Whipped at Winfield

The "Big Fast Train" has done come and gone. Just as I said in that post, there was a point at Winfield where I had to actually sit down onstage and start playing the tunes I'd been practicing for months. Georgia documented it (below). There was a lot that needed to happen before then, though, and no, I didn't really get "whipped" at Winfield. It's just a fun alliteration. I'd use "Winning at Winfield!" (with more exclamation marks) but I didn't win.

The trip to Dallas to pick up our new Casita went well. We stopped in Clarendon and had lunch with Brianna and Quenten which turned out to be a good thing as they ended up moving (to Claremore...what's next?  "Clareless"? "Clarefree"? "Clare-by-the-sea"?) the week I was at Winfield. We picked up the camper- another undramatic event, except that I had a blown fuse which was promptly fixed at the factory- and headed north to my half-sister's place near Pilot Point, TX. I'd asked for all kinds of advice for traveling through Dallas and we ended up taking 45 to 75 to 380. That was a good route but I have to say, north Dallas was the worst part of the whole trip!  Lots of traffic, lots of construction, fast drivers. However, it still all went without event and we even managed to stop at the Cabela's in Allen, TX.

The Motherlode of Egg Campers

Checking out floor models while waiting

Getting together for the first time.

Out in the lot, ready to roll!

We'd stopped at Cabela's in Fort Worth on the way in and were disappointed. The place was full of screaming kids, merchandise was on the floor, and we just didn't find anything we wanted. Plus, we only had an hour before they closed and when they close at 7 pm, that means they empty the floor at 6:30 pm. The Cabela's in Allen TX was a lot better to us. The former is 250,000 sq ft and the latter "only" 100,000 sq ft, but the Allen store was cleaner, neater, and.... better. Maybe it helped that it was Monday morning and not Sunday afternoon. We scored all kinds of stuff on our list including a Benjamin Titan NP air rifle with a slightly cracked stock for less than 1/2 price. Derek's been wanting one of these for ages but I didn't want to spend $160 on one. This one was marked to $80 and we put it in the basket along with a pair of camo overalls for $20. We found a lot of things and the stop here was well worth our time. We also managed a stop at In 'n Out Burger but, honestly... it was just okay. I like Five Guys' fries better.

Cabela's in Allen TX

After that, it was to my sister's place, whom I haven't seen in 12 years or so, although we talk on Facebook. Her and her husband train, raise, and sell horses and we had a fun, although way too short visit. Derek and I slept in the Casita for the first time and started figuring things out.

Derek, Bryan, and Ky after a successful meal

We took off at first light for Winfield and stopped at Bass Pro in OKC on the way. Prior to this trip, I'd bought a Garmin GPS and, while I'm good with maps, this proved to be a useful purchase for navigating big cities. The main thing is that it warns you of upcoming exits and you get a little picture of what the exit looks like. Armed and empowered with this technology, we navigated into Bass Pro where we spent more money!

Bass Pro in OKC

And then, on to Winfield! Our GPS was pretty helpful here. I'd never come to Winfield from the south and didn't realize that I-35 turns in a toll road. So, we bailed an exit early and the GPS helpfully suggested a road that ran straight to the road I wanted. Finally, around 2 pm, we parked the Casita and breathed a big sigh.

One of my antelope hunters had given Derek a really nice fly-tying kit and I knew there plenty of experienced fly-ty'ers in our camp.

Coy and Derek tying flies

Proulxs and Donohues

The Casita. Camping.

The Famous John Beaver

Dugas and Moe

"Are you SURE you want to learn to play banjo?"

The evening flight of turkey vultures coming to roost

Winfield was fun. I didn't place in either contest and there was no question about that. I did better in the mandolin contest than I did guitar and got a lot of nice comments. One of the most appreciated was when Steve Kaufman- the original and for a long time only 3-time winner of the guitar contest- came over, pointed his breakfast banana at me and said "You played great in the mandolin contest! Smooth, clean, interesting... that was good!" 

Advice from Steve before the contest

Wanna hear my contest tune? Video!

I drew next to last in the guitar contest and that gave me about 2.5 hours to listen to the other guys, get tense, and think about what I should've done. I played pretty good, but my arrangements and execution, honestly, are not up to Winfield standards. But I paid attention and brought some lessons home. This year was tough.  Of the 5 finalists, 4 were previous winners. And at least 3 previous winners did not make the cut, as well as a few professional musicians there to try their hand at the contest. So, it was no dishonor to not make it. I think I could've played better and done more, though. Next year, maybe I will.

Here comes that train!

Picking away!

Warming up for the guitar contest

I didn't play well, but here I am.

My view

Derek slept well.

That was Winfield. It was a fun but tiring week and we drove 1400 miles round trip. On the way home, I decided that 2015 would be my last year. Next year, I'm going elk bowhunting or fishing or whatever. It's getting really hard to hear in noisy environments and I had a hard time participating in anything other than very small group conversations. So, I'm done. Of course, when I got home, I started learning new tunes and practicing. Maybe I'll go but just not say anything.

This is long enough.  Next time, I'll talk about cattle shipping and the End of The Year. Maybe I'll even have a photo of me opening a box of the Revised and Updated 2nd Edition of "Falconry Equipment".  We'll see.

