05/09/08 Non-cowboy cowboys

Sometimes too much help is worse than not enough help. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back right after this to explain. It was one of those times you knew you should have said you had plenty of help but you didn't for a number of reasons that all seemed to be valid at the time. That's how it was that branding day round-up morning when the crew left the ranch house with a lot of saddles filled and we were hoping there were enough filled with cowboys to offset the "help" of the saddle fillers. The cattle were in one of the bigger pastures but not so big that we couldn't get them corralled, sorted, brand the calves and have plenty of time for food and socializing afterward. Most of the cattle were in a big canyon and had to be moved to the top up a steep trail. I had never seen the cows so hard to move up that trail, they just seemed to stall at the top and not move on toward the corrals. Turns out some of the non-cowboy, cowboys thought it was such a pretty sight they were riding their horses back and forth at the top of the hill trying not to miss any of the action down below. They made a pretty good fence. As the cattle finally moved over the top of the last hill to the corrals, my brother rode ahead to turn the lead cows into the corral. He was to late, the portable fence riders were sitting in the gate telling him they only let a few cows in the corral the rest were moving down the trail just like they should. They were so proud. My brother's praise to them was short  "Get out of the gate." Well, the cattle got corralled, the real cowboys made smooth work of the branding and everyone had time for food and fun and that's pretty important. I'm Jeff Keane.