Cowpuncher
Well-known member
In 1937, my parents bought a 1520 acre ranch in Colorado. The price was $10,000. A couple of years later they bought another 160 acres for $2100.
They had five children, two of which were boys. Father was of German ancestry and the tradition was that the land would go to the oldest son. Also, by tradition, girls didn't count much - and they were never even taught to drive.
We were a low cost operation. When I went into the army in 1954, we ran the place with a single team of horses with a couple of pieces of hay equipment.
Before I went into the army, I had convinced my father to sell the ranch to my older brother and me. Older brother had completed his military service and had a couple of years of college under his belt - although he didn't do well. As soon as I told him that I had negotiated for us to buy the ranch, he dropped out of college.
After returning from the military, I returned to the ranch and we decided to buy some equipment. However, brother didn't want to accept a partnership and stonewalled every proposal I made, including buying some real key land in the middle of the ranch. He could not make a decision, mostly because it was my idea.
One day, we were stacking bales and he insisted that only he knew how
to stack them. So I threw the bales on the stack and he put them where they were supposed to go. Only about 30 tons, as I remember. The next morning the stack had collapsed.
So we decided to restack the bales into two stacks. Again, he insisted that he stack them and I would throw them on the stack. By now, his credibility was pretty low so threw the bales at him. That evening, I announced that I was enrolling in the Universityof Colorado and my partnership days were ended.
Some years later, the ranch was sold to my brother. Each of my sisters and I received $4000. By them I had graduated from business school and was working for an oil company.
Older brother then married a single mother of two. This woman was a real whiner (sometimes for good reason). She ran off with a local barber and left brother with her two girls and a son they had themselves. He was ordered to pay alimony. He failed to do so and told the judge that he had heard his ex had remarried. The judge ordered the ranch split into two parcels, His ex sold her part for $150,000.
Brother raised the three kids on the ranch. Our father had passed away and their will said that the assets were to be split among the other four children at my others death. The assets amounted to about $60,000. As an accountant, I managed the assets and when my mother passed away, they amounted to some $400,000.
My brother's son was raised on the ranch. Unfortunately, he was killed in an accident with a New Holland stack wagon at the age of 19.
Brother stayed on the ranch, the girls married and left. After retiring from the oil company, I helped with haying from time to time.
One day, brother"s new wife called and asked if I could help feed the cows as he was sick. I said I would be there in 30 minutes as I live some 30 miles away. When I got to the ranch, I saw the tractor and haywagon crossing the field with no one on it. I sped to the area and found brother laying face down in a snowbank unconscious and not breathing. I rolled him over. I do not know CPR so I just slapped his face half a dozed times and he started breathing again. He was pretty heavy - I put a lasso around his shoulders and drug him into the pickup cab. Rushed to town where I caught a policeman who escorted us to a facility where they had oxygen and EMTs and they took him to the emergency room in an ambulance. He survived the trauma and had a couple of friends feed his cattle for the rest of the year.
He had COPD, cancer, gout, diabetes, melanoma and some less serious maladies. Shortly thereafter, his new wife passed away - she was quite a bit older than him.
He decided to sell the ranch. This was the top of the real estate boom and he eventually got $2.3 million for the ranch. The buyer resold the ranch two days later for $4.7 million. This part of the ranch is now in foreclosure. The part of the ranch that his ex-wife had sold was later sold to John Malone for $1.5 million.
So brother has a cool $2.3 million. Until this point, he had provided nothing for his two adoped daughters and four grand children.
Brother moved to Denver and bought a house. He got mixed up with a couple of women. One of them disappeared, but the other kind of lived with him and went to great lengths to keep all relatives away. His health continued to deteriorate. He decided to give his house to his live-in. In July of 2011, his live-in took him to the county registrars office and they got married. He was 78 and she was 51.
Brother definitely had a mean streak in him and he wanted to totally disinherit his daughters. His live-in said that wouldn't be fair. She knew the will would be contested if his daughters were excluded so $100,000 was left to each of the girls when he died last spring. His new wife made the funeral arrangements - a graveside ceremony at Fort Logan National Cemetery. There wasn't even a decent funeral notice at the funeral.
That is pretty much the story. I liked ranching and eventually bought a ranch in Eastern Colorado where I ran about 750 cows and had a few thousand acres of farm land.
I sold that ranch few years back and paid all the taxes due. I gave each of my kids $1 million dollars. I also setup 529 education accounts for all of my grand kids and I give them help in other ways.
So successionis no simple thing. You never know what someone will do until they are in a position to do it.
Am I bitter - I don't think so. But I am smarter.
They had five children, two of which were boys. Father was of German ancestry and the tradition was that the land would go to the oldest son. Also, by tradition, girls didn't count much - and they were never even taught to drive.
We were a low cost operation. When I went into the army in 1954, we ran the place with a single team of horses with a couple of pieces of hay equipment.
