08/09/07 A Legend

Almost every ranching community has a least one. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you what that might be. What does every ranching community have? Well, I would say that would be a legend. This person might be exceptional at handling cows, horses, or maybe the best roper in seven counties. I think almost everyone in our community would have to say our legend Cliff would be the best at living life on the edge. Cliff has talent to burn whether corralling wild horses, running equipment, or just about anything related to ranching and farming. But Cliff enjoys life way too much to get serious about anything for very long  there's just a whole bunch to do and it has to be done with one of the cat's nine lives in his hip pocket. He built a road down a place most people would call a bluff, it wasn't much of a road, but it made a dandy horse trail. My Dad asked Cliff to bulldoze a road to a spring site and wanted to know if he would like to look at it first. Cliff said if you can ride your saddle horse to it I can take my dozer there. That steep, narrow road above a bluff still makes me shiver. In Cliff's driving years, he took demolition derby to the roads, but it was always only one car  his. There are 28 totaled car bodies that can attest to that while Cliff only received minor bumps and bruises. He had to hide his horse in a second story hotel and ride out of town in a car trunk after one day of playtime. Cliff is his in 90s now and he has told my brother the secret of life, but I won't tell you until tomorrow. I'm Jeff Keane.