The Big Fast Train

The big fast train is here.  "What", you ask, "is 'the big fast train'?" It's a concept that I use to describe events that are a long time in the future and seem like they'll never get here.  Then, suddenly, they are here. I don't know if you've ever been out West (where the horizons are a long ways off) and watched a train coming, but you'll often see them way out there, sometimes as nothing more than a dot, a million miles away. You can sit beside the track and spit your tobacco (if you chew, and you really should quit if you do) and wait. Nothing happens. The dot doesn't seem to get closer but if you keep waiting, after awhile you'll start feeling the tracks vibrate a little. The train still seems a long ways off. When it gets closer, you can start making out details. Closer still and maybe the conductor will blow the whistle to warn you to get your foot off the track where you've been feeling for vibrations. And then, with a lot of noise and rumbling and flying cinders and whooshing air, the train is HERE! The ground shakes, the rails flex, your eardrums scream at the noise and commotion and then...WHOOSH!!!!.... it's gone. And off into the distance it goes until it becomes a small dot on the other horizon and before long maybe you don't trust that your memory was all that good and it really wasn't all that. So, wait for another train.

That's what long-anticipated events are like. You plan and prepare and it seems like the date will never get here and then, suddenly, it's here and like a fully loaded train, it sometimes threatens to just flat-out run you over.

My big train right now is "Winfield" or, as it's more formally called, the Walnut Valley Festival. This is home of the National Flatpicking Guitar (and other instruments) contest and this year, I'm entered in both mandolin and guitar. I did the guitar contest 4x- 1994, '97, '98, '99- and the mandolin once ('99, I think) but then quit contesting and just focused on playing. There is a maximum of 40 contestants, each of whom play 2 tunes. From these, 5 "make the cut" to the finals where they play 2 more tunes and from here, 3 are winners. It's a very prestigious contest and hard, too. On any given year, there will be 3-9 former winners and your first job, if you wanna make the cut, is to beat them. Also on any given year, only 1-2 of those former winners will make the cut themselves. It used to bother me that I competed for 4 years and didn't make the cut and then I thought harder about the fact that a lot of great players don't make it either.

This year, I needed some motivation to practice guitar and I was starting to feel semi-creative again after a long non-creative period, so in March, I signed up for the contest.  This kicked me into a frenzy of tune preparation and practicing. I could see the big train down the line and knew it was coming and I wanted to be ready. The train isn't quite here yet, but the tracks are shaking. Our truck is loaded up and tomorrow, Derek and I head off to Dallas TX and then up to Winfield. Once I get to Winfield, I'll be able to see the conductor and hear the whistle. At the end of the week- on Friday, at approx 1 pm- after being intimidated by 15 year old hot-shots backstage, I will step on the mandolin stage, sit down in front of the mic, adjust my chair, look at my rhythm guitar player, and then...I'll play the first note of my first tune. At that point, the train will be upon me. I'll be a little nervous, but with any luck, I won't forget, mid-stream, what tune I'm playing like I did in the guitar contest one year when I had to just rip around in the scale for a few seconds until I remembered and got back on track. On Saturday morning, I'll do it again in the guitar contest, but having- hopefully- survived the mandolin contest, I should be more relaxed. My goal is to simply make the cut. If I make the cut in either contest, I will pass out backstage and be the first person in the history of the contest to fail to make the finals because he's passed out backstage from excitement.

If you want to hear quick recordings of my contest tunes, go here. These were done with a simple digital recorder sitting on my desk, just so I could hear how the tunes actually sounded.

In May, I noticed that I'd started to put finish wear on the top of my mandolin neck. I bought this mandolin new in 2002 and I've never worn a mandolin neck before- 2 guitar necks, yes, but never a mandolin. I took pictures.

Finish wear in June

Finish wear in Sept

Underside of neck. 

So, why I am going to Winfield via Dallas?  Well, several months ago, I got it into my head that we needed a Casita travel trailer. Derek and I have been doing a lot more fishing, archery shoots, and just getting out and I would really, really like to have a little trailer that I don't have to pop-up and which has a bathroom and shower. The Casita fits the bill. The family was a little hesitant but one day we headed off to Clayton Lake to go fishing and I brought up the topic. As we came down the hill to the lake, lo and behold, can you believe it? There was a Casita travel trailer! The owner kindly gave the family a quick tour and our fate was sealed.

This is not our trailer. This is what they look like.

We're getting a 16' for the lower weight

I started earnestly searching for a used one but they are hard to find and the only ones I found were 7-9 hour drives away and, yeah the pictures look good, but who knows what condition they were really in? I decided to check prices on new ones and what do you know? Casita is having a sale. The price quoted for a brand-new trailer was barely higher than what I was looking at for 10 year old trailers. I figured that in 10 years, I'd have a 10-year old trailer instead of a 20-year old trailer, and so, thanks to generous financial donation from my mother, I ordered a new one. Lead time was 2.5 months and there, folks, is another big fast train. After all this anticipation and preparation, Monday, Lord willing!, we will hook the new trailer to our truck.

In other news, Derek and I have been fly fishing. After testing the waters ourselves, I decided to hire a guide and jump start the process. We ended up selling 2 of our doe pronghorn permits and using that money to finance a full day's fishing on our local waters. We learned a LOT and had a lot of fun. I hope this is something that we'll be doing more of in upcoming years. Thanks to Eagle Nest Fly Shack in, appropriately, Eagle Nest, NM

Derek's first Brown trout (yes, the fish was back in the water quickly)

Stalking fish pre-guide

Derek and guide

Last bit of news... "Falconry Equipment" is being edited by my co-author Jim Hodge as we speak. When I get back from Winfield- Lord willing- I will make suggested corrections and send it off to the printer. I should have copies in hand by mid-October, if all goes well.

