by Jan Fielden
I told The Colonel that I would never ride in the “box” again and I meant it even if he thought I was just talking. The “box” fits on the forks of the tractor. It can be raised up and lowered by pulling or pushing the control by the seat on the tractor. The reason I don’t want to ride in it ever again is I am tired of being thrown to the side of it every time there is a levee to go over or there is a hog strike to run across. The “box” is wooden and is used to carry mainly tools and supplies to work on fences or to carry salt and mineral to the different feeders around the ranch. It is low to the ground and there is not much comfort riding in it even sitting on a bale of hay.
We went down to the Yearling Pasture to move them into the Horse Pasture because we are having some problems with the fence on the road and didn’t want them to get out and cause an accident. I put Sundance up in her paddock and locked her gate. We then took off on our journey to bring the Yearlings up. As usual some went through the gate into the Horse Pasture and four went around the fence instead of going through the gate. I locked the gate on the ones that were where we wanted them and took off walking to the grove of trees to hide from the four misbehavers. They were coming down the fence line with The Colonel driving the tractor behind them. I ran down the fence line in the grove and pushed them on until they came to a place to come out. The Colonel drove them into the Horse Pasture through the second gate. One was still out. That one was Fedora who is a loner.
I came out of the grove and pushed her for a while; the whole time she was calling the others for what I don’t know. Maybe she wanted them to come back out, but The Colonel ended up getting her in the pasture too and she was happy to be there. This was supposed to be our day off but as it is with most ranchers, the day off usually turns into a working day…at least at The Red Oak Ranch!
