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Mountains or praire?

cowboyup

Well-known member
You are right about the weather Tap, here you would be crazy to ever leave home without a coat and a slicker tied to your saddle. I also know a little about Carter county gravel roads as thats where I started my great journey. Fortunately my Dad moved us here when I was two but I have heard lots of stories and I have a sister that owns a motel in Ekalaka now.
 

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
I grew up on a ranch next to a small town aboutg 50 miles from Denver, CO.

The scenery was rolling hills with creeks and quite a bit of farm land. Arid weather mostly and about 14 inches of precipitation each year. Altitude was about 6400 feet.

Of course, we thought the whole world was like that since we never went far from home.

We did notice, however, that a number of families came to town with construction jobs of one sort or another and never left even though they had a heck of a time making a living.

Since then, I have lived in Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Belgium, Germany California and London. Every one of those places has its own unique traits and reasons to live there. However, after 25 years of working for a Big Fat Oil Company, we moved back about 25 miles from where I was born.

Only problem is that the county we are in now has 280,000 people instead of 5000. That takes a lot of gertting used to even after living in New York City and London. We are not in town yet, but they are moving our way. They may yet get us in the city limits before we check out!!
 

RoperAB

Well-known member
Soapweed said:
The common thread in all of these posts, is that people tend to favor the terrain of their birthplace. Guess it is natural instinct, and that is good. It keeps everybody from all moving to the same place.
.

:lol: I was born in the east! Always wanted to move west since I was a little kid.
Tried running some cows back east but you just cant be a cowboy back east :lol:
Plus its to crowded in the east, I never really fit in back there, plus there is no wild life.
I went back east when my Father died a few years ago and I felt like I was in a foreign country.
I used to be a professional hunting guide and I have spent quite a bit of time in the mountains. I much prefer the foothills of the Rockies but my second choice would be the eastern slope south of Longview. The problem is that most Albertans seem to be the same way and developement is starting to get things crowded.
I really like the SE part of the province. The coulees break up the landscape and its still very much cow country in certain places. Lots of wildlife down there to.
:lol: But then again there are more people living in just Calgary than in in all of Saskatchewan combined. :lol: Saskatchewan is looking better everyday!
What is it like 10,000 people moving to just Calgary alone every year? All this prosperity is going to take away what makes Alberta so great :cry:
 

RoperAB

Well-known member
What a lot of people dont realise about the mountains is that its different in the winter time. Example even where im living now in the foothills we have enough elevation that we get twice as much, snow, wind and rain than what they get just a few miles east of us. Its acually been raining here for the last seven days straight! Its also a lot colder here than just a few miles away where the elevation is lower. Plus there are so many preditors that you cant calve here in the spring. We have grizzleys, black bears, cougers and wolves. Even the coyottes are so thick and hungry that they will pull down healthy calves. Couple of miles east of here in the lower elevations coyottes are not a problem. Im not sure why they are so aggresive here.
The real mountains<Rocky Mountains> are basically dead in the winter because basically moves down to the low country in order to survive. Its the same deal here in the foothills. Its basically dead here in the winter time because all the game moves down to the lower elevations.
Plus the Mountains in Alberta are not really horse country. Well they sort of are because a horse is the most practical thing except for helicopters to get around on but its tough country on horses.
Even in the lower elevations it would be tough to live there because most of the grazing leases are pretty much grazed off by late fall which comes real early in the mountains.
 

sw

Well-known member
JB you asked the question, now that I am not in a tractor, but I have alot of windshield time, I try to be constructive with my time unlike some on here.


LIFE IN THE BULL MOUNTAINS

You asked of us this question, should it be mountains or the plains,
The question could be easier, winter snowfall or spring rains?
The grandeur of the mountains, the valleys and spring creeks,
Cannot take precedence, over a place that won’t rain, weeks upon weeks.

But yet I have never seen, a place that God did not grace,
Every single landscape I’ve seen, you’ll see a smile upon its face.
The sunsets on the prairie, are the prettiest of them all,
But you should see the moon rise, on the mountains in the fall.

The hoar frost on a clear day, when living way up North,
Makes the meaning of getting by, quickly take forth..
The timeliness of a good rain, when living without mountains,
Means more on the plains, living without natures fountains.

Drought can set in and leave you with no recourse,
You may have to sell off your all your cows, even your best horse.
The people from the East, have their sights set on the best,
The tallest and the fanciest, of “their” own, newly found West.

I choose to stay here where I am, I’ve found myself a home,
No longer will I be adrift, no more looking for a place to roam.
We’re far away from a paved road, with creeks for people to fish,
You would have to drive along ways, to find sushi for a dish.

It’s 40 miles to the nearest store, we grow our own it’s true,
These people from the city, they think it’s delivered to you.
Lettuce, melons, and tomatoes, ripened on the vine,
We have grown accustomed, to homemade beer and wine.