It's been a great summer. I'm looking forward to fall.

Archery Adventure 2015

We are back from another NFAA Grand Field archery shoot. This is for the State Championship and it is a long 2-day shoot in which one shoots the Field, Animal, and Hunter round in 2-days for a total of at least 252 scored shots. The round is outdoors and there's a lot of hiking up and down hills in the July sun.  It's a tiring round to shoot!  There are 6 lead-in shoots at which the winner is given 10 points, 2nd place 9, and so forth.  You can bring 40 points to the Grand Field and then score a potential of 30 points (10 for each round) at the Grand Field. It's important to shoot the lead-in shoot as you can win the Grand Field, but lose the championship if you only shoot 3 of the lead-in rounds and your competitor shoots 4 or more. More on this later!

Scoring the rounds

Derek and I spent both nights at long-time falconer Tom Smylie's house in Edgewood NM and had a great visit there. Tom goes WAY back in falconry- longer than I've been alive, actually- and knows everyone and everything about it. Derek had a good discussion with him and maybe learned a few things about campers, hawks, falcons, pigeons, dogs, book, kayaks, climbing, search/rescue,...

At the shoot, the first day went well and normally.  I matched my highest score on the Animal round and Derek broke his own records in the Field and Animal rounds.  We left Tom's at 6:15 am and got back at 6:30 pm.  Long day. I was happy because I've been having rotator cuff issues all summer and in fact had skipped some of the earlier shoots in Jan-Mar due to this. At some point, I discovered kinesiology tape and started using it on my shoulder.  Mark me down as a believer; after shooting about 150 arrows on Saturday with the tape in place, my shoulder was great.

Day Two: I started the day 100 points up on my next competitor.  Should be an easy win, right?  Especially when the next 2 guys below me didn't show for Sunday's shoot... Derek was about 50 points up on 2nd place. Off we went.  About Target 4, my bow was shooting high and it just got higher and higher so that by Target 7, I was using my 20 yard pin at 35 yards. Something was going on and I couldn't figure it out.  On round 8, my first two arrows went high off the bullseye. Arrow 3 went about 18" low, completely off the target face!  I was positive I'd used the right pin, so I shot again... pow... same low spot.  When I looked at my bow, I saw the problem... my arrow rest launcher was broken.  At every other shoot I'd shot for the past 3 years, I'd taken an extra bow.  This time?  No.  And of course, I have an equipment failure.  Well, I was dead in the water now!

Broken rest!!

What it's supposed to look like

Or so I thought.  After trying to shoot Derek's bow and taking a "0" on the next several long shots (50-70 yards), we were back to a 30 yard target and I decided to at least try to score some points. By holding my 60 yard pin up and to the right about "this far", I managed to sink an arrow in the 4 ring. After that, I just kept working on it and by the time we got done, I was able to score 16's (4- 4 rings) on the 40 yard target and score a whopping 320 points (compared to my regular 500-ish).  Derek, in the meantime, was shooting great and scored another new State record of 528.  A perfect score is 560.

Derek's day was not w/out excitement, though, as Bob lost Derek's scorecard just before the start of the 2nd round. We have 2 cards for this very reason and I quickly took a picture of my copy for safekeeping. We started a new card, someone found the original card, Bob transferred scores, and all was well.

Derek shooting

Talking to Bob, District chairman

Back at the pavilion, scores started coming in. Derek won easily.  In my class, Competitors #2, 3 had gone home, but #4's score beat me by a mere 40 points. I wrestled with this a bit because he had 7 sight pins on his bow and you're only allowed 5 in my class. I wondered whether to protest him and make an enemy or just let it go. Then I remember the lead-in shoots....and he hadn't shot any of them. In the end, it turned out that he was shooting as a "guest" and got no points anyway. So, I took my 2nd State Championship.  Had I started shooting w/out my rest and not taken the 0's, I might've beat him straight up!

Derek, on the other hand and to his immediate disappointment, lost the championship due to the fact that he'd only shot 2 lead-in shoots and the other boy had shot 3. Maybe math will become useful to him now!  On the upside, if he'd won, then he would have 3 State C's to my 2.  Now, we're even!  Yeah!  But, me, I have no records, and Derek broke 3 of his own records today, probably setting them away for awhile.

State Championship #2!

After shooting, it was time to go fishing.  We both had new fly-fishing gear to try and so it was off to Coyote Creek SP to fish and camp. Coyote creek was busy and we ended up catching nothing. To make the best of our time in Northern New Mexico, we decided to move on to another area and headed for Red River.

Fishing Coyote Creek

At Red River, I spotted "Starr Fly Fishing" and we pulled in. The sales help gal was very helpful (and more than slightly cute...) and we left with directions and some new gear (a Fishpond San Juan pack for me) and headed to Fawn Lakes. That was a nice location and even though we didn't catch anything in the heat of the day, we had fun and we'll be back when it's cooler and the tourist season slacks off a little bit.

