Soapweed's Ranch
Ramblings |
Ran onto a good old rancher this afternoon on my way home from the sale. He
asked how calves were selling, and my report was about $10-$14 per hundred less
than last year, but about $18 per hundred better than three years ago. Several
years ago I visited with this same gentleman at a cafe the day after he had
sold his calves. It was late in the fall, and prices had deteriorated quite
a bit as the season had progressed. His calves sold on a real low-market type
of day. He was feeling kinda down in the mouth, but pretty soon got a big ol'
grin on his face. He said, "Next year cattle prices are not going to be worth
a darn, and everybody will be feeling bad. It won't bother me though, because
I'll already be used to it." What a great attitude. Someone else was quoting
this same cattleman after a particularly cold nasty calving season. Everyone
was comparing sad calving tale woes, and this feller just said, "No matter how
hard I try, I can't kill 'em all."
Somehow the subject of my father-in-law (who passed away last May) came up in
the conversation. One champion fiddle-playing wheat farmer used to say that my
father-in-law was the most level-headed person he knew. Tobacco juice ran out
of both sides of his mouth exactly even.
My father-in-law used to do a little bit of rodeoing in his younger days. One
time he had signed up for the calf-roping event. He backed his horse into the
roping box, and had a big loop slung over his shoulder. He nodded for his livestock,
and the horse bombarded out fast after the disappearing calf. Somehow the loop
inadvertantly hung up on a fence post, and as the rope came tight the hard-running
horse pulled over the whole wooden-corral roping box set-up. It took several
guys with diggers, shovels and hammers about 30 minutes to get the arena cobbled
up good enough for the next roper to compete. This story was told to me by a
reliable source, but I never quite had the nerve to tease the man in question
about the event. I simply had too much money borrowed from him to risk his wrath.
Copyright © 2005 Steve
Moreland
All Rights Reserved