leanin' H
Well-known member
Most of ya'll are aware I've been building fence at the ranch this summer while waiting to start a new job. I worked on it Saturday till 2 p.m. and then headed up Joe's canyon to work on a spring/trough project with my cousin Phil. He leases two sections of private land in the mouth of the canyon and the gate is locked. Been having trouble all year with people cutting the fence to go up the canyon. The gate has been locked since the early 90's but some folks don't care. Phil was ahead of me and had his Dad, Dean, with him. The gate was GONE! three guys on wheelers came down the canyon and Phil confronted them. They denied everything and said it was like that when they arrived. He asked them where they lived and they said they were from MY TOWN! then they took off. I passed them on my way up and didnt think anything of it. When I got to the gate and got the story i swapped directions and chased them down as I knew they lied about being from Vernon. We had a little discussion about private property and a-holes and I whipped out my camera to take their pictures. One guy started swearing at me and tryed running over me but I'm pretty agile for an old guy! :wink: I won't show ya thier faces as this has been turned over to the sheriff dept. but here's the photos of the clues we discovered. I might add that 15 or 20 years ago there would of been a beating take place. Probably mine, but they'd been missing some parts when it was over. Guess i've mellowed with age.
Here's two of the fat bas-turds fleeing when i took their pictures. They left their younger buddy behind and he tried to deny they didnt do anything but was so drunk he couldnt lie too well.
After they took off, we pieced together as much eveidence as we could. You look at it and make your own judgement. If ya notice in the first picture, the guy on the left has a shotgun on his wheeler. I have another picture that show it's a break action single shot but won't show ya cause it shows their faces. We picked up 4 .20 gauge emptys where they tryed to shoot the post off! Next is the beer cans. They still had beer in them and in our dry country it evaporates quick. None of us who have access to the property drink beer. These three jokers were lit up pretty good. Speech slurred and smelled to high heaven of false courage! Here's the pile they left at the gate!
They must not have had pliers to cut the fence so they tryed ripping out the fence. Only accomplished breaking a post off and the top barb.
A .20 gauge doesn't do much to a sun dried cedar post! I'll bet money the shotgun on fat boy #2's 4 wheeler is a .20 gauge!
They pulled on the steel gate with a 4 wheeler. There were tracks where the machine had dug into the dirt. Not tracks over the ruts and just thier tracks going up the canyon. The gate held but they bent the heck out of the hinge bolts.
The gate was still chained to the post on the chain side. They flung it out of the way. This was a statement! They could of cut the fence like they had done before!( I'll bet they are the same ones who have raised hell all summer) They wanted to show some dumb rancher what they thounght of his gate and lock!
Wouldn't ya love to of been up the ridge with a .12 gauge full of rock salt?
Found this at the scene! COOL cigerette butts all over at the gate and this empty carton just up the pasture a bit. Again, none of us smoke who enter the canyon legally! Fatboy #2 was smoking a.......... wait for it........... COOL cigerette when i caught up with them!
Natural light and Bud light cans clear up the canyon. Same as every other time the fence was cut. Another sign of contempt to the landowner! And one more charge they'll be handed to go along with trespassing, vandalism, breaking and entering, drunk and disorderly and attempted assualt with an OHV. The littering charge will seem like small potatos!
After going through the private land, they crossed a state land section and went through a wire gate onto National Forest land. They ripped off the little yellow "please close gate" sign and turned it over and stapled it back on the post! Another subtle message on their thoughts about ranchers!
The Sheriff thinks we have a good case. They claimed to live here but finally owned up to their actual town which is south a ways! The one who didn't flee told me his name and where he works. I think when he sobers up and the deputys go visit him he'll cave pretty quick! Deputy Gowans told me my packing a camera made a huge difference! Hard to lie about being there when your captured on film! Looking forward to seeing them again in court! :wink: Would love to see them again in a much more informal place if ya know what i mean!


After they took off, we pieced together as much eveidence as we could. You look at it and make your own judgement. If ya notice in the first picture, the guy on the left has a shotgun on his wheeler. I have another picture that show it's a break action single shot but won't show ya cause it shows their faces. We picked up 4 .20 gauge emptys where they tryed to shoot the post off! Next is the beer cans. They still had beer in them and in our dry country it evaporates quick. None of us who have access to the property drink beer. These three jokers were lit up pretty good. Speech slurred and smelled to high heaven of false courage! Here's the pile they left at the gate!

They must not have had pliers to cut the fence so they tryed ripping out the fence. Only accomplished breaking a post off and the top barb.

A .20 gauge doesn't do much to a sun dried cedar post! I'll bet money the shotgun on fat boy #2's 4 wheeler is a .20 gauge!

They pulled on the steel gate with a 4 wheeler. There were tracks where the machine had dug into the dirt. Not tracks over the ruts and just thier tracks going up the canyon. The gate held but they bent the heck out of the hinge bolts.

The gate was still chained to the post on the chain side. They flung it out of the way. This was a statement! They could of cut the fence like they had done before!( I'll bet they are the same ones who have raised hell all summer) They wanted to show some dumb rancher what they thounght of his gate and lock!


Found this at the scene! COOL cigerette butts all over at the gate and this empty carton just up the pasture a bit. Again, none of us smoke who enter the canyon legally! Fatboy #2 was smoking a.......... wait for it........... COOL cigerette when i caught up with them!

Natural light and Bud light cans clear up the canyon. Same as every other time the fence was cut. Another sign of contempt to the landowner! And one more charge they'll be handed to go along with trespassing, vandalism, breaking and entering, drunk and disorderly and attempted assualt with an OHV. The littering charge will seem like small potatos!

After going through the private land, they crossed a state land section and went through a wire gate onto National Forest land. They ripped off the little yellow "please close gate" sign and turned it over and stapled it back on the post! Another subtle message on their thoughts about ranchers!
The Sheriff thinks we have a good case. They claimed to live here but finally owned up to their actual town which is south a ways! The one who didn't flee told me his name and where he works. I think when he sobers up and the deputys go visit him he'll cave pretty quick! Deputy Gowans told me my packing a camera made a huge difference! Hard to lie about being there when your captured on film! Looking forward to seeing them again in court! :wink: Would love to see them again in a much more informal place if ya know what i mean!

