8/28/04

I get asked a lot what we do when there are no guests here, “Find a good book and relax?

Oh yea

This week Lyndsey went to Houston to visit a friend, she left Saturday. I spent the weekend end with an ear infection that had started the last couple days of Posse Week. By Saturday it hurt so much I thought the only relief would be a .44. But I got some antibiotics going and by Monday was feeling much better.

Tuesday I headed up to start work on the fence that the forest service said I needed to get done. It’s a tough fence along the top of the mountain, for years it hasn’t been worked on since I was running cattle with the fella on the other side. But now that we are working alone the fence has to be worked. It runs through a thick forest of Spruce, Fir and Aspen, some places so thick you can’t walk through it. There have been fires that burned up a lot of the post as well as dropped timber on the fence, every gust of wind brings down more as do the heavy snows during the winter. So I had 8 years of maintenance to catch up on.

I worked on the fence for the next four days, one day Nathan came up and helped. It was slow going but I got about two miles worked. Some of the rest I have never seen nor has a cow. I will just have to get to the remainder on our next break.

Yesterday I went and put some salt out in Loco pasture, or was going to. As I drove through I only found nine cows in a pasture that should have had close to two hundred, I also found two gates left open by hunters who are now out in the field. I continued on and found all my cattle in 7HL and Pitchfork pastures, our winter pastures so next week we will have a spring gather in September.

There have been some personel changes around here I should report. Lesha came on board with us as cook about 7 weeks ago. She is Tawnyas’ sister, Tawnya has cooked for us several times over the past years. Leshas husband Nathan has been working most of the summer here with his dad doing fencing and roofing. John and Nina are gone. They left a couple weeks ago. They had been here just long enough to get useful, learning the country and the horses. They left to go write the great American travel guide. It really kinda pissed me off that they leave at this time. There had been plenty other good people I passed on to hire them, people who would be here now rather than leave us short handed at our busy time. Now I am one to understand opportunity, but I also believe a person should stick with and finish what they said they’d do.

So now we have hired Nathan to cowboy for us, he’s a good hand with the horses and cattle but doesn’t know the country.

Lyndsey of course is still here and I hope never to leave. There is an old western code called “Riding for the brand” It means that if you take a ranches pay you are loyal to that brand. You stand up for the brand and the ranch connected to it. You work till the job is done, no matter the job. Lyndsey rides for the brand. She does so much that no one ever sees, when I thank her for something above and beyond her response is always “Of course”.

The weather has been getting fall like, nights in the upper 30’s days in the 60’s. No rain all week.

8/29/04

A big crew in this week, not a veteran among them. J.F. and Caroline are here from New Jersey spending their honeymoon with us. The others are Lee from Florida, Don from New York, Ralph and Steve from Arizona, J. from the Boston area, Paul from upstate New York, Sally and Heather from England, and Pascal from California.

Today we rode out in two groups, Ralph and Steve rode with me in the north trap hunting the loose horses that had gotten in over the weekend through a hunter opened gate. The rest of the crew went into the south trap hunting up some cattle that had been in there a couple weeks. Both groups came up empty, the horses gave us the slip and the cattle had gone out another hunter opened gate. From here we rode a couple loops in Negrito pasture getting about 40 head put through the silver gate into 7HL pasture, then headed home. It was a fine fall day.

8/30/04

We headed into Negrito pasture working some really big loops in three groups. I went to Burnt Cabin hunting up some cattle I had seen there last week. Of course when I got there a cow was not to be seen. We pulled a big loop and got back to Burnt Cabin about three hours later and there they were waiting for us. We pushed them over the mountain and met up with the other groups in the meadows below Dog Spring. Every one had found a few head and we put them all through the silver gate and moved them down into Ewe canyon a ways. It was getting late and soon the wind kicked up a gale so we let the cattle drift for the night.

