Whenever I'm on someone's farm or ranch where livestock are running loose, I'm meticulous about following the usual rule of leaving gates exactly as I find them. Today I discovered that the cost of letting some of the stock escape in the New Ranching Economy is more than I would have imagined. A rancher was describing one of his prize bucks that had some ungodly high score by virtue of its antlers and general build. The deer had broken its neck in a pen after getting its antlers caught in a blowdown mesquite. "That was a $100,000 buck," the rancher said. Why am I suddenly nostalgic for cattle or even the horses that will gnaw on the plastic parts of a truck?
When I was just a little tyke I was told about a neighbor who got really mad at a bull one day. He was working on some sort of farm implement at the time. The bull was bellering constantly and simply driving him nuts. The neighbor spun around and threw a crescent wrench in the general direction of the bull in hopes it would spook it and get the bull to move away from where he was. The wrench hit the bull in the head perfectly and it dropped to the ground......dead!
No. It wasn't anything like $100,000. But, when it's not your bull................
That buck's antlers apparently scored a 391 by the Boone and Crockett Club rating method. Ironically, those antlers were most likely what got him entangled in the branches of the mesquite with the result that he ended up dead as vaudeville. Natural selection at work.
One rancher's dirty work
About two years ago I was working on a rural survey of about 2200 acres. There were several grazing leases and they all centered around access to a large (80 acre) pond; the fences ran crazy with what seemed like no forethought. I was paying attention to gates as there was plenty of livestock at every bend.
I ran into one of the several ranchers that was leasing and chatted a bit about the drought. He asked me to go ahead and leave one specific closed gate open after I left. It would keep him from having to drive all the way down in there. I knew which gate he was talking about and per his wishes left it open.
A few days later I was met on the site by another rancher. He wasn't really ready to shoot anybody, but he was a little put out that I had left that one gate open a few days earlier. Seems as though he was already supplementing his herd with alfalfa and wanted to keep out everybody else's stock.
The first rancher's herd (about 150 head) had snuck in through the open gate and joyously fed on the second rancher's high dollar hay for a day or two. I apologized and told him the first guy had specific asked me to leave the gate open. The second rancher grinned and told me he would "get back at the SOB" one way or the other.
I hope he did. I didn't like being used as the fall guy. Some of those old ranchers are crazy like a fox.
One rancher's dirty work
> I didn't like being used as the fall guy. Some of those old ranchers are crazy like a fox.
Now that story is a classic. Have you ever thought about writing up a collection of tales from the field? James Herriot never made it to Oklahoma, so there has to be plenty of material left.
Tellin' Stories
There is actually a "Yarn Spinning" group here in Oklahoma that have contests. I have been asked several times to join but I usually shun public speaking. Ron White is the only one that can get away with telling stories and throwing scotch back publically and getting paid. 😉
(Seriously, I have had several stories published in various trade periodicals. And as per my modus operandi they are all under pseudonyms.)