March 29-April 1, 2005: No Guests

We are back! And so glad to be. Maggie and I have been gone for over three weeks, going to Florida where we met Cassady and then went to Grandmas house. Maggie and I drove there, many people have asked why make such a long drive. I enjoy it. Hard as it may be to believe now since I am such a stay at home, I use to be a ramblin’ man.

I went to boarding schools, many of them. I used to leave campus on Friday nights with a backpack and bedroll and start hitch-hiking back roads, going nowhere in particular. I’d travel away from school till Saturday afternoon then start hitching back the other way. I traveled most of the back roads in New England in those trips. I left school and went back to Kentucky where I did the same thing but now driving a hot rod van I had. I hardly ever went an interstate and sure got around. Just driving the country roads looking at farms and towns, meeting people and making friends.

This habit continued for years till I came here and suddenly I had no desire to go anywhere. So it had been over a decade since I made a road trip and recently the old urge has been building.

We decided to take a back road route most of the way just seeing this great country. We took along our new dog Townes with us. We felt she was still too wild to leave her here.

We went to Dallas first and visited a few days with friends and family of Maggie's. Then we went across the northern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama before dropping into Florida. After meeting Cassady at the airport our first stop was to visit Don south of Tampa. Don is a many time guest here at the ranch who has tempted me for years with tales of the great fishing at his place. We spent a couple days there, mostly windy and rainy ones and I decided not to believe any more of Dons fish stories. It was a great place even if the fish weren’t biting; I wish we could have spent our whole vacation there.

Then it was on to my mom’s house in central Florida. She lives in one of those gold cart communities. A great place for her to be but not much fun for an eight year old. We did get out on the water with a neighbor of hers who took us boating up a great black water bayou area. The big water birds were all nesting there and it was a great day. Cassady got to pilot the boat for a long time so that made it especially fun for him. The week flew by and it was soon time to meet back up with his mom in Orlando where they flew back to Massachusetts. It will be a long three months before we see him again for the summer.

On the drive home we stayed to the south through the before mentioned states. I’ve decided I want to find an acre of land on some back black water bayou to spend a few weeks in the winter catching blue gill and bass. If any one knows of an area to look in let me know.

We went across the widest part of Texas and what a long trip it was. But it was also the prettiest. The rolling hills of farms and ranchland were covered in wildflowers. I didn’t want it to end. Then we came into New Mexico and started to gain elevation and left spring behind arriving at the ranch to find a fresh three inches of snow and 20 degree high temps.

Nate came back to work the week we left, he and his son Trent have been staying out at Fence tank camp. Main job was to ride around and work strays, sort the yearlings into Pitchfork pasture and to shoot off their guns a lot. Just before I left I was told we had another wolf pack on us so I want to make the place as inhospitable as we can by having riders out around the cattle and guns going off. It seems as if it might have been to some affect. One wolf pack has gone north about ten miles and the other is way on the east side of Canyon Creek. While they were out there Lyndsey handled things here, doing chores and some office stuff. She rode a few days a week getting the guys lined out every couple days. They have found nine calves we missed last fall and brought them into the H.Q. so we can get them to a sale soon. The weather somewhat improved while we were gone, mostly due to the longer days and stronger sunshine. Lyndsey tallied 26 inches of snow in several small storms but over all it has dried out a lot. They managed to get one trailer and the backhoe out of the mud but the tractor and another trailer are still deep in it.

Lyndsey says we have about thirty calves on the ground; the only known loss was a cow she found last weekend with afterbirth but no calf. She spotted it midmorning one day and followed it around for three hours. The afterbirth was three days old and the cow wasn’t looking for a calf so we figure it had been eaten as it was born and the cow never bonded.

Spring is on its way here; calves coming every day, a few patches of green grass and the wind is blowing. Lyndsey says it started last week and as been blowing ever since and probably will till mid May.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

I was anxious to get back out horseback, so today I saddled up Gambler and Lyndsey did the same to Chile and we headed out into the North trap to gather everything we could find. There was a mixed bag of stuff that had been collecting in there for the time I was gone. Some yearlings to brand, a couple cows that had their calves weaned off, a couple cows close to calving and a bull. We got everything into the corrals about noon. Gambler was a great ride; he worked perfectly and was full of himself. While I was saddling him he rubbed his head all over me something he usually never does. I normally don’t let a horse do that to me but he was so gentle and cute about it. He was just telling me he was glad to see me. At the same time Dakota was hanging over the fence watching and when I walked near him he chortled and swung his head back and forth. I finally couldn’t resist him any longer and had to go give him a big head and belly rub. It’s nice to know I was missed.

After a short lunch break we sorted the twenty some head we had brought in. The little pairs stay here at the house with the close to calvers. The ones needing branding were put in one pen, others that need to be hauled back out to the winter range were put in another and we ended up with eight calves to go to the sale so we put them in yet another pen.

The wind blew hard and cold all day; it was not the best weather.