Our next stop was the trusty Cimarron Canyon and this time we were going to try the "Special Trout Waters".  That ended up being too tough for us, due to the brush along the road, and so we moved down to the easy Gravel Pit lake.  There, we found some other fly fishermen working the little "dam" and while I spin-fished (I really wanted Derek to catch the first fly trout), Derek talked to the guys fishing there and got some good pointers.  Before long, he had his first fly-fish trout and was happy as a clam, even though he looks sleepy in the photo. He was bound and determined to catch a fish with his fly-rod and it was great seeing him finally succeed, even though it was slow going to that point. He also got some good casting and fly pointers from an older guy there and was casting pretty well by the end of the day. I asked Derek about catching the fish on a fly-rod and he said it hit a lot harder and it was more fun fighting it in. He continued to fly-fish after this and moved away from the easy waterfall to the little pond behind it where the "big boys" were casting. He had one there, too, but lost it bringing it in. The "big boys" literally applauded him when he was fighting it and he got a kick out of that.

Derek's first fly fish trout

We finally headed home about 8 pm, driving thru a big thunderstorm/rain to arrive home, very tired and stinky at 10:30 pm.  Shower and bed were quickly in order.  We're already talking about going back to Red River.  I've still got my trout to catch, after all.

Lessons learned:
1) Shoot the shoots.
2) Carry spare rest launchers.
3) Don't give up. Throw arrows at the target if you have to.

July 2015

I don't have a funny creative title for this post so I'll just call it like it is.  Last time I checked in, I'd just broken my foot. It took a full 6 weeks for that heal, but it finally did. I wore my walking cast for 5 of those 6 weeks; every time I tried to do without it, my foot would hurt w/in a few steps.  So I wore the boot.

It's been raining.  A lot.  May was the rainiest month on record since the early 1900's. The grass grew unbelievably well, ponds/creeks filled up and it was just about perfect really.  For the first time in 5 years, we were able to stock decent numbers of cattle.

Here's a little video of us taking some of the first cattle to water.  This is before the rains really kicked in, so it's still pretty brown.

Incoming!

Flooded yard from the 1st big rain

Clouds

More clouds!

Down at the creek

June 9

In between rains- it felt good to say that!- we got some hay to get ready for winter.  We have fewer over-wintering horses, far more grass in the pasture, and should be able to get by with less hay.

A mere 40 bales

All this sounds happy and cheerful.  Me, though, I've been really struggling to get moving sometimes. I think the release of the stress of the past 4 years has just wiped me out and some days I can't do anything but sit at the computer and surf around. I had to cut way back on guitar work this spring and summer as I just had to have a break. The thought of getting up and doing something just flattens me. Eventually, I get over it and get up and going, but it's hard some days. Fortunately, I have jobs where if I need to sit and drink coffee until noon, I can. That's a tremendous blessing. I play my guitar a lot, but it's hard to find much joy in it and it gets frustrating. My hearing sucks and it's not going to get better... it's just a real struggle playing these days. Nevertheless, I just keep at it and plow on and eventually the black cloud goes away. It helps a lot to look outside at the green grass, big fluffy clouds, and rain on the horizon. It also helps a lot to think about the temporality of this life and focus ahead on the things to come. 

I've been doing a lot of reading on physics, vibrations, energy, music, and God and those are stimulating things that get my brain going. Lots of food for thought there. This perks me up considerably.

Music books

Energy books

I suppose I'll end this with another little video.  I went to check the mail and found 17 steers lounging in front of the pens where the cows were being temporarily held. Turns out that a gate 1.5 miles away had come loose and the steers went walk-about outback. Derek and I easily herded them back with the help of Spots and Risky.

Thank God for the rain!

My Worst Day Ranching (so far)

I'm sitting here on Sunday, expecting this:

and 3 loads of cattle on Monday.  It reminded me of a story I've had on my website for a long time and I thought I'd post it here, with pictures.  Here we go:

---------------------

late-May 2001

"Some days are diamonds. Some days are coal".

My wife, 3-month old son (David), and 7-year-old daughter were away in Albuquerque to evaluate him for double-hernia surgery and I was at home alone, expecting 6 semi-truck loads of cattle (96 head per truck) the next morning. That night, it rained, and rained, and rained. I love rain, but keep in mind that we live down 10 miles of dirt road and semi-trucks aren’t exactly four-wheel-drive pickups. I was up before dawn to eat a breakfast of bagel and coffee and await the incoming trucks, which can show up at any time. 

Our house is backed with a 300-acre "shipping trap", a small pasture where I can keep cattle just prior to shipping. This year, I had been off-loading incoming cattle into this pasture to keep them for a week or two to train them to the feed wagon. The better trained they are to the feed wagon, the tamer they get, and the better they ship in the fall. This year’s batch was not cooperating at all and ran from the feed-wagon, instead of running to the wagon. After I finished my bagel, I looked out at the slowly graying sky and noticed that about 300 head of cattle were piled into a corner of the trap right near the house. This is an ideal situation for training steers to feed because you can feed right in front of them and they have to cross the feed to get away. Some will smell and stop and eat, and that’s often all it takes to get the whole bunch to stop and feed. And I knew they’d be cold and hungry after a night of rain. 

"Old Blue"- no longer with us- pulling a water tank.

