July 16 - 22, 2006: Summer Ranch Week

7/17/06 Monday

Just two folks this week, Kent is here for his second week, doing a little cow work to go along with his Posse riding. The other is Thomas from San Francisco who will be with us for the next month.

Nate and Jay headed out to camp with them riding from the H.Q. with the main job to gather horses when they get out there. I spent most of the day along with Dustin getting camp gear loaded. He took it out in the afternoon; I was delayed when Cassady who was to join us in camp for the week came down ill.

I finally got there about 6pm and to my surprise the riders still were not in camp. They had a long ride looking up the horses and getting them into camp then went back out to gather and pen some cattle for branding in the morning. We are going to try to pen cattle at night and brand before it gets too hot or hopefully too rainy. After getting them all set with dinner I went back to H.Q. to see if Cass was feeling better and ready to come out to camp, he wasn’t.

Hi was 84, sunfactor was 100 before clouds in the afternoon, low was 49.

7/18/06 Tuesday

I got to camp about 9am and the others were just getting ready to head out. Kent took the day off from riding but rode along with Dustin in the Jeep hauling the branding gear to Fence tank. We rode down and met there. We had to set a gate and get the corral ready for branding but pretty quick we had the cattle in the corral and with Jay and Thomas sorting we got the momma cows out with no problems.

We then set to branding the dozen pairs. It was nice doing the branding in the morning tho it did get pretty hot before we got done at about noon.

After a lunch break we headed up to Pit tank to find some more pairs to pen for tomorrows branding. It didn’t take long since there were a couple hundred head of cattle there. I sent the guys along with them down to Fence tank while I went up on the hill to get some horses I saw there. By the time I got the horses down the guys had the cattle penned and sorted leaving them in the corral for the night. They helped me push the horses to camp and after a short break we went out looking for more horses.

It didn’t take too long and we were back in camp with them in less than an hour.

I then thought we would go out and gather cattle off Pit tank and move them to a new salt location near Hay tank. When I mentioned it I got a response of long faces and checked my watch seeing that it was near to 6pm. Not enough daylight left to get that job done so we sorted horses for the morning and I headed home to check on Cassady.

Hi was 82, clouds built early but no rain on us other than a few sprinkles but it cooled the afternoon down well. Low was 46.

7/19/06 Wednesday

I spent the day taking Cassady to town to see a Dr. It was mostly to assure him he wasn’t going to die. It was his first real round with a violent stomach.

On the way home he was feeling much better with the Doc’s assurance, we watched a huge thunderhead form over what looked like the H.Q. area and sure enough when we got home the rain was just ending and it had been a doozey.

Water was flowing every where, the driveway was washed out in three places and the horse pasture was a small river filling the two small tanks and the big tank got half filled.

The tanks getting filled was a great thing but a lot of what they got filled with was ash, pines straw and dirt. The slopes of the valley around the H.Q. have big black streaks and smears running down them from. The grass has come back well and is a brilliant green, now with the black streaks it looks like some wild green and black tie-dye.

Margaret recorded almost 2 inches of rain plus half inch of hail in 35 minuets. I wished I could have been there.

The crew got almost the same treatment out in the branding pens.

They had started branding first thing in the morning and worked hard at it all day. They been hurrying as storm clouds gathered and were just getting the last calf worked when the skies opened up. Before they were done with the calf they were working in a pen of slop and running water it rained that hard. They had no time for slickers and were soaked to the bone.

The rest of the day was spent riding wet gathering up some more pairs to work in the morning.

They were wet and tired as they rode to camp, but they rode knowing they had put in a damn good days work.

7/20/06 Thursday

Cassady and I made it to Camp just in time to join up with the crew at the branding pen. Things had dried out and we got to work. Kent and Thomas are getting the sorting done pretty smooth and easy. During the branding Kent has been handling the most important job, tending the fire, and doing a great job having the irons hot and ready for us.

After getting the branding done we gathered about 60 cattle off Pit tank and moved them north to the salt between Hay and Steve canyons.

That pretty much filled up the day.

Hi was 78 before clouds in the afternoon, low was 49.

7/21/06 Friday

We took the day off from branding and spent time gathering more cattle off T Bar Ridge and pushing them to the salt. We got done with the first big bunch at a bit afternoon.

Nate, Jay and Thomas went out to check around Doubtful tank while Cassady, Kent and I went back to camp and tightened things up and took a load on back to the H.Q.

It was a really good week, a small but willing and able crew. We branded about 30 head and got a lot of cattle moved. It was a pleasure having Kent here for two weeks and getting to know him a bit better than his last busy visit during a Posse Week filming.

7/22/06 Saturday

Maggie took Kent back to Albq. Thomas took off for town saying he had to get to a city and see some real people. The rest of us headed to Luna N.M. about 2 hours from here where there is a small rodeo every year. Dustin, Nate and Jay entered the Wild cow riding and Jay also was entered in the bull riding.

The wild cow riding went first and the boys pulled a tough old cow that put on the toughest fight. At one point she ripped the rope through the gloveless hands of Dustin tearing him some rope burns he won’t ever forget. She then went off at a run to the far end of the arena, it looked like the boys were giving up but seeing the other teams doing no better they ran down to get her. To the other end she went, they ran back there. Finally Nate got a hand on the rope and they soon had her under control and Nate managed to get the saddle on while Dustin held that 1,000 pound cow still. Jay climbed on and the cow took a couple hops before she went on strike and decided to do nothing but stand still. For all their work and efforts they placed 2 nd.

Later in the day it was bull-riding time and ol’ Jay was game for his first bull ride. He drew #13, not a good omen. The boys got him set using borrowed gear. His chute opened up and his bull came out bucking but not twisting. Straight down the arena they went and when the buzzer sounded Jay had completed his first Bull ride. The guys made us proud.