Hi was 40 wind gusting to 50 mph low was 19

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

I headed out to see Nate and Trent out at Fence tank, I rode out on Gambler from here. The wind cranked hard all day, at times a gust would come along that rocked me in the saddle and kinda staggered big Gam. About a mile down Ewe Canyon I came across a cow with a just born calf, there wasn’t another cow in sight. The calf was big and strong so I headed them towards the T gates and then let them drift that way planning on putting them in the north trap when I came back. I then cut over past Nedra tank, which is full and found about twenty head of cattle there. I gathered these up and pushed them east towards Elladeane tank where I found another twenty head.

After a short break Gambler and I gathered everything and pushed them up Feathery Valley a mile then turned them up Dead Bull Pass. I have decided this is a better way to go into 7HL valley when working alone. It’s a bit longer but the incline is easier and a well-worn trial keeps them going. Once over the top they drifted down to the valley on their own.

I went south into T Bar Canyon for no real reason other than to get out of the wind and check a gate. The canyon for the most part is about three hundred feet deep and it sure was nice once I got in there. The grass is green and the creek was flowing but I saw no cattle. They were all up on the high ridges where the weed called Winter Fat has greened up.

I came around a bend in the canyon and found about two hundred elk layed out in the sunshine. They sure weren’t expecting me to come along. They jumped up and took off down the canyon then climbed a steep treacherous trail up through the rim rock. It was a sight to see. They lined out nose to tail and it took about ten minutes before the last one cleared the rim and disappeared.

The gate in the bottom of the canyon was trampled down by the elk so I spent an hour fixing that then turned Gambler towards home.

All day I tried getting Nate on the radio but didn’t have any luck till I was crossing Feathery Hill. They had been down near Snow Lake all day gathering a few cows that had gone visiting the bulls near the lake.

The ride home wasn’t real pleasant, the wind was hard in my face but it had warmed up during the day so it was better than it could have been.

Sunny, Windy high 45 lo 20

Thursday, March 30, 2005

Nate and Trent came in from camp early, about 6am. We loaded the sale calves and Trent headed to the sale about four hours away.

We spent the rest of the morning branding some yearlings. They were all about 700 pounds so we put them in the chute making it easier on them and us. There was one big bull calf in the bunch. I debated back and forth as to castrate him or not. I was worried that being so big he might bleed too much or something if we cut him then I worried that he’d be breeding cows and he wasn’t the sort of bull I wanted siring any calves. I went ahead and cut him, huge cohunes but just a few drops of blood. We by accident caught the moon right.

We were done about noon, Nate changed out his horses for new ones, Annie, Whiskey and Cimarron then headed back out to camp.

Lyndsey went home saying it was to dang windy pointing out a raven being buffeted around by the wind and getting only a few feet off the ground.

Last week Nate had gotten the backhoe unstuck, so I spent the rest of the afternoon changing a fuel filter on that beast. Why do they have to put the filters that you have to get to most often in the most inaccessible places?

Sunny windy high of 50 lo of 11.

Friday, April 1, 2005

All week long Maggie has been working 14-hour days trying to get caught up on her orders that came in while we were gone. She finally got done late last night so Lyndsey went to town to ship them off. I could tell Maggie needed to get out so I talked her into coming to Canyon Creek with me. We drove out, the wind once again was howling and I just didn’t feel like dealing with it horseback.

We stopped at Snow Lake and checked on the bulls there. We only saw 17 but they all looked fine. The lake its self is as full as it can get. It hasn’t had this much water in ten years.

From there we drove out to 80 acres of private land way out on the east side of Canyon Creek pasture. It’s a beautiful place. It was first homesteaded in 1873; boy this was some wild country back then. Still the heartland of the Apache who sure didn’t take kindly to strangers. We have found the foundation of one old cabin and the chimney of another is easy to spot. But why someone staked it out I have no idea. Most of the acres are the deep, steep, rough Canyon Creek canyon, the only level land is at the north end where the canyon open into S.S. Basin. It must have been a miner who wanted the creek water for panning the sands that wash down. Needless to say it didn’t work out for that pioneer.

We have talked for years of building a permanent camp out there and after all the camping we did in that area last year we are getting serious about getting some cabins up this summer. We walked along the creek and choose the building spot then went up the canyon, which had nice groves of cottonwood trees where we had lunch.

We stopped off at the lake again on the way home so Townes could play in the water. We walked out on a small dock that sits on the west shore. Last year Cassady and I had gone swimming on a beach that was at the base of the dock. The dock then was twenty feet out of the water. Today the water was almost over top of the dock. That’s a heck of a water gain when you figure the whole lake has risen twenty feet in a month.

While we were standing there we heard a cow bawl, it took a few minutes to figure where it had come from but we finally spotted a couple cows and a calf way up on the ridge to the south in a burn area. They are in Negrito pasture but way out on the end along the middle fork canyon and the wilderness area. We need to get them before they disappear into the wilds. This trip took most of the day; we got back in time to do chores. Lyndsey stayed the night in Silver City taking care of errands.

Hi 48 lo 23 sunny and windy.