Spring Cattle Drive Recap

We returned from our Spring Cattle Drive a couple weeks ago, and as always it was a memorable one! Joining us on the cattle drive were Mike and Lorne from Ontario, Peter from Pennsylvania, Aditya from Georgia, and Robert from Ohio. Patricia’s friend Debra and her son Collin also came along to help with all the prep work, cooking, and moving of camp. There weren’t any big wrecks, or emergencies to make this drive memorable, what made it memorable were the group of guys that helped with the drive. I think this was also the first time we’ve had only men, and no other women. Patricia and Debra might have missed out on the “girl talk” around the fire this time, but I don’t think they minded having 8 gentlemen (and I do mean gentlemen) to protect them from the wilds of the open range. By “wilds” I mostly mean, flying tumbleweeds and adorable puppies that wanted to lick their faces clean.

On Tuesday morning everyone headed out, taking cattle from Burnt Well to the lease, most commonly referred to as the Old Devers’ Place. They rode into camp Tuesday afternoon, rested their tired bones, ate some hearty Dutch Oven cooking, enjoyed some music by the fire, and went to bed early. They were also rocked to sleep by two large sonic booms, for no extra charge I might add! On Wednesday morning after a warm breakfast they were back in the saddle moving cows. At one point, Adi’s horse had decided he’d had enough. Did Adi fall behind the other riders? Slack off on his job? Of course not! He got off his horse, grabbed the reins, and proceeded to lead his horse on foot, while slapping the cattle on the rump saying “Move cow!” in his Indian accent! It was the positive and determined attitudes like that of Adi’s that made this drive memorable, and very entertaining! They made it to the lease on Wednesday afternoon, and started the ride back to Burnt Well on Thursday, arriving on Friday afternoon. As all of you who have been on a cattle drive know, after roughing it for a few days coming back to the ranch for a nice hot shower and clean clothes is pretty close to Heaven! We all enjoyed our last night together, in full Burnt Well tradition, by stuffing our bellies, and laughing off all of the calories we’d just consumed!

The only set back came when flights out of Roswell on Saturday and Sunday were canceled due to weather. But in the words of one of my favorite songs by Kacey Musgraves, “If you’re ever gonna find a silver lining, it’s gotta be a cloudy day” and we were able to enjoy a little more time with Mike and Lorne before they headed back to the Great White North.

Our next cattle drive will be at the end of September, and you can bet it will be full of “tradition”. Hope you’ll join us!