Welcome to the Wild, Wild, West! Memoirs of a WWOOFer...

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Seventh stop: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Dodgy rating: 0/10
Crazy Count: A few mad cows (hep, hep)
Stay: 21st November - 16th December

"Oh how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grueling labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of human understanding rendered speechless by emotion" Dr Zhivago

It’s my penultimate day at the ranch and as I drive to work for the final time in the beaten old F50 Dodge Ram I have been given for my duration here, I drink in the interminable prairie lands, sprinkled with snow and attempt to take a mental picture of this magical scene. I have been at the ranch for a month now, and although this time period may seem short on paper, to me it feels like a lifetime ago.

Chico is the first ranch experience I have had, and as a city gal from the UK I didn’t really have much of clue about what I was letting myself in for! My only experience of the US West was through the Westerns my granddad used to watch and before I came I suppose I had some romantic ideas of roaming the mountains for hours on horseback under a star lit sky with Cowboys (which, by the way, I did do on occasions). I really had no idea what a complex and creative industry cattle farming actually was.

One of the first things I learn about Chico Basin is that it’s a ranch with an environmental twist. Duke is an inspiring individual (with an inspiring team of workers supporting him) who hopes to set an example of ranching responsibly by raising natural grass-fed beef while improving the environment. Hormone injections and use of pesticides are rejected, exchanged instead for sustainable and environmentally friendly methods. Of course, this is an ambitious dream and with cattle prices’ dropping in line with the economic crisis Chico also has other sideline projects to keep the money coming in. The ranch is also used as a means to inform and educate the community and Boy Scouts and School buses are common sights all year round.

I soon realize, after my first day of work that the ranch has its own very special dynamic. I once saw a documentary on Vietnam which showed a scene of a famous cross road. It had no road markings and hundreds of vehicles would pass each other, barely allowing inches between themselves and seemingly avoiding a fatal crash by the skin of their teeth. It looked like some magnificently timed synchronized dance, as if each person knew the exact time the other would cross. This is how Chico seems to work, each person moving, apparently effortlessly towards their goal and the best way to fit in and avoid crashing is just to follow the flow of traffic without any hesitation!

My tasks here are varied and almost everything has been a brand new experience. I have been involved in moving and sorting cattle, feeding, fixing fences, driving tractors and trailers full of cattle, skinning cows, branding, castrating and doctoring. I could potentially spend hours babbling on about the value of each experience but will instead concentrate on the highlights:

Working Cattle:

One of my favorite responsibilities had to be moving cattle. With over 1000 cows/bulls/steers/calf’s on the ranch there were always groups being moved from pasture to pasture or in and out of HQ for various purposes. At 87,000 acres (130 square miles) the place is huge, especially for a gal from England where the biggest area of land I’ve ever roamed has been no larger than 10 square miles!! The ranch for the most part consists of a sea of prairie with no clear landmarks (bearing in mind I’m a city gal and by landmark I actually mean huge building or road name) and my first few weeks were spent perpetually lost! As the scenery became more familiar however, I soon began to use the western snow tipped foothills of the Rockies to help me get my bearings.

There is something incredibly satisfying about working cattle. Astride a hardworking horse, and immersed in the ethereal beauty of your surroundings, you take pleasure in the smallest things; the sound of your horse blowing, a warm breeze, a candy floss sky, a herd of antelope, following the stars home. “These trees shall be my books” has for a while, been a favouite quote of mine and after spending a month amidst such beautiful wilderness, I can relate to it even more.

Skinning:

I had the opportunity during my stay to skin a cow which was a highlight, not for the pleasure of the task but because it was something I never imagined myself doing. Now, I spent a year as a vegetarian and am one of those soppy animal lovers ranch and farm workers mock so for me, this was a real accomplishment. And the surprising thing? After the initial shock of seeing a cows insides, I discovered that it didn’t really bother me. Another benefit of working on this ranch is that you are part of the whole process. The people here treat the animals with respect so when slaughter day dawns, you can rest assured they have led a happy life (and are most definitely going to happy cow heaven!).

Sorting Cattle:

On my second day, I’m introduced to sorting the cattle. Now, this sounds like an uneventful and boring task, no? Not so. I’m informed, by Michael the ranch manager that my job is simply to man two gates. He, astride a horse, will hold cattle (when I say cattle, I mean cows with rather large horns) at one end of a pen and will shout IN and BY as he lets them go one by one. All I have to do is let them in each gate accordingly. Easy peasy I think to myself. A viewpoint that soon changes as two or three cows slip by and charge towards me (did I mention they have horns?!). So there I am, at one end, cows charging right at me with Michael frantically shouting ‘hold them’ (this requires running towards them flapping your arms and making demented noises or running at the speed of light to reach the other gate before the cows do in order to close it) but instead I decide that I quite value my life thank you very much, and hop out the way to let them slip into the wrong pen. As time went by I gradually became more confident in handling the animals which made this task much easier.

Castrating (AKA banding):

This deserves a mention merely because it’s an experience I never thought I’d have a part in! Laceter (a partner company) arrive to take some cattle but before they can be shipped they need to be processed i.e. sorting the healthy from sick and bulls from steers. A representative from Laceter sorts through the Bulls and decides which have a good confirmation and other positive attributes. These lucky ones will get to keep their precious bits but the remainders are castrated (if they have poor genes there will be no need to breed them). Lucky things! So we round up the lucky selected few, put them in a shoot and let them through one by one to be ‘banded’. What this actually involves is wrapping a band around the bulls’ testicals and cranking it tight with a wench. Part of the band then remains tight around said testicals until the blood circulation is cut off and they finally drop off. A delightful process that generally involves getting covered in a lot of cow muck. It's during processes like this that you begin to realise how much cows actually shit and clearing the shoot was the charming job I was delegated after castration of all Bulls had been completed.

Although I have enjoyed learning the ways of the ranch, it has really been the people (AGAIN) who have enhanced my experience. Everyone has taken time and patience to explain things to me and they have made every effort to make me feel at home. I spent a wonderful thanksgiving with a worker and his family and the ranch manager often invited us over for dinner and live folk music.

The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" and it would seem that this is exactly what everyone on the ranch has done. Despite ranching being rated the no.2 most dangerous job you can have, the people here have selected this line of work as a lifestyle choice and every one of them takes great pride, as they should, in what they do. My only regret is that I couldn't stick around for longer to learn more from these amazing people.


Other news: Fired a gun, tried to rope a cow (hard), asked a Cowboy if he liked Brokeback mountain - que hours of ranting (bad mistake), blasphemed amongst religious people (all bar one here are religious) - accidently of course, had breakfast with a pastor and his wife and the rest of the Hanover community (there are about 50 of them), made a leather belt, knitted a scarf and baked more bread than you could shake a stick at.

So, Colorado? Done. Next stop, Boston bound...

There may be trouble ahead...

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