Bob M
Well-known member
#340 FRIENDS AND FANCIES
by Bob Moreland
The Farm Ranch Magazine publishes diaries every month from farm-ranch people. Twenty-two years ago, in April, they published one that I wrote. I will only list a few of the more interesting days to fit into the available space. Here is what was happening in our lives during this month in 1988:
Apr. 1. Started the day by getting up 2:00 a.m. to check cows that are calving. Recalled that brother, Stan, and I started batching on the newly acquired Green Valley Ranch 41 years ago with a load of furniture that we hauled out on Dad's old Dodge pickup. Our hired hand, Ed Wilder. feeds the hay with the stack mover and hydra- fork. Daughter, Sybil, and I cake the cattle and spend most of the rest of our day pairing up cows and tagging calves. April 2. Elaine and I have been married 38 years. Steve is our oldest and then we had three daughters; Sandra, Sybil and Nancy Jean. Elaine and the girls went to Gordon, 38 miles away, to do some shopping this afternoon. Martin, across the line in South Dakota, is our nearest place to buy groceries. It is 27 miles from here. Valentine is our County Seat. It is 65 miles to the east.
April 3. This is Easter Sunday. As we have for several years we went to Brother Stan's ranch, south of Merriman, and gathered around a weathered old cross on top of a hill across an irrigated valley from their headquarters. It was a beautiful morning. Jean McGaughey, who is Steve's wife's mother, led the service after which we had a continental breakfast that Stan's wife, Joy Lue, prepared. We went to the 11:00 service at the Methodist Church in Merriman and to Steve and Carol's Spearhead Ranch for dinner.
April 4. Had to pull more calves than usual. We ended up losing one. I always wished I would sometime have enough cattle that I wouldn't mind losing one. We rode by a blowout where we take our casualties. I said to Sybil, "There's our profit." As we rode a little further downwind from the blowout, Sybil, with a twinkle in her eye, said, "I sure hate the smell of profit!" April 7. Moni Hourt came from Crawford and took pictures that will go with our diary in the June-July issue. She got here before sunrise and took a picture of Sybil and me on our horses with a windmill and beautiful sunrise in the background.. It made the cover of the forthcoming issue. Mori took many rolls of film with 16 pictures used for the publication.
April 11. We made a business trip to Martin today. We had supper in the Sale Barn Café and stopped at the Circle 6 Ranch on the way home to see a new little relative. Wesley Ryan Fairhead. Wesley's great-great-grandfather was my grandfather, G. O. Fairhead. G. O. and his family came to Nebraska from England via Toronto more than 100 years ago. When G.O. and three of his brothers filed on their homesteads southwest of Merriman, in 1885, they walked the last 85 miles from the end of the railroad. April 14. Sybil went over to Steve and Carol's to help them test some bulls. Elaine went with me to do the caking. Like many farm and ranch wives Elaine plays an important, behind the scenes role in the operation of this outfit. I would definitely hate to trade jobs with her! April 15. We had to go to Martin for repairs after finishing up necessary chores. Dad taught school a term or two in Martin and served as County Superintendent from 1926-1928 when it was just a frontier village. Most families had a cow. Water was carried from the windmill and supply tank by the courthouse.
April 19. The mail brought a fascinating family history that Elaine's Aunt Elizabeth put together. Elaine's people, the Andersons, are an intelligent, unpretentious, sincere, ambitious family. I feel fortunate to have gotten "mixed up" with them.
April 26. We were honored today that the new Sandhills Visitors Center at the Arthur Bowring Ranch asked for permission to put Dad's poem, "Sandhills Satisfaction," on a plaque to be displayed there.
April 30. We branded our calves today. Elaine had our overnight company fed breakfast by 6:00. Riders and horse trailers from neighboring ranches were arriving by 6:30. The Spearhead crew came with six riders including Baxter Black riding Steve's paint horse. Baxter pitched right in and soon proved to be the regular guy you like to know. By noon we had branded 650 calves and over 100 people went through the "chow line." We wish you readers could have been among them. It has been fun keeping this diary. I can never go back to sleep right away after checking cows in the middle of the night so that is when I have jotted down an account for each day. We hope you have enjoyed this diary from God's Cow Country as much as I have had the pleasure of writing it. Elaine and I join our state's tourism people in urging you to "Celebrate Nebraska in '88!"
