School is out and its summertime. For the past three years my parents have sent my little brother ( Russ ) and me to live with my mothers parents for two weeks. My cousin Jesse always went with us. I am sure this was quite a relief to our mothers and possibly a burden for my grandmother, but for us it was some of the most memorable moments of our lives.
My grandparents ( Poppy and Carrie) lived in a farming area known as Heart Mountain. It is located Northeast of Cody, Wyoming halfway between Heart Mountain Butte and the Shoshone river. They owned a section of land (260 Acres) but were not farmers. They leased the farm land to share croppers, raised chickens and always planted a big beautiful garden. My grandfather was a well driller and moved from Texas to Byron, Wyoming to get rich in the oil fields of northern Wyoming. He ended up drilling mostly water wells and had a very comfortable life at Heart Mountain. Their home was a mile off of the main highway and was set at the foot of a steep hill. The main farm land was west of the home and on the plateau above the house. East of the house was a small stream that flowed from the south end of the property to the North end. To 9 and 11 year old boys , it was paradise.
As the car left the highway and started down the dirt road you could see grandma Carrie working in her garden. She was wearing a dress and I don’t recall ever seeing her in anything but a dress. As the car makes the last corner up to the house, right on cue and in unison my mother and aunt shouted the warning. “ STAY AWAY FROM THE FLUME”. The flume was a concrete structure built into the steep hillside that the irrigation district used to get the canal water from the top of the steep hill to the bottom. Without it the water would eventually erode a canyon in the side of the hill. It was 4’ wide and 4’ deep and open at the top. At the top of the hill the water would slowly roll out of the canal and enter the open flume and plunge to the bottom with ferocious speed and noise. At the bottom of the flume was a deep pool to absorb the impact of the falling water. This pool was a white water churning whirlpool that we were taught to believe could consume any young boy that was even just looking at it. I do not recall ever driving past this flume without hearing this warning.
As we jump out of the car to run and greet my grandma we can’t help but notice that there is a new addition to the farm. My grandma now has four big, white, fat domestic geese. As soon as our eyes are on the geese the warnings have begun. “You boys stay away from those geese”. The next two days are typical summer days in Heart Mountain catching magpies, chasing rabbits and floating the stream. The third day starts with a distraught grandma. The four geese are missing. Sometime in the night they have wandered off and they are gone. The search party of four looks on every square foot of the 260 acres and the geese can’t be found. Jesse, Russ and I decide to expand the search to neighboring farms. Grandma packs us a lunch are we are off on our quest. Considering that all three of us own authentic ( even though the tag says made in Japan) coonskin David Crocket hats, we are the best trackers assigned to this mission. We decide to start the search at the irrigation canal near the flume. Staying far enough away from the boiling whirlpool we eventually come across signs that geese have been here. The goose droppings are deeper on the North side of the ditch and that must mean that they have followed the canal North. Two hours and 4.5 miles later we have visual contact of the geese. It is pure evidence that we are indeed the greatest trackers ever! They have joined in with another flock and are in the middle of a field next to the internment camp.
The internment camp represents one of the poor decisions the US government made during
war time. It was decided that any Japanese living on the west coast would be arrested and brought to these internment camps . The camps were intentionally placed far enough from the coast to prohibit any Japanese from becoming spies. One hundred and ten thousand people living in California were arrested and sent to these camps. Eleven thousand of them were sent to Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Seventy % of the people living at the Heart Mountain internment camp were born in the US and were US citizens. Eight hundred of the Japanese men living in this camp were drafted into the US Army and fought in the war against Japan. In 1988 the congress passed a bill to apologize to the heirs of the decedents of these camps and paid 1.6 billion dollars in reparation damages. Norman Mineta the transportation secretary under George W. Bush, was a teenage boy living in the Heart Mountain Internment camp.
As we look over the land the camp occupies, you could still see the concrete pads where the barracks had been. My father worked on the construction of these barracks and learned the carpentry skills that he passed on to me. Only four buildings remain of the camp and one of these buildings has been turned into a community center. In fact my Grandma will be attending a woman’s luncheon there the very next day. We eventually separate the white geese from the flock and herd them South, back to Grandmas. We arrive just as it is getting dark and are certain that we will be treated as conquering heroes. Exhausted from the full day we go to bed that night full of pride in our abilities.
