A “Working” Cattle Ranch
Isn’t it interesting that a genuine cattle ranch is referred to with the adjective “working”. One of the things I like most about a “working cattle ranch” is that the work never ends! It seems quite unique to describe a business and lifestyle as “working”. I suppose that the term has been used to differentiate a “working” ranch from a “dude” or “guest” ranch. Quite frankly, my experience is that the work associated with hosting guests at a working cattle ranch is more “work” than the work on a cattle ranch that doesn’t host guests.
Maybe I’ll try referring to our software company as a “working” software company! How about a “working” law firm…..that could be accurate. Or, a working real estate broker…..now that sounds like an oxymoron. I do like the sound of “working” government but I haven’t heard it much!
We have a Project List at the HPR that is as long as your arm…..a list of work to be done, not just maintenance tasks but special projects that would have great benefit for the ranch if completed. When I visit the ranch this list rolls through my head. It includes such “work” as re-roofing the Old Red Barn, painting the Old Red Barn, fencing off Painter Creek, installing stock tanks in the Scobey and Antelope fields to encourage cattle to more efficiently utilize available forage and frequent riparian areas less, flower beds around the Lewis & Clark cabins, removing rocks from all corrals, painting the wind-break wood fences on the way to the RanchView home, irrigating the horse pastures, rebuilding weirs for irrigation, linseed oiling all cabins, grading roads, burning slash piles of dead willows, extending the fence in the Middle Field to expand the hay field and hay production, install stock water tanks in the Bachelor Bench field, reconstruct the headgate on Browns Canyon Creek to make it more fish friendly, cut the fallen timber on the trail to Broker’s Vista, repair and replace fencing where needed, brush hog the horse pastures and LakeSide ridge area, haul in and spread gravel at Headquarters, extend fireplace at the CreekSide Lodge, clean out creek at LakeSide, set up teepees and chuck wagon, clean out corrals at LakeSide, replace fuel tank stands…………..and all of this in addition to such regular tasks as calving, doctoring and branding calves, hauling mineral to cows on any of approximately 50 pastures and fields on and around the ranch, providing care for horses, mowing lawns, etc. etc. Isn’t this fantastic……enough work to last a lifetime. If this sounds fun to you, then you might be a natural rancher.
I just couldn’t handle for very long being somewhere where I could not do work of some kind. It has been a special experience for me to work at the ranch with Marie and our children. I believe that it is a unique, work-ethic building experience to work on a “working” cattle ranch. One of the main reasons I purchased the HPR was to give our family an opportunity to do some good old fashioned work. I was blessed early in my life to have to rise at 4:40 a.m. several days a week to help milk Cows at an uncle’s dairy farm in northern Arizona, beginning at the age of 10. This development of a work ethic has stayed with me and benefited me all my life. A hard day’s work is one of the most rewarding experiences in life. In addition to my work at the dairy I also had the opportunity in high school of working at the Heward’s ranch, south of my small home town in northern Arizona (near the headquarters of the Hashknife Outfit, one of the largest and wildest Cow outfits in early Arizona history). I remember Juan, one of the hardest working Mexicans I ever knew, teaching me how to stay ahead of Mr. Heward. I also spent some time on horseback at the Paulsel ranch north of Route 66 (now I-40) in Arizona. This ranch was nearly all sagebrush and ran north towards the Navajo and Hopi Reservations and Black Rock.
One of my great lessons in life came from a project in 4-H. Johnny Paulsel and I rode out on their ranch and selected the best looking Hereford Steer calf we could find and I took him home for the summer to raise. The fall finally came and it was time to take my prize feeder Steer to Holbrook to the Navajo County Fair. I led the Steer in a circle while a seasoned cattleman carefully examined every animal. It seemed to me that he was having a difficult time making up his mind about what Steer would get what award. Then, after what felt like a long time, the judge approached me and my Steer. I was amazed thinking that my Steer had won Grand Champion. The judge leaned down and whispered to me that my Steer had the best conformation and genetics and that had I finished him off with a little more grain a little sooner, he would have been the Grand Champion. As it was, he was going to get a First Prize. In all of my life and work I have tried to ensure that I “finished” the last ten percent of my jobs or tasks.
Speaking of the Navajo County Fair, you should also know about the story of how I took my Quarter Horse, Tilly, purchased from a Navajo Indian, and won the Navajo County Fair Quarter Horse race with a heavy western saddle and a pretty big teenager. The horse to beat was Tombo Kaufman’s big Gray horse. Tombo weighed much less than me and was smart enough to saddle his horse with a light saddle. But it didn’t matter, Tilly, who I had trained by running her in a wash of sand (that’s an Arizona river that runs only during a flash flood) for several minutes at a time, won the race in 1965.
Finally, speaking of the Navajo County Fair in Holbrook, Arizona, it was at one of those annual fairs when I was a senior in high school that I decided to ride a bareback horse in the rodeo. I had purchased a riggins……….a brand new one. I must have been planning on making a career out of rodeoing! I think I lasted a few seconds and the dismount was not graceful. My rodeo days were short lived.
One other junior rodeo story when I was about 14 years old. I was in Seligman, Arizona at a Junior Rodeo and was riding Steers. I got a good one and was determined to stay on at all costs. I held on until my body was so low and sideways on the Steer, and so close to the ground that one of the Steer’s hind feet caught the back pocket of my Wranglers………you should be able to imagine the rest. It was a good thing that my hat was still on (and quite large) because it looked like my jeans weren’t! As I walked out from the center of the arena with my hat over my butt, looking for a place to hide, I heard the announcer say “well there’s one young man who spent $5 bucks on an entrance fee and now is going to need to spend another $5 bucks on a new pair of jeans”. I suppose I was not “cut out” for the rodeo circuit.
