by Jan Fielden
The Colonel and I had a very interesting day today. We talked about lots of things. Things like: names of movies, names of actors, names of people we knew…trying to remember these things! The Colonel is very good at telling tales. He has a wonderful imagination and a dramatic way to tell tales. If he is smiling it is because, it is a good memory or he is making it up! He told me the story of the first days of the ranch. He drove to his Dad’s place to pick up 6 calves. Five of the cows loaded on the trailer just fine, but the sixth one did not want to go. Well, being the “cowboy” he was in the first days of ranching, he thought he would just jump on the cow and ride her into the trailer.
The cow threw him up in the air and he said he felt like a bull rider except that he was on a cow. She then busted through the fence and took off for the long and uncut. So, The Colonel drove on home with the five cows, turned them out and then got a call from his Dad. He was told that his Dad had caught the calf and he should come back and pick her up. It was a 100 mile trip and he was tired but knew his Dad wanted to finish the job. So, off he goes and while driving named the calf, “Princess”. Princess loaded this time, The Colonel drove back to the ranch and turned her out. It was dark, she was in a pasture she knew nothing about, there were no other cows around and she pathetically “mooed”. She truly was a Princess because she had several great bulls for the Red Oak Ranch.
