DRY CRIK Journal

Warm in the mid-seventies. No rain since January 19th.

Since our last post, we’ve been to Elko and back, and branded the rest of our calves in Greasy, yesterday. No less than four digital cameras at work, we ought to have some photos to post. Great day, good people, big calves.

Rob Stone & Brent Huntington - Greasy Creek
Photo by Lesley Fry
February 9, 2006

On the way to Elko, we took I-50 over the Sierras to Carson City to look at a dozen registered Hereford yearling heifers in Jack’s Valley. Though most of our cows are black, we’ve been buying some Hereford bulls from Bill Rossiter and Loren Mrnak for the cross. Perhaps sentimental, I grew-up with Hereford cattle [see Neil Meili’s poem “Herefords” in the “Lost Issue”] – anyway, they’re now in the field next to the house, branded, full and doing well.

Elko is a swirl in my head, mixing with the more pressing realities of ranchwork. One of the highlights of the 22nd Gathering was the Fisher Poets who will have their 9th Gathering in Astoria, patterned after Elko, at the end of this month. Representatives Jon Broderick, Dave and Pat Densmore, Geno Leech and John van Amerongen offered salty stories, poetry and song for three days to the cowboy crowd.

The connection seems obvious to me as another hands-on culture at the mercy of the weather, the marketplace and the government, a dangerous profession full of humor and insight. While at Elko, I perused Grass by Buck Ramsey, a wonderful reprint of and I Rode Out Upon the Morning that includes the original prose version, "The Wagon Incident," and some comment from Buck’s contemporaries. Interestingly, the book concludes with a poem by J.B. Allen utilizing 15-20 nautical terms or metaphors of the sea.

The Vaquero Exhibit at the Pioneer Hotel included Trappings of the Gaucho, some intricate rawhide and amazing silver pieces. Robbin fell in love with the Brazilian musicians, likening Renatto Borghetti’s stage presence to Mick Jagger’s. There is, of course, no way to see all that’s offered at Elko, but arriving early we were able to visit more this year, make many new acquaintances and thoroughly enjoy and exhaust ourselves.

We’re back in the saddle quicker than we would have liked, a week’s worth of work stacked on our desks, and after branding yesterday, just as tired as we were Saturday night in Elko. Clarence and Chuck had the cows gathered when we got home. They gave us today “off,” but I thought I better get something posted early in case they change their minds.