Mark got a call from Slim last week. He was in the canyon and ready to do some fence checking and repair down this way before bringing more cattle down. "If you care to come along, I'll help you unload that fancy new freezer when we're done." What a deal! I certainly wasn't looking forward to the prospect of moving the freezer now perched in the back of Mark's truck. So, pretty soon, Slim arrives in his 'scooter' (don't ask me why a cowboy would call an ATV a scooter but cowboys have a strange way of looking at things sometimes). Three dogs, fence posts, wire and tools and ready to roll. Mark hopped in and they disappeared eastwards in no time flat. They were going to check the fencing which spans creek and washes out on a regular basis. Given the sandy nature of the creek bed, there is no fence designed to survive its running, eroding waters so you just have to keep up with the repairs.
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Above: Slim shuts down the ATV and they tackle the freezer move in short order. That story will be covered when I do a post on how we keep things cold off-the-grid. As soon as they were done and Slim was settled into his customary roost on the chesterfield, he announces loudly "Well, we almost lost Mark today." You know that's a teaser for a new cowboy story. "Awww ... you didn't lurch him out of that infernal 'scooter', did ya?" "Hell no! I'm talking serious here!" I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear exactly what serious was but I knew I was going to anyway. There was a slight hint of a cat's grin on his face and this tale was going to be too good to hold in any longer.
They had found a well-worn cattle and game trail down to the creek bed and headed to the fence line straddling the creek. Sure enough, the fence had been flattened, probably by a big cottonwood limb, so they stopped at one end of the fence and walked out to the flattened spot.
Mark was slightly ahead of Slim on the quest as they made their way across the damp sand bed. All was going well and then, according to Slim, Mark stepped in a spot that looked as firm as any other and sank "... darn near to to his thigh!". Then he stopped to admonish me "Those fancy rubber boots you like so much? Well, if he'd been wearing those, he's STILL be there - I ain't kidding ya!" At that point I glanced over at Mark now slouched comfortably into his wing chair. Without a word of protest or self-defense, Mark sighed ever so lightly and pointed down to the mud and sand still clinging to his shoes and well up past his knees.
Quicksand! Who would have thought? The only time we had encountered quicksand was in old Westerns. Seemed like every other episode involved someone falling into quicksand and fighting for their lives, so much so that you'd think it was everywhere. Eventually you thought "Yeah, another non-existent legend." Well, what a way to find out that quicksand does exist.
So Slim, not done with his story-telling, related the story of going down to another neighbor's ranch that week to round up strays. He said "So we rode the horses down across the big wash and darned if Ruby didn't sink in up to her shoulders in quicksand! I kicked out of the stirrups and dropped to one side of her and she sort of rested on me - which kind of kept her from sinking any deeper." Mark, now consumed by the excitement of the tale, exclaimed "Wow, so you being nearly under her is what saved her?!" Slim, being quite pleased that someone bit at his story bait, then said "Nah, but don't it make for a great cowboy tale?" That's our boy. And thankfully, Ruby did make it out on her own.
But he continued on the serious side, noting that being caught in the stirrups or having a horse get caught up in the reins is a sure way to get yourself killed while they are panicking and struggling to get out of the quicksand. This particular cowboy is not helping any desire on our part to pick up horses for ourselves in the future - and that's a fact.
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And now to address a flurry of birthday wishes:
To Mark, who you can see in the ATV photos above. He's still looking good as ever and STILL getting carded! I suspect that he is really Dorian Gray and I am his portrait - that's all I can figure.
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To my sister (above). Enjoying retirement now but was a securities desk trader for years and eventually one of the first woman stock traders on the exchange floor. I even kept her magazine interview on the subject - my, how times have changed. . .
To my nephew (above): the BIG Dallas fan. Just an all-round decent kid and my former carousing buddy when I went home to visit, often to the chagrin of his mother (already shown above). .
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To my buddy Sinclair (above): SUPREME gearhead. Retired CEO of Saab NA, has owned just about anything really cool with two or four-wheels and a motor. Even ran the Baja with Malcolm Forbes. Here is a guy with tales to keep you around the campfire all night. Shown here with his Kawa-based Harris from England. He's having some health issues right now that I hope he can kick in the butt. He's been a loyal friend through much adversity and I have a long memory. .
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