The Ranch at Muleshoe

For many years my grandfather, Aubrey Oursbourn, owned a small ranch just outside of Muleshoe, Texas.  It wasn't large, only a quarter-section, but it was planted in Bermuda and had one of the first water-drive Valley pivot sprinklers in the middle of it.  He could run about 300 pairs of cattle on it through the summer months.

Grandpa would buy cows at Muleshoe Livestock Auction early in the spring that had either just had a new baby or, were about to have one.  He would then take them to the ranch and turn them out on the irrigated Bermuda to graze.  Cows at that time of year were usually a bit thin due to poor forage in the winter months and they would put on lots of weight through the summer months.  He would also turn out bulls with them so that he had a 3-in-1 package to sell in the fall.

Some of my favorite memories of growing up were of going over to the ranch with Grandpa.  Usually, at least in the fall of the year, I would spend the night with my grandparents at the farm north of Olton on Friday night because I didn't care about going to the football game with my parents, and then early on Saturday morning we would make the 35 mile drive to the ranch to work.  Around Noon we would head into Muleshoe to eat at Leal's Restaurant which is where most of the cattlemen ate prior to going to the sale.  We would often run into people like Gerald Allcorn, or Joe Rhodes, or one of the Norfleets.  Then we would spend the afternoon at the auction until time to go change water on one of the side-rolling sprinklers or ground lines Grandpa used to water the grass before getting the Valley pivot.

We then would spend Saturday night at the ranch and get up early on Sunday to turn off the water sprinkler, check the cows and make the drive back to the farm to arrive in time for Sunday lunch.  Mom and Dad would be there for lunch along with my younger brother and then sometime late Sunday evening we would go back to our home in town.

Each year we also would have to work the calves.  Working time was a big event and all of the family and sometimes friends would be involved.  We would gather the cattle into the corrals and then separate the calves.  Grandpa would be in charge of castration, my Dad usually vaccinated and my uncles would catch the calves and throw them for branding and other operations.  It was mostly done on foot rather than horseback, although there were times that larger calves were roped.

I usually would have the job of sitting in the flank of a calf that one of my uncles had thrown, or in the case of some of the smaller calves, that I had thrown.  I would sit in their flank as they lay on their side and my left foot would pin the bottom front leg of the calf while I held the top leg.  Someone else would be holding the rear legs.  I was sometimes a little nervous when the branding iron was applied while the calf squirmed beneath me.  I had a fear of ending up with a circle on my backside rather than on the calf where it was intended.

Grandpa had an old trailer house there at the ranch and the women would prepare lunch for all of us.  We would stand, or sit around and eat and visit as we rested before going back to finish the job. It was hard, hot, dirty work, but something I remember with fondness.