Today concludes my writings about my stay at a ranch in New Mexico where I participated in their spring cattle drive. With humor and determination I was determined to keep up, or pass, the boys in this endeavor. I have very fond memories of this trip, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it.

Day Five at the Ranch

Well, my final day here at the Ranch. Six a.m. wakeup alarm, which I actually am used to now. But, when you’re in bed at 9:00 (9:30 last night actually), it’s pretty easy. It is truly amazing how the body can restore itself with a good night’s sleep. I feel fit as a fiddle with just a few small aches in my shoulders from yesterday’s exciting events. I did have trouble getting to sleep though as I was reliving all the fun of the day in my head.

Today is worming the horses day and then castrating and branding the calves. Just to ease all the men’s minds, we actually don’t castrate them here, we “band” them, which means you use some special device (who invents these things?) that literally puts a rubber band around their balls (they are fuzzy in case anybody’s wondering) and they just dry up and fall off. Sounds a little bit more civil than castrating. I’ve seen horses get castrated where my horse is, and they actually had a stallion sent off to be castrated on Thursday night here, and he was pretty bloody and unhappy when he came back from the vet’s.


Groom, saddle up, feed the horses and cows (there’s a lot more horses to feed this morning! I get a new horse today, Blankito, as my poor Poncho gets turned out with the horses we rounded up yesterday for a few weeks of rest. I have the “big gun” saddle pads on today. Not so much because I’m sore, but more to try them out.

My lips reached a new level of chapped yesterday and no amount of balm seems to make it better. Even put A&D on them last night. I’m watching a lizard investigate the porch by my feet as I write this. There certainly are a lot of different kids of lizards here and in all shapes and sizes. Haven’t seen a snake though, which is OK with me.

Breakfast was the tantalizing assortment of rubbery eggs, bacon (the bacon IS good here), sausage and pancakes this morning. Can we have a little creativity here? She did manage French toast (which Jean Francoise swears is not a French thing and had never had them before) on Wednesday, which I may have neglected to mention.

9:30 we all meet back at the barn and start worming the horses. It’s a very simple procedure of catching each horse and shooting this medicine into their mouth. This was flavored like apple. Most don’t mind. Some make a fuss. They all got done.

Mark, the San Diego boat guy, is back at the ranch today and he’s brought along a friend that arrived last night from San Diego. I think his name was Scott, so let’s call him that. Mark was apparently his first boss he had at his boat shop and got him into horses and now has a few. Seems like a nice enough guy. Oddly enough though, as he was attempting to saddle up his horse (he brought his own saddle) he was trying to do it from the wrong side (you always saddle a horse on the left side). I think everyone found that rather unusual. Basic horsemanship stuff, universal in English and Western riding. He also had such a hard time controlling his first horse he had to switch to another one.

Anyway. The plan is to move the horses back out onto the ranch. I’d been told that this can get almost as dicey as moving them in because once you’ve gotten them back here they remember that the food is provided to them instead of them having to search for it, so they decide they might want to stick around. We formulate a plan with “the boys” (this now includes Scott, as he has not proved himself with his saddling and horse handling abilities so far) strategically placed at places where the horses might try and escape. R.J. and I are together at the main road, and as soon as the horses pass us we are to gallop over to the river and push the horses up the trail and in the right direction. The gate is opened and Alan pushes the horse out of the corral and they start running. Within moments they’re past us and R.J. and I gallop off to the river. Now I’m on a new horse, and man, is he fast. I’m holding him back as hard as I can and he’s still passing R.J.’s horse. We get to the river and are expecting to see the horses come up the river. No horses, but we sure hear a hell of a lot of hootin’ and hollerin’ way back at the ranch. R.J. goes back up the trail a little to check it out but can’t see much, so after another 30 seconds or so we both head back up the trail the way we came. There are horses running all over the ranch so we just go where it looks like we’re needed. Once they’ve gotten them all back in a bunch I’m strategically placed where they apparently got through before and they start again. But, as they are coming towards me I see that one of the front horses chest and leg is completely torn up and bleeding profusely. I call out that one of them is hurt and we turn them all back to the feeding area. The injured horse is Cowgirl and I cannot even begin to describe these wounds. Apparently in the melee she somehow got caught up on the other side of a barbed wire fence, and when the herd started moving again she panicked and somehow got herself wrapped up in it. Her upper left leg is completely torn open in this incredibly deep gash with skin and flesh and muscle just hanging open and blood pouring out of it. She had two other injuries, but they weren’t as deep and horrible as this. Mark and Alan used disposable diapers (clean!) and very gently and carefully folded the flesh/meat/muscle back up where it belonged and then wrapped it up as best they could. The vet had already been called and was waiting for her. They got her trailered up and Mark drove her down to be stitched up. They ended up keeping her overnight, but I guess everything was going to be OK.

