As some of you remember way back when I started this blog I mentioned that I would share more about our life before HSL and why we built a shop way out here....in a secret place? There is a story to be told, so here we go...
This is me when I was 10 years old with my parents, Dad's horse Gypsy on the right and my horse Snip on the left. We lived every summer in the Blue Mountains. The last day of school Mom would pick me up in the station wagon, loaded with food and clothes and we moved to the cattle ranch my Dad ran with his family.
Dad and I moving cattle along Beaver Creek.
While Dad ran 800 head of Black Angus, with me helping as his right hand man, his family ran the wheat operation here. This field that is being harvested is above where we live and Holton Secret Lab.
See right down there is our house and shop...and the famous stretch of pavement that WB likes to play on with various burn outs etc.
Dad on his horse Bucky and his dog Blue moving a herd of cattle to a new pasture up on the mt. ranch. The cattle were on the mt. ground from June 1 through October 15, then Dad would wean the calves and then drive the cattle to the winter ground on Butter Creek.
The drive was 90 miles long and usually took two weeks in the early years. The last year we had the drive was in 1976, by then the older cows knew the way and it took about 6-8 days.
One of the my favorite pictures of my Dad on the cattle drive with his horse Bucky and dog Blue. He loved them both and loved his cowboy cattleman life and the Juniper T.
The Portland Oregonian came up several times to report on the drive as we had one of the last cattle drives in Oregon. Their reporters rode along with us to report and take pictures of my Dad and our family.
This is the Juniper T Bus...Dad's older brother Tommy had the bus outfitted for camping and cooking for the cattle drive. A Diamond Rio Bus by the way...WB has his eye on it for restoring.
In this picture: My Dad is the far left...his older brother Uncle Ralph is next to him....hired hand Big John is in front of Uncle Ralph....Uncle Ronnie is in the door and Uncle Rich (his twin) is next to him and Cousin Jimmy is in front of the bus...his Dad was Uncle Tommy.
This picture is in a small town that we had to drive the cattle through...it was serious business...I remember riding through at 5:30 in the morning and seeing housewives out with brooms in their bathrobes ready to swing at our greedy cows wanting to eat their flowers.
Heading towards Beaver Creek from Red Bridge. The first years of Juniper T Ranch Dad had a mixture of Angus and Hereford cows. However he felt Black Angus were better able to handle the mountains and gained weight better...so Juniper T became Black Angus and Black Bawly Cross.
Here is a picture taken from the sky....looking down on the cattle drive. All the black dots are Black Angus heading for home for the winter. I remember the herd would often be stretched out for several miles. My last year on the cattle drive was in 1975. Memories I will never forget!
Stay tuned for the rest of the story!
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