Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

Git’er done cowgirl style

 by Julie Carter

The front wheels of the truck were almost off the ground and the hitch was close to dragging but with cowgirl confidence, the duo set off to haul a deal-of-a-century load of feed tubs to the backside of a remote ranch.

That was when the trouble started but first I’ll tell you how things digressed to that point.

Supplementary feeding of cattle in this part of the world, while a necessity most years, is cost prohibitive enough to be a single source of going broke.

The function requires dealing with feed salesmen who as a general rule, rank right up there with used-car salesmen and shady horse traders.

Minerals and supplements come in a variety of forms - licks, tubs, and blocks, just to name a few. Deanne had some cattle on a grass ranch on the east side of the state and her friend, Bobby Jo was, this week, acting as a feed supplement rep.

After her pitch to Deanne for the perfect supplement for the kind and condition of cattle she had and the location she had them pastured, they made a deal and the tubs were to be delivered.

However, in the delivery phase, Bobby Jo found herself a little short on equipment so she borrowed a former boyfriend's small, light pickup. With it came an equally small, light, and very old flatbed trailer. Refer to paragraph one and we are now into the story.

Bobby Jo picked Deanne up and they headed to the ranch. When they got to the gate, the steep canyon ahead of them was in view and Deanne started to feel a little squeamish about the trip to the bottom.

About half way down the cliff-hugging road, Bobby Jo announced that there were no working brakes on the pickup. Simultaneously, the trailer realized it too. It jackknifed, bouncing a good number of the tubs on down the hill ahead of them.

Shrugging, they thought, well all right, we were going to take them there anyway. But the real problem showed up when they realized a few of the tubs had landed underneath the truck.

These were forcing the truck off the ground, had the front of the trailer up in the air and the whole business stopped dead still.

The hitch was no longer workable and nothing could be dislodged. Cell phone service was not available in the remote location and nobody was expecting them for days.

And of course, the jack was in the "other truck."

Using the only logic they could come up with, they decided the best thing to do was run over the tubs, hope the oil pan was in good shape, the brakes would suddenly come back to life and they’d go on down the hill.

In record time, they got to the bottom with no loss of life or limb. The truck hadn't been in that good of shape when they started out and Bobby Jo had already broken up with that guy anyway.

The trailer had to be backed over a gully so that the hitch would come loose. It fell at an interesting angle and they left it there.

Everybody dusted their hands, knowing they had accomplished what they set out to do  which was to deliver the tubs to Deanne's cattle.

They limped the pickup back to town and Deanne and Bobby Jo parted friends.

Another cowgirl job well done.

Julie can be reached for comment a jcarternm@gmail.com