By this point it was after 12:30 so we broke for lunch. Jean Francoise have given up even pretending to find the lunch edible and just ate our potato chips and drank water (they ran out of apples two days ago – COME ON!). After lunch we make attempt #2 at the roundup/push out. Same plan in place. The horse pass us, R.J. and I race up to the river and again, no horses. Before we know it the horses go racing past us BEHIND us and up the road going in the wrong direction. R.J. tells me to stay in the river and they’ll push them down again. I just need to change my position a little to block the other side of the trail. I’m sitting there, Blankito is going nuts, and I can’t see anything because of the dense growth around the river bank. I finally decide somethings gone wrong (again) and head up the road.  I can’t see anyone or any horses, and as I come up over the bend in the road I discover I’m not in the neighbor’s yard (who I discover late is Mark’s property and Mark’s wife) I go blazing past her asking if she’s seen any horses come this way and she point up the hill, which Blankito and I go racing up. At the top of the hill I find everyone. Horses and humans. I arrive just in time to prevent another breakout attempt. Just as I crest the hill the horses are turning direction and heading around a corral that none of them can get to. I race over and turn them back, and then we all push them down the hillside and finally get back on track to where they need to go. I wasn’t there so I don’t know what really happened, but there was a rumor that Jean Francoise had take his hat off and waved it at the horses to keep them on track during the first attempt and that’s what spooked them and started the first fiasco. I know that Alan suspects that Scott was somehow responsible for Cowgirl’s injuries, as he was the ONLY one near her when it happened. It wasn’t a great morning. Although the horse chases were fun, the collateral damage wasn’t worth it. It was also as hot as Billy Blue Blazes out today.


Now the cow part started. We were given a quick lesson in how to tackle the calfves once they are roped (it’s a one-person job to do the flip which is a front leg/flank grab and flip technique). Once the calf is down, then it’s a two-person job to hold them there. The front person does a kneel on the neck and rib thing while the rear person does this sit on the ground and stretch the legs in both direction thing. Those little cows are amazingly strong and can put your lights out with one kick. If it was a cow, then they got a single shot of 7 different medicines, an ear tag in the left ear, and the brand. Most of them cried in pain at the ear pierce and especially the branding, which cruelly was a 3-part brand for this ranch. The bull calves got it even worse. They get the shot, the ear tag on the right ear, but then they cut the tip of the ear off too! Then the “banding” of their – you know and THEN the branding. Needless to say they all weren’t very happy with us when we were done. The ranch actually provided us a cold soda at the end! That was a real treat for us and the first soda I’d had all week. By the time we got back to the ranch it was 5:00 already. Amazingly Debbie (the wife/owner) had fed the horses for us, so we just had to untack and bathe our horses.


I had decided to start my drive back home tonight as I was a little worried about making it back in enough time to catch my flight. So I quickly showered and packed and had dinner. Believe it or not folks we had leftover brisket for dinner. This time it was slathered in barbeque sauce and baked, but was the leftovers from last night’s dinner. COME ON…brisket 3 nights out of 6 meals? I can’t even believe it. Some unidentifiable broccoli dish and dried up sliced French bread that wasn’t even warmed up. Like I said, no end of week celebration dinner at this place. They barely looked up from their dinner plates when I said goodbye.


I made it about 3 ½ hours before I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Actually, they were shutting around 3 hours, but it took another ½ hour until I got to a town that had a hotel. Spent the night at a Comfort Suites, which wasn’t all that bad and the bed was more comfortable than the ranch. I set my alarm for 8:00 a.m., but of course my eyes popped open at 5:00 (it’s an hour earlier in New Mexico to Arizona) and I just dozed until 7:30 and got up.

Believe it or not, I think I’ve lived with Jim too long. I pushed the time a little getting to the airport, and due to several factors, mostly an airport employee giving me faulty information, I was 3 minutes late in checking in for my flight (42 minutes before flight instead of 45 minutes) and they couldn’t check me in. I am now stuck in this airport for 6 ½ hours until 10:00 tonight and won’t arrive back to New York until 6:00 AM. Just shoot me now.

Overall it was a great vacation. Day Four made it all worth it. It was nice to get away. It was beautiful and peaceful and I got a lot of sleep and didn’t overeat. It’s a good thing I like to be alone, or it would not have been fun. The owner’s of the ranch were strange ducks. Jean Francoise was very nice and funny and had it not been for the language barrier I think we would have had an even better time together. I felt bad for him the last two days, because I think it had really stopped being enjoyable to him and I think the food was getting to him. Roy was just plain weird. Carol seemed OK, but I wasn’t sorry to see her go. I developed a new respect for R.J. after Thursday, I suspect because he developed a new respect for me then too. I was extremely proud of myself for how I rode and what I was able to accomplish. Would I do it again? Absolutely. At that ranch? Probably not. I do think it would be fun to try it myself and get it right.

Hope you’ve all enjoyed my rambling. My sister said that she’s loved it and I should do a blog thing, but after today it goes back to “Got the kids to school, ran errands, went to the grocery store, to karate, etc.”  and who the hell wants to read that?

Thanks.

Aimee

Here is the fourth installment of my five day experience participating in a cattle roundup in New Mexico in 2008. This trip was inspirational in many ways. While I already had dreams of someday opening a ‘cowgirl camp’, this trip solidified ideas. I haven’t done it yet, but the dream is still alive and well. My daily writings were the beginning seeds of this blog, and the trip was the first trip I had ever taken without my family — something just for me; to feed my soul. I now regularly travel alone, with a sister or with my friend on soul-feeding trips.

There are only two photos from this long day, as there simply wasn’t time to take any more.

Day Four at the Ranch

Today was an AMAZING day.

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It’s another sunny day here in New Mexico. It was hotter last night than it has been previously. A fire ant decided to join me in bed last night. Three stings before I killed him, but I got a new appreciation for how painful getting stung by a whole bunch of them would be. The wife/owner of the husband-and-wife team owners, Debbie, a somewhat overweight and over-made-up version of a cowgirl who doesn’t seem to do a whole lot of work, was telling us at breakfast how this winter she got stung all up her arm by a scorpion, so I guess I should consider myself lucky with just one fire ant.

