Thank You Ma'am



Beckie and Gary were at Sage Creek after
us. Beckie made great rolls!



When I married Ray, he was foreman at Sage Creek. It was part of the main ranch, but on the other side of the mountain, so we were basically on our own. There was 80,000 acres, and Ray usually had one or two hired men, and me. I was also the cook.

I'd grown up helping Mom cook for the family, as well as for haying crews, so I wasn't totally new to the concept of feeding a crew of hungry men, although my experience had been at a much lower elevation. There's a reason why cake mixes have “high altitude instructions”. But I usually cooked every thing from scratch, so I didn't even think about that, at least to start with.

Feeding Ray and the hired men was pretty routine, but during branding and weaning, the entire crew from headquarters would come, and I would stress out planning meals. On branding days I only had the crew for lunch. In October though, they would all bring their bedrolls and stay in the bunkhouse for three days, and eat three meals a day in our living room.

That took a little more planning, because it was 50 miles to town. There was a little store and Post Office 10 miles up the gravel road, but I only used them for emergencies. Ray always said that “Old Bud”, was the only guy he knew that could take a grapefruit and turn it into a kiwi. After I found weevils in the bottom of the bag of noodles I'd bought, and got tired of sour milk, I started being more careful.

The big old house we lived in had originally been set up for feeding crews, so it wasn't too hard to extend the table out all the way in order to seat all 14 men. There was old brown linoleum that I would get all shined up-- at least the first year. I learned real quick that the time to shine it up was after the crew left. Cowboys were very polite. But a lot of them wore lace up boots, and most of them didn't take them off.

Once I got into the swing of things, cooking was actually kind of fun. Except I was the first one up in the morning, and the last one to bed at night. I always lost my appetite when I cooked, so I didn't usually check the food I was putting out. I'd put the food on the table, then go back in the kitchen and start cleaning up while they ate.

I had pans set up so when they were finished, they'd bring their plates to the kitchen, scrape them off, put the plates in one pan, and silverware in another. As they filed through they were always very polite and complimentary. “Thank you ma'am. That was excellent!”, or something similar. That always made it worthwhile for me.

Until one day when I made my refrigerator rolls. I'd made them many times, but this was the first time I'd made them at Sage Creek, which sits at about 6500'. As the crew was driving in, I pulled the pans of golden brown rolls from the oven. They looked great, and smelled even better. I popped them in baskets, and set them on the table.

After they'd gone back to work, I went in to clean off the table. I was hoping there were some rolls left so I could try one. My heart dropped when I saw the table. The baskets were still full. I took one of the rolls and broke it open. The centers were raw dough.

I was so embarrassed. Not one of them had said a word beside the usual, “Thank you ma'am, that was very good.” Ray didn't even tell me. It wasn't until he was cowboss, and I watched cowcamp cooks come and go, that I figured out that the crew I'd fed was sincerely appreciative, and not just being polite. Cowboys had a certain code about cooks, and when they had a good one, they took care of him.

“...the workman is worthy of his meat.” MT 10:10



There haven't been cowcamp cooks since 1990. The crew is responsible
for packing their own lunch. Once in awhile they get to
stop at Yesterday's Cafe on their way home.





Cattle gathered up for fall work. The elk calf had lost his mama, and lived with
the cows all summer. He had to be run off when we brought the cattle in.
Antelope also like the protection they get from cows-- especially during hunting season.

 

High, Wide, and Lonesome. Early morning gather, 2010.