When things
go wrong working cattle, the late, great, Bud Williams, always told us to take
responsibility for it. It’s not the cows’ fault. “Were they doing it before you
got there?” he would ask. Well no, they weren’t.
We call them
wrecks – those days when the herd falls apart. They come infrequently, once
every few years. Apparently we all need reminded that it can happen. One can
get complacent.
I know one
thing for sure; it’s harder on the womenfolk. Just ask Anita. Men take it in
stride, just another day on the ranch. But for she and I the wrecks live on in
our mind. We’ve been on the drag too many times when the weight of the herd
gets heavier and heavier. More little heads looking back longingly for where they
think Mom is. Second by second attention is required and it’s exhausting, even
on those days when it doesn’t fall apart precisely because we’ve done everything in our power to prevent it.
It happened again on the first day of fall cattle work. It was a beautiful
morning and I was sure Anita was getting some great photos as we let the herd
out the gate into the lane heading down to Brush Creek. Poetic really, but in
going through the gate and then confined to a narrow lane, lots of moms and
kids got separated. When that happens they don’t trail well but keep looking
around for each other. And it was just too many pairs traveling at once. We
know this.
We got in
the trees without enough forward momentum. Our crew was split and I couldn’t
get Mark on the radio to send reinforcements, and they started running back in
droves. By that time I was on foot, as my horse who had galloped into a badger
hole earlier, had quit me. Not fun.
But in the
end the crew managed to gather up the ones that had run back and trailed them
on down to the weaning pasture just as dusk descended.
Someone said
there was a beautiful sunset as we headed home. I honestly didn’t see it. We'd had one too many wrecks and I was too discouraged to notice.
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| the gather - so far so good |
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| looks peaceful right? |
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| regrouping the renegades Gary, Anna and Callie (and Martha) |
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