Lights out at 9:30 last night. I was definitely less tired last night than Tuesday night for some reason. After an unbelievably heinous breakfast that consisted of orange juice, and a choice of some disgusting looking bran flake cereal of a breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs in a flour tortilla [see Day Two breakfast], I’m now enjoying a few minutes of free time before we hit the dusty trail to find those final elusive 100 cows. Lord knows what we’ll do with them should we find them with only 5 people riding today (and two seem to be fairly incompetent). Lucy, the Mexican woman who seems to do everything here, has packed us an ever-so-delicious lunch again for the trail (see Day Three lunch) that I’m counting the minutes until I get to enjoy.

I sound like a real crab, I know, but I’m actually finding this all quite humorous. This morning though I decided to put my foot down at shoveling the shit for them. I fed the horses and watered the horses, but did not help in raking up the horse poop. Besides the fact that there were only two horses up at that particular barn this morning to clean up after, it just seemed silly for 4 people to be fighting over who was going to rake up the shit like it’s some privilege or something. R.J. (Martha) glared at me and Jean-Francois (who seemed to have a similar attitude this morning), but didn’t say anything.

At 9:30 we hit the trail. Alan, the owner of the ranch, said he’s catch up with us later. So now we’re down to four. ‘Martha’, me, Roy and Jean-Francoise. Jean-Francoise is looking a little tired and scratched up. I play nurse to him. He’s doesn’t want to duck down when we go through bushes (which is QUITE often) because he says he wants to see where he’s going. I keep telling him that the horse knows where to go. Subsequently, his face is all torn up. Anyway, I carry Neosporin with me and apply it to his wounds when we take breaks. Chatty Roy decided to wear a lighter blue shirt today, as the deep blue he had on yesterday practically baked him to death.

There was a coyote right off the path this morning, but was too far away to get a photo that would come out, as he was camouflaged in the grass pretty well. Not too far into the ride we came across 3 cows and two calves. How exciting! And the human/horse to cow ratio was pretty good too. Well, we barely start moving them when two of the cows take off up this hill (dare I say cliff?). Me, being the only one of the paying guests that seems to enjoy this or cared, go taking off after them. I assume Martha is at the bottom trying to keep the one cow and calves together. Surprisingly, Jean Francoise heads up the hill behind me. I’m pushing the cows up the hill and figure we’ll find a way down once we get to the top, as we’re in very heavy bush and trees at this point. NO. Of course not. The cows decide they want to go down again and before I can get to them to stop them they start down this rocky cliff. Well, I know that if a cow can get down it my Poncho can, too. He didn’t want to at first, but he did it and we managed to get the whole herd back together again (can you call only 5 cows a herd?). I’m not sure if Jean-Francoise came down behind me or found an easier, softer way. I think he followed me, as that is where the majority of his morning’s face lacerations came from. From there we managed to move the cows down to the enclosure without any more exciting breakout attempts.

Shortly after continuing on our way Alan managed to find us, and we head up to the one area we had not been to before, way at the end of the property. We’re heading up this enormous ridge and get up as high as 6,000 feet, which had amazing views. I believe that was probably the highest I’ve been this week. But, along the way we come to this solar water well (these are apparently the way to go around here as there are a few scattered around on the property and on the neighbors too), and there was almost the whole herd of horses we were supposed to gather up tomorrow. We continued on our way, as we were still looking for cows, and who should come charging through but Taco, the studdly little miniature donkey! I thought I got a picture of him, but it didn’t come out. He was so cute. That was the closest R.J. said he’d been to him in the two years he’s been on the ranch. As we continued on our way Freckles, Jean Francoise’ horse, got a flat tire (lost a shoe), so we had to stop and get that put back on.

While we were all off our horses we decided to break for lunch. We’re all sitting around eating our lousy sandwiches when, I kid you not, Alan pulls out his sandwich – 3 inches thick, loaded with piles of meat and cheese, lettuce & tomatoes. Now come on here! We’re the paying guests here and the owner is going to pull this beautiful sandwich out of his saddlebag and eat it in front of us? I felt like pushing him off the cliff.

There, at the top of the ridge, where you could literally see everything for miles and miles and there were still no cows to be found, R.J. and Alan decided then that we would go round up the horses instead. This was supposed to happen tomorrow as I’ve already said, but with no cows to be found and the horses just sitting there at the watering hole waiting for us, and R.J. being pretty sure he knew where the remaining three were as we’d seen them yesterday, that seemed like the best plan.

However, along the way, as we’re riding down this ridge, we see two of our cows over on the neighbor’s property. Only problem is there is a huge gorge between them and us, which required us walking down a ways to find a trail to get down (trail would be an overstatement, but as I’ve already said, it’s amazing what these horses can get up and down). Down and up we go only to find no gate in the fence. Down we go again and head down the gorge again until we finally find the spot that the cows must have used where the fence was down. Now, what would possess a cow to want to go down that ravine and up the other side through a little hole in the fence just to go onto the neighbor’s property is beyond me. Don’t they know the grass isn’t greener on the other side?