So, I ran outside and jumped in "Old Blue"- a 1986 Ford F250 4WD- already hooked up to the feed trailer. It was still raining, but gently. As I approached the trapped cattle, they panicked and started to run east along the fence. In this situation, you can often drive the truck right in front of them and make them stop. That’s what I did. What I didn’t count on was the slick grass of the rain-soaked pasture, and when I hit the brakes, the truck, backed with about 2,000 lbs of feed in the trailer, slid about 30 yards across the pasture. Right into the barbed wire fence. Pow!!! Barbed wire is tough, but it’s no match for a pickup truck with feed trailer and I busted thru 3 of the 4 wires. The other wire wrapped around my front wheel. Okay, so here I am with a gaping hole in the fence and 300 ill-trained, panicky steers coming straight for me. I jumped out, got the steers turned and ended up just tying the broken wire to the pickup and leaving the truck in the hole. As I walked back to the house, it was raining harder, and the wind had picked up to about 25-30 mph.

Just as I reached the house, I saw 3 of the 5 expected trucks rolling up at the main intersection, about ¼ mile from the house. The trucks usually come from the east, but these were coming from the north. Still, they had to be mine. I ran into the house and looked frantically for a rain coat, tracking mud all over the house. No luck, and I KNOW I have a great rain slicker somewhere… Finally giving up, I hooked up the portable loading chute to my other pickup and drove to the intersection. It was still raining. The brand inspector was there (all incoming cattle are inspected) and after talking about it, we decided to just unload the trucks directly into the pasture instead of taking them to the small set of pens 3 miles down the road where we normally unload. This way the trucks wouldn’t have to turn around in the pasture, but could just continue down the hard-packed caliche road back to pavement. The first 3 trucks went fine, although it was still raining at times. Then the brand inspector’s cell phone rang. Bad news.  The other 2 trucks had slid off the dirt road on a steep banked curve, back in Grenville, 10 miles away. Uh-oh.

The curve today. The banks were steeper and the road narrower in 2001

We decided that there was nothing to do but take the portable chute and unload the cattle there. Maybe we’d be able to drive 192 head of cattle into a neighbor’s nearby trap of about 7 acres until I could get some help. The brand inspector took off to check out the situation and I loaded up the chute. I wished I could also load up my ATV, but I didn’t have a loading ramp and couldn’t back up into the ditch like I normally do, because of the mud, or load it into a trailer because I was already towing the portable chute. "Well, I won’t need it", I stupidly reckoned. "And besides, it’s raining!" So, I headed north, driving about 20 miles/hour to keep the poorly designed loading chute from fishtailing back and forth as it was towed.

The portable chute, at ease (and missing one support)

At the scene, things looked ugly. The first truck had slid off the banked turn into the muddy ditch and the second truck, rather than simply wait and be patient, decided to go around the first truck.  He slid into the first truck and scraped along until he cleared it and then slid into the ditch himself. This put his rear door (where the cattle come out) almost butt-up against the nose of the first truck. It was obvious that we were going to have to move one of the trucks to unload the other. And, you don’t just yank fully loaded cattle trucks out of a muddy ditch. By this time, there were two brand-inspectors present, a county road employee, and an interested neighbor on the scene.

I managed to back the loading chute up to the first truck w/out getting stuck in the ditch myself. Remember- the ditch isn’t level! It’s banked. I could just picture the cattle tipping that chute over as they exited the truck.  The problem here is that the butt of the truck was facing north and the cattle needed to go south.  We'd have to unload them in the ditch and then turn them around to drive them south.   I drove my pickup down the road to guard it so that the unloading cattle wouldn’t hit the highway about 2 miles away. The road was fenced in on both sides, making a great "alley".  

The first 14 head exited the truck, running full-blast down the road toward me. I got 10 turned, no problem, but 4 broke past me (NOW I needed that ATV!!!) as I tried not to get stuck in the ditch. It was still raining. I got the pickup in front of them and stopped right in their path. Three of them turned and jumped the barbed wire fence into the adjacent pasture and the 4^th charged right for me! I jumped into the bed of the pickup and felt his head brush my feet! Then, he went around the truck and headed for the highway! It would be bad if he hit the road- one of the most-traveled in the state of New Mexico. 

Meanwhile, cattle are pouring off the truck, but most have joined the first 10 I got turned and are now heading south, like good cattle, bless their bovine hearts! I tore off down the road, got around the steer again, and pulled up in front of him again. He simply jumped into the small gap between the truck and fence and took off to the north! Once again, I got in front of him and this time, pushed the truck right up against the fence. The steer stopped and butted my truck tire with his head. I rolled my window down to swat him and he just about came thru the window into the truck before dodging around the truck to the rear. We were now only about ½ mile from the highway and I had to stop this steer. So, I got him lined up and hit him in the butt with the truck. He turned and charged the truck and I just let him have it, head to head! If my pickup had an airbag, it would’ve deployed, no question! He went down and I stopped the truck with him trapped under the bumper. The brand inspector drove up just then and I grabbed a rope, jumped on the steer and hog-tied his legs together, and just left him flopping around in the ditch.

Where I left the renegade steer- the highway is just over the hill

While all this was happening, the first truck was unloaded and the county brought over a bulldozer that was fortuitously parked nearby. They pulled the first truck, now unloaded and some 45,000 lbs lighter, backwards out of the ditch. I hooked up and moved the loading chute up to the second truck, again managing not to get stuck in the ditch, and we started unloading it. To hook up the loading chute, you have to lift the two side supports, pin them in place, attach a tongue with hitch, and pin it in place. Since the supports are now gone, someone either has to hold the tongue up while someone else backs the truck up, or you have to lay the tongue down and back up as close as you can, then lift the tongue up, and pull the trailer into place. It’s easy with two people, but alone, it’s not easy on dry, hard ground and downright tough in a muddy, sloppy, non-level ditch. It was still raining and I was getting kind of wet. We got the second truck unloaded w/out incident, and all the cattle turned and heading south along the alley. 