The next morning Grandma is already busy preparing a special dish for her luncheon. We quickly eat breakfast and get out of her way. The first thing we do is check if the geese are still imprisoned in the chicken coop, preventing them from running away again. Just before noon , grandma leaves for the luncheon at the internment camp. As soon as the car is out of site, we decide to check out the flume. We have decided that after the tenth warning it starts to sound more like a dare. Checking out the flume starts innocent enough. We throw rocks, sticks, and
zucchini in the rushing water and watch them disappear into the whirlpool. We find a large plank, taller than anyone of us and throw it into the rushing water. It hits the whirlpool but stays on top. It is decided that if the plank weighed the same as us, it would surely sink into the bottom and would not pop back up for hours. We find two large rocks and enough bailing string to tie the rocks to the plank. It enters the flume at the top and rushes to the boiling whirlpool. The plank and the rocks hit the whirlpool at full force and the plank still does not sink.
That is all the scientific reasoning we need. If we jump into the flume it is now proven that we will not be sucked into the whirlpool at the bottom. Russ is the smallest and most likely will float. He is not as brave as he should be this moment and needs some help conquering his fears. Jess and I throw him in and scramble to the bottom to pull him out. His head comes bobbing out of the bottom end of the whirlpool and he is laughing. He hollers at us: that was a thrill, you have got to try it! Within an hour we have all gone down the flume and survived the whirlpool , several times. It is time to head back to the house because grandma will be home soon and we can not let her catch us near that flume. As we head back we notice that the concrete bottom on the flume has torn away the seats of our pants and this is going to be hard to explain. We quickly run into the house and change pants as grandma’s car is just pulling up.
Instead of coming to the front door grandma heads for the chicken coop, as if to check on the geese. We run to meet her at the coop, we are still full of pride. She tells us that Mrs Perkins that lives on the farm next to the internment camp is missing four of her ten geese. Maybe Grandma’s geese did turn South. That will have to be tomorrows mission.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Candy Wrappers, Dogs and Dances
As the pickup rounds the corner of the winding road, the headlights light up the old metal gate of the Crooked Creek coral. Wilford pulls up to the gate and nothing is said. I have done this routine so many times before. I get out and open the gate. I feel the cold air and am glad I put on my insulated jacket. As I open the gate, the cold steel makes me wish I had brought my leather gloves. Will pulls the pickup into the corrals and I close the gate behind him. We both rummage in the back of the pickup for bridles and ropes. I forget the blue healer is sitting in the dark against the pickup cab, and as I reach for my chaps and saddle bag he takes a nip at me. Will slaps him up the side of the head and curses at him but it won’t matter. He will try and bite me again the next time. It is just the way he is.
Will asks me to help him corner the Black so he can get a bridle on him. I am familiar with this horse. I have come to learn that I will never be the rider that Will is, and with this horse that is a blessing. After 10 minutes of wrestling, rodeoing and rope work we get a bridal on the black horse. There are nine horses in this corral and they are cow ponies, not riding horses. Any one of them would like to throw you at any given opportunity. Will tells me to get the sorel. He helps me corner the horse and it only takes a minute to settle him enough to get him bridled.
We tie the horses to the rear bumper of the truck and start sorting for saddles and blankets. The blue healer nips at me again. This time nothing is said, it is just the way he is. As I shake my saddle blanket out I feel that it is cold and damp, still wet from yesterdays ride. While saddling the two horses I see headlights from another pickup come over the hill towards the corral.
Buff and Nancy pull up to the coral and as Buff climbs out I can already tell that he is on edge. He asks me if I got enough sleep last night. I answer that I got just enough. He is fully aware that I was in town and out late. He also knows that when I left town four hours ago that Nancy was still there and it doesn’t take long to figure out that has determined his attitude for the day. He will go out of his way to make things miserable for Nancy this day and I am glad it is not me.
We open the gates of the corral holding the cattle and start pushing them North on the old dirt road towards the Pryors. I can just now start to see the edges of the mountains in the morning light and can barely see the canyon in the foothills that we will be going through. There is a road in this canyon that we will follow and will push the cows towards the summer range. The spring rains have washed the road out and it is now a 4 wheel drive only road. Will takes the lead. His horse is still crow hopping and not quite settled down yet. I take the flanks and Nancy works the rear of the herd. Calves are bawling and their mothers are answering, riders are yelling and whistling but we are now slowly starting to move North on the old Dryhead road.
