Dave
Well-known member
I had a great spring break. In more ways than one. No cows died while I was gone for 9 days. That is always a possibility with the boys taking care of things for me. While I was gone the boys (ages 33 and 35) bought four hogs which they brought to my house to live until they are ready to butcher so now I get to add feeding hogs to my chore list.
But the real good part was spending time in the Okanogan Valley helping people recover from last summer's fires.
The ranch I got to work on was pretty special. The husband broke his neck 12 years ago and is confined to a wheel chair. The wife takes care of him, their two young teenaged kids, about 100 mother cows, and 2500 acres with no outside help. She is one hard working lady. But cheerful, always with a smile on her face, and a great attitude. Last week we repaired about two and a half miles of fence. The steel posts and wire were all there but anything wood was gone. That meant all the gates, corners, and H braces were gone. They had wood stays between each post that were also gone and needed to be replaced with metal ones. I rode my quad in places I would have never dreamed of riding. But for the most part I was following her and figured that she knew where to go. Mighty steep rocky ground. It helps to be part mountain goat to do this job. There is a fair amount of trees in places but 99% of them are now black. There is no market for burnt pine trees so they will just stay there and rot.
It was really heart warming to help someone who really needed the help. This was a lot better vacation than laying on a beach somewhere. Although after a week of fixing fence on that ground the idea of laying down anywhere sounds pretty good about now.
But the real good part was spending time in the Okanogan Valley helping people recover from last summer's fires.
The ranch I got to work on was pretty special. The husband broke his neck 12 years ago and is confined to a wheel chair. The wife takes care of him, their two young teenaged kids, about 100 mother cows, and 2500 acres with no outside help. She is one hard working lady. But cheerful, always with a smile on her face, and a great attitude. Last week we repaired about two and a half miles of fence. The steel posts and wire were all there but anything wood was gone. That meant all the gates, corners, and H braces were gone. They had wood stays between each post that were also gone and needed to be replaced with metal ones. I rode my quad in places I would have never dreamed of riding. But for the most part I was following her and figured that she knew where to go. Mighty steep rocky ground. It helps to be part mountain goat to do this job. There is a fair amount of trees in places but 99% of them are now black. There is no market for burnt pine trees so they will just stay there and rot.
It was really heart warming to help someone who really needed the help. This was a lot better vacation than laying on a beach somewhere. Although after a week of fixing fence on that ground the idea of laying down anywhere sounds pretty good about now.