Down the "alley". Road was dirt in 2001.

A few more miles down the alley

After some discussion, I learned that another neighbor was sending two of his "south of the border" hired hands over to help out. Whew! But they wouldn’t be here for awhile, so I decided to take the loading chute back to the house, grab my ATV and try to control the nearly 200 head of cattle running down the alley until help arrived. I got the chute hooked up again and head for home. I passed the lead cattle a few miles later and saw an ugly situation developing.

As I mentioned earlier, the road was fenced in on both sides, but only for 7 of the 10 miles. You then hit a cattleguard and enter another pasture that is only fenced on 1 side for a mile, and is open on both sides for another mile, before hitting another alley. This pasture happened to be stocked with cows and calves and 2 bulls. So, not only did I need to drive my own steers thru this pasture, w/out the aid of a fence, but also I had to keep them separate from the cows and calves and bulls. The ugly situation was that the lead steers were still running full-tilt down the road and I knew that when they hit that cattleguard, they’d just jump it and keep right on going. I had approximately 30 minutes to get to the house, unhook the chute, load up my ATV in the trailer, and get myself back to the cattleguard to block the oncoming beeves. Grabbing a bite of lunch was out of the question.

The cattle guard and the end of the alley

As I crested a small hill leading down to the last couple of miles, the loading chute came unhooked from the trailer hitch. The support arms dug into the road and  in my rear view mirror I saw the chute rise almost straight up before- fortunately!!!- plunging back down to earth! My first though was "just leave it there!", but then I realized that the hill was "blind" and someone driving south was not going to see the chute until they hit it. So, back I went. The impact had bent the support arms of the trailer and I couldn’t get it hooked up to the pickup. Nor could I push it up the hill. I got my pickup out of the way (it was still raining, of course), lifted the tongue of the trailer up, and ran it downhill into the ditch and managed to drop it without getting run over myself. Back in the truck, I headed home to get my ATV and trailer. I wondered how many more times I was going to have to lift that accursed loading chute….

The chute came off just over this blind rise

At the house, the first ATV wouldn’t start. Dead battery. I got the second ATV started and rode over to the old horse trailer to carry ATV’s. Now, I've just ridden the ATV over from the garage, so that means that pickup is over at the garage. I was starting to get a little tired and figured I’d just ride the ATV into the horse trailer and then go get the pickup. None of our horse trailer jacks are long enough and you have to stick something under the jack to get the hitch high enough to hook up to a tall 4WD pickup. And I didn't have a real ATV ramp but was using some long boards as a ramp. When I hit the back of the trailer with the ATV, it put weight on the back of the trailer which caused the jack to lift off the wood I had under the jack and that let the trailer roll forward just a little which let it "get away" from the ATV. With the ATV’s weight off the back, the trailer immediately dove back down, burying the jack about 6" deep in the mud. At this point, I almost (almost!!!) cried. Oh, and it was still raining and the wind was still blowing.

There was nothing to do but drive the pickup over, get the high-lift jack out, jack up the trailer, get something underneath the trailer jack and start all over. Of course, when you jack up a trailer with a high-lift jack, it wants to twist the high-lift out from under it because you have to jack it from the side. So, I had to keep that jack from twisting out, while bent over, and push something underneath the trailer jack. Somehow I managed to do this. I tell ya, about this time, a helper would've been GREAT!!!! This time, I hooked the trailer up first (and this means you have guess where the hitch is, back up a little, jump out of the tall 4WD, check the hitch alignment, back up a little more, check again, too far….drive up, drive over, back up, check, drive back…..anyway, it took me 6 jump in/jump outs to get hooked up). Then I loaded up my ATV and headed back for the cattle.

As I crossed the cattle guard I saw a very, very welcome sight- the two Mexican helpers had arrived, one on an ATV and another on a horse and had gotten the cattle turned back from the cattleguard and bunched up with the stragglers. And the rain had stopped and the wind was dying down. I began to think that I might survive this day. I got past the Mexicans, after talking to one (who spoke English!!! My Spanish is awful), parked the truck and trailer, unloaded the ATV and went after them. Getting out of the truck onto the ATV also meant that Chance, The Wonder Dog, would be able to help. Now "all" we had to do was drive the cattle thru the open pasture, and providentially, the cows and calves and bulls had been driven by the wind and rain (and distant ATV’s) to the far side of the pasture.

The cattle were bunched up against the cattleguard, but the horse was able to gently work thru them so that the rider could open the gate and let them thru. We got ‘em strung out along the single fence, with the horse up front to keep the lead steers back and the cattle bunched up. About this time, another welcome face showed up- my mailman, having run his route and seeing the situation, brought his pickup and a horse trailer. Any lagging steer was quickly roped into the trailer and taken to my house and dropped off in the pens. This allowed us to keep the herd bunched tighter in preparation for the dash across the open pasture. If you let a string of cattle get too strung out, the herd will invariably split into two herds as the lead cattle get too far ahead and the stragglers straggle. Then you’ve got two herds to deal with instead of one. So, having the horse keep the lead runners back was invaluable. And Jimmy- God bless him!- had even managed to load the renegade steer that I’d hog-tied earlier that morning.