Well, we hadn’t even had a chance to give our horses a drink from that lovely huge solar powered well water holding tank (which was more like a swimming pool, and at this point even I thought of jumping in), when the two cows took off at a dead run (which is faster than you’d think a cow could run). Alan, R.J. and I take off after them, each in a different direction, because that’s how you get them back on track, and I swear to god I think Roy and Jean Francoise just stood there. Poncho and I are zigging and zagging at a dead gallop through bushes and trees, and I’m proud to say that I am actually the one that caught up with them first and managed to get them turned back in the right direction. R.J. went back to find “the boys”, wherever they’d been hiding from all the fun. From then on, those cows continued down the dirt road fairly happily at a nice walking pace.

Then, my proudest moment of the whole trip came…Alan sent Roy and Jean-Francoise down the mountain with the two cows where they where they were supposed to wait with them at the stream until we caught up to them, and I was to go with R.J. and Alan to round up the horses. I know that this was just a fool’s errand for Roy and Jean-Francoise, as we won’t round up those two cows with the horses, but I hope they didn’t know that. Perhaps there was some need to get those cows off the mountain though so they didn’t head back to the next farm.

We come up to the herd right where we left them, but now, low and behold there’s a whole big herd of cattle there with them! Goddamn it. We were following their tracks from the hillside that we came off of so we knew they were there. Probably watching us all day on the other side of that mountain laughing their asse’s off at us because they’d managed to avoid us all week. Anyway, problem is you can’t herd cattle and horses together. Not only do they move at a different pace, but, with Longhorn cattle they would gore the horses, and that probably wouldn’t be good.

Now, I know from conversations this week that rounding up cattle and rounding up horses is completely different. Horses will try to get away from you just like the cows will, but they take off at a complete gallop and don’t stop until you’ve reached your destination. They were right. We barely had those horses in sight around the bend from the cows and they took off running — and so did we. Honestly, we were galloping so fast and you’re trying so hard to not rip your head off on a tree limb or your face up on a pricker bush that’s rushing by you, that I had absolutely no idea where Alan and R.J. were, just that the horses were ahead of me. But, at some point I’m left there with two mares and Taco, the little donkey! I also know from past conversations that we don’t need Taco or his three mustangs with our group. But, it doesn’t appear to me that the mustangs are with little Taco. I know from experience that all mustangs have a government brand on their neck, and we’d just been talking about it at lunch as well. As far as I could tell the rear mare was NOT a mustang, and I really couldn’t tell with the one ahead of her. Taco was leading the charge. Thank goodness things slowed down to a trot at this point, and the rear mare was dodging and weaving and giving me a general hard time. I kept managing to get her back with the other two until one point when Taco and the lead mare broke off and I decided that since I knew the rear mare was not a mustang, to stick with her. Of course at this point I had NOOOO idea where Alan, R.J., or the other horses were. We were still pretty high and I could see all around. I also had NOOO idea where I was. But, I just stuck with this horse and low and behold a little while later I see the big herd on the ridge above us. We all re-connected and continued down the mountain. All the horses at this point were pretty damn tired, so the pace had slowed to this incredibly painful and horrendously fast trot. Had I known we were herding the horses today I would have put the “big guns” on the saddle (the full saddle and leg fleece pad). Poncho and I managed to find a slow lope (canter) which was MUCH more comfortable, and I was the lead horse for the rest of the way, as the other two horses were pretty well pooped out. We get the horses down to the valley floor and start heading them in the proper direction. R.J. went to find the boys babysitting the two cows (I honestly couldn’t tell you how long they were there – probably two or three hours waiting at least) and Alan and I continued with the herd down the valley. Once R.J. found the boys, they were supposed to go round up the last three horses from the different herd we saw yesterday and catch up with us.

When Alan and I got to the part of the valley that their was no escape for the herd except where we wanted them, Alan sent me back to see if I could find the men and their herd. I get down a ways and three horses come crashing out of the brush followed shortly by Roy. R.J. and Jean Francoise are nowhere to be found. Alan seemed to be so relieved to see me he just stopped, so I took off with those horses and fed them down the canyon to the rest of the herd. Now mind you, again I am at a dead gallop over rocks, through rivers, bushes and trees. These horses are really amazing.

It was a successful day in the end. We came charging into the farm with me leading the way. Alan and I got the herd turned in where we needed them, and we even got the night off from feeding the horses and shoveling shit!!! We got back to the barn at 5:15, so we were in the saddle the better part of 8 hours today and Alan and R.J. estimated we covered 25 miles, with 15 of it at a run.

Dinner tonight was brisket…again, with baked potato and iceberg salad – same as Sunday night, but no bread. I saw it there on the counter, but we were all too damn tired to care to put it on the table. Now come on. The guests are only here for 6 dinners. Do you think they can manage to come up with enough options so that you’re not repeating a meal? Please.

I was a little worried about Jean-Francoise, as he was kind of slumped over his dinner plate. I thought for a minute he might fall asleep at the table. Even I went to dinner tonight in my pajamas because I knew I was too damn tired to change twice

Whatever else happened this week, today made it all worthwhile. What fun. My arms are all scratched up and I have a scratch on my forehead. My body aches, but nothing is hurt. Dinner was a quiet affair. Apparently Jean-Francoise DID NOT enjoy this afternoon. I guess he’s glad he wasn’t with us for the big herd then! It was a really hard day, but the time sure flew by. I will have no problem sleeping tonight, but that hasn’t been a problem any day. If there ever were a Budweiser night, tonight would have been it. I celebrated with a delicious iced coffee, and didn’t worry that it will affect my sleep. Nothing will tonight.

