04/14/06 Seven cows

Seven Cows Sometimes country and cattle can totally humble a person. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute with the details. A few years ago we summered our cows in a timbered, mountain basin. Turning the cattle into that basin in early summer was no problem, but gathering them in the fall was a real challenge to the family since we were used to sagebrush and open country where you can see a greater distance than just five trees ahead. Mom was raised there and was comfortable moving cattle through the thick timber areas, but she couldn't make up for the lack of brush riding skills displayed by Dad, my brother, and me. We had to rely on help and training from my uncle and cousins who grew up hunting and running cattle in that basin. One fall, after the main roundup, my brother and I were looking for the twenty-one head we were missing and were lucky enough to find them all in a series of meadows with just a bunch of miles and brush between the cattle and the corrals. We felt pretty wily for even finding the cattle without our uncle, and devised a foolproof plan to put the cattle in the corral. The plan lasted almost an eight of a mile and then it was every cow, man, and horse for himself. We made it to the corrals with only seven head of cattle, but at least our saddles were still on our horses and we were still upright in the saddles. We had to be re-enrolled in our uncle's timber cattle gathering class and it took several more lessons until we were semi-successful bring cattle home. I'm Jeff Keane.