To get back to work, I decided as a young man that I would work hard at whatever I could do well at so that I could some day buy a “working” cattle ranch and invest in work! Work-to-work………it’s a good way of life if you enjoy the type of work you are doing. Too many people stop working and die.
Maybe I’ll try referring to our software company as a “working” software company! How about a “working” law firm…..that could be accurate. Or, a working real estate broker…..now that sounds like an oxymoron. I do like the sound of “working” government but I haven’t heard it much!
We have a Project List at the HPR that is as long as your arm…..a list of work to be done, not just maintenance tasks but special projects that would have great benefit for the ranch if completed. When I visit the ranch this list rolls through my head. It includes such “work” as re-roofing the Old Red Barn, painting the Old Red Barn, fencing off Painter Creek, installing stock tanks in the Scobey and Antelope fields to encourage cattle to more efficiently utilize available forage and frequent riparian areas less, flower beds around the Lewis & Clark cabins, removing rocks from all corrals, painting the wind-break wood fences on the way to the RanchView home, irrigating the horse pastures, rebuilding weirs for irrigation, linseed oiling all cabins, grading roads, burning slash piles of dead willows, extending the fence in the Middle Field to expand the hay field and hay production, install stock water tanks in the Bachelor Bench field, reconstruct the headgate on Browns Canyon Creek to make it more fish friendly, cut the fallen timber on the trail to Broker’s Vista, repair and replace fencing where needed, brush hog the horse pastures and LakeSide ridge area, haul in and spread gravel at Headquarters, extend fireplace at the CreekSide Lodge, clean out creek at LakeSide, set up teepees and chuck wagon, clean out corrals at LakeSide, replace fuel tank stands…………..and all of this in addition to such regular tasks as calving, doctoring and branding calves, hauling mineral to cows on any of approximately 50 pastures and fields on and around the ranch, providing care for horses, mowing lawns, etc. etc. Isn’t this fantastic……enough work to last a lifetime. If this sounds fun to you, then you might be a natural rancher.
I just couldn’t handle for very long being somewhere where I could not do work of some kind. It has been a special experience for me to work at the ranch with Marie and our children. I believe that it is a unique, work-ethic building experience to work on a “working” cattle ranch. One of the main reasons I purchased the HPR was to give our family an opportunity to do some good old fashioned work. I was blessed early in my life to have to rise at 4:40 a.m. several days a week to help milk Cows at an uncle’s dairy farm in northern Arizona, beginning at the age of 10. This development of a work ethic has stayed with me and benefited me all my life. A hard day’s work is one of the most rewarding experiences in life. In addition to my work at the dairy I also had the opportunity in high school of working at the Heward’s ranch, south of my small home town in northern Arizona (near the headquarters of the Hashknife Outfit, one of the largest and wildest Cow outfits in early Arizona history). I remember Juan, one of the hardest working Mexicans I ever knew, teaching me how to stay ahead of Mr. Heward. I also spent some time on horseback at the Paulsel ranch north of Route 66 (now I-40) in Arizona. This ranch was nearly all sagebrush and ran north towards the Navajo and Hopi Reservations and Black Rock.
One of my great lessons in life came from a project in 4-H. Johnny Paulsel and I rode out on their ranch and selected the best looking Hereford Steer calf we could find and I took him home for the summer to raise. The fall finally came and it was time to take my prize feeder Steer to Holbrook to the Navajo County Fair. I led the Steer in a circle while a seasoned cattleman carefully examined every animal. It seemed to me that he was having a difficult time making up his mind about what Steer would get what award. Then, after what felt like a long time, the judge approached me and my Steer. I was amazed thinking that my Steer had won Grand Champion. The judge leaned down and whispered to me that my Steer had the best conformation and genetics and that had I finished him off with a little more grain a little sooner, he would have been the Grand Champion. As it was, he was going to get a First Prize. In all of my life and work I have tried to ensure that I “finished” the last ten percent of my jobs or tasks.
Speaking of the Navajo County Fair, you should also know about the story of how I took my Quarter Horse, Tilly, purchased from a Navajo Indian, and won the Navajo County Fair Quarter Horse race with a heavy western saddle and a pretty big teenager. The horse to beat was Tombo Kaufman’s big Gray horse. Tombo weighed much less than me and was smart enough to saddle his horse with a light saddle. But it didn’t matter, Tilly, who I had trained by running her in a wash of sand (that’s an Arizona river that runs only during a flash flood) for several minutes at a time, won the race in 1965.
Finally, speaking of the Navajo County Fair in Holbrook, Arizona, it was at one of those annual fairs when I was a senior in high school that I decided to ride a bareback horse in the rodeo. I had purchased a riggins……….a brand new one. I must have been planning on making a career out of rodeoing! I think I lasted a few seconds and the dismount was not graceful. My rodeo days were short lived.
One other junior rodeo story when I was about 14 years old. I was in Seligman, Arizona at a Junior Rodeo and was riding Steers. I got a good one and was determined to stay on at all costs. I held on until my body was so low and sideways on the Steer, and so close to the ground that one of the Steer’s hind feet caught the back pocket of my Wranglers………you should be able to imagine the rest. It was a good thing that my hat was still on (and quite large) because it looked like my jeans weren’t! As I walked out from the center of the arena with my hat over my butt, looking for a place to hide, I heard the announcer say “well there’s one young man who spent $5 bucks on an entrance fee and now is going to need to spend another $5 bucks on a new pair of jeans”. I suppose I was not “cut out” for the rodeo circuit.
To get back to work, I decided as a young man that I would work hard at whatever I could do well at so that I could some day buy a “working” cattle ranch and invest in work! Work-to-work………it’s a good way of life if you enjoy the type of work you are doing. Too many people stop working and die.
<< Home