The end of the alley. Open pasture to the left

We hit the open pasture in good shape. The wind had slowed, the rain was almost done, with just intermittent sprinkles, and the cattle were lined out nicely, and they were moving down the road. We crossed the open pasture and the lead steer was just 200 yards from the next "alley". I almost breathed a sigh of relief. Then, over the crest of the hill came….a vehicle. Of all the rotten timing!!! He was in the road, the steers were in the road. And, instead of putting the cattle between himself and the fence, thus forcing them tight against the fence, this driver chose to drive between the single fence and the cattle. The steers peeled off the fence like backing off of sticky paper and turned out into the open pasture. When cattle "peel" like this, they don’t follow the steer in front of them, but rather the whole line turns and suddenly, instead of having a "snake" of cattle with a single head, you have 192 heads all looking east. I didn’t wave when the driver finally made his way past me, having just sent our entire herd of cattle heading east, but neither did I run my ATV into his shiny new white pickup, so I thought I did okay there. Now, not only did we now have to circle them all back up, but we also had to get them lined up with the road-wide alley entrance.

Truck came over the hill here

An hour later, we had the cattle excited, hot, tired, panicky, but headed into the alley. About 6-8 had been roped and dragged off to home. Of course, while the horse was doing this, we only had the 2 ATV’s to control the whole herd of cattle. Having just been spooked from the entrance to the alley by the truck, they were not keen about going back there, but we persevered.

Another hour after this, we were thru the second cattle guard and heading toward my gate. We only had 400 yards to go, but the cattle were exhausted, having gotten cold and wet, sustained 30 mph winds while cold and wet, and having just run 10 miles after being on a truck for 14 hours. Some of them just refused to walk any further, and a few actually dropped dead on their feet. They’d be walking along and just keel over sideways, dead. We lost 6 head (that's $700 each) in the last ¼ mile, but finally got the majority turned, thru the gate, and into the pasture. The big ugly job was done.

The gate

However, I still had to retrieve my loading chute since I had more cattle trucks coming in 2 days. And my truck and trailer were still 5 miles down the road (into a head-wind, of course). We started riding back toward the truck and trailer. The other ATV was well in front of me and I saw it pull off the road. "Out of gas", I figured. Right then, the horse and trailer drove up and the Mexicans discussed the ATV. I told them "I’ll just get my trailer and load both ATV’s up". So, I went on to my truck and loaded up my ATV. Drove back to the other ATV and the Mexicans were gone! Hey! I kind of wanted help loading the thing! Remember, I didn’t have an ATV ramp but was using boards to load the ATV in the horse trailer. I tried pushing the dead ATV into the trailer but couldn’t do it. So, I lined it up and tried pushing it with my ATV, but the front wheels would turn on the boards and it would fall off. Plus, I just couldn’t get traction on the muddy road. I tried towing it into the trailer, but again, couldn’t get traction, plus I couldn’t get the tow rope short enough- I could only get ½ the other ATV into the trailer and then it would roll back out, if the front wheels didn’t turn and knock the loading boards out of place. I was tired and getting frustrated.

I didn’t want to leave the ATV on the side of the road and only had about 30 minutes of daylight left, so I decided the easiest thing to do would be to tow the dead ATV back to the house with the live ATV. I hooked up the tow rope to the dead ATV and started off. Everything was looking fine for the first 3 miles. Then I hit a big downhill dip (just past where the loading chute had come off!) and the towed ATV gathered speed and started passing the towing ATV. At one point, the two ATV’s were head to head, and right then, then tow rope wrapped around the front axle of the towed ATV. It’s a wonder I wasn’t killed right there, as both ATV’s slid to a wet, muddy, stop a few inches from the edge of a 6’ drop over the creek. I wearily got down, unwrapped the tow rope from the axle and wheels (easier said than done), and managed to get the dead ATV back home w/out further incident. Ordinarily, I’d have just driven my spare pickup back to get the truck and trailer, and left it there until the next day, but remember, my spare truck was still buried in the fence from that morning. Plus, I had to get the loading chute out of the road because I just knew someone would plow into it in the dark. There was nothing to do but get on the ATV and ride back to the truck/trailer. Back into the wind. I was really getting cold and tired by now.

Death by ATV Dip

The sun was sinking when I finally got back to the house with the truck, trailer, and ATV. I got it unhooked and drove back for the loading chute. It was dark-thirty when I backed up to the loading chute. Remember, you have to get the truck close to the chute, then pick up the tongue and pull the chute up to the hitch. And the chute was in the muddy ditch, at an angle. I got backed up and with just about the last bit of energy I had left, lifted the chute tongue, and got it hooked up. I had to sit on the tailgate for a few seconds to recharge before I could get a sledgehammer and pound the chute’s supports up enough so that they wouldn’t drag and I could drive the chute home. I drove home pretty slow and just left the chute connected in the driveway.

I still had one more problem to deal with and that was the 500 head of cattle in the shipping trap. The trap can really only sustain 30-40 head for a summer, and the 500 head had been in there for 2 weeks already. I had more cattle coming in 2 days and I really needed to get those 500 head out. But I needed help, and my wife wouldn’t be able to help because she’d be caring for our infant son (who was returning from the hospital the next day, don’t forget). As I sat in the hallway pulling off my wet, muddy boots, the phone rang. It was a brother from church: "I was just sitting here and wondered if you needed any help tomorrow". Thank you, Lord!!!! It didn’t take me long to say "Yes. Yes I do". And with a promise of help in the form of a pickup driver, an ATV rider, and a horse, first thing in the morning, I was finally able to get a hot meal (nothing but a bagel since morning, don’t forget!), a hot bath, and bed.

