August 21 - 27, 2006: Summer Ranch Week

8/21/06 Monday

Three on the crew this week. Thomas is back for his third week this year and then we have Todd and Milford from Ga.

The first job on the list this morning was to get the fence back up across the horse pasture. Everyone got rubber boots or trash bags on their feet and we waded out into the pasture / marsh. It took less than an hour to get it back in place and some brace posts set behind it to try and keep it up.

After that job was done the guys saddled up and then pushed seven loose horses out of the H.Q. and to camp. It was a pretty fast pace the horses set so Thomas and Nate stayed with them having a fun ride moving fast horses over miles of wildflower covered grasslands while Jay, Milford AKA Rooster and Todd AKA Preacher moseyed their way to camp enjoying the country and seeing lots of wildlife.

Once they all met up at camp they headed out and did a big loop trying to find some pairs big enough to brand. The cattle are really scattered so they only came up with four pairs, which they put in Fence tank corral for the night. The plan had been to brand them in the morning before the rain started but with the report of wide spread cattle I think I will have them ride a ways to the east and drift back cattle from there making the pair hunting easier.

I spent the day loading supplies and going to town to take care of some biz. I got to camp about 5:30 just as the riders were turning their horses loose for the night. After a dinner of chili and corn bread it was early to bed for everyone.

Hi was only about 65, mostly cloudy with a late day drizzle. Big rain at the H.Q sent another small flood through the pasture but the fence held this time.

8/22/06 Tuesday

I woke to the sound of steady rain on the roof of my camper this morning. I was warm and dry but felt guilty knowing Rooster and Preacher were in damp tents.

Two of the day’s mounts had slipped from camp during the night so Nate had to go find them after breakfast.

Even having to wait for horse’s backs to dry the crew was out riding by about 8:30. It was the only break in the rain, which stayed a heavy drizzle till about 4pm.

The riders rode all the way to east side of the pasture and worked back gathering to the west. They moved a lot of cattle to Pit tank and then picked out about a dozen pairs to brand in the morning.

The footing for riding is getting pretty bad, many of the low areas are now bogs and even the slopes of the ridges are deep mud and rocks.

After the crew left camp I moved the camp corral and then went back to H.Q. to pick up a few forgotten supplies.

When I got there Maggie told me this tale of excitement.

She was doing evening feeding up at the guest corrals when she heard a horrible terrifying screaming. Looking over she saw an elk calf run through the fence behind the ranch store with a big wolf hot on it’s heels. They ran down towards our house and Townes our German Shepard took off after them. She intercepted the wolf and got in a short tussle with it then chased it across the horse pasture into which the elk calf had run. Maggie had run down the hill by this time and called Townes back.

The elk calf was running around the pasture with the two year old colts chasing it; Maggie went to call the colts in when she saw the wolf coming back across the horse pasture towards her. Just as she saw it Townes did too and took off after it again running it out of the pasture and up the hill.

The colts came in the feed corral and the elk calf came in with them.

Maggie left the gate open hoping that the momma elk would come looking for her calf.

Over night she heard lots of elk in the pasture but come morning the elk calf was back in the corral where it spent the rest of the day.

When I got home she took me to see it and it was lying down in the gate to the corral. I reached down and stroked its too cute face and it got up and made hilarious faces at me twisting its lips all around and crunching up its eyebrows. We needed to get it out of the gate so we pushed it up into the corral with the two orphan calves and it seemed to be ok there. So now we have three orphan calves, one just looks a bit different. It’s pretty stressed out tho and I’m not too hopeful for it.

I got back out to camp about 5pm just as the riders were getting unsaddled. They were tired and wet but had had a good day.

Hi was 65, low was 50 cloudy rainy all day till 5pm when it cleared for a fine sunset.

8/23/06 Wednesday

We headed to the branding pen first thing in the morning. Rooster helped sort the calves with Nate. It was sure a sight to watch. Nate hadn’t arrived here with a lot of sorting experience; he’s an excellent roper but learned his sorting here. He was riding Zane and the two just did a perfect job. I wished I had a video to show folks how real ranch sorting is done, quiet, smooth, and it all falls into place quickly.

