So you want to be a rancher---NDR

Al Hansen

Al Hansen

Well-known member
Last week, I drove my Kawasaki Mule back down to my old stomping grounds looking for ducks along the Rio Grande when I happened to spot one of the ranchers that I know in this area. 10 years ago I had a blind set up just off the Rio Grande which was on the BLM land that he is leasing as part of his ranch.

On this day last week, Mike was busy working with the help of his daughter, trying to bring his cattle back across the Rio Grande so that he could get them into another grazing section.

I pulled out my camera when I saw him leave his corral loaded down with 10 head of cattle. The trip across the Rio Grande went without a hitch but when he attempted to get up over the embankment on the west side, that is when it got too slick. He started to spin out, so he and his daughter walked over to where I was and just said, "I need to go get a long chain back at the ranch house, then drive my road grader over here and pull it out. My daughter will drive the tractor." The lucky thing about this was that it was only about 4 or 5 miles back to his house. He had one of his work pickup trucks over by my Mule.

I wished him well and headed back north to where my truck was parked about 10 miles away. When you think of ranching you don't quite think in terms of seeing a trailer full of cattle being ferried across the river with the aid of a huge tractor.
Al

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Mike's land runs for about a mile to the east and just in front of that mountain range. That land is part of the huge Armendaris Ranch owned by Ted Turner. Just to the east of the Armendaris Ranch is White Sands Missile Base.

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Al~

With his penchant for logistical challenges and a clear addiction to equipment, he sure sounds like a natural for waterfowling......

Great tale as always!

SJS
 
Al - Looks like that diesel was working too. I was lucky enough to gun private sections of land for pheasants in IOWA and South Dakota for a number of years. My brother and I saw and occasionally rode on some of the biggest tractors ever built. The big deal, though, were the combines..........some so big they had to close roads to move them from one section to another.
Nothing like a big diesel and low gears.
sarge
 
Al~

With his penchant for logistical challenges and a clear addiction to equipment, he sure sounds like a natural for waterfowling......

Great tale as always!

SJS
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Steve, out here most ranchers have "big toys" and could start up a small construction company with no problems. Just up the road about 6 miles I should take a picture of what a rancher and his cousin did about 8 years ago. They needed to get their cows across a low flow channel, so they built a bridge and it works like a charm. They needed a huge front end loader, their portable welders, and lots of old oil well pipe. I forgot that they brought in their dozer and grader to build the road first.
Al
 
Living every boy's dream, playing with big powerful equipment and mud. Just you and the mule Al.
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That is so true, Brad. What I enjoy about my diesel powered Mule is that normally when I go duck hunting, my chainsaws plus all my related gear will already be in the back end with my decoys, gun, sled, etc. This way, when I'm done having fun, then I only have to drive a short distance and I'm busy cutting firewood.
This Mule has even pulled my truck out of the mud, once. Not only that, if stacked properly, I can haul a half a cord of dry firewood in it.
Al
 
It's a good thing you were there, Al ... Such landowner/hunter relationships are so rewarding, and more of what we need!
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Thanks for that, Steve. Don't ask me why but when I was a kid living in western Minnesota, I would ride my bike out into country and ask the local farmers if I could have permission to hunt their sloughs for ducks and pheasants. I still continue that practice. Only difference is my mode of transportation and a few years separating it all!
Al
 
Al - Looks like that diesel was working too. I was lucky enough to gun private sections of land for pheasants in IOWA and South Dakota for a number of years. My brother and I saw and occasionally rode on some of the biggest tractors ever built. The big deal, though, were the combines..........some so big they had to close roads to move them from one section to another.
Nothing like a big diesel and low gears.
sarge
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Hey, Sarge--I, too, marvel at those monster machines and in particular how they can keep them running so well. The logistics to get those combines from point A to B is something else. However, I still liked that (355?) rear end that my Dodge had back in 93 with the Cummins. Being a 4 wheel drive dually it easily gave me up to 23 mpg. I loved that truck. I believe today they are either 373 or 410 rear ends.
Al
 
Youse guys...

It is possible there are some real life, no holds barred ranchers, who frequent this very site. I bet there are very few on this site who have been armpit deep in as many cow's as I have. I can AI and preg with the best of'em.

Imagine a young lad of just eighteen, tired of the way's of the cattleman.

Turning his back he started walking untill the land became the sea. Then some twenty years later, tired of all the day's of wine and dance, that was the United States Coast Guard, came home. Ok..it wasn't that way exactly. I enlisted when I was 18, and retired when I was 38, full bennies. Then I came home to take over our hundred year old Angus ranch..

There's a lot of truth I came home because I knew I could sneak out and start building my very own duck pond. Dad didn't even notice I kept sneaking the back-hoe over the hill for a week straight. He knows now of course. Suddenly a quarter acre waterhole, turned into a full acre, with lots of indications it's gonna be bigger :) -Seth

ps. Everyone in the know, know's the heavy equipment down there near the border's are just to bury undesirables.
 
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Gosh am I disillusioned...I thought to see a couple rannies riding quarterhorses chousing those steers across the river
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Bill, that is exactly what would have happened but like Mike told me, the Rio Grande has been running high ever since last fall in September when we got all of those heavy rains. His cows will not attempt a crossing. He has to get them out of there and move them to another grazing site for the spring and summer months.
Al
 
Youse guys...

It is possible there are some real life, no holds barred ranchers, who frequent this very site. I bet there are very few on this site who have been armpit deep in as many cow's as I have. I can AI and preg with the best of'em.

Imagine a young lad of just eighteen, tired of the way's of the cattleman.

Seth, I loved every word! First of all, I haven't heard "Youse guys" since I left northern Wisconsin over 17 years ago. If I had the luxury of coming back for that 2nd life---I would much prefer that of a rancher. This is one of the reasons I love living here in the Land of Enchantment, Seth.
Good luck with that continuing project called "Seth's stock pond".
Al

Turning his back he started walking untill the land became the sea. Then some twenty years later, tired of all the day's of wine and dance, that was the United States Coast Guard, came home. Ok..it wasn't that way exactly. I enlisted when I was 18, and retired when I was 38, full bennies. Then I came home to take over our hundred year old Angus ranch..

There's a lot of truth I came home because I knew I could sneak out and start building my very own duck pond. Dad didn't even notice I kept sneaking the back-hoe over the hill for a week straight. He knows now of course. Suddenly a quarter acre waterhole, turned into a full acre, with lots of indications it's gonna be bigger :) -Seth

ps. Everyone in the know, know's the heavy equipment down there near the border's are just to bury undesirables.
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I lived in Sturgeon Bay for three months...I flew right from bootcamp to Green Bay. Our cutter was in the Sturgeon Bay shipyards for our annual haul-out. In fact I got there a few day's before another cutter ran aground and sank..I guess it's a dive park now. Made me nervous for sure, fresh out of boot and our cutters are hitting the rocks and sinking WTH? My ship was homeported in Cleveland, OH but I spent more time away, then at home. 211 day's gone was the yearly average. Most of that spent in the upper lakes, breaking ice for ore freighters. Four years in the Lakes was enough, I high-tailed it back to Oregon for the rest of my career.

Now the scariest thing I do is loading bull's into the gooseneck trailer....-Seth
 
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