7/23/05 Saturday

I loaded up Dakota and we trailered down to Snow Lake, yesterday I had seen some cows around the campground again.

We unloaded and found the cattle up near the spring. There were 11 cows and not a single calf. We moved them through the gate into Loco where we picked up about twenty more cows, just four calves with them. I pushed these all up to Loco Flats, just over two miles.

When I was done with that I rode the fence and found a big hole someone had cut. It was in a strange place for someone to have need for cutting the fence. I spent about 45 minutes patching it up as best I could stealing wire from other places along the fence.

Thunder boomed all around and at one time while pushing the cattle I put a slicker on. Sure way too end a rain. It only sprinkled a few drops. Hi was about 79 lo was 49.

7/24/05 Sunday

I saddled up Gambler this morning after seeing cows go by in the dusk as I was feeding horses last night. I rode behind the guest camp and found a dozen cows belonging to my neighbor. He has cattle all over back there as well as on the private land next to us. Like he told me a long time ago “my range is where ever my cattle go”.

We rode back to the house and I loaded Gambler up in the trailer and went out into Canyon Creek again. I rode all over and fortunately I saw no more cattle there so hopefully everything is in Loco pasture and settled down. What I did see was wolf tracks everywhere I went. It had rained well out there and puddles and mud was all over, so tracks were plain to see.

According to the wolf people there are only two wolves with pups and they are staying around the Snow Lake area. I saw tracks of at least six different wolves and they were five to eleven miles from Snow Lake. All up and down Pine canyon, all over S.S.Basin and plenty around Loco Tank. I saw two different wolf trucks driving around out there and took the time to memorize their tire tracks.

We rode about seven hours then headed back to the trailer. As we passed big loco tank I stopped to ride through a bunch of cattle there. 33 cows and only 11 calves. I figure we have less than half the calf crop we had last year at this time. I found two cows that had calves this year and had lost them in the last week or so. They were no longer bawling but their bags were still fairly full and they were both off by themselves.

I fear I have been cleaned out of calves by wolves right under our noses. We just have to be everywhere all the time.

Maggie is still off at her family reunion; Lyndsey was once again in Albq. and Lia, Nate and Leasha all went to the Luna rodeo for the weekend. It’s pretty quiet around here.

Hi was 80, sprinkle of rain here but good rain to the east. Lo was 46.

7/25/05 Monday

I decided to take a day off from the saddle and ride the backhoe for the day digging a new dump. Of course it wouldn’t start. It had no electric getting to the starter. After an hour I finally found a wire corroded so I replaced that and got digging. It went well till I stopped for lunch. When I went back to work it would move, it started but no tranny. I then read my manual and decided the tranny filter needed cleaning. Two hours later and a set of skinned knuckles I got it going. I dug for another hour when I suddenly felt the boom go slack. I had broken the main swing chain. It’s a 2-inch square chain and is not going to be easy to repair. I just kinda wish I hadn’t gotten out of bed. I think I’ll go back to a horse in the morning.

Once again thunderstorms all around but no rain. It got up to 80 at noon but by 2pm we were cloudy and 60 after a low of 44

7/26/05 Tuesday

I saddled up Dakota and we rode from here out into 7HL just seeing if there were any strays we left out there. When I got to the T gates I found a sign stating that there were foothold traps set by U.S. Fish $Wildlife to trap animals for “Wildlife Management”. Meaning they were trying to catch uncollard wolves to put collars on them. The wolf people sure had beat out the roads driving around out there. They were also driving up and down the fence line along the south trap, making a new road. The fence goes up and down a series of small but steep little hills. Now this fall the hunters will see their tracks and start driving on them then next year the rains will wash it out into two big ditches. Yes, they have the utmost concern for the environment.

The east side had gotten a lot of rain. Fence tank is over flowing and the water and grass is just amazing out there. Just above Nedra I saw a pair of wolves. They walked away totally unconcerned by my being there. As I went along there were tracks everywhere. Out on Telegraph Mesa I soon saw two more. Donnie Jones had told me that he thought the wolf people were emptying out their kennels for fear of a moratorium being put on new releases. These four I saw had no collars. I tend to believe Donnie’s theory. They let the wolves loose and are now trying to catch them and will claim that they are off spring of other reintroduced wolves they had just not been able to collar before. And the public will buy it as proof of the success of the wild breeding program.

As I rode around I was just shocked by how much off road driving these people are doing. I doubt that there is a five-acre area that has no tracks in it. And the places they are going! Driving thru rock fields that I cringe to ride a horse through. I guess when the taxpayer covers your repair bills and buy you new pickups every year it’s not a problem.

I found six head up near 7HL tank and we pushed them down through T Bar canyon late in the day. The day was cloudy but just as the sun was going down it got below the clouds and sent an awesome bright yellow light long the rim of the canyon. It was awesome. This was one of the few days I didn’t have my camera.

It was a pleasure driving the cattle along. A great horse, beautiful evening, a guy could ask for nothing more.

We got through the gate in the bottom of the canyon just at dusk. I swung off to water Dakota and the first thing I see is a big fresh set of wolf tracks. This area is the only place for cattle to water for the whole north end of the pasture. They have to come down a steep trail into the narrow canyon and here the wolves of course are. It was just a moment before Dakota lifted his head with perked ears and I saw a wolf trot up the trail. I walked down the canyon about thirty yards and found the knee of a calf and a greasy spot in the grass. I walked circles around the area and found nothing else but lots of wolf tracks, not a single coyote track at all.

