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Thankyou! PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Manyhavecommented about my cousin's memo- ries of 1933 -40 spending summer's on his Grand- mother Molly and Uncle Philip's Honey Lake Valley ranch and how much they enjoyed reading them . The animals: The cattle of course were the source of all family income. The horse kept the place go- ing. Most ranches had at least two teams of large work horses, a rake-horse, and a handful of saddle horses. Out in the back pas- ture would be a handful of "colts" we were always go- ing to break "someday". The saddle horse was every ranchers pride. In the 1930s in order to pro- vide the Calvary with good stock, the U.S. Army had travelling Thoroughbred stallions available to serve local mares. The result were some great horses. At Uncle Philips, Cheyenne the horse my Mother rode to school, foaled Betty, who foaled Zenith. All by Army stallions. Nothing pleased Uncle Philip more, than when a big Packard would pull up alongside of us on the highway and ask, "how much do you want for that horse?" Working dogs were al- ways present. These dogs could herd cattle, chase off coyotes, and were family members. Cats were always around in the barn and would sit patiently by, wait- ing for the milker to give them a squirt of cow's milk. Chickens were the source of eggs and meat. Every- one waited the long six- weeks until a chick was big enough to be a fryer. Every- one's favorite meal. At Uncle Philip's we al- ways ran about 20 sheep for wool and a change of diet. Their source was hand raised "bummers". A ewe will often desert her first born lamb. We would fol- low a sheep herder and pick them up. Put them in back of the stove and bottle feed them. Pigs were seldom pres- ent. Most ranchers did not like to raise them. I think Uncle Lyman had at least four at his place. The Rhythm of a ranch: The year followed a set pat- tern. In the spring the cat- tle would be turned out on the desert land. In late May they would be gathered up and taken to the summer range in Last Chance. The desert range was owned by the Government or aban- doned homesteads. Last Chance Range was a com- bination of deeded land and Forest Service Per- mit land. Both Uncle's fol- lowed this pattern. In early June the calves would be branded. Summer was spent in haying. The week before hunting season ( September 1) the cattle would be gathered up and brought down to graze on the fresh cut meadows. The calves would be sold off in October. The winter was feeding time. In late winter the cows would calve. There is a feeling that winter was a time for the rancher to rest. Here is a typical winter day that Un- cle Philip would experi- ence: milk the cows; feed the horses; split and haul wood for the kitchen and for the bedroom winter stoves; feed the chickens and collect the eggs; har- ness a team; take a hay wagon to a haystack or the barn; with a pitchfork dig out a ton of hay and pitch it into the wagon; pick up 100 pounds of cotton seed cake; go out to the meadow and spread the ton of hay and cotton seed cake. Then they had what little time was left of the day to do the hundreds of chores that needed to be done. Branding and haying: Two events that rate spe- cial note. Branding was a community activity. Ranch- ers and their families would go to Last Chance and gather up their cat- tle near the branding cor- ral. Calves would be cut out of the herd. Here a well- trained horse and dog were essential. Calves would be lassoed by their front feet. Both Uncle Lyman and Un- cle Philip possessed this skill. Once caught the hind legs would be lassoed and the calf stretched between two horses. With the las- sos wrapped around horns of the saddles the rid- ers would dismount. The horses were trained to keep just the right pressure on the spread out calf. Now the calf was branded, cas- trated, given a shot for Black Leg, de-horned, ears notched and neck waddled. Released, the barely stand- ing calf would be turned out to seek its mother. There was always a huge branding lunch. Readers are advised to rent Robert Redford's movie, The Horse Whisperer, to see an accu- rate depiction of this event. Haying was the major operation of the ranch. In early June Uncle Philip and I would walk the meadow. He would pick up a hand- ful of grass and twist it in his hands to see if it was ready to cut. Meanwhile he had an eye up the highway. From our ranch we could see the highway to Reno, all the way to the horizon. We looked for a black dot com- ing down the road. It would be Frank Mudd, brother of a distinguished San Fran- cisco attorney. Frank was a high class hobo. Each year he would ar- rive in early June. We knew then, it was time to mow. Two teams would be hitched up to the mower. The Pitman Bar Gear Box would be greased out of a can of Half and Half To- bacco. Sickle Bars sharp- ened, off they would go. The objective was to get 125 tons of hay off a dry farmed meadow. The first swath would take all morn- ing. At noon the sickle bars were pulled, clamped to a bench and sharpened. Bro- ken blades replaced by Montgomery Ward replace- ments. The red handled sharpening stones quickly wore out. I still have one in my shop to sharpen my axe. Once again the hay was tested for moisture. Then raked with a one-horse windrow rake. This de- vice frequently seen on the front lawn of today's gen- tlemen farmers estates, was and OSHA nightmare. Fly- ing levers, sharp rake tines, it claimed more than one rancher's son. The meadow would be raked into long windrows. The next process was to "bunch" the hay. The rake would straddle the wind- row and bunch up the hay. This required much turn- ing and backing of the horse. I can still fee this op- eration in my bones. Rak- ing was always the first haying operation a teen- ager was allowed to do. Then came what I still consider the hardest work