Love,

Aimee

Day Three at the Ranch

For some reason I’m not as tired as I was yesterday, although the dual alarms I have set practically shot me out of bed at 5:00 AM. I turned my lights off at 9:00 PM and I do not think I moved until that alarm went off. We were at the barn by 6:00, horses saddled and fed by 7:00 and up to breakfast. No break before breakfast like we usually have (maybe 20 or 30 minutes) and no break after breakfast either. We were in the saddle and on the trail at 7:45 AM. It was a lovely time to be out. The sun was just up fully and it was still quite cool which was very nice. I actually wore a long-sleeved fuzzy until maybe 11:00.

I was hoping to get a glimpse, or better yet a photo, of a havalena (sp?), which is apparently New Mexico’s version of a wild boar. No luck. No luck in the wildlife department at all today. Not much luck in the cow department either. What a surprise. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack. We did manage to find a herd of 19 around 11:30 and moved them down the valley to a holding pen.

I actually got a “good job” from R.J., the trail boss, which just about made me fall out of my saddle, but I kept my poker face to not show it. I actually think I have a knack for this herding cattle thing, and those other 3 people seem to have their heads of their rears for some of the things they were missing. Cows are funny. By far not the brightest lights on the tree, but they think of four things; sex (if they’re bulls), food, water and how to get away from humans. You can tell the one’s to watch by the look in their eyes, or more to the point, how they’re always watching the bushes on the sides for an escape route.

The lunches they pack are really something. I kid you not when I tell you it’s one slice of turkey and one slice of cheese between two big thick pieces of hard white bread. No lettuce, no tomato, no salt or pepper. I couldn’t even begin to choke mine down today. Yesterday I asked for a breakfast burrito because my sandwich was so bad on day one, and I literally got scrambled eggs in a flour tortilla. No salsa, no bacon, just eggs. Blech. Even my horse didn’t want it, although he did manage to eat my apple when I was getting something out of my saddlebag today. He’s a bad boy but he makes me laugh, which is more than most other guests can manage.


I finally got Roy to talk at lunch today. He’s a retired machine shop owner from Phoenix that moved to New Mexico last year. He helps a friend out with his business three times a week in the mornings. His boys, 33 and 31 bought the business form him and are doing quite well with both government contracts to fill making parts for hum vees (not a bad job during a war) and car parts for Honda. That’s all I got though.

Carol’s taking off tonight to head back home. She probably just got sick of the food. God forbid we actually find more than a handful of cows tomorrow without her. Not that she was much help anyway, but at least it was one more horse to try and keep the cows in line.

The time passes much more quickly on the trail when there’s cow’s to move. Luckily we found the cows today pretty far away. I wish I’d brought a pedometer or something so I could know how many miles we ride each day. Tomorrow’s our last chance to find the other 100 or so cows left. Yeah right. Friday mornings castrating and branding time, and in the afternoon we round up the horses for worming.

Do you see a “stupid” on my forehead in any of these photos? Because I keep chuckling to myself that there must be one there — paying good money to do this ranches cattle drive. The ‘stupid’ should be there because I’d probably do it again!

So, after a 7:45 departure we returned to the barns at 3:00; over 7 hours in the saddle. We un-tacked and washed and dried the horses. Then we got a break for 20 minutes before we had to go and feed, water and clean up the shit for the night. No, they don’t have to pay teenagers to do that at this ranch. No siree, they have paying guests that do it. Again, do you see “stupid” anywhere?

However, when we got to the hay trailer R.J. was busy trying to trailer a young stallion for the first time who had to go to the vet and get gelded. We sat there on that trailer for 20 minutes waiting for him, when I it finally hit me who R.J. reminds me of; it had been bugging me since the first day — Martha Stewart. The way he’s treated us distinctly reminds me of how it felt to work for Martha. He gets some perverse pleasure out of telling us feeding is at 4:00 and then watching us wait. Luckily, my French friend got as sick of it as I did, so we figured out how to get that 4-wheel ATV thing going and off we went. One of the photos below is of him. We ran over a few things with the trailers, but besides herding the cows, that was the most fun we’d had all day. R.J. isn’t all bad though, because once he caught up with us (I guess he pretty quickly figured out how to get that stallion in the trailer once he saw us barreling down the road in the ATV he let me finish up the feeding driving it while HE fed the horses with the boys. R.J. will, from hereon in, be referred to as Martha.


Dinner was pathetic tonight. I don’t think you could really call it meatloaf, but it was something like that; dry and flaky. Blech. Frozen green beans and corn mixed with peas and carrots (I didn’t ever like that – please don’t mix my vegetables unless it’s Chinese or Indian) and bread with iceberg salad. Come on folks. At least we had New York cheesecake for dessert because Carol had brought one from her restaurant for them. Why they haven’t been serving that all week I don’t know.

Heads up Cyrena and Susan…with Cyrena’s people skills, Susan’s business skills, my creativity and my friend Terry Judd’s horse knowledge I think we could really make a business out of this. Do you know they don’t even have a hot tub here? How good would that feel at the end of the day?

I know I’m pissing and moaning a lot, but I really am enjoying myself. The weather is beautiful, although it is pretty darn hot in the sun between 2 and 4. But if I’m on a horse I’m happy. My knees didn’t bleed today (the liquid band-aids won out over the wrap-around bandages). I get to sleep in tomorrow. We’re back to our normal 7 AM barn call.

Love to all.

