Rain, rain, rain. That’s the story over the last few days. Thursday, we got 2.5 inches. Saturday, another inch. And today, over half an inch. That’s over 4 inches, but the actual total is certainly even higher, as our rain gauge isn’t accurate, due to the wind. The gauges in town are reading over 5 inches.
This morning, despite the heavy rain and unforgiving “gumbo” (the world’s finest – and stickiest – mud), I ventured out, just after 6:00, to round up all the pairs (about 230), currently in a paddock called Rut. Once all the calves were mothered up and everyone was settled, I moved them to their new pasture, Seal. It was a slow and sloppy process, with all this mud, but I got the job done. Then, I rearranged their fence and headed back to camp for breakfast and my weekly meeting with Brandon.
Later that day, just as I was finishing up construction of more shelves for my shed, I heard a truck backing up to our corrals. It was Brandon’s father-in-law, Nick, from New Haven, Wyoming. He had come to pick up 3 yearling heifers, a Longhorn/Corriente mix, from our neighbor, Gary Donahay. Nick didn’t have his muck boots on, so I walked the heifers out of their muddy corral pins and into his trailer, and he slammed the door shut behind them. Watching me during this process was a group of German women, vacationers from Nick and his wife’s guest ranch back in Wyoming, who had evidently come along for the experience. After the heifers were loaded, Gary and his son, Sean, arrived. They, along with Nick and me, just chatted and joshed around for a while out in front of the corrals. Sometime later, Nick and Gary exchanged money for the heifers, and then Nick and his party took off back home to Wyoming. For a while thereafter, Gary, Sean, and I continued talking, until Sean, with eyebrows raised and a smile on his face, said: “So yall wanna go have a beer or what?” I really wasn’t interested, as I still had work to do, nor did I have the money to spend on luxuries like alcohol. Nevertheless, I decided to jump into the truck with Gary and Sean and seize this opportunity for connection with our neighbors. And boy am I glad I did!
I felt a little awkward at first, as I walked into the Newell Bar, a place to which I am a complete stranger, but I was quickly reassured by the realization that I was accompanied by locals. After saying hello to a few folks, Sean and Gary immediately struck up a lively conversation with the bartender, a friendly woman in her late 50’s named Nancy. A few sips into my beer, Sean pointed out a fella at the checkout counter of the adjacent liquor store, saying: “There’s the neighbor I was telling you about.” Earlier that day, out in front of the corrals, he had told me about a young guy (24) who had just taken over management of his family’s 50,000 acre ranch right across the county road from me. Not wanting to pass up this chance to meet yet another neighbor, I jumped up from my seat and darted out the front door. I exchanged a few words with some guys outside, then excused myself and took off after my neighbor when I saw him exit the liquor store. I caught up with him and told him who I was and where I was living. A delightful fella with a bright personality, he asked me for my number and thanked me for approaching him. A little while later, I received a text message from him inviting me to dinner one day this week. Will Lindsey is his name, and he seems like a hell of a guy.
Also great guys are Gary and Sean. Honest, hardworking, and pleasing to be around. Gary is semi-retired (I assume) and Sean is an electrician, but both are cowboys at heart. After three rounds at the bar, we all went back to Gary’s place, about a mile west of me, and they showed me a few cowboy things. They got me up on an unbroken horse, showed me how a cowboy holds his reins, and asked me to move some of their bulls into a new pin. Then, they handed me a lasso and told me how to rope a steer. I practiced for about an hour or so on a metal steer out in their front yard. It’s definitely not as easy as it looks on TV, but I managed to do alright, good enough at least to please these two cowboys. I'd really like to find myself a rope, so that I can practice this everyday...what a handy skill to have!!
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