by Bob Moreland
The Farm Ranch Magazine publishes diaries every month from farm-ranch people. Twenty-two years ago, in April, they published one that I wrote. I will only list a few of the more interesting days to fit into the available space. Here is what was happening in our lives during this month in 1988:
Apr. 1. Started the day by getting up 2:00 a.m. to check cows that are calving. Recalled that brother, Stan, and I started batching on the newly acquired Green Valley Ranch 41 years ago with a load of furniture that we hauled out on Dad's old Dodge pickup. Our hired hand, Ed Wilder. feeds the hay with the stack mover and hydra- fork. Daughter, Sybil, and I cake the cattle and spend most of the rest of our day pairing up cows and tagging calves. April 2. Elaine and I have been married 38 years. Steve is our oldest and then we had three daughters; Sandra, Sybil and Nancy Jean. Elaine and the girls went to Gordon, 38 miles away, to do some shopping this afternoon. Martin, across the line in South Dakota, is our nearest place to buy groceries. It is 27 miles from here. Valentine is our County Seat. It is 65 miles to the east.
April 3. This is Easter Sunday. As we have for several years we went to Brother Stan's ranch, south of Merriman, and gathered around a weathered old cross on top of a hill across an irrigated valley from their headquarters. It was a beautiful morning. Jean McGaughey, who is Steve's wife's mother, led the service after which we had a continental breakfast that Stan's wife, Joy Lue, prepared. We went to the 11:00 service at the Methodist Church in Merriman and to Steve and Carol's Spearhead Ranch for dinner.
April 4. Had to pull more calves than usual. We ended up losing one. I always wished I would sometime have enough cattle that I wouldn't mind losing one. We rode by a blowout where we take our casualties. I said to Sybil, "There's our profit." As we rode a little further downwind from the blowout, Sybil, with a twinkle in her eye, said, "I sure hate the smell of profit!" April 7. Moni Hourt came from Crawford and took pictures that will go with our diary in the June-July issue. She got here before sunrise and took a picture of Sybil and me on our horses with a windmill and beautiful sunrise in the background.. It made the cover of the forthcoming issue. Mori took many rolls of film with 16 pictures used for the publication.
April 11. We made a business trip to Martin today. We had supper in the Sale Barn Café and stopped at the Circle 6 Ranch on the way home to see a new little relative. Wesley Ryan Fairhead. Wesley's great-great-grandfather was my grandfather, G. O. Fairhead. G. O. and his family came to Nebraska from England via Toronto more than 100 years ago. When G.O. and three of his brothers filed on their homesteads southwest of Merriman, in 1885, they walked the last 85 miles from the end of the railroad. April 14. Sybil went over to Steve and Carol's to help them test some bulls. Elaine went with me to do the caking. Like many farm and ranch wives Elaine plays an important, behind the scenes role in the operation of this outfit. I would definitely hate to trade jobs with her! April 15. We had to go to Martin for repairs after finishing up necessary chores. Dad taught school a term or two in Martin and served as County Superintendent from 1926-1928 when it was just a frontier village. Most families had a cow. Water was carried from the windmill and supply tank by the courthouse.
April 19. The mail brought a fascinating family history that Elaine's Aunt Elizabeth put together. Elaine's people, the Andersons, are an intelligent, unpretentious, sincere, ambitious family. I feel fortunate to have gotten "mixed up" with them.
April 26. We were honored today that the new Sandhills Visitors Center at the Arthur Bowring Ranch asked for permission to put Dad's poem, "Sandhills Satisfaction," on a plaque to be displayed there.
April 30. We branded our calves today. Elaine had our overnight company fed breakfast by 6:00. Riders and horse trailers from neighboring ranches were arriving by 6:30. The Spearhead crew came with six riders including Baxter Black riding Steve's paint horse. Baxter pitched right in and soon proved to be the regular guy you like to know. By noon we had branded 650 calves and over 100 people went through the "chow line." We wish you readers could have been among them. It has been fun keeping this diary. I can never go back to sleep right away after checking cows in the middle of the night so that is when I have jotted down an account for each day. We hope you have enjoyed this diary from God's Cow Country as much as I have had the pleasure of writing it. Elaine and I join our state's tourism people in urging you to "Celebrate Nebraska in '88!"