As we come out of the canyon the trail opens up and we move through rolling hills with lots of draws. Two other riders from the Hansen family have joined us. No one asks why they are late, that’s just the way they are. They have arrived at the right time because from here on in the trail gets more difficult. The sun has now moved overhead and I had shucked the coat hours ago. I still am amazed at how cold it can be in the morning and so hot in the afternoon. The young and weaker calves are getting tired and want to lay down in the shade of the cedar and juniper trees. It now takes a lot of effort to find them and get them moving again. As I work the brush I notice that this horse wants to scrape me off at every chance he gets, and he wants to brush up against the trees. I am not a big fan of chaps. They are heavy, hot and make your legs sweat, but this brush work will now force me to put them on. I pull up and take the chaps out of the saddle bag and also put on some spurs, thinking this horse could use an attitude adjustment. While digging in my saddle bag I come across an old Jolly Rancher candy... cinnamon and probably over a year old. It is still a welcomed snacked since I didn’t have breakfast and lunch is still an hour away. As I climb back into the saddle, the horse is a little nervous from the chaps and spurs. We do a dance to find out who will lead and I finally get that settled. As we both relax, I unwrap my Jolly Rancher. A gust of wind takes the wrapper from my hand and it lands in the horses ear. In just the few nano-seconds I have, I know that I am not in a good position to handle what is coming next.The horse is now in a full buck and I have lost one rein and do not have control of this dance. Just as the impact of the ground hits my back I know that I have been thrown. I have landed on a rock and my legs have gone numb and I can’t get up. It takes a few seconds. It seems like minutes, but soon I can feel my legs and I can now barely stand up. Will comes by and checks to see if I am all right. I tell him I am OK and climb back in the saddle.
Marilyn and her truck have now joined the rear of the herd and when you see Marilyn you know it is lunch time. It has nothing to do with a clock or a certain time. Lunch is cold cut sandwiches , chips, cookies and cold pop. To me it is a feast. We get to relax a little and I get to harass Nancy for being out so late. She looks like she could use some sleep. We change horses at noon because the morning horses are too tired. My afternoon horse is older and slower. I could have used him this morning. Nancy and I rope and catch four or five of the weaker calves that have been slowing us down. I tie their legs together and put them in back of Marilyn's pick up and we start the herd North.
It is now late afternoon and the herd is getting tired and slowing down. The riders at the rear are needing help to keep them moving. I ride up front to see if I can get Wills blue healer to help out. The healers are really good at this work. They bite the cows just above the hoof and know just when to move before getting kicked. The healer is working hard and gets the slower cows moving again. A calf has separated and moved too far away and the healer sees him and takes off. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the calf’s mother and she is coming on hard to intercept. The healer sees her and spins away just in time. He comes back to nip her and his timing is just a little off and she catches him with a good kick. He rolls through the brush yelping. I see him come out the other side of the draw and he is limping.
The sun is now starting to set and the sky could not be a prettier color. I notice that behind the herd we have picked up a following. A pack of coyotes has gathered and is following us. The healer has been slowed down from his injury and has moved to the end of the herd. As I work the herd I watch the coyotes because they are getting closer then normal. There isn’t any fear of the coyotes, they are too scared to get close enough to humans to be a problem. Soon I can see why they are closer than normal. They are stalking the healer and they can tell that he has been wounded . If he falls back too far they will kill him. Will has noticed this too and as the healer drifts too far back, he spurs his horse and gets between the healer and the coyotes . I get off and pick the healer up and put him the cab of the pickup. This time he doesn’t try to bite me.
It is now getting too dark to go on any farther, so we will stop here for the night. The herd is too tired to wander, and there is water here so most of them will stay put. In the morning we will have to gather a few that will wander off in the night. It has been a long day and I am sore and tired. I will get home in time to shower and head to town. I should stay home and get some sleep, but there is a dance in town tonight that will have a live band and I am anxious to be there. There is a girl I met that has long legs, dark hair and calf eyes and I know that she will be looking for me.
Sunday morning : It is raining with a little snow mixed in. It is going to be a long day.
Will asks me to help him corner the Black so he can get a bridle on him. I am familiar with this horse. I have come to learn that I will never be the rider that Will is, and with this horse that is a blessing. After 10 minutes of wrestling, rodeoing and rope work we get a bridal on the black horse. There are nine horses in this corral and they are cow ponies, not riding horses. Any one of them would like to throw you at any given opportunity. Will tells me to get the sorel. He helps me corner the horse and it only takes a minute to settle him enough to get him bridled.
We tie the horses to the rear bumper of the truck and start sorting for saddles and blankets. The blue healer nips at me again. This time nothing is said, it is just the way he is. As I shake my saddle blanket out I feel that it is cold and damp, still wet from yesterdays ride. While saddling the two horses I see headlights from another pickup come over the hill towards the corral.
Buff and Nancy pull up to the coral and as Buff climbs out I can already tell that he is on edge. He asks me if I got enough sleep last night. I answer that I got just enough. He is fully aware that I was in town and out late. He also knows that when I left town four hours ago that Nancy was still there and it doesn’t take long to figure out that has determined his attitude for the day. He will go out of his way to make things miserable for Nancy this day and I am glad it is not me.