Before I went into the army, I had convinced my father to sell the ranch to my older brother and me. Older brother had completed his military service and had a couple of years of college under his belt - although he didn't do well. As soon as I told him that I had negotiated for us to buy the ranch, he dropped out of college.
After returning from the military, I returned to the ranch and we decided to buy some equipment. However, brother didn't want to accept a partnership and stonewalled every proposal I made, including buying some real key land in the middle of the ranch. He could not make a decision, mostly because it was my idea.
One day, we were stacking bales and he insisted that only he knew how
to stack them. So I threw the bales on the stack and he put them where they were supposed to go. Only about 30 tons, as I remember. The next morning the stack had collapsed.
So we decided to restack the bales into two stacks. Again, he insisted that he stack them and I would throw them on the stack. By now, his credibility was pretty low so threw the bales at him. That evening, I announced that I was enrolling in the Universityof Colorado and my partnership days were ended.
Some years later, the ranch was sold to my brother. Each of my sisters and I received $4000. By them I had graduated from business school and was working for an oil company.
Older brother then married a single mother of two. This woman was a real whiner (sometimes for good reason). She ran off with a local barber and left brother with her two girls and a son they had themselves. He was ordered to pay alimony. He failed to do so and told the judge that he had heard his ex had remarried. The judge ordered the ranch split into two parcels, His ex sold her part for $150,000.
Brother raised the three kids on the ranch. Our father had passed away and their will said that the assets were to be split among the other four children at my others death. The assets amounted to about $60,000. As an accountant, I managed the assets and when my mother passed away, they amounted to some $400,000.
My brother's son was raised on the ranch. Unfortunately, he was killed in an accident with a New Holland stack wagon at the age of 19.
Brother stayed on the ranch, the girls married and left. After retiring from the oil company, I helped with haying from time to time.
One day, brother"s new wife called and asked if I could help feed the cows as he was sick. I said I would be there in 30 minutes as I live some 30 miles away. When I got to the ranch, I saw the tractor and haywagon crossing the field with no one on it. I sped to the area and found brother laying face down in a snowbank unconscious and not breathing. I rolled him over. I do not know CPR so I just slapped his face half a dozed times and he started breathing again. He was pretty heavy - I put a lasso around his shoulders and drug him into the pickup cab. Rushed to town where I caught a policeman who escorted us to a facility where they had oxygen and EMTs and they took him to the emergency room in an ambulance. He survived the trauma and had a couple of friends feed his cattle for the rest of the year.
He had COPD, cancer, gout, diabetes, melanoma and some less serious maladies. Shortly thereafter, his new wife passed away - she was quite a bit older than him.
He decided to sell the ranch. This was the top of the real estate boom and he eventually got $2.3 million for the ranch. The buyer resold the ranch two days later for $4.7 million. This part of the ranch is now in foreclosure. The part of the ranch that his ex-wife had sold was later sold to John Malone for $1.5 million.
So brother has a cool $2.3 million. Until this point, he had provided nothing for his two adoped daughters and four grand children.
Brother moved to Denver and bought a house. He got mixed up with a couple of women. One of them disappeared, but the other kind of lived with him and went to great lengths to keep all relatives away. His health continued to deteriorate. He decided to give his house to his live-in. In July of 2011, his live-in took him to the county registrars office and they got married. He was 78 and she was 51.
Brother definitely had a mean streak in him and he wanted to totally disinherit his daughters. His live-in said that wouldn't be fair. She knew the will would be contested if his daughters were excluded so $100,000 was left to each of the girls when he died last spring. His new wife made the funeral arrangements - a graveside ceremony at Fort Logan National Cemetery. There wasn't even a decent funeral notice at the funeral.
That is pretty much the story. I liked ranching and eventually bought a ranch in Eastern Colorado where I ran about 750 cows and had a few thousand acres of farm land.
I sold that ranch few years back and paid all the taxes due. I gave each of my kids $1 million dollars. I also setup 529 education accounts for all of my grand kids and I give them help in other ways.
So successionis no simple thing. You never know what someone will do until they are in a position to do it.
Am I bitter - I don't think so. But I am smarter.
I applaud you for making the best of the situation you were dealt and having as good attitude. Our family ranch has a set of red gates hanging on the fence that surrounds the place. Behind those gates was sacred ground in my world. It's where i'd blow on Grandpa's coffee, play with my cousins, Hug Grandma after another amazing meal, tell hunting stories and just feel like i was home. Now i am not welcome, (atleast i sure feel that way) and i doubt i will ever walk or ride through those red gates again. :? My cousin and her husband own the land now and are doing their own thing. That thing doesnt include my family. But the way i look at it, is now that my grandparents and uncles have passed away, the house and corrals are just that.....a house and corrals. What i treasure are the people and the memories THEY have in my heart. Lumber and shingles dont count for much without the people. We are building our own memories and traditions on our own place. Hopefully, someday, my grandkids will smile when they remember me and our ranch. 