The Bull Mountains give us all, that we can possibly stand,
The Ponderosa pines, the rocks, formed from ancient sand.
The sunsets can be tangerine, across an open sky,
Make all that I am seeing, more candy for the eye.

I grew up in the land of rivers, water, mountains are a jagged peak,
Now living in a place with no mountains, where the rain gods rarely speak.
You can get up on the highest hilltop, and look out towards the East
And not see anything to do with man, only the pleasures of God’s beasts.

You can watch the moon come up, above the grove of Pine,
You can see for miles, no distraction, coming from some neon sign.
During the quiet of the evening, no planes, no trains, no automobiles,
Only the sounds of birds calling, their music and their shrills.

I have grown some roots into these rocks, down into this sandstone,
Only with the help of my family, never could of done it on my own.
There is no place prettier, than what a man calls his own,
And there is no place better, than what a woman calls her home.

When I should die and complete, my whole circle in this life,
I leave these directions for my children, my friends and my wife,
Scatter my ashes across the Bull Mountains, the pine and it’s sandstone,
Let me invigorate this place, I will ever call my home.
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
Wheweeee! That was grand, sw. A real classic.

You can take a bow!! Very, very well done.

There's alot of feeling in that poem, what is in you and what
you projected to the reader.
 

Jinglebob

Well-known member
Damn fine poem!

Very well done. Good to see you putting your time to good use! :wink:

We've got an older neighbor who used to work/live in the bull Mountains and he still talks about it fondly. I'd like to see them sometime. :)
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
They are a refreshing alternative to the B.S. Mountains where the Lesser Montanan R-Calfer resides-seriously though it is pretty country always liked travelling through there.
 

sw

Well-known member
Thanks Fh and Jinglebob, now if I were making rhymes in the tractor today, there would be a bunch of :mad: and some :x and probably some :twisted: Not a good day on the baler, but it just rained here so things are looking up, as long as I don't look up and see smoke, some major lightning, Was just rmembering, last year on the 19th I got ran out of the fields with a storm, spent the 20th fighting fire, and the rest of the week baby sitting it. Maybe the hay Gods are trying to tell me something.
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
Team1roper said:
We love the rolling hills and a few trees but I want it open enough to see my stars and moon at night


Ahhhh, team1roper, we do see those stars and the moon at night, and the deep blue sky at day. Can watch the sun come up and go down on the hills. Just can't see for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles.... :eek:
 

Saddletramp

Well-known member
Good to read all these post. My old buddy JB really started a good'un.

I came out to the sandhills as a young feller and as for raising calves it's the best. But I sure like to see some trees once in awhile. Some of the river breaks on the Cheyenne or the Elk in SD really get me to perk my ears up.

Jinglebob took me through some of the ND badlands acouple of weeks back and that was sure primo cowboy country. Tame enough to get a cow out of and wild enough to keep out most humans. :wink:
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
sw said:
Thanks Fh and Jinglebob, now if I were making rhymes in the tractor today, there would be a bunch of :mad: and some :x and probably some :twisted: Not a good day on the baler, but it just rained here so things are looking up, as long as I don't look up and see smoke, some major lightning, Was just rmembering, last year on the 19th I got ran out of the fields with a storm, spent the 20th fighting fire, and the rest of the week baby sitting it. Maybe the hay Gods are trying to tell me something.

we got caught in that wicked storm while going through billings on our way home!! thunder, lightning and rain so hard that we almost could not see where we were going.....lightning struck up a dandy fire just outside of Laurel....the winds were blowing vehicles all over the place, so I can imagine what it was doing to the fresh fire!! NOT good!! :shock:
 

CattleRMe

Well-known member
The green grassy wind blown Nebraska Sandhills will always be home to me. The tall stolic hills shaped and carved by time, wind, and cattle. The wet meadows that provide winter feed and days of work in the summer. The way the fresh cut hay smells to me signals home. Windmills standing tall and proud against hills pumping much needed water for the cattle or in other cases not pumping and needing my father to climb to the top and fix them to me this is home. Black angus cattle filling a valley just grazing content with calves by their sides to me this is home.


I think no matter where life will take me these hills will always be home. There is a reason they call this "God's country."
 

CattleRMe

Well-known member
Saddletramp said:
Good to read all these post. My old buddy JB really started a good'un.

I came out to the sandhills as a young feller and as for raising calves it's the best. But I sure like to see some trees once in awhile. Some of the river breaks on the Cheyenne or the Elk in SD really get me to perk my ears up.

Jinglebob took me through some of the ND badlands acouple of weeks back and that was sure primo cowboy country. Tame enough to get a cow out of and wild enough to keep out most humans. :wink:


The badlands are beautiful traveling through I've oftened if the cowboys in that country are brave and awesome hands or just crazy. :wink:
 

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