Cowboy lore falls to new low
by Julie Carter
With
the stealth of a Ninja fighter, the cowboy eased his way around the end
of a 20-foot stock trailer, hunkering his tall frame down far enough to
stay out of sight of his prey.
With deadly precision he, in the
flash of time it took for a single thought, slammed the gate closed and
his job was done. The last turkey hen was loaded.
There was to
be a June wedding in the yard at the ranch. That same yard also happened
to be home to a flock of wild turkeys, a few of which had been
relocated there some years back. Now their numbers were tripled.
These
big birds roosted in the cottonwoods, perched on the vehicles,
decimated the flower garden and left unpleasant reminders of their
recent presence.
So a turkey relocation program was "hatched" by the head cowboy.
This
same man plans a major cattle working in a matter of hours but this
project would take at least two weeks. With careful cunning, he began
baiting the turkeys into the trailer by trailing feed down the length of
it.
When the time came that he could get a few captured, which
sounds easier than it was because as soon as they'd see him they'd fly
out, he'd shut the gate and haul them to a grove of cottonwoods at the
south end of the ranch.
This took three trips for 14 turkeys. The
last trip was for a lone rebel bird who refused to be captured,
inspiring a new level of a stalking-capture mode.
I missed the photo opportunity of the year - a cowboy hauling one turkey in a 20-foot gooseneck trailer.
While it truly needed to be done, the very idea of it takes the cowboy image to a new low.
On the upside, it certainly has been fodder for moments of hilarity as the tale has been told and retold.
During
a recent discussion of the turkey-herding incident, it was mentioned
the turkeys had returned to their first home one night last week. The
return just happened to coincide with the arrival of a new grandchild
whose parents also reside at the ranch.
While the incident could
seem somewhat mystical and the oh's and ah's momentarily sustained the
coincidence, the reality was hard and cold. It was pointed out these
were notoriously dumb drown-in-a-rainstorm turkeys - not baby-delivering
storks.
In looking for a, perhaps, positive use for the turkeys
besides Thanksgiving dinner and turkey sandwiches, it was suggested that
they be painted white. And if a process of launching them could be
engineered, they then could be used at the wedding instead of white
doves.
The suggestion brought a look on the bride-to-be's face
that could only be interpreted to mean this wouldn't happen in her
lifetime.
Another response to the jovial turkey herding story came from an Albuquerque friend of the turkey herder. He wrote:
The Gobblers Shuda Went to Town
Darn bro...
I heard u was a turkey man.
A turkey man what am!
U shuda brung dem
turkeys to 'querque
We'd a put'um in a pot
an eat'um onda spot.
Yup...them turkey's uda
stayed right here in 'querque
Okay, it's not Whitman or Emerson but it is funny all things considered.
The
next story I'm waiting for is the response of the saddle horses when
they are asked to get in that same trailer. Horses are funny about
loading up in trailers that have hauled anything other than a horse or a
cow. Try loading one after a hog hauling.
© Julie Carter 2007
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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