We got to Loco Meadows and let the cattle rest a bit, not as long as we had planned due to a big thunderhead coming our way so we got them moving again. Up and over Loco Mountain through the saddle till we were overlooking Loco Flats. There we left the cattle to drift on their own and headed back to camp. It had been a long day but we had gotten 150 head of cattle on fresh grass and water.

Hi 74 lo 44

Friday, August 13, 2004

We rode in three groups today, Lyndsey headed back to the ranch pushing loose horses along with Jo and Sherry.

John and Hebert rode North to the 7HL fence looking for some cattle we had been seeing on the ridges all week, of course they couldn’t find a single one today.

I headed out with Mar, Tina, Joan and Dennis, we went back through the Gates Of Hell and up to Loco meadow checking to see how many cattle had drifted back that way. I was pleased to see very few had. We then headed over towards the Wilderness fence checking gates. As we got to the top of the mountain some big thunderstorms were right over the country we were headed to. We decided to go ahead and give it a try. Not too much longer I decided we would skip checking one gate and go to the one to the west. I think it was a good plan, as we went along the storms followed us and threw lots of lightning around. We were able to stay ahead of one storm, skirted across the front of another as we headed back towards Snow Lake . Just as we got to the Lake we were surrounded and there was no way to avoid getting hit by a big one. But our rescue came in the form of John arriving with a trailer just as things were getting serious. There was not a compliant from any of us when we loaded up and headed home.

Between the cattle getting moved and all the calves branded it was a fine lot of work done. A great crew, full of laughs and hard workers.