Country Lifestyles
Cowboy Culture – Reminiscing on Spring Brandings
By Clay Reid
As I am winding down on another year of spring branding here at the ranch, there is always that moment in time when I catch myself dreaming of all the other brandings of years past. With that dream comes the memories of some of the great cowboys I was able to share the pen with and some of the great episodes they starred in.
One such cowboy was John Gaither, a true man of God and a great cowboy. He was a man who walked the walk and talked the talk when it came to his faith in God, and I never saw him waver from it. He was also tough as a boot, a testament to that picture so famously floating around of him going over the horse’s head as it is stumbling and crashing to the ground at a steer roping. He was a very old man at the time, but he never missed a beat.
He had given his heart to God, and has left this old world behind, but I will always miss those conversations about living as we were trotting to the backside of a pasture.
Another old legend in these parts was the infamous Lewis Blair from Dundee, Texas. Blair was an old rodeo clown who was well known for his iron grip and his love for chasing coyotes with his greyhounds. As a matter of fact, Gaither and I were able to share the branding pen with Blair the last time he ever drug a calf to the fire at Jeff Williamson’s Javelin pens, west of Dundee.
Blair and Gaither were both dragging, and Blair had necked a big old bull calf. When I went to the calf, I was met with some pretty serious resistance. However, with a bloody lip and a little muscle, I was able to get the calf to the ground in a headlock. The only bad thing was, I was on bottom.
To read more pick up a copy of the May 2018 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.
By Lacey Vilhauer
Ingredients:
1 whole lemon, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
2 pounds strawberries, hulled
Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
¼ cup water
Directions:
Place the chopped lemon and sugar in a food processor and pulse until combined. Transfer to a large bowl. Puree the strawberries in a food processor and add to the lemon mixture along with juice of one lemon and water. Taste and add more juice as desired.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Nicholas Waters
As winter plods along – come Spring and gopher mounds – homeowners and farmers find themselves playing a familiar song – fiddling while Rome is burning.
Let’s make a mountain out of a molehill. Those mounds on your lawn and pasture could be moles, but they’re more than likely gophers; Plains Pocket Gophers to be pragmatic – Geomys bursarius to be scientific.
These rodents dig and chew, and the damage they can do goes beyond the mounds we mow over. Iowa State University cited a study in Nebraska showing a 35 percent loss in irrigated alfalfa fields due to the presence of pocket gophers; the number jumped to 46 percent in decreased production of non-irrigated alfalfa fields.
The internet is replete with academic research from coast-to-coast on how to curtail gopher populations, or at least control them. Kansas State University – then called Kansas State Agricultural College – also published a book [Bulletin 152] in February 1908 focused exclusively on the pocket gopher.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
By Annette Bridges
Everyone needs a room with a view that makes their heart happy. My honest favorite panorama would be either the mountains or the ocean. I have yet to convince my hubby to make permanent moves to either, although he does enjoy the visits as much as I do.
The location of our house on our ranch does not provide the expansive field of vision of our land that I would enjoy. So, I have created a room decorated and furnished in a way that gives me smiles, giggles, and a wonderful peace-filled feeling when I am hanging out in it. I am in that place right now writing this column. I am in a lounging position with my computer in my lap on the chaise that was once my sweet mama’s. I had it reupholstered this year to give it a fresh look.
To read more, pick up a copy of the April issue of NTFR magazine. To subscribe by mail, call 940-872-5922.
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