October 2, 2006: Fall Gather 10/2/06 Monday Just three folks on the crew this week. Mark from Long Island is here, I really have no idea how many times he’s been here but it’s a lot. Then we have J.W. from east Texas and Camilla from Martha’s Vineyard. Nate headed out to riding with them taking the pleasurable way, horseback. Jay had to go to town first thing for ice, then he hauled a load of horses out to camp. We had brought them all home last week for shoeing. I stayed here till late afternoon cooking and then took food and horses out to camp. The riders had a good day of it, they made the trip in only about five hours including some fence riding along the way on the Wilderness boundary. As much as I wanted to stay out at camp with Maggie out of town I had to drive back to H.Q. to do chores. Hi was 50 low was 34 10/2/05 Tuesday The riders main job this week is to get all the rest of the calves branded so they will be healed and legal to sell at the end of the month. They rode till about 3pm working the upper end of S.S. Basin and the Little Loco tank area and brought in 22 calves to be worked. I got there just before they got in. We started branding at 4pm and had a long evening of it. We worked hard getting the calves roped and worked and just as the last light was fading we finished the job. I cooked dinner of chops over the branding fire in the dark and then drove the 1.5 hour drive home getting in about 10pm. The hi was 50 low was 32. 10/3/06 Wednesday Riders were out slick calf hunting again today. They rode around Incognito and then on down the east mesa bringing in 15 calves to work. Everyone now knew the routine and it went well getting everything worked by about 5pm. Hi was 50 low was 38 10/4/06 Thursday Another day on unbranded gathering and each day there are less and less to find. I had to go to town today and got there just as they were getting done with the seven calves they had found. Perfect timing. There was plenty of day light still left when they were done working so J.W. and Mark helped Jay get a roof on his now functional outhouse while Nate went and cut a load of fire wood. The high was 52 with a pretty good wind in the afternoon bringing in some wet looking clouds. Low was 37. 10/5/06 Friday The crew did the first push of cattle of the fall gather. We are bringing all the cattle back to H.Q. this year since I am selling so many older cows it will just be easier to ship from there. We have never pushed al bunch of cattle from Canyon Creek all the way to the H.Q. traps so this crew got to try it out first. My plan is to bring pairs first and put them in the North trap and later we will bring dry cows and heifers and put them in the south trap. We are doing our sorting as we leave Canyon Creek pasture knowing at the end of the day we won’t feel like doing it when we get to the T gates at the traps. They gathered a bunch of cattle out of the Basin then at Wolf gate they sorted off some heifers that wanted to go along on with the parade. Once they got that done they went out through Wolf gate, then across Loco Flats to Twin Tanks gate, then around and down T Bar Ridge to T Bar Valley. Up and over T Bar Saddle and down passed Elladeane tank, up Ewe Canyon and finally into the North trap. They were on a heavy drizzle all day and the last hour was a hard steady rain. It took a solid eight hours to get them moved. They were cold, wet tired and hungry but felt good for a good day done. This was a great crew to have this week. There was a job to be done and they did it. Rode many a mile hunting calves to work, sticking to it getting the job done no matter the late time of day. Then they were the first to make the drive back home. The first trail crew to make the blaze many other cattle and crews will follow in the weeks to come. My big thanks to them all for the hard work they did.
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