The spring pasture that we leased from the USBR contained a small lake where the cattle could get water. We left them there and hauled hay to them in the winter of 1977.
Sometime in January it got cold enough that I was having trouble keeping a hole chopped in the lake for them to drink. One morning when I went to feed I discovered two cows that had walked out on the ice and had broken through. They were standing in about three and half feet of water and were shivering violently. I threw a rope on one of them but couldn’t pull her out. In those days we didn’t have a four-wheel drive pickup so I went home and got a tractor. After both cows were safely on dry land I returned the tractor and came back to check on them. I guess they thought it was warmer in the water. They were both in the lake again so I went back after the tractor. When I got them out this time I tried to chase them around to warm them up but they were so cold they didn’t want to move. After a while I gave up in frustration and left. The next time I checked on them they were still on dry land but both were dead.

One time while out riding, I wish I’d had a camera .I stopped to give my horse a breather and after sitting still for a few minutes something caught my eye. I sat and watched as a deer which had been lying in the shade, slowly got up and slipped away hoping that he had not been seen. I marveled that I had not seen him before even though he had been close and I had scanned the area where he lay in hiding.
As I sat there wondering how he had escaped my vision, another deer got up from the same hiding place and also slowly slunk away. Now I was really amazed. As I sat there berating myself for my lack of acuity. A third deer arose and sneaked off. Now I was truly amazed so I looked intently at the shaded area from where the deer had emerged and watched as four more deer slowly stood up and one by one sneaked away.



The Honeymooners
Sam and sue got married in that big white church in town.
It was a bright spring day in June when he changed her name to Brown.
When the ceremony was over and all had kissed the bride
They headed for home in the buggy, seated side by side.

The buggy horse was old and she didn’t see too well.
She tripped upon a big old rock and right there down she fell.
Sam got down from where he sat up on the buggy seat,
Unharnessed the mare and helped her to her feet.

He put the harness back and they soon were on their way.
When he got back in the buggy, “That’s once,” was all he had to say.
They continued on their journey. They were so much in love
They didn’t notice the storm clouds Gathering up above.

The thunder crashed. The mare got scared and fell again right there.
Once again Sam got down and helped that old gray mare.
The shower passed, the sun came out. The flowers smelled so nice.
As Sam gathered the lines in his hands, he muttered “That’s twice.”

They drove along for quite a spell, holding hands and such.
Both were kinda quiet kids and never did talk much.
As they topped the ridge above the river, there sprang up quite a breeze.
The old mare shied at a tumbleweed and fell down to her knees.

Sam sprang from the buggy in a single bound. He was agile for his size.
“That’s three”, he said kinda quiet-like and put a bullet between her eyes.
Now Sue had been pretty quiet up until this point.
But when she saw what Sam had done she came plumb out of joint.

“How could you do such as a thing as that?” she screamed as her face turned red.
They were having their first big fight, right after they were wed.
She really read him the riot act as he stood there like a dunce.
When she finished her big, long mad tirade, Sam simply said,” that’s once.”



The School Ma’arm

He was just a country boy and always behind in school.
Mostly he worked at home on the ranch. In those days that was the rule.
After round-up in the fall, he’d start to school late.
In the spring he’d quit again, ahead of calving date.

With that kind of schedule, he was always in a bind.
And every year he’d fall a little more behind.
What with calving and branding in the spring and round-up in the fall,
and fixing fence and making hay, didn’t leave much time at all.

But he went to school as much as time from work allowed.
He learned to cipher and to read, which made his parents proud.
He knew most all there was to know when he finished up grade six.
He was just as smart as any of those other country hicks.

But he didn’t quit school because he knew it all.
He had another reason why he stayed away that fall.
He’d learned to love his sixth grade teacher, she was a lovely lass.
But he couldn’t marry someone who had him so outclassed

Besides there was too much difference in their ages, don’t you see?
Why, she was all of eighteen years… But he was twenty-three!