9/1/04

We headed into 7HL to gather up all the cattle we had put in there the last couple days as well as others I had seen over the weekend. We worked in a couple groups along Feathery valley as Nathan and a few riders moved the main bunch along the wagon road through the canyon. By the time we got to Elladeane we had about 60 head gathered and pushed them over T Bar Saddle. From the top we could see another 60 spread out along the valley. We gathered all we could find and eased our way up to fence tank where we put everything in the corral there. It was about 4pm by this time but we decided to go ahead and sort and brand a dozen or so claves that needed some whittlin’ and sizzlin’. The clouds built up and threatened rain but all we got was a wonderful double rainbow to work under. There weren’t too many claves but everyone got a taste of branding and the crew pulled together fast getting the works done in about an hour. It was near sundown before we unsaddled and called it a day.

9/2/04

We had our first frost last night! Ice on everything including those guys who slept out under the stars. The campfire was a crowded place in the morning.

We headed out into Pitchfork and worked the west side for half the day gathering up everything we had put in there yesterday. It took awhile as they were scattered all over T Bar Ridge. Finally about 1pm we got them all together and up to the Telegraph gate on top of T Bar Ridge. Going down the other side was tough. Cattle don’t like steep slopes and this was sure one with rocks every where. We had to zig zag back and forth in order to get them down. I was riding Dakota, he worked great even though he had to go up and down the hill about a dozen times. As the summer goes along he just gets stronger and stronger, he’s six now and really coming into his own.

Once we got the cattle off the slope we lined out along the Telegraph line. What a sight it was! The cattle were along an old two track road through the pines and cedar lined out about 3/4 of a mile. It was just picture perfect, all the flank riders were evenly spaced and matched with riders on the other side of the herd, the drag riders were sweeping and hollering, the cattle traveling at a good pace.

A few miles farther we broke out of the trees into S.S. Basin. As we hit the open the cattle started trotting, I just figured they were smelling the water. Then they got to a spot in the meadow where they all balled up and started jumping around like there was a salt block. What there was, was a dead yearling heifer. It was the calf out of a cow we call Grey Ghost, a sweet old cow we like a lot. The calf was about a year old and we had kept her because we knew this would be the last year for her old mom and wanted to keep the family going. I can only assume it was wolves as she was a big strong heifer and no coyote would have been able to take her down.

It was funny how all the cattle had to stop and pay their respects to the dead body, I have seen it happen a few times but it seems only with certain carcasses. Cows are goofy.

We let the cattle drift into water at Juniper tank and then took a long rest there our selves, it had been a long push. Once we got going towards camp we took the long way around to check the rest of Pitchfork and see what other cattle were there. By the time we got home we had seen about 50 head and had been in the saddle over 8 hours and about 25 miles not counting the back and forth gathering and pushing cattle. It was a long day in anyones book.

The weather tried to rain on us late in the day but we were lucky and slipped through between a couple thunderheads and made it home with just a sprinkle.

Hi 60 lo 30

9/3/04

Another night of frost, not near as much as last night but still chilly in the morning.

We broke and loaded camp in the morning then saddled up and rode out in three groups. Nathan headed down the valley to try and find Cassady’s old pony “Shovel” who we had seen a few days before sore footed and needing a trim. He had Don along who was looking for a shorter day. They rode a couple hours with out finding the pony and then headed home. Lyndsey took some riders and did a big loop into the north end of Pitchfork then swinging back west trying to get all the strays she could find. They came up with a half dozen head which they pushed down into T Bar Canyon and into Loco Pasture. I rode around 7HL valley, cowcamp and Telegraph Mesa and only found one bull I decided not to mess with. We did find the pony so we headed her home. Sally and Heather became pony herders, they were on good easy going horses who could be patientent enough to ease the little girl home. Dakota was being way too mean to her, trying to bite and run her so I rode ahead with J.F and Caroline while the two gals got Shovel home. It took a long afternoon but we got in just before a good rain came along. Lyndsey's group was not so lucky as they finished the week in the wind and rain.

It was a great week, dang good crew. They got to see a lot more of the ranch than most crews do, having ridden in four of our six pastures and knocked out way over a hundred miles.