The next morning, the sun was shining, the wind was calm, help arrived at 8 am, my wife and family arrived at 9 am, the cattle were moved by noon, and all was (relatively) under control again.

For awhile, anyway.
----------------------

Things would be very different if this happened today.  For one thing, I have an ATV ramp! I have 4 4WD ATV's, I have a capable helper in Derek (and Brianna could've helped, too, just a few years later), I know all my neighbors now, and I have 2 capable dogs.  But every year brings new challenges!

And now... we await Monday.

Dirty Work

Monday

It's a nasty, windy, blowing-dirt kind of day here on the high plains. Derek and I went out to put a generator in place to pump water up the hill to a storage tank. Simple, right? The first thing we did was spend 20 minutes unplugging a tank overflow. The overflow from the side of the tank has washed dirt away from underneath and that means I've gotta get my skid steer out there ASAP to replace the dirt or I'll lose the tank. The skid steer is still leaking oil, so I'll need to watch that, too.

Fine, so we got the overflow unplugged and I fired the generator up. The black pipe that takes water up the hill immediately blew off its flange, spraying water everywhere. It turns out that the black pipe has, after many years of faithful service, shrunk just enough that it'll no longer make contact with the pipe flange. It is 1" too short now. So, I've got put a splice in there, and I'd do this by "simply" screwing a short piece of pipe and a joiner on and putting the flange on that, except that I can't get the stupid flange free from the pipe, not w/out giving myself another hernia anyway.

Meanwhile, the wind's blowing 30 mph and blowing dirt in my face the whole time. I have to heat the black pipe to get it on the flange and there's no way that's gonna happen in this wind, so I"m just going to have to bag it for awhile.

Oh, yeah, and I woke up with a 2 Ibuprofen headache.

That's Monday, so far. But, hey, it could be much worse. At least I can walk and still have the strength to throw pipe wrenches 43.5 yards in frustration. Not that I did, mind you. I'm just sayin'...

Tuesday

Got my well problem fixed and dirt around the tank but it was not w/out drama. First drama was that the skid steer was way low on hydraulic fluid and I was out of the stuff. So, I sent Georgia on an emergency run to town while Derek and I loaded up and went to fix the too-short pipe. Even with a come-along holding one pipe wrench and a 3' long cheater on the other, I couldn't budge the pipe. I ended up cutting it off and moving the whole contraption to the pipe vise mounted on my truck where it still fought me. At one point, I had the joint in the vise and my cheater on it and it slipped. I gave it a good smack with the cheater and got an honest 24 yards of flight out of it. Eventually, though, I won, as I knew I would, and we got the line all fixed up with only a tiny little drip.

Here's the fixed pipe mess

Georgia showed up about then in the Ranger with the oil ($60/5 gallons) but nothing to put it in the skid steer with (.eg "funnel), so I cut an old water bottle in half and made do. It took approximately 12 10 oz bottles to get the oil up on the sight glass and I was sure we'd be burning through the rest of the new 5 gallon pail, but no... amazing things do still happen and the skid didn't even hardly lose any oil at all. It has a "high speed" button that I use a lot when working around the compound and moving from place to place but almost never when I'm actually working dirt- I wonder if that's sticking?

At one point, I had a full bucket of dirt and was going up a pretty steep little hill with the bucket a little too high. The skid steer did a wheelie and sat back on its butt, front wheel off the ground and bucket pointed into the sky. I dropped the bucket, cranked the controls to back up, set 'er back down, and all was well except that I was covered in dirt from the half bucket of dirt that I lost to the sky. I looked up and G had her hands over her eyes. I yelled "Cool wheelie, huh!?" and she gave me a withering look w/out even the slightest thumb up.

The steep little hill

Dirtin' the tank

Dirt around the tank

The view from the mill tower

Another view from the tower

Several hours later, Derek and I took the Ranger up to check on the water. If you don't, there will be a problem and you'll likely end up blowing up an expensive generator, burning up a more expensive pump, and blasting precious water all over the ground. If you do, everything will be fine and you might see a coyote, or eagle, or prairie dog.  Well... you _will_ see prairie dogs. 

Everything was fine and I shot this video as we rode up the hill. I also took a picture of some locoweed up there. Loco can be bad news if the cattle start eating it as they literally get addicted to it and it can kill them. There is nothing much to do about it except pray for rain and green grass.

Locoweed

On the way back home, we swung by another tank to check it and sure 'nuff... problems. We spent 30 minutes trying to unclog the overflow pipe and finally succeeded. Then home!

See the water out there?  Trouble

Later that day, I was leaving my shop, had my hands full, wasn't paying attention and missed the step. My foot slid into the 2" gap between my step and the concrete blocks next to it that I use as a "side-step". And, of course, I lost my balance and fell like that. So, right now, my foot is swollen and, unlike Monday, I can't walk. I'm not going to go see if I can throw pipe wrenches. I'll probably hurt something else.

At least... no... I think I'll just shut up.

Edit:

The Foot, the day after (click for full-size)

Whew..... it hurts!