Continuing with my diary from the cattle roundup I did in May of 2008, below are my writings back to family and friends from day 2. While days 1 and 2 were not particularly exciting, they do provide some character development for the more exciting days 3, 4, and 5.

Day Two at the Ranch

Well, I survived day two at the ranch.

I swear to God I think I could make a killing at this business. These people are making a living and they honest to God have no personality or business skills that I can see. There is so much more that could be done and people would be knocking down the door to do this. To start with, if you’re going to have a cattle drive, then there should be more than 130 cattle spread out over 50 square miles! I REALLY enjoy working cattle, but the majority of both days have been spent trying to find the elusive creatures. Two days, 13 hours in the saddle and only 12 cattle to show for it. That’s ridiculous and boring. The scenery is beautiful, but not THAT beautiful.

Tomorrow we’re supposed to head out earlier to try and find some before they hunker down in the brush for the heat of the day, so it’s at the barn at 6 AM instead of 7 AM and then breakfast on the go. No promises that we’ll be home any earlier either. I cannot believe I’m paying to do this. What a racket – free labor. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun do be riding all day. I really like my horse and I love all the varied terrain and scenery. Hopefully tomorrow we find more cows.

Carol is actually leaving tomorrow after the ride – she has to fly out to Minnesota for her son’s high school graduation – he’s been living with his grandparents for the past 2 years because the schools in New Mexico were so bad.

So, it will be just me and Roy (who I kid you not has MAYBE said 100 words the entire trip so far – including 3 meals a day and all day on the trail) and Jean Francoise, the barely-English speaking chief of police. He’s actually very nice and is feeling much better today. Except for the language barrier we’re getting along well. He has two grown daughters – 33 and 32 – that say he likes criminals better than them because he was gone so much when they were growing up. This is his 4th or 5th visit to the ranch. Mark, the ranch hand/past sail shop owner in San Diego, didn’t come out today (probably because we’re such a small group.) So, it was just R.J. and us, who let’s just say is a man of few words. I don’t think he knows quite what to think of me. I told him to expect a smack from me by the end of the trip.

Not as much wildlife to report today:

• Jackrabbits (with the largest ears when you’re used to our little cottontails at home.)
• Lots of turkey vultures.
• Many lizards (saw them yesterday but I forgot to list them)
• A flock of wild turkeys
• A small hawk with 3 stripes in his tailfeathers
• VERY FRESH black bear prints. R.J. thought they weren’t more than ½ an hour old. You could still see the cracks in the pads of his feet in the sand prints. We didn’t, thankfully, run into him, although we saw plenty of bear tracks today.

I found the bleached out skull of a coyote that I’ll bring home and we found three pieces of very old Indian pottery up at an old home site on top of a mountain ridge. There’s an old miner’s catalog I’ve asked to go to if we get in the neighborhood so I can photograph it and add it to my abandoned home photo collection.

There’s apparently a pack of wild mustangs mares (not truly wild, but the ranch owners bought them and released them on the land to live wild. With them they also released a miniature donkey gelding named Taco. Apparently he doesn’t realize;

a) That he’s not a stallion anymore or

b) That he’s not a full-size equine and not only keeps up with the mustangs, but struts around like he’s some big macho stallion, which must be very fun to see.

Once again we ran across every horse that we will herd in on Friday, but we weren’t looking for horses today, we were looking for cows. Hopefully the horses won’t disappear on Friday.

The fun news is that whatever cows we do manage to find we then get to brand and castrate the calves! NO, I’M NOT KIDDING. I promise I’ll get pictures, although that makes R.J. grumpy.

I was in bed with lights off at 9:20 last night and I’m anticipating a 9:00 lights out tonight considering I’ll be up at 5:00 to dress my wounds and head out again. The bandaged knees didn’t work so well today and I think did more hard than good. Tomorrow I go with the liquid band-aids on the inside knees and see how that works. I’ve heard of success with this method.

Hope all is humming along at home in Connecticut. I heard the weather was crappy there today, but I guess after what was a stunning weekend a little rain must fall. The rain’s not falling here, and I am truly getting a cowboy tan. Not a farmer tan. Apparently there IS a difference. Farmer tans are with short-sleeved shirts and cowboy tans are the face and hands only. Mine is a cowboy tan as the sun is so strong you need to keep the long sleeves on all day. I think you’d actually be hotter without it on. It does cool down quite nicely at night and it’s quite chilly in my room by morning.

Love,

Aimee

In late May of 2008 I took a trip alone down to New Mexico to participate in a cattle roundup on a ranch. At the time I was leasing a horse so I was riding regularly, but not like this. Every night I would write about my day and send it home to my family and friends while sitting out on the porch of the locked main house, which was the only place that had internet. It was an interesting and wonderful trip and I enjoyed writing home about it. My friends and family really enjoyed my daily updates and writings. Reflecting on it today, this was probably the beginning seeds of this blog, so I thought it would be fun to publish them for you to read, along with the few pictures I took on the trip, over the next five days. Following is Day One. It got more exciting every day, so come back to find out what happens on a cattle roundup!

Day One at the Ranch

Hi Everyone!

I arrived yesterday just in time for dinner. A few wrong turns along the way, but never for long. This town is so small and the street isn’t even on the map. Oh well. Now I know to leave a lot of time to get back to the airport, but I suspect the return to Phoenix won’t be so hard.

