Cowboy Hide and Seek

Anyone who has ever lived, worked, or fed anyone on a ranch knows this game well. It begins with a phone call; someone needs lunch, parts, fuel, first aid, help, etc etc and hopefully includes a current location. From there on it is up to you. You are it. Find the Cowboy.

First thing you do is round up whatever item it is they have requested, this time it was jumper cables, and determine if you have enough fuel in the correct vehicle.  Once I did that, I headed for the last known location.  

Of course no one was there when I got there but they had left behind some very important clues. Tire tracks. They can tell you a lot at this point. General direction being one, what vehicle you’re looking for is two, and are they loaded or unloaded for three. Today I’m looking for the black Ford Ranger that was rumored to be in the Allard Home. He couldn't have gone far as like I said, he needed jumper cables. 

If you’re lucky enough to find your quarry has traveled via a gravel road you simply look to see what side the tracks are on. That will tell you what general direction they are headed, however if they have traveled cross country you will need to look at the grass. This was my clue today. The tires had pushed the grass over to point me on my way. I scanned the field in the direction the grass was pointing only to find a complete lack of a stranded Ranger.  There was only one set of tracks therefore I knew he hadn't left the field yet. I got back into my truck and ventured on.

Our irrigation is gravity fed from local reservoirs and occasionally you need to cross a ditch. This is another good way to cipher out what direction you need to head. The first crossing I came to lacked any tire tracks so I moved on. I finally found the familiar chunky treads of the supposedly stranded Ranger 3 or 4 crossings later looking to be on its way into the next field. Cursing myself for leaving the binoculars at the house I stand up in the bed of the truck to try and get a better view. I’m pretty short and the grass was thin here and hard to read. The binoculars would have come in handy.

There, on the other side of the next field over, closing the gates on the same stack yard I had sworn never to visit again, was the Cowboy in question. The husband and I had a run in with a porcupine at that stack yard last winter resulting in a broken tongue, 4 scared shiftless Percheron horses, and a 5 mile walk back to the ranch. Not something I’d like to repeat thank you very much.  Quietly stowing my porcupine phobia away by telling myself there were no horses involved today, I hop back in the cab of my truck and point myself in the correct general direction.

“This is not the Allard Home” I playfully remark to Ben as I lift the hood of my truck. “Yea?” He says questioningly, gazing around as if this were the Allard Home 5 minutes ago and he’s confused as to why it isn't anymore, “well it’s a good job you found me then”.   I’m parked nose to nose with his stranded Ranger and the minute I attach the negative cable I realize why it has become so. I grin as Anthrax or some other metal band comes blaring from the open windows, pushing the factory speakers further than they have ever been pushed before. I too have run dead the occasional battery while buried in good music, or NPR. Does that make me boring that I have actually run a battery dead listening to National Public Radio? I hope not, but I digress. Ben gets in his stranded Ranger then, as if having a sudden thought, leans out the open window to shout over the blaring guitars and feedback “What field is this then?”  I’m not 100% sure myself but I don’t want to look like an amateur so I knowingly shout back “Lower Field” thinking I have heard Peter call it that once before. He throws me a look as if to say “note to self”, and reaches for the key. 

The Ranger starts right up and I bade him good bye as I toss the cables back into the truck. He has more stack yards to close and I likewise have things to do. Bouncing across the ditches heading back to the house I mentally put another mark on my score card. Find the Cowboy for today is over and I win yet again.