12/26/08 Cold ride

Some cow gathers are just miserable. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back right after this to tell you about one. It takes a pretty bad time to call a day gathering cattle miserable, but it can happen. One winter decent weather lulled everyone to sleep then hit with a sucker punch that left a lot of cows away from winter-feeding areas. We had helped gather our neighbor's herd, since his cattle were farther from home and Dad hoped the weather would change. It changed  for the worse  no more snow but a lot colder. With no warming trend predicted, Dad decided to get our cows. He had his best rider, Mom to help and our neighbor Mike since I was totally out of commission in bed with a cold, virus, flu, cough, or all of the above. Dad said I wasn't going and I really didn't protest too much. As the riders headed out the temperature was a pleasant balmy -15 degrees. I was really sorry I missed that morning. The cattle were still pretty scattered out so the gather took all day and this is where Dad and Mike were glad Mom went along. Not only is she good help, she makes a great sandwich. Only trouble was the sandwiches were frozen, but Mom came to the rescue when she pulled out as thermos of hot tomato soup. Dad, Mom and Mike ate on their horses and kept cattle moving slowly so they wouldn't heat up and get pneumonia. Bridle reins froze, and Mom's plastic rain slicker broke from the cold until she was only the seams over her coat. The best part of that day was talking about it later around a nice fire. I'm Jeff Keane.