Dinner was simple cowboy fare. Brisket, corn, baked potato and bread, but it was all good. I was pooped. My cabin is really cute. It could be so much more if I got my hands on it, but it’s certainly a step above the dude ranch last year. There’s a coffee pot, microwave and mini fridge. A shower/tub in the bathroom and the room is big and airy with vaulted ceiling, a big table, and a covered front porch that I’ve moved this padded rocker out on to. After dinner I just showered, unpacked, and sat on the porch doing some needlework until the sun went down and I could go to bed! As I sat there quietly a deer came up and was eating brush probably 20 feet away. Not exactly wildlife after Darien, but they don’t usually get that close there.


I was up at 6:00 this morning, as we had to report to the barn at 7:00 sharp to saddle the horses. Once groomed and tacked up, we all climbed in the back trailer of their 4-wheeler and drove around throwing hay to the horses and cows. Breakfast was at 8:30, which was quite good. There was simple breakfast fare of scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, pancakes or cereal. Breakfast was over at 9:00 and we actually got to go back to our cabin for ½ an hour before we had to saddle up and hit the trail.

There are only 3 other guests! I guess a mother and daughter were supposed to come. The mother had given it to her daughter as a college graduation present, but the daughter called a week or two again and said she didn’t know what her mother was thinking; neither of them rode well enough to do this, so they’re coming to Cowgirl Camp Level 1 next time. The next couple was literally on their way when one or the other got very ill and they had to go home. So, we’re left with Carol, an about-to-turn 40 married mother of 3 that used to live in Minnesota, but after coming here to New Mexico a time or two decided to move here. They own a restaurant in the small town outside of Albuquerque that they live in, which they just sold a few weeks ago and will be transitioning to the new owners over the summer. This is Carol’s 10th visit to the ranch. The next guest is Roy, who is probably 50, divorced with kids that I think are grown. Doesn’t talk much. The last is a Frenchman named Jean who has been here quite a few times. He is the chief of police in some big town outside of Paris (the name is escaping me right now), but he lives in Paris with his girlfriend. He has a grown daughter. He is probably the most outgoing of the bunch and is quite funny, but his English is not so great. He was not feeling well today though and right after lunch he threw up in the bushes and probably ¼ mile from home he had to get off and they had to go get a 4-wheeler to pick him up. We all assumed he was still just having stomach problems, but apparently his HEART was bothering him. Hope we don’t have to break for a funeral! I’ll check on him before dinner to see if he’s still alive.

The two ranch hands are Mark and C.J. Mark is probably the chattiest of the two, but in typical cowboy fashion they are men of few words. Mark opened up a little on the ride home before Jean fell ill. He owned a boat business in San Diego for 20 years and moved here 4 ½ years ago with his wife and stepdaughter, never looking back.


My horse today was Poncho. Looked much like my Chipper, but I’m used to my horse, who is quite thin in the girth, although not a skinny horse; he’s just built that way. Poncho was much wider, so I felt rather “rounded” all day. My ‘Tush Cush’ certainly was a welcome addition to the saddle though and I suspect by Wednesday I will be bringing out the “big guns” – the full saddle and leg fleece cover! Tomorrow I will be bandaging the inside of my knees, as they are the most sore on me tonight. But, Poncho was a great trail horse. Much like my horse at the dude ranch last year, he likes to be the lead horse, so I’m constantly trying to get his nose out of the head wrangler’s horse’s rear end.

The countryside was spectacular. The wildlife seen today includes:

• Quail
• Bighorn Sheep; momma, daddy & little baby
• Great Blue heron (didn’t expect to see one of those here)
• Golden eagle
• A lone turkey
• Kildeer – a strange little bird a little like a sandpiper but with shorter legs. Apparently I almost rode over it’s nest, so it does this strange dance/run with his wings out trying to get you to follow it, instinctively willing to sacrifice itself for it’s young.

Apparently we will see many more bighorn sheep and there are black bear, mountain lion (we saw their scat), bobcat and some odd-named wild boar.

We had lunch on a grain-grinding ledge of an Indian tribe I’d never heard of before that was covered with round indentations of where the tribe ground their grain. There were cave carvings too.

Apparently there are about 120 cattle for us to locate on their 50 square mile land! We found 3 today! Actually, we rounded up a few more, but at the end of the day for some reason there wasn’t enough time for us to bring them in. There are 17 horses for us to round up one day as well, worm, and push back out. The three cattle that we did bring in were quite exciting as they were apparently wild and we were way up at the top of this mountain when we spotted them and somebody started moving them (we had split up at that point and I was just with RJ and Carol). We loped and galloped down that hill in order to not lose them. I knew there was no way I was going to stop Poncho when he had a job to do, so I just held on and stayed right behind R.J.

We got back around 3:00, which seemed early, though I was grateful (or my ass and knees were). But then we had to wash, dry and brush the horses and do the old trailer-ride-behind-the-RV hay thing.


Hope all is well at home and I miss everyone. I will send pictures when I can.

I finally got to meet my new niece, Sia Elizabeth, today. She will be 3 weeks old on Monday.

Evan was completely fascinated by her. Evan & Maia were the last grandkids born until Sia, so he doesn’t have a whole lot of experience with babies. He asked me the other day if she was walking yet. I think he thinks they are like baby goats — that they’re walking around a few minutes after birth.

She’s beautiful. Perfect. I can’t wait until I can spend more time with her.

