September 19-25: Fall Ranch Week

Monday, September 20, 2004

A big group of 12 this week, all came as one group from Mass. Steve who has been here three times over the years headed them up. All the folks who came with him are either boarders or take lessons at the stable he owns back there in Yankee land. One fella, Carl has been here before but all the rest are first timers. They include: Carrie, Dawn, John, Linda, Christine, Rachelle, Rob, Gail, Michelle and Steve’s’ wife Val.

Monday was just a shake down ride for about five hours. The cattle are all so far from the H.Q. right now there was nothing we could do in just one day and get home again. After a couple saddle changes when they got home everyone had a working outfit and are ready to spend the rest of the week out at camp.

The day was as usual perfect. This after a weekend of rain and cold. But we have been lucky for the last two weeks while at camp the weather has been great then after we get home on Friday it rains over the weekend. Someone likes us. Hi was about 67 lo 31

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Leaving Leasha and Nate behind to load camp supplies and haul it all back out to S.S. Basin the rest of us mounted up and rode that way.

Lyndsey took part of the crew down the Ridge Trail past Snow Lake and into Loco pasture. I did my usual route across 7HL in and out of T Bar Canyon and then across Loco pasture. We were looking for strays we had missed over the past few weeks while we traveled to camp, which is usually about five hours.

My group made good time and just about five hours later we were nearing camp. From two miles out I caught sight of one of our new big wall tents, the cover gleaming in the sun. “Wait a minute, I shouldn’t be able to see that tent from here” I thought to myself. This was not right. When I drew closer my worries were confirmed when I saw only two of four tents still standing, a third was several hundreds yards from camp in a tangled mess of cover and steel poles, the fourth was no where to be seen.

Just as we arrived Leasha and Nate rolled in with the camp gear and extra horses. Well we set about pulling the place back together after tending our horses. The fourth tent was found down in a rocky draw and in even worse shape than the other. The pieces and parts were collected and the whole crew pitched in to make one tent out of the parts of the two.

It must have been a hell of a wind to do the damage it did. Several of the steel poles were twisted clean off. After several hours camp was livable and things were feeling like home again. Near dark Lindsey's crew rode in tired and glad to see camp as the sunset. They had found a couple pairs and a bull at Big Loco tank and had a long day of it getting them into Canyon Creek pasture.

A bit of wind today, hi was 68 lo 30

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

These folks were chomping at the bit to work some cattle and by gosh they sure got a handful of them today. We did a quick loop south checking for drifters on the south side of the pasture and came up with a dozen or so. We split up into three groups, Nate took his crew along the east slope of Loco Mtn. Lyndsey went below him a ways and I went along the bottom gathering what we found to Juniper tank. After pairing up cattle there we headed north up the basin while some rides rode the trees along the west side in line with us. We eased along in fine order with riders bringing little bunches from here and there along the way. By late afternoon we had over a hundred adult cattle and now that some of the calves are near as big as mom and independent they count this time of year as far as workload goes. I figured we had 180 animals lined out. As the shadows got long we got to Incognito gate into Pitchfork pasture and put them through. Right before the gate a pretty good-sized calf just laid down. It’s stupid mother went on with the herd and we had a bit of trouble convincing her that her calf was behind her. I know the calf won’t make it just by looking at it. There is some kind of infection or something going on in there and it’s too far advanced to help it.

The ride back to camp from there is really nice that time of day and this time of year. It’s an easy two track that heads south on top of the mesa, the whole Gila Wilderness Area lay spread out before you as far as you can see. The shadows are long but there was crisp fall sharpness to the light that seemed to add clarity to the view.

Everyone was tired but satisfied with a good days work done. They were tired but that didn’t keep the guitar playing and singing, well the effort of it, from going on around the campfire long after I’d crawled in my bedroll.