I have ever done. With two pitchforks and a gallon water bottle we would go out into the meadow and "round up the shocks." The objective was to produce piles of hay about 4 feet in diameter with rounded tops so the hay could cure. I can still see the back of my Uncle's Montgomery Ward denim shirt caked with white salt from his sweat. After curing, the Buck- rake would be brought out. This homemade device had about 15 pointed sap- lings in front of a team of horses. It would scoop up the rounded shocks and produce a pile of about ton of hay. It would deliver its load to the Hay Stack lo- cation. Stacking is an art form and good stackers were rare. A Derrick made from a telephone pole was staked out with guy wires. It had a long boom attached to it, and a net. The hay would be buckraked onto the net. Then a one-horse Derrick Cart would hook on to the lifting wire and the hay raised to the stack. I have spent many a day driving the cart until I heard the cry "dump it." Then back up the horse to the start- ing point. A good stack could hold 25 to 50 tons of hay. Stackers spent the day in hard labor, pitch fork- ing and stamping down the hay. Checking every hour to see if the sides were ver- tical. If the hay was bound for the barn then it was hand pitched into the hay wagon. Taken to the barn where a Jackson Fork would lift it up to the barn loft door, then travel along a track to the rear of the barn where a trip rope was pulled to dump it. Working inside that barn with a pitch fork to spread out the hay was arduous labor performed in heat and dust. Throughout this opera- tion rock salt was spread on both the stack and barn hay. Green hay could cause spontaneous combustion if not properly salted. This was dry-ranching and has no relation to cur- rent methods where the meadow is irrigated and the hay picked up by all kinds of mechanical de- vices. Haying and stack- ing required the labor of at least 5-6 hay hands. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON More Honey Lake Valley memories 1933-40 Leah, a 4-year-old fe- male border collie, got loose from her owner and went missing for the night. When a local vet- erinary facility found her the next day, they immedi- ately called her owner and informed her of Leah's in- jury — a facial laceration that they suspected was the result of a deer kick. Otherwise, she was alert, ambulatory and nor- mal. Her wound was re- paired, and Leah was on her way home. Two days later, however, Leah be- came acutely non-ambu- latory. She had minimal motor function in all four limbs, and was unable to sit up on her own. Leah was then hospital- ized with a suspected case of tetanus, a bacterial dis- ease that can severely af- fect the nervous system. She was treated with an anti-toxin and other sup- portive care and moni- tored. Her severe tetra- paresis (weakness in all four extremities) did not improve for three weeks. Leah's veterinarians no longer suspected tetanus and were much more con- cerned for a spinal cord in- jury, so they referred her to the UC Davis veterinary hospital. Once at UC Davis, spe- cialists in the Neurology/ Neurosurgery Service per- formed a CT scan and an MRI to determine the cause of Leah's condition. She was diagnosed with an atlanto-occipital luxation (dislocation of the skull from the spine) and frac- tures of the first vertebra and the back of the skull. These injuries were com- promising her spine, caus- ing temporary paralysis. Faculty neurologists Drs. Pete Dickinson and Karen Vernau, along with neurology resident Dr. Devin Ancona, attempted to reduce the luxation via both closed (non-surgical) and open (surgical) ap- proaches. Both attempts were unsuccessful, how- ever, due the amount of fi- brous tissue that had built up in the three weeks of healing since the initial in- jury. Therefore, surgery to decompress Leah's spinal cord was necessary. An incision was made behind Leah's skull to al- low the neurosurgeons ac- cess to her skull and ver- tebrae. They drilled away the top of Leah's first verte- bra and a small area of the back of her skull, necessary to open that area and de- compress the spinal cord. Following the successful surgery, Leah recovered for the night in the hospi- tal's Intensive Care Unit, where she received individ- ual monitoring from spe- cially-trained technicians. It was important Leah re- main on strict rest with- out turning or twisting her head overnight. She was moved to the Interme- diate Care Ward (ICW) af- ter an uneventful night of rest and recovery. After two days of re- covery in the ICW, where she showed voluntary mo- tor function in her limbs, Leah was transferred to the neurology ward where she continued to improve. By the time Leah was dis- charged the following day, she was able to support herself lying sternally. Le- ah's owner took her home with instructions of strict cage rest and a physical re- habilitation plan with the Integrative Medicine Ser- vice once Leah was neuro- logically stable. At Leah's one-month re- check appointment, she had improved significantly and was able to stand with- out support and take a few steps. She was still con- sidered non-ambulatory given her inability to re- main standing and walk without falling, but her im- provement over the previ- ous four weeks was sugges- tive of a positive prognosis for return to ambulation. She was "green lighted" to begin physical rehabilita- tion with the Integrative Medicine Service. Following two weeks of physical rehabilitation, Leah was walking on her own. She gradually im- proved with continued re- habilitation over the next month, and is now rehab- bing at a facility closer to home. Ne ur ol og is ts h el p dog regain mobility UC DAVIS COURTESYPHOTO UC Davis neurologists helped Leah regain mobility a er being paralyzed for three weeks following a suspected deer kick to her head. 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