The branding went well. Everyone caught a few calves, tried all the jobs and got real dirty. Just as we were doing the last one the rain came sweeping in. No time for slickers, just keep going till the job is done, just a few more minutes. That last calf seemed to take forever and we were all soaked to the skin. But still we put on slickers when we were done to cut the chill of the rain. While we had no place to take shelter out there we just stood it out like the horses turning our backs to it. It lasted about 30 min. really hard. Once it was over I gave the option of riding to check on cattle or head to camp and get dry. All in favor of heading to camp.

I headed back to the H.Q. in the truck to check on things there.

As I was going up onto Telegraph mesa I came over a rise and saw a wall of water headed towards me. It wasn’t like a tidal wave, only about 8 inches deep and 100 feet wide but I knew it was trouble. I dropped it into reverse but it was going faster than I was and soon surrounded me. The road had already been real muddy and this was just too much, within seconds I had sunk to the frame.

I knew there was no getting out so I called Nates dog …Dog… out of the truck and we started walking. The water was running hard till we got to a rise then walked about two miles or so until I was able to reach Nate at camp and get him to come get me. I did my knee no favors.

Nate gave me a ride home and then headed back out to camp.

Hi was 65 but humid for New Mexico. Over night was a bit chilly low of 43.

8/24/06 Thursday.

The guys at camp were out pretty early taking a big loop over into Loco Mtn. pasture hunting up some strays that had been spotted there a few days before. It was a long day. They found the four pairs plus a couple dry cows. Saw two badgers, some elk, and never got rained on though it was all around.

I spent most of the day on the tractor repairing the roads and cutting some drainage in one of the pastures.

About 2pm I was working near the guest corral when it started raining. I’d been watching it build for a while and it was a doozy. Lightning, hail, crashing thunder. About 10 minuets into it visibility was down to 50 feet. I was caught huddled in the cab of the tractor, which has the doors off. There wasn’t a dry space big enough for me and the wind was howling driving the rain and hail, I only had a T shirt on, it was cold! Then I saw the headlights of Maggie's truck and scampered to it. We headed down to the house and as we came to the culvert before you get there I saw it was already impassable just in the four minutes since she had come across it. We watched the water rise and had to back up two times to stay clear of it. Man it rained! Finally after about 45 minuets it stopped and we saw the aftermath.

All the fences in the valley were gone. The water was flowing over the dam of the big tank, which now covered about 3 acres. A river ran through the horse pasture a hundred yards wide and was roaring. All the horses were stuck on the other side. Debris is everywhere, the place is a mess.

I had to wait till about 6pm before the water went down enough to get to camp.

I took dinner out and picked up Thomas who had to leave a day early for a meeting in Ca.

Preacher and Rooster decided to stay out and ride back in the morning. It hadn’t rained a bit out there but they said they had watched the storm hit the H.Q. from the top of Loco Mtn.

The elk calf died today…it was just too stressed out and after the rain we found it dead.

Hi was 59 over night was 44

8/25/06 Friday

Jay rode home with Rooster and Preacher while Nate drove back hauling gear.

I spent the day looking over the disaster around here and getting the roads back into shape with the tractor.

We have about four acres at the upper end of the valley covered a couple feet deep in gravel, debris and rocks, some as big as county fair pumpkins.

All our fences are down, balled up or spread out across the pastures. The board fence is no more, scattered and gone. The shipping pen fences are all down but mostly just spread out for hundreds of yards. The canoe Cassady and I had left on the dam of the big tank must now be in some irrigation ditch in Az.

The riders got home about 2pm and spent the afternoon relaxing and taking showers after a long tough week in camp, lots of rain and damp living conditions. Of course the new tents I ordered didn’t arrive till today.

Rooster and Preacher were good hands and a lot of fun to have around. Rooster and Thomas had this thing going that was just hilarious. Rooster is a down home good ol boy with a thick accent even I have a hard time with. Thomas is originally from Denmark and still has a bit of an accent. Two worlds. They had a hard time understanding each other and with Rooster being hard of hearing just made it more complicated. Preacher served as interpreter for them. They got along great and it just was cause for round after round of belly rolling laughter.