Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Changing of the seasons - Cowboy Style

Julie Carter

For most people, fall is the season of turning leaves, cooler weather, and the last bloom of summer flowers. For the cowboy, like Monday starts a new week, fall begins a new year.

It is the time of year for gathering the cattle and turning sassy calves into weanlings. The long days in the saddle, the billowing dust of corrals full of cattle, the long lines of cattle trucks all mean one thing. Pay day. That reward for a year of work that started this time last year.

For one more year, they have watched a cow buyer drive off down the dusty road, knowing that they probably won't see him again for a year. One more time, they heave a sigh of relief as the last cattle truck rolled over the cattle guard headed for feedlots and wheat pastures.

Yearling cattle operators have shipped the summer cattle and are looking to get the fall stockers received and tucked away in winter pastures.

Fall is when you get out all the jackets, down vests, wild rags and leggings. You make every effort to find the winter gloves, all of them, including the right and left one of each pair. It's commonly known that while empty cardboard boxes multiply in captivity, winter gloves in matching pairs are an endangered species.

My first concession to the season is giving up my sandals in trade for full-cover footwear. It usually doesn't happen before I've been seen in public a number of times wearing a turtleneck sweater and the aforementioned shoes with no tops.

The horses begin to grow furry coats and spend more time at the feed bunk. They have little interest in working, socializing or doing anything but soaking up the afternoon sun.

Fall is when you start breaking the two-year-old colts and hope they retain just a little of it before you turn them out for winter. It is hard to maintain any cowboy athletic prowess with a bucking colt when you are dressed with enough layers to resemble the Michelin man.

Preferred menu changes move from sandwiches and salads to pots of chili and a complete assortment of crock-pot ready-to-eat cuisine options.

Pumpkins are everywhere. Pumpkin cake and pumpkin bread are a favorite whether it is for the taste of cinnamon and clove or simply a good reason for the cream cheese frosting. While I happen to think pumpkin comes in a can, the real thing does look pretty sitting around next to Indian corn or bundled corn stocks.

It is not yet calving season and there is not yet any ice to break on the water tanks. The feed pickups stand by ready for work. However, the season is too short to start any major fencing, pipelining or corral building.

It is not that winter is an idle season but it has a specific list of jobs that, for the most part, leave no time for special projects.

Fall is the time to review what has been accomplished during the year - you can't get it back but you can always hope to improve on it.

Ranching is like that. A rancher is always looking forward to getting this year over with so he can start on the next one. He simply is able to start a little earlier with his New Year resolutions.

And those almost always begin with a prayer for full water tanks, good grass and decent cattle prices.

Julie can be reached for comment at jcarter@tularosa.net.