My journal entry for Thursday, June 13, 1968

[Soapweed]

My journal entry for Thursday, June 13, 1968

I got up about 6:30 and had breakfast. The hired men (Lloyd and Doug) and I took off for the south place in the four-wheeler. Dad came later in the new pickup (he waited for our lunch to be ready).

We tore out an old fence southeast of the Webster place. When Dad arrived, I helped him throw off posts on two quarter mile stretches of new fence. We strung wire and got all lined out before dinner.

Lunch was eaten quickly in the usual fashion. I used the noon hour to good advantage and took a little nap (I was so tired I could hardly stand up all morning and was lazy as heck. The all-day branding yesterday was hard work).

The afternoon was hot and awful windy. Dad left us fence-fixers and went to check cattle, both at the Fuchser and Leach Places. He put up backrubbers, distributed salt, etc.

I spent the afternoon stretching fence, putting in dead men, and stapling. Somehow our hard-worked-on fence turned out slightly crooked, which doesn't boost a guy's morale much.

Dad rejoined us at 7:00, and we all came home in the green pickup. We got gas, pop, and candy bars at the Standard Station.

Lloyd, Doug, and I did chores. We have finally narrowed this job down to just feeding the bulls and horse, and giving an orphan calf some powdered milk.

For lack of entertainment, the girls and I shot off a few year-old firecrackers after supper. I think I'll hit the sack early.

 

[Bar M]

Soap your reference dead men a few times in your journal entries. What exactly are they.

 

[LazyWP]

Soap your reference dead men a few times in your journal entries. What exactly are they.

An anchor to hold the fence down. I think the sandhills are the only ones with the term, we also have auto gates, and let downs.

 

[Cedarcreek]

The term is used here too. Mostly I use a big rock to tie the fence down to. A lot of places around here the soil type will eat up the wire on a dug in dead man in a couple of years. I have a few let downs in my fence too.

 

[Big Swede]

Has anyone ever heard the term jitney bridge? There was an old guy around here when I was a kid that used to call auto gates that term. I guess jitney was a slang word for car way back when.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Has anyone ever heard the term jitney bridge? There was an old guy around here when I was a kid that used to call auto gates that term. I guess jitney was a slang word for car way back when.

Tam's dad used the term Jitney for old beaters and she does still every once in awhile. We mostly call them Texas gates or cattle guards.
We have a few let downs mostly on a small rise of a hill so it only takes a couple of posts worth of fence to get the wire to the ground. Built with 2 staples per wire with either a old spike a staple holding the wire between the staples. I think the one place I found one was for the neighbor to let his cows into our north pasture in the winter. :?

 

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever heard the term jitney bridge? There was an old guy around here when I was a kid that used to call auto gates that term. I guess jitney was a slang word for car way back when.

Tam's dad used the term Jitney for old beaters and she does still every once in awhile. We mostly call them Texas gates or cattle guards.
We have a few let downs mostly on a small rise of a hill so it only takes a couple of posts worth of fence to get the wire to the ground. Built with 2 staples per wire with either a old spike a staple holding the wire between the staples. I think the one place I found one was for the neighbor to let his cows into our north pasture in the winter. :?

My Dad used the term Jitney for small vehicles or old beaters too... He picked up the term in the Phillipines when he was there during WWII and he said they had small little buses they called Jitney buses... I call the Ranger that..

We use the term deadmen too- on spots to hold fence down or sometimes anchors for solid but leaning corner posts...


EDIT: You made me curious so I googled Jitney

A jitney is a North American English term which originally referred to a livery vehicle intermediate between a taxi and a bus. It is generally a small-capacity vehicle that follows a rough service route, but can go slightly out of its way to pick up and drop off passengers. In many US cities (e.g. Pittsburgh and Detroit), the term jitney refers to an unlicensed taxi cab.
In some US jurisdictions the limit to a jitney is seven passengers. In Rhode Island a jitney license plate is used for all public passenger buses, even for larger ones.

While jitneys are fairly common in many less wealthy countries, such as the Philippines, they have appeared in the past in the U.S. and Canada. The first U.S. jitneys ran in Los Angeles, California in 1914. By 1915, there were 62,000 nationwide. Local regulations, demanded by streetcar companies, killed the jitney in most places. By the end of 1916, only 6,000 jitneys remained. Similarly, in Vancouver, Canada, in the 1920s, jitneys competed directly with the streetcar monopoly, operating along the same routes as the streetcars but charging lower fares. Operators were referred to as "Jitney Men." They were so successful that the city government banned them at the request of the streetcar operators.

Since the oil crisis of 1973-74, jitneys have reappeared in some areas of the United States, particularly inner city areas once served by streetcars and private buses. (An increase in bus fares usually leads to a significant rise in jitney usage.) Liberalization of jitneys is often encouraged by libertarian urban economists, such as Rutgers' James Dunn and USC's Peter Gordon, as a more "market-friendly" alternative to public transportation. However, concerns over fares, insurance liabilities, and passenger safety have kept legislative support for jitneys decidedly tepid. Nevertheless, in New York City, jitneys (known as "dollar vans" because of their original price) are regulated and remain popular especially outside of Manhattan.

 

[3 M L & C]

Around here people call a deadman a tpost drove in at angle with wire going up to the top of a corner post to keep it up right. Usually used when putting a temporary corner in for hot wire to graze stalks when it's to dry to for the corner post to stand up decent after putting it in and not able to tamp good.