After spending the night with another ranch family, this morning we picked up several heifers in a South Texas town about 80 miles north of the Mexican border and miles away from the conveniences of the city. It's a town where illegal immigrants are dropped off so often that the local police department has had to receive help from neighboring cities and counties to keep up with the security workload. In fact, authorities recently discovered a mass grave where many who died on their trek through the desert and vast lands of these ranches here were buried.
On the way there we read a local news report that a bull rider, a friend of the other ranchers, had been gored by a bull the previous night during the town's Fourth of July rodeo celebration. As a first impression, this place was seeming violent, so we did not know what to expect, but figured this region has given the saying "Texas tough" its meaning. We were right.
Immediately upon entering the South Texas brush country, one gets the feeling that things are different in this part of the country. The people are gentle in behavior with Texas-sized manners, but as rugged as the lands they maintain. These Texans are ones who seem to more fully understand the cycles of life, including death, and have learned to create their own comforts and how to be self-sustaining. The number of poverty-stricken folks here is high as well, with the median family income at $15,00 a year, keeping main things the main things without much room for the luxuries of distractions.
After a full day and night at a local ranch family's home, we found it to be very peaceful and silent, with only the sound of the whippoorwill to greet us just before sunup. There is both the peace and threat of solitude here, but only from human inhabitants. The wildlife is vast and different, surrounding the sparse homesteads and covering the rolling hills in between - from funny looking toads to green jays to giant rattlesnakes, and there's a pack of cow dogs in everyone's front yard. The hospitality is just as rich, with its beautiful smiling, black-haired waitresses to the jalapeño apricot jelly with home fried corn chips.
Although we came here for the cattle, we've learned a bit about the dangers and beauty of South Texas. We also learned a different way to handle cattle, as every family has their ways. It was the easiest loading job we've ever done. Due to the help of yet another rancher's gentle tactics and with the help of his blue heeler, in a brief 30 minutes we had two trailers loaded - not what we expected and a nice surprise. No cow drama or rodeoing was required. We just watched the dog work the cows
into the shoot and ushered them into the trailers.
Thank you, Lord, for a smooth time loading - now for the trek northward through the middle of Texas and to introduce these cattle to their new home.