Sunny as it has been, hi 67 lo 29

Thursday, September 23, 2004

We were out in pretty good time considering the big crew. Over to Pine Canyon we headed. Nate took a crew and picked up a couple dozen head at Juniper and pushed them up the basin and through the gate before coming east to help on that side. Lyndsey and a couple riders headed up onto the ridge between Pine and Canyon Creek canyons to pick up a few we saw from a distance. They ended up finding about twenty and spent the rest of the morning getting them moved north. I went up Pine canyon expecting to find a bunch at the tank. My crew was disappointed to find only a dozen or so. I left Steve in charge of the crew to work with Lyndsey getting the small bunches put together and I went up the slope of Canyon Creek mountain. I was riding Gambler and it seems every year about this time I write about a day spent working the high slopes alone with him. This was that day for this year. At a distance we spotted a couple head and went over that way. They were in a draw along the fence and went I got there a couple became twenty and I started cussing when I saw a cow on the far side and her calf on my side of the fence. I for some reason had gotten out of the habit of carrying my rope lately and sure regretted it today. I tied a slipknot in my lead rope and eased up on the calf. Gambler was so cool. He went slow and quiet as I pushed the calf against the fence and quickly dropped the loop over its head and jumped of to throw it. It wasn’t a really big calf but not that little either. I finally got it down and shoved most of it under the fence and quick slipped the rope off its neck. In all the commotion right under his neck Gambler never moved. The damn cattle were scattered all over the draw in the oak trees and it took an hour and a lot of hard work for Gambler to get them all together. As we started off the slope they all wanted to go south to the tank for water and I had a hell of a time making them forget that and travel west. Finally I could see all the other riders below me with several bunches of cattle and a couple of my lead cows saw them at the same time getting their minds off quitting to water and on heading down to the bottom. One bunch of riders came and took the cattle off my hands as I got down and they took them through the gate to the rest to be drifted off the fence. They had put eighty some cattle through the gate. I had to go back up the slope but on the other side of the fence, the mother of the calf I had put over the fence had started following the fence down to be with her friends and left her calf behind. She is and ’02 cow and her first calf, it’s too common they go with the herd and leave the calf behind till their udder starts to hurt and suddenly remember they had a calf somewhere. I couldn’t let the calf be left there miles from another cow so up we went. Gambler was none to happy about it but willing. His attitude changed when he saw the cow. We pushed her a half-mile back up to her calf then pushed both of them back down all the way to the bottom and left them with a couple other cattle I found there. I caught up with the crew right before camp and rode past some tired but smilin’ cowhands.

Once again tho they weren’t too tired for singing and playing at the campfire till pretty late. Well late around here is 10pm .

Hi 68 lo 30

Friday, September 24, 2004

The morning was spent taking down camp; we are all done staying here. Next week we will be camped at Fence tank working Pitchfork pasture from there. Late morning we got riding, there were some cattle at Juniper tank again so Nate and a few others started pushing them up the basin to the gate. The rest of us spread out about a mile over the rolling grasslands and picked up a few cattle along the as we all headed to Incognito gate. Just short of getting there Nate radioed me he had a horse problem. I went down there and found King to be in a bad mental state. He’s gotten away from his rider the day before with a jacket on the back coming half undone and sending him into flight, fortunately the rider was on the ground when it happened. He was still pretty wigged out and it was not the time nor place to work it out. It would have made a simple problem a big one. I gave up my horse and lead King cross country back to the H.Q. on foot.

The others continued on pushing some cattle as they went around T Bar Ridge to Doubtful tank. They left the cattle there and rode the long trail home getting in about 6pm anxious for a hot shower and a steak dinner.

It was a good crew; we got a great gather done getting about 250 head moved north to new pasture. It’s a great start to the fall gather. The crew cowboy’d up through the frosty nights and late days. We once again put in a hundred mile week.

Saturday, September 25, 2004

The van rolled out and soon Nate and Leasha followed leaving me with the ranch to myself for the week as Maggie is in Dallas and Lyndsey is headed to Houston . I was going to ride for strays today but my legs were just too dang tired from my hike yesterday. It was a bit cloudy after some light overnight rain and I just didn’t feel up to much. I built a fire about noon and watched the sky get darker and the temperature drop from a morning hi of 41. Rain started in good fashion mid afternoon then to my amazement it started to snow. The thermometer read 36, the snow didn’t stick but it came down hard in big fat flakes and continued while I did evening chores finally stopping about 8pm . It then cleared off and got really cold leaving a heavy coating of ice on everything.