I headed home into the gloom of evening feeling a bit gloomy.

Cloudy all day rain here and there hi was 66 low was 48.

7/27/05 Wednesday

Cassadys mom called last night to say they were coming through Albq. and was wondering if we could meet for dinner. It’s a long way to go for a dinner but to see my kid…you bet I went!

It worked out well as Maggie was flying in today as well so I headed up there early this morning. I drove my new, old truck. It ran like a dream and sure turns heads. I did some errands and then Maggie showed up. A friend of hers from Dallas was in town on biz so we all went out to lunch. Then a couple hours later Cassady arrived. We hung out the rest of the afternoon then the four of us went out to dinner.

It was a great treat to see him again so unexpectedly.

7/28/05 Thursday

We were up early seeing Cassady off. There were a lot less tears for both of us this time as compared to last week.

Maggie and I headed home which seemed to take forever. We had to stop here and there picking things up such as auto parts, wormer, a new horse tub and the like. Then lunch. Then stopped at the farm in Datil for two truckloads of hay. We finally got home about 6pm.

Lyndsey called to tell us it rained at the H.Q. for about two hours today!

7/29/05 Friday

Lyndsey told me the wolf people had stopped by in response to a call I left the other night about the calf kill I had found. They checked the canyon and found no sign of a kill nor any sign of wolves. They think I’m an idiot.

This morning Lia got a first ride on Quentin. He is a 5 yo gelding we’ve had since a weanling. He was one of the three colts that got weed poisoning as a yearling and it kinda set him back a bit. We called that bunch the “Walmart Workers” because you couldn’t get near them. He’s come around all right and took the saddling and mounting all within an hour. He was mellow but I could see an edge to him. He will cut loose sometime for sure. We just won’t push him too fast.

I saddled Dakota early and headed out to Loco to check cattle. It’s about a two-hour ride out there. I patched a little fence along the way. When I came across the Obsidian field there sat a truck. I thought it was the wolf people so I headed over to have a talk about them driving all over the place off the roads. As I got closer I saw it wasn’t them but some tree huggers. How could I tell? By the stupid hat the guy was wearing. A baseball cap with an umbrella attached to the top. I started to bypass them when the guy hollered over to me. I rode up and he asked if I was the one who set out the traps. Telling him no it was the Gov’t he asked why. I told him to catch wolves. He indignantly told me they wouldn’t use leg hold traps to catch wolves, that they use Havaheart traps. I informed him that was not true and he huffed up and said the wolf program people told him that’s how they do it. I guess those folks lie to everyone. No wolf would ever walk into a box trap.

He eyed my guns {when I’m riding alone I have a 30/06 Winchester in my scabbard and a 9mm on my hip} he said “what are you doing riding around shooting things?” I nodded my head as I rode off and said “anything that moves”.

When I got home I told Maggie about the guy and she asked what he was doing out there. I told her they were collecting Obsidian in plastic bags. She told me I should have mentioned to him there is such a thing as the Antiquities Act and that they were stealing Gov’t property. Wish I had thought of it.

I finally got to Loco and rode the flats. There were no cattle there. I rode down into the canyon hoping they were all at the water. When I got there I found no cattle but the gate into 7HL was wide open, pulled back by a human. Cattle tracks all through it. We rode up the canyon and started running into cattle. The farther we went the more we found. I passed T Bar tank and out into T Bar Valley, cattle were everywhere. I counted 165 head by the time I got to the Intersection feeders. All the work we have done for the last couple weeks was for nothing. We are back to square one.

As I rode through the cattle I tried to figure my calf crop by the numbers I saw. The more I figured the sicker I became. I came up with a 32% calf crop as compared to a 78-82%, which has been my average the last three years. I have been cleaned out.

I rode home feeling terrible and frustrated.

Donnie Jones had another theory a few days ago. He thinks the wolf people are out at night using the radio collars to track the wolves to kills so they can pick them up before we find them. The more I thought about it the more I think he’s right. It would account for all the tracks all over the place. And the fact we never see the tracks being made when we are riding in the day. The last couple days I have been out and around so much I sure would have seen them. Hell I was looking for them out there to cuss them over destroying the range. But every day I would see new tracks since I was last there. So they must have been out at night. What else could they be doing at night but covering their ass. See it’s not that they don’t want to pay us for losses but there is three strikes and you’re out rule. If a wolf is found to have killed three times it must be removed from the area. So they are going to great lengths to keep the kills from being found.

Back a few months ago when Donnie was getting such a beating from the wolves they accused a different wolf of a killing when Donnie and the U.S.D.A. trapper thought it was the same wolf. The wolf folks were adamant about it being a different one till the trapper proved by D.N.A. it was the same wolf. So for the first time a kill order was put out and the wolf was shot from the air as it was in Donnie’s cows a few days later. But you see they just didn’t want that wolf to have a third conviction. And now I think all their time is being spent removing evidence.

When I got home Maggie told me she had been riding out behind H.Q. just above June tank with Townes when she saw two wolves there. They were much bigger than the German Shepard and approached her and the dog. She took off riding for home as quick as she could. I swear it’s just getting out of control!

If any of you folks who were with us the last six weeks want to write up your own Cowboy Log and fill in any details please feel free. Send them along to Russ.

I promise to try to keep up the rest of the season!