After a successful camp drop-off on Tuesday depositing India for her third year and Maia for her first year at Teton Valley Ranch Camp in Dubois, I finally have a little bit of private time with my son, Evan, after he’s just completed his second year there. Evan loves being with me, and at home he’s my big farm and garden helper. Yesterday we spent several hours driving up through Teton National Park, Kelly, and Mormon Row taking photographs. He’s extremely patient with me while I constantly stop the truck to get another shot.

Yesterday we came across many wonderful things, and I’ll show you just a few.

Today as evening was falling we went up through Teton National Park, the entrance to which is maybe a mile from our house here. On our way through heading to moose we saw a beaver dam. I did see a beaver swimming along in the water, but couldn’t focus quickly enough before he dove under.


There was also a female moose taking a rest in a bush next to the beaver dam, but she would not cooperate for a photo.

We headed up to Lost Creek Ranch and got a few more photos.

Luckily though on the way back home not far from where we’d seen the female, this glorious buck was having his evening meal.


It’s hard not to be awed by the beauty surrounding you here.

I got to take a trail ride today – finally – with just my friend Terry and another friend of Terry’s, Sandy. I’ve taken to calling myself Consuela the Housekeeper because I’ve felt a little overwhelmed and burdened by children, cooking, laundry, and camp preparations, etc. for the past few weeks (months, years…). It was nice to get away, even if it was just for 6 hours. We went to an area that I’d never ridden in before, up north toward Moran Junction, in a beautiful area by the Snake River with great Teton views.


As we rode further, we came upon the mighty Snake River, which is particularly mighty this year. Having more snowfall this past winter than ever recorded, the Snake is higher than I’ve seen it in the 16 or so years I’ve been coming to Jackson. The air was actually cooler riding along the shores of the snake than it was riding further inland.

I got to see two animals that I’d never seen before. First we heard this strange loud noise that sort of had a clacking sound to it as well, and then we saw it – an enormous Sandhill Crane flying a little off to our left. Just a bit further up the trail we came across one on the ground. Magnificent. Almost 5 feet tall and a lovely brown color with a partially red head, he walked along a path horizontal to ours, but was extremely elusive when it came to being photographed. I pulled this one off the internet so you can see how spectacular he was.


Then I was leading our ride as we were heading back towards the trailer and had been loping along for a ways when I dropped down into this little valley and there, over to my left, was a badger running along the hillside, not 50 feet from me. Now the badger is a nasty animal, so I was quite pleased that he was running away from me and not towards me. I was even more pleased about this when I turned around and discovered that my two trail riding friends were absolutely nowhere in sight! I did not even have my camera out at this point so a photograph was not possible, but here’s what a badger looks like for anybody that isn’t familiar. And that is exactly what he looked like in real life! Low to the ground, but wide with those interesting markings on his face.

It was great to be out riding with friends. Jim and the kids entertained themselves all day showing our friends Lorraine, Ted, and their son James around. A hike to Phelp’s Lake, a trip up the tram here in Teton Village where James and Evan gave everyone a real scare disappearing for about a half an hour on a little hike without telling anyone, and a trip into town to do the Amazin’ Maze, which is always a good time. We met camp friends of India’s and their families in town for Thai food for dinner and did last-minute packing at home tonight.

Tomorrow we take India and Maia back up to Dubois for their month at camp. India is counting the minutes until camp starts and she can spend a month with her friends, and Maia is counting the minutes until camp starts and she has to leave me for the first time!

In the rotten, stinking, lousy day I had on Monday, there was one piece of good news: My sister Marissa and her wife, Brooke, had their baby.


Brooke gave birth to Sia Elizabeth on Monday evening and she was just over 7 pounds. It figured that she’s be born when I wasn’t there to share in the joy personally. They’ve been busy being new parents so the pictures I’ve seen have been few. They had chosen not to find out what the baby’s sex was, so we were all anxiously waiting to hear if we had a new boy or girl in the family. I know that all of my girls are thrilled that it was ‘Sia’ and not ‘Griffin’, although I know that Evan will be disappointed. He remains the only boy on my side of the family. I’m just excited to have a new baby to hold — and that I can give back at the end of the day!

They came home from the hospital today but I have not spoken to them to see how everyone is settling in. I know that they were anxious to get out of the hospital and get home.

I cannot wait to meet her.

These past two days have been a struggle, but i’ve tried to continue to see the beauty in the small things.

(Please excuse the poor quality of these photos. My camera was in my forgotten suitcase, so I was left, extremely frustrated, with only an iPhone.)

The wildflowers blooming in the pasture that Jive was in.


The incredibly handsome English Mastiff outside of the grocery store. He was the color of a weimaraner and had the face and body of a boxer.


The flowers long past bloom in Connecticut still in their glory here.


Or this puppy at Dr. Theo’s this morning. Only six weeks old and looking for a home. She would have been coming home with me if I hadn’t been told that her combination of heeler and catahoula leopard dog would make chickens an irresistible treat for her. Goodness she was just what we all needed at that very moment. Puppy breath licking your face and the most incredible turquoise colored eyes.


Or the proud mom moment of my girls fearlessly entering the time trials of the barrel racing event at the Teton Barrel Racing Association event tonight and doing incredibly well! India got a time of 32 seconds on China.


And Maia, who has never run a barrel course in her entire life went into the ring on Louie, whom we have no knowledge of whether or not he’s ever done it before in his life. They ran the course flawlessly and got an impressive score of 43 seconds.


Even with sadness and a heavy heart there is always joy to be found.