We open the gates of the corral holding the cattle and start pushing them North on the old dirt road towards the Pryors. I can just now start to see the edges of the mountains in the morning light and can barely see the canyon in the foothills that we will be going through. There is a road in this canyon that we will follow and will push the cows towards the summer range. The spring rains have washed the road out and it is now a 4 wheel drive only road. Will takes the lead. His horse is still crow hopping and not quite settled down yet. I take the flanks and Nancy works the rear of the herd. Calves are bawling and their mothers are answering, riders are yelling and whistling but we are now slowly starting to move North on the old Dryhead road.
As we come out of the canyon the trail opens up and we move through rolling hills with lots of draws. Two other riders from the Hansen family have joined us. No one asks why they are late, that’s just the way they are. They have arrived at the right time because from here on in the trail gets more difficult. The sun has now moved overhead and I had shucked the coat hours ago. I still am amazed at how cold it can be in the morning and so hot in the afternoon. The young and weaker calves are getting tired and want to lay down in the shade of the cedar and juniper trees. It now takes a lot of effort to find them and get them moving again. As I work the brush I notice that this horse wants to scrape me off at every chance he gets, and he wants to brush up against the trees. I am not a big fan of chaps. They are heavy, hot and make your legs sweat, but this brush work will now force me to put them on. I pull up and take the chaps out of the saddle bag and also put on some spurs, thinking this horse could use an attitude adjustment. While digging in my saddle bag I come across an old Jolly Rancher candy... cinnamon and probably over a year old. It is still a welcomed snacked since I didn’t have breakfast and lunch is still an hour away. As I climb back into the saddle, the horse is a little nervous from the chaps and spurs. We do a dance to find out who will lead and I finally get that settled. As we both relax, I unwrap my Jolly Rancher. A gust of wind takes the wrapper from my hand and it lands in the horses ear. In just the few nano-seconds I have, I know that I am not in a good position to handle what is coming next.The horse is now in a full buck and I have lost one rein and do not have control of this dance. Just as the impact of the ground hits my back I know that I have been thrown. I have landed on a rock and my legs have gone numb and I can’t get up. It takes a few seconds. It seems like minutes, but soon I can feel my legs and I can now barely stand up. Will comes by and checks to see if I am all right. I tell him I am OK and climb back in the saddle.
Marilyn and her truck have now joined the rear of the herd and when you see Marilyn you know it is lunch time. It has nothing to do with a clock or a certain time. Lunch is cold cut sandwiches , chips, cookies and cold pop. To me it is a feast. We get to relax a little and I get to harass Nancy for being out so late. She looks like she could use some sleep. We change horses at noon because the morning horses are too tired. My afternoon horse is older and slower. I could have used him this morning. Nancy and I rope and catch four or five of the weaker calves that have been slowing us down. I tie their legs together and put them in back of Marilyn's pick up and we start the herd North.
It is now late afternoon and the herd is getting tired and slowing down. The riders at the rear are needing help to keep them moving. I ride up front to see if I can get Wills blue healer to help out. The healers are really good at this work. They bite the cows just above the hoof and know just when to move before getting kicked. The healer is working hard and gets the slower cows moving again. A calf has separated and moved too far away and the healer sees him and takes off. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the calf’s mother and she is coming on hard to intercept. The healer sees her and spins away just in time. He comes back to nip her and his timing is just a little off and she catches him with a good kick. He rolls through the brush yelping. I see him come out the other side of the draw and he is limping.
The sun is now starting to set and the sky could not be a prettier color. I notice that behind the herd we have picked up a following. A pack of coyotes has gathered and is following us. The healer has been slowed down from his injury and has moved to the end of the herd. As I work the herd I watch the coyotes because they are getting closer then normal. There isn’t any fear of the coyotes, they are too scared to get close enough to humans to be a problem. Soon I can see why they are closer than normal. They are stalking the healer and they can tell that he has been wounded . If he falls back too far they will kill him. Will has noticed this too and as the healer drifts too far back, he spurs his horse and gets between the healer and the coyotes . I get off and pick the healer up and put him the cab of the pickup. This time he doesn’t try to bite me.
It is now getting too dark to go on any farther, so we will stop here for the night. The herd is too tired to wander, and there is water here so most of them will stay put. In the morning we will have to gather a few that will wander off in the night. It has been a long day and I am sore and tired. I will get home in time to shower and head to town. I should stay home and get some sleep, but there is a dance in town tonight that will have a live band and I am anxious to be there. There is a girl I met that has long legs, dark hair and calf eyes and I know that she will be looking for me.
Sunday morning : It is raining with a little snow mixed in. It is going to be a long day.
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