Spring has sprung!

Went out this evening and played catch with a grand daughter. Man, I am old and out of shape!

Green grass is popping. Brandings are underway across my country. We got a fresh born foal the other day. We weren’t really expecting it, but that’s what happens when young stallions run with mares! And that is fine. A new calf, colt, grandchild or rain are always welcome around this place.

Been fixing some fence and about have the corrals all fixed up from all the past wrecks. New loading chute looks great and should last a long time. I doubt I will ever have to rebuild it. 

Pretty soon we will have a bunch of fresh high school graduates around the area. I hardly remember what it was to be 18 and bullet proof!`I soon found out I wasn’t bullet proof and maybe my dad was smarter than I had given him credits for. As Mark Twain said, “When I was 18 my father was the most ignorant man I had ever met. By the time I was 21, I was amazed at all he had learned!”

The summer I graduated my Dad went to the Mayo and was gone for several weeks and got a heart worked on. ( and all that time I had wondered if he even had one!) I was left in charge of the ranch. Looking back, I am sure he was worried to death, but he really had no choice as he couldn’t afford anyone else and I wouldn’t have listened to them anyway! 

I was ecstatic! 

Man, now I could show him how he had been holding me back all those years and I could put into practice all I had learned from school and other resources that he said wouldn’t really work. It took about a week before I wondered how he figured out how to get everything done and when. I had 4 things that all needed done at the same time! And I had to figure out which was the most important. Overwhelmed? I should say so!

I also hired a young man to help and soon found out I wasn’t much of a boss. At one point, we had a bull in with the neighbors cattle. Nice guy that I was, I allowed him to go get the bull while I continued to put up hay. I came in about noon and pretty soon saw him ride into the years with a real sweaty horse. He went to the barn and eventually came to the house. I was just putting lunch on the table and as we ate I asked him how it went. He went into a long explanation of how he fought and fought this gentle yearling bull to get him out, with no luck, so he roped him. “How did that go?” I asked. He said it didn’t. “What?” “Well I couldn’t drive him and my horse couldn’t drag him.” “So what did you do?” “Well, I left him.” “So you didn’t get him out huh?”  “Yeah, I left him there. Figured you’d have to help me.”

Huh…”Well, I suppose we will have to go back, How did you get your rope off?”’ “I didn’t.”

“You didn’t?” “Nope, had to leave it on him.” “You rode off and left your rope on a bull?!!” “Yup.”

Oh man I was on the fight. So after lunch we went and caught up our horses and saddled, rode down a mile and a half to the gate, found the bull and I got off, walked up and took the rope off the bull. Wasn’t much of a task, the bull was plumb worn out. No big deal getting him back where he belonged. He was plumb worn out!

I decided this kid wasn’t earning his keep and had decided to fire him, but he beat me to the punch and quit before I could. Man, that was a good day!

Anyway, I had a whole new appreciation for my Dad after that summer!

Go enjoy the spring. It don’t last long in this country!