Californian Cowboy: 10/2/11

Well hey there everyone!

Its been the longest gap between entries so far, so I’ve got some catching up to do.

The reason I havent posted in a while is because this week has been literally the most tired I’ve been since being here. I’ll get done with work around 7 each night, and literally only have enough energy to eat some dinner, and maybe get in the shower. Blog entries were on my mind, but I always passed out before I could pick up my computer.

Anyways, Ill give you a recap on the last week. Ill try to keep it brief, Because I could go on and on about all the stuff I’ve been up to.

I’ll start with last weekend. Cooper, Stuart, and I went into Boulder to hit a concert. It was The Wood Brothers, Here is some of their music...

It was absolutely awesome, the venue was the Fox Theatre, a very historic venue in Boulder. Allen, one of the ranchers here at the Chico, saw the Dave Mathews Band there in 1994. Isn’t that awesome?

The concert was fantastic. The music was great, I got to schmooze some ladies for the first time in a long while, and 3 for 2 PBR deals rock.

After the concert we went to Denver to Stuart’s cousin Ben’s house. It was really nice of him to let us crash there, and his house was really nice.

We woke up the next morning for our fly fishing trip we had planned for Sunday. Cooper took off, as he had to go get some work done on the ranch. Ben, Stuart, and I took off for “the magic mile”, a fishing spot up in the rockies. I’m not sure exactly where It was, but it was in this beautiful basin, tucked in between MASSIVE peaks. Unfortunately I forgot my camera on that trip, it would have been great to get pics of the concert and the fishing trip.

I ended up catching 7 very nice sized trout that day, so my first fly fishing experience on a river went exceedingly well. I had a ton of fun with Stuart, Ben, and Stuart’s uncle Grant.

We cruised home after fishing, exhausted, not so much looking forward to work the next day.

I thought I was going to be building water tanks on Monday, like I had been doing for the past week, but Monday ended up being a great day.

Michael, Allen and I saddled up and rode out to the chrome white to gather a herd of around 85 bulls from the pasture. Our mission was to prepare them to be shipped out in the next few days.

We got the bulls and rode them back to our corral here at headquarters. We then proceeded to cut out the old bulls who weren’t getting sold, and then to cut out the smaller, more feminine looking bulls out, which we would turn into steers.

The next job was to take the bulls which we deemed unfit for sale, and band them. Banding is when you use a this ratchet tool with a surgical band loaded into it, and tighten the rubber band around the bulls testicles. You tighten a metal clamp when the band is tight enough, and cut off the excess rubber. This rubber band constricts blood flow to the balls, and they eventually fall off. This transforms the bull into a steer. We will eventually just sell these steers for meat, or eat them ourselves.

This whole process takes place in a series of small corrals, the race and the chute. I dont have pictures of the corrals, but the race and chute look like this. The race is red and the chute is yellow.

They are meant to hold the animal in place to be able to preform any number of jobs.

The next job was to get the rest of the 80 bulls loaded one at a time into the chute, and de-horn them. De-horning is the act of lopping off the tips of the bulls horns, making them blunt, so they don’t maul each other while being transported. Also, so they cant gore people as badly if it does happen.

My job in this whole process was to cut 10-15 bulls out of the herd at a time, and take them from the large corral they were all in, to a smaller corral which feeds into the race which feeds the chute. I did this all on foot, right down there with all the bulls. Talk about intense.

Being in the smallest corral which feeds the chute with ten extremely pissed off animals who weigh a little under a ton is honestly, a bit scary. Not to mention, my job is to smack them on the ass with a stick to get them into the rush which feeds the chute. These animals are all so very reluctant to load into this chute, coaxing them in is no easy task. A couple of them got really pissed off, and gave me a nice charge. To evade them, you do like in the rodeo, run really fast at the fence and hop up on it, trying to get your legs out of the way of their horns. God damn, what an adrenaline rush. It was so much fun.

We got all the bulls fixed up, and put them back in a holding pen, waiting to be shipped out. A very successful day, and a job well done according to Michael.

I didn’t take any pictures of this either, not because I didn’t think to, but because as I was participating in it, I realized its not the most glamourous part of our job. Not really something to showcase. Lots of blood.

So I got one day of really exciting work at the beginning of the week, but the rest of the week consisted mainly of building the water tanks which are at the end points of all the dam pipe we have been laying for the last months. They are about 40 feet in diameter and made of corrugated 1/8” galvanized steel. Heavy sons of bitches.

Tuesday through Friday were filled with building and leveling tanks and float chambers. We use a transect to get everything level to within a quarter of an inch. It takes pretty much an entire day to build and level a tank and float chamber. We built 6 of them.

Not much to talk about there, pretty monotonous stuff. I’ll get some pictures of a completed tank so you can understand what they look like.

Other than that, been checking a fair amount of electric fence, wrangling the horses every morning, and all sorts of general upkeep stuff as well.

Yesterday was a great day though. We typically don’t ride on Saturdays, but yesterday we did. We moved about 2000 yearlings from the homes into the south wolf. The ride went great. Brutae performed exceedingly well, he is really getting used to the spurs, and is still being really responsive to my commands.

We gathered the pasture and got them moving in the right direction, pushed them into the south wolf, and our half day Saturday was done before I knew it. Great day.

Last night we hung out at may camp, with Cooper and Stuart. Stuart cooked bomb enchiladas for all of us, and we just chilled out, read, ate, and shot the shit. At around 9 o’clock, Tullar showed up to hang out. Tullar and I ended up sitting on the porch of may camp talking with one of our guests until midnight. We sat there trading hunting stories (of which I dont have any) and drinkin whiskey, mostly listening to our guest re-live his most glorious hunting moments.

After that, tullar and I went back to his house and hung out tilll about 130. It was real fun just chillen with him, he is an awesome guy, he knows so much about everything, there’s never a dull moment.

Now I’m sitting here in the bunkhouse, with my new roomie. His name is Nick, he is the new apprentice here on the ranch. He actually went to Miramonte high school, one of my biggest rival schools. He grew up in el sobrante, about 20 minutes away from where I grew up. He is a cool kid, seems like he will be really easy to live with too. I really liked living alone, but I do have to say, its nice having someone to chat with.

It’s been a week since I posted last. I knew I couldn’t keep up with it every night. But, I think I am going to start posting every couple of days from now on. Now that I’m in the thick of it, a lot of my time consists of more menial jobs which I have probably already explained to you. So I think ill tell you about the cool things that happen every couple of days.

I have to get better about carrying my camera with me at all times too, I find myself wanting to take pictures of cool stuff all the time, but not having my camera.

Just as a broad statement, I would like to tell everyone that I’m still loving this place even more ever single day I’m here. Every single day is a new adventure. I’m constantly thinking, problem solving, working hard with my friends, laughing, and absolutely loving life. I really cant put into words how much I love being here. Its more than I could have ever expected.

Here are some pictures for yall... Hope you enjoy them