Herding sheep

My sheep herding experiences started at a young age. At probably age 9, I went out to my Grandparent Coons ranch on Boxelder near Belltower and stayed there all summer. I worked and they paid me something though not too much. This lasted through age 14 after which I began to work for others for real money. I will write more about that later. In the later years especially a lot of my work consisted of herding sheep.

The sheep had a bedding ground at the base of a hill we called Palmer Hill on the Briggs place just north of Catamount Creek. I lived in the house on the Briggs place for a while in a log home. I almost drowned in normally dry Catamount creek. This was in earlier days when I was maybe three. Palmer Hill had alkaline water seeping out all over and around it. The sheep could drink this water, unlike cows and humans, so we used it as their bed ground. I mentioned Palmer Hill on Facebook once and Sherry Farwell expressed interest in going out to see it when we are there together to see if the water still seeps. I look forward to that. That country all looks different to me now but I think I can find it. Maybe some of you can tell me, the hill is a mile or two northeast of where the road crosses Catamount Creek.

Anyway, when I herded the sheep, I got up early in the morning, ate, did the chores, saddled the horse and took off for the sheep, about 2 miles. I took a lunch and usually had a dog with me. My job was to drift the sheep south, through several fences until we got to the southernmost part of the ranch. The sheep could go through a three wire fence but the horse and I had to go to a gate. After we got slowly to the south we just turned around and came back, taking a slightly different route each time so the sheep didn't eat the grass down too much. The herding was very important to my Grandparents, they judged how good a job I did by how much the lambs weighed when they sold them in the fall.

One time when I was drifting the sheep north, my Uncle Harvey came to me in a bright yellow jeep. One of my Christiansen cousins, I think Gale, was with him. The cows had got out of an adjoining pasture through a hole in the fence at the bottom of a draw and wanted back in to get water. My Uncle said, "When you get those sheep pushed through the fence, go up to the gate and let those cows back into their pasture." Then he went in the bright yellow jeep to the draw between me and the gate to fix the fence. I finished the sheep and set off at a high lope for the gate. I was riding kind of a high strung sorrel named Diamond. When he came over the edge of that draw and saw that jeep he went about 12 feet sideways. I hung in the air for a minute and then went down kerplunk.

I enjoyed my experiences with the sheep. I really liked the shearing which was done by Mexican shearing crews. They were really good shearers. I often had to tromp the wool down into a great big sack. I also helped dock the sheep, This consisted of cutting the tail off, neutering and ear tipping the ewes. We would also treat any wounds that any of the lambs had. I saw a lamb once that had a jacket from another dead lamb left on him. At lambing if a lamb died they would skin him and put his skin on another lamb, a triplet or one who didn't appear to have too strong a mother. This was done so that the surrogate mother would accept him. I also helped worm sheep a time or two.

Those were